MauroP

Patina or kuro-urushi?

For reference (from Signatures of Japanese Sword Fittings Artists by Markus Sesko).

At least a true itomaki-gata tsuba, unfortunately from an auction dead link.

I’m quite in disagreement with what has been written so far. Here we have a tsuba with the classic Soten signature. I’m not able, from the photos, to judge whether it is a genuine late-Edo tsuba or a modern copy, but it is certainly not a Hamamono/Nagoyamono. Those are tsuba definitely mass-produced, but they weren’t even trying to look like something else. Here the question is: genuine Hikone tsuba or a fake.

Thank you, Damon. I had forgotten about that post. I’ve already updated the file with your hakogaki.

Dear NMB members, first of all, thank you for your interest in this project. All the missing or unclear writings have been brilliantly resolved by Steve M, to whom I extend my warmest thanks for his kindness and expertise. I would also like to thank Jean (AKA Rokujuro), Manuel (AKA C0D) and Matt (AKA M Ubertini) for the interesting correspondence on the topic. I have just released the 2nd draft of "Tsuba hakogaki written by Satō Kanzan". The file is available for download from the same link (https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gkfcfqc6gs14invoeg6hn/KanzanHakogaki.pdf?rlkey=5i89f80fkbbf60x67f1lloa2k&st=zfh4ao27&dl=0). Several new hakogaki have been added, so the file is now even larger. Since the focus is on the hakogaki rather than on the tsuba, I decided to include hakogaki that are highly suspicious forgeries, as well as others that clearly refer to tsuba different from those stored in their respective kiribako (sadly it seems quite common for tsuba to be randomly swapped from one box to another). Annotations have been added at the end of the document to point out inconsistencies and to provide rough translations of Japanese expressions beyond simple tsuba descriptions. The new additions, of course, contain missing kanji and transcriptions that still need to be confirmed (which is why this remains a draft rather than the final release). I look forward to receiving further feedback from all of you. Thank you.

窓桐透 - mado kiri sukashi

Brilliant analytical writing, very well done! (... but personally, I would lean toward the Hikone/Sōten attribution).

iroe (色絵) – The term iroe, lit. “color(ed) picture,” is sometimes wrongly applied to different techniques of coloring by gilding or silvering, but should be used to describe any coloring of a motif, regardless of the technique used. [From Encyclopedia of Japanese Swords by Markus Sesko]

若水軒政則 - Jakusuiken Masanori

Hi Brian, nice tsuba here. The full transcription for the first tsuba should be: 江戸神田住 伊藤甚右衛門政方 - Edo Kanda jū Itō Jin´emon Masakata. The subject of the third tsuba is Tanabata (七夕), the festival in the seventh month, when boys used dew left on mulberry leaves to create the ink used to write wishes. So the oval emblem is karasumi (唐墨), Chinese ink bar.

Dear Jake, I would be pleased to include your tsuba/hakogaki. I had to discard many other examples I found since they lack the image of the relative tsuba or one of the side of hakogaki (or because the images were so distorted to make impossible their correct representation even after a thorougly Photoshop processing). Using a flatbed scanner should be the easier way to get suitable images.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gkfcfqc6gs14invoeg6hn/KanzanHakogaki.pdf?rlkey=5i89f80fkbbf60x67f1lloa2k&st=zfh4ao27&dl=0 I'm not sure where it would be more appropriate to post this — in the Translation Assistance section or in Tosogu (please, Brian, place it wherever you find most suitable). I’ve compiled a short collection of transcriptions (kanji + romanization) of some tsuba hakogaki from Satō Kanzan. Although the examples I’m presenting are among the best-documented ones I could find online, I’m far from confident that the transcriptions provided are reliable. All the text shown in black should be reasonably accurate; the text in red is, at best, an educated guess; and I’ve marked with red stars the characters whose transcription I’ve no idea about. Some inconsistencies are evident and may perhaps be attributed to likely forgeries of the hakogaki. For each hakogaki, I’ve included the website link from which I took the images, which I believe should serve as proper credit to the original owners. Of course I’m ready to remove any material upon request from the rightful holders. In any case, this is entirely non-profit, and I am not a professional in this field. I would be very happy if forum members wished to contribute with comments, corrections, additions, or perhaps even further examples of hakogaki by sharing images from their own collections. I intend to release a final, corrected version here on the NMB forum within about a month or so. Thank you for reading.

Yamashiro jū Shigenobu saku (山城住 重信作), possibly Shōami school.

Here the hakogaki (I'm not shure about the date): 葵形鉄地影透 * aoi-gata tetsu-ji kage-sukashi 銘馬面序政花押 * mei Bamen Tsunemasa kaō 昭和壬子年弥生 * Shōwa mizunoe-ne-nen yayoi [March 1972] 寒山誌 * Kanzan shirusu (+kaō) Would you mind to post an image of both sides of the hakogaki? (I'm collecting images from hakogaki by Satō Kanzan)

Kaga-kinkō or Shōnai-kinkō?

100% agree with what Dale says. If a tsuba fits a Shōami attribution this is one (and many doesn't...)

Usually the two collaborating artisans signed each on the opposite sides of the tsuba. What about your tsuba, Grev?

Not so strange in Nanban tradition, as you can see in the tsuba I already posted.

I have another hypothesis (explained with Venn diagrams)...

Nanban and Hizen attributions overlap for a certain extent (though some tsuba are clearly Hizen and not Nanban). Jakushi could also be be a legit call, but usually Jakushi tsuba are signed and the vast majority of them represent dragons or Chinese landscapes. A non-toban shape of seppa-dai makes me lean towards a Nanban attribution (but don't take any attribution too seriously...).

The inlays look quite amatourish, possibly a Shōwa period tsuba?

Have space aliens ever landed on Earth? Who knows... Possible? Yes, of course! Likely? No, of course! Have iron tsuba been casted in Edo period? The same as above... that's all IMHO.

Markus Sesko's "Signatures of Japanese Sword Fittings Artists" lists 3 Nobukuni and 5 Masatoshi entrances, but never together...