MauroP

I was quite puzzled by the attribution of this tsuba to Hirata (平田), as in my understanding, the Hirata school is typically associated with suaka, yamagane, or shinchū-ji tsuba, often featuring shigure-yasuri or okina-yasuri file marks, and sometimes an odawara-fukurin. So, I did a bit of research and found that most "Hirata" attributions seem to originate from Bonhams auctions. None appear to be papered by the NBTHK, and only a few are signed by Hirata Harunari (8th generation, late Edo) or Hirata Haruaki (Meiji period). Perhaps there is some confusion with Hirado (平戸)? Here some images: 1. signed Narikazu (hard to believe he's the 2nd generation Hirata master) 2. a typical Hirata piece 3. a shippō-zōgan tsuba papered as Hirado 4. a similar piece papered as Nagasaki shippō

I wish to suggest Nagasaki shippō as a more likely attribution...

Dan, please go here and read all the stuff... https://www.openmovportal.ca/argus/final/Portal/Main.aspx?component=AAFG&record=a7450643-c397-4d2e-a9a6-0cea5b180791

Thanks God the Museum of Vancouver also states that the material is copper and/or silver alloy (?). So no iron casting involved (or clearly the museum curators don't know anything). https://www.openmovportal.ca/argus/final/Portal/Main.aspx?component=AAFG&record=a7450643-c397-4d2e-a9a6-0cea5b180791

Actually the signature looks like 奈良重光 - Nara Shigemitsu, but I was unable to find this signature in my books.

The paper says the signature is Sashū jū Toshiuji (佐州住利姓).

Now I understand why Daruma shows such a sad face....

Here the genealogy of Hōan school according to "Genealogies of Japanese tsuba and tōsō-kinkō Artists" by Marcus Sesko. (the best I can do without a flatbed scanner)

The signature seems consistent..

Unfortunately zōgan means just "inlay", and does not describe the technique used to make it ...

Hi, I suggested Hizen relying on style alone, but of couse other schools/traditions can be considered. I assume the tsuba in made in iron, and the decoration is silver and gold nunome-zōgan (may be wrong). I'm unable to see true channels where inlay is missing, just minor wears in gin-nunome-zōgan could eventually result in that images. Finally, in my humble opinion the “anecdotal” example of what Alex consider to be representative of Kaga-zōgan is indeed a fair example of Kyō-kenjō (including the kin-zōgan kaō).

Could be a late Edo Hizen?

The problem is not in the tsuba.... it's in our brain. Pareidolia is the tendency of human mind to give meaningful interpretation of a visual input. That's my opinion.

The plant depicted is 樅 - momi - Japanese fir. see: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gew1fwujq25us4bpahzst/FHJ.pdf?rlkey=xqwem1jg9d243ej1wmub7a0hr&st=l12r1vch&dl=0

I don't think it's just an overcleaned tsuba. If the iron patina was abraded surely the nunome-zōgan would have been abraded as well. Nunome-zōgan over silver is unusual, nontheless silvered iron tsuba do exist (here one of mines).

I'm leaning towards gimei, the third kanji and the kaō show more inconsistencies. Anyways a nice piece.

Complimenti, Manuel, the surface textures are really astonishing, both ishime-ji and Amida-yasurime.

Hi Laurent, welcome at NMB. The first kozuka show an unusual subject. I really don't know if the object depicted is a quiver, but if a quiver it surely recall a representation called ebira-no-ume (箙の梅) or Ikuta-no-mori (生田の森). It's a story of Genpei War: before going to the battle of Ikuda forest, Kajiwara Kagesue took a branch of a flowering plum and stuck it in his arrow quiver. The signature is compatible with 後藤光佐 - Gotō Mitsusuke + kaō (but I'm unsure if gimei or not...).

Hi Zack, nice tsuba, just some active rust issues. Possibly Mito or Nara school. I think the cranes should be made of silver, now tarnished. The tsuba definitely deserves a professional restoration.

I thought NPO (usually in brackets after NTHK) means "non profit organization". Surely I'm missing something...

Hi, welcome at NMB. The "ring" is called fukurin (覆輪) and it's quite a common feature in many tsuba (tsuba doesn't take the plural tsubas). I'm quite doubtful about the additional protection a silver fukurin could eventually offer... The subject of the design is usually referred as Yodo suisha, usually seen in Daigorō or Kyō-sukashi pieces, but in your tsuba the thickness of the cut-outs looks too coarse for those schools.

That's the personal signets of the actual members of the shinsa.

About certifying mass produced tsuba, I wish to remind that "sanmai tsuba" or Kyo-kanagushi tsuba (wich weresurely mass produced) are commonly papered by NBTHK. Here the problem is that the NTHK paper states that the tsuba is from Edo age...

I've found questionable attributions in both NBTHK and NTHK (BTW the above is a NTHK paper, not NBTHK). But in some NTHK papers even the mere description of a tsuba is sometimes incompatible with the object shown in the accompany picture.

Maybe 信國吉橦 - Nobokuni Yoshihiro?