MauroP

These are my tsuba from the auction. And, well, my only regret was not having a bigger wallet... Seeing all those tsuba together was like finding Santa's sledge parked in the backyard for a kid... The second tsuba has a paper, but it's a minus, not a plus... guess what's the attribution?

I also had an unpleasant experience with shipping from Bonhams Skinner (Marlborough, MA). I paid a 28% premium on the hammer price, and shipping via UPS (the cheapest option) cost $370 (from the US to Italy). Additionally, the shipping agency failed to provide the correct fiscal code, so in the end my tsuba cost me more than double the hammer price. Previously, I purchased a tsuba from Czerny’s, and the shipping cost was only €20 (although, of course, that was within Italy).

I was in Sarzana and attended the auction. It was my first time attending in person, and it was a pleasant experience. Unfortunately, the prices went higher than I expected for a couple of tsuba I was mostly interested in. Nonetheless, I successfully bid on two lots for a reasonable price, which is not bad at all.

Hi, Liang. Neither signature looks perfectly coherent with what's reported in Sesko's "Signatures of Japanese Sword Fittings Artists", but the quality of both kozuka seems quite good to me. Since I've no experience about Jōi pieces, I refrain to comment on the genuinity of your kozuka.

Special feature: On the Shakudo plate, a kettle for the tea...

The character on the kozuka looks possibly having leaves in his garments, so it could be some kind of sennin. On the fuchi instead is depicted Taikōbō.

Very interesting their rice straw shoes from Edo period...

Thank you, Tom. I’ve been very busy, so the Satō Kanzan hakogaki project is running late. In the meantime, I’ve found additional hakogaki, and the database has grown. I just need to stop searching for more and focus on organizing and refining what I have so far (with help from the NMB community). Here are the records for the two tsuba by Bamen Tsunemasa. Bamen Tsunemasa.pdf

Here below a link to the complete catalogue (unfortunately I'm unable to remember the original site where I found it). https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wfzaaqgc14q4dxz7k2jh4/Japanese-Sword-Fittings-Naunton-Collection.pdf?rlkey=o3r65azmevpg2prhkmiyd8ny9&st=yez4j0mc&dl=0

BTW, anybody knows the kanji reported on the cover? It should be "tsuba", but I never saw it before. It's a variant of the common ones or just a typo?

I’ve found a link to the downloadable catalogue from Finarte, the auction house that Czerny’s is affiliated with. https://aste.finarte.it/uploads/auctions/502-a158catwebnew1.pdf

Maybe you already know that tsuba with the very same design: from https://tsuba-kanshou.hatenablog.jp/entry/d385ea903371e9967804aebacba147c3

Hi Jake, the armours are definitely non-Japanese, so possibly some story from the "Annals of the Three Kingdoms".

Hi Glen, please post also images of tsuba and the outside side og the hakogaki (sometime the tsuba doesn't match the box with the hakogaki).

Hi Damon, your tsuba looks signed 越前住 記平 - Echizen jū Kihei (?), which is unusual (at least not the common Kinai). Do you have any hints about that tsubako?

Hizen is a good call, in my opinion.

A schematic representation of the Hotei bag?

I'd suggest 葡萄 - budō - grapevine for the second tsuba.

Unusual description, Curran, the paper say 二叉車透鐔 but I don't know how to read it (maybe futatsu mataguruma sukashi tsuba). Anyway it should mean something like "two stacked wheel design".

Hi Tristan, welcome to the forum. Both tsuba have seen better days, so it’s difficult to judge. Sorry, I’m unable to sort out the signatures. The first one shows takabori, suemon-zōgan, and possibly remnants of nunome-zōgan. The coexistence of multiple decorative techniques makes me think of Shōami school (or possibly Nara school). As for the other one, the bird depicted appears to be a pigeon, so the shape is called hato-gata. There are irregular granulations on the rim, which could be either iron bones (a good sign) or casting debris (a bad sign). I’m quite confident the first tsuba is an old piece; I’m less certain about the second one.

Chestnuts?

Jack, the "guy" you are tolking about is Satō Kanzan, one of the most respected experts on the Japanese sword. The point here is that I don't think the hakogaki was genuinely written by Satō Kanzan. Nonetheless nothing written in the hakogaki is false (but the signature, of course).

Steve, my guess was 老, meaning ‘old,’ but in both instances I’m unable to grasp the meaning.

Storing tsuba in Petri dishes, that'a a great idea!

In my opinion, the tsuba we are discussing is a “legitimate” modern tsuba, produced in the late 1950s to early 1960s. Was it made according to tradition? That depends on how strict one’s criteria for “tradition” are. Ford Hallam certainly produced traditional works of art, but he used fine saw blades for sukashi, whereas in the Edo period only chisels and files were available...