MauroP

Hi Colin, features of Ōnin, Heianjō-zōgan and Yoshirō tsuba overlap to a certain extent. Heianjō is usually a more conservative call. Using a broad rule the shinchū-zōgan is protruding in Ōnin tstuba, is flush in Yoshirō tsuba and is whatever it could be in Heianjō. Of course if ranma-sukashi are present a Yoshirō call should be granted. But... I can show you counterexamples in NBTHK papers for all of the statements I made above. Here below 2 examples which, I'm afraid, won't help you very much...

Hi Bob, regarding tsuba no.72, after "photoshopping" a little bit, I think the signature is a plain 山城住長吉作 - Yamashiro jū Nagayoshi saku. So the maker should be Momoyama to early Edo – Kyōto – Heianjō-zōgan school, according to Markus Sesko's "Signatures of Japanese Sword Fittings Artists".

Here a tsuba papered as Heianjō-zōgan with some resemblance to the first one of this topic.

Hi Dale, a fair example of ko-kinkō, I think. If you got it for a bargain price, you can put the saved money in a submission to shinsa...

Hi, inlay decoration of tsuba no. 61 looks like shimenawa, a rope with ferns and paper stripes delimiting a sacred space in Shinto rituals.

As Luca said.

Some more stuff to give a try: 3 tsuba papered Higo, Kamiyoshi and Nishigaki. Which is which? (sorry for the pics, no others/better ones available).

You are right, Kamiyoshi (and Nishigaki) could also be candidates. Basically I never realized what clues in a sukashi tsuba make the difference with a simple Higo attribution. So I simply don't remind of them...

Hi, I didn't realized it was a kantei game. My answer was just a Gestalt guess. Anyway, I'm trying to rationalise: the theme expressed in ji-sukashi could be either Higo, Akasaka or Tosa-Myōchin. In a Higo piece I'd expect a more bold kebori, and sometime a more rich texture on plain surfaces. The Akasaka design is associated with sharp, broken lines (and dishomogeneous layered metal, wich I was unable to evaluate from the pictures). So Tosa-Myōchin, with its delicate kebori and sinuous sukashi (and homogeneous iron), should be the most likely candidate.

No. 55: usually referred as 格子 - kōshi (lattice pattern).

Tosa-Myōchin?

Hi, Kōfu jū Masayuki means "Masayuki living in Edo (Tokyo)". Efu is an alternative reading of Kōfu. Possibly late Edo period, Bushū-Itō school.

Item No. 53: the subject is usually referred as Aridōshi (蟻通し). It's a Nō play in which the god of Aridōshi shrine is represented disguised as an old priest holding an umbrella and a lantern.

Hi, I think it's just a tsuba for a bokken. Possibly this one was originally made to be mounted on a wood sword (late Edo to Showa), but I've seen some true old tsuba modified accordingly.

Luca, you have open to me a whole library of wonderful design Meiji book. Thank you!

葡萄図鐔 - budō zu tsuba 無銘 平安城象嵌 - mumei Heianjō-zōgan 竪丸形 鉄鎚目地 鋤出彫 - tatemaru-gata tetsu-tsuchime-ji sukidashi-bori 真鍮象嵌 角耳小肉 - shinchū-zōgan kaku-mimi ko-niku

Chevron-like decoration are frequently referred as sugi (杉 - Japanese cedar), but I suspect (and somewhere indeed I read about it) that it could also be a highly stylized representation of waves.

If shinchū-zōgan then Heianjō. That's the way tsuba are presently "boxed" (I doubt this classification is of any help, but what I know?). Nice tsuba, anyway.

Steve and Morita, thank you both for your effort. Once more the contribution of Morita-san shows invaluable for our community.

I've had this tsuba for some years, but far too difficult for me to figure out the mei. Two kanji and a kaō, even hard to take in photo. Here my best pictures, obtained trough a flatbed scanner. Thank you for any input.

The polearm should be the "Green Dragon Crescent Blade" of the Chinese general Guan Yu.

Vita brevis, ars longa, ... iudicium difficile...

The keshō-tagane finish and the round shape of hitsu-ana make me lean toward Akasaka (or Shoami )

Hi Colin, the pattern inlayed in the upper part is called sayagata - 紗綾形 (pattern of interlocking swastikas).