MauroP

Ciao Luca, I've found paired vertical slits sukashi referred as 霞文 - kasumi-mon (mist), or 楷棒 - kaibō (the meaning should just be sticks) in NBTHK papers. On the tsuba found in the book "Tsuba no Bi" the sukashi is referred as 定規 - jōgi (rulers). Just take the explanation you like more... The mei could be X重作 - (...)shige saku Mauro

Actually the paper reports: 銘 正阿弥 (以下木明) so the tsuba is signed indeed. But I'm unable to understand the statement in brakets. Mauro

Komai and Kyō-kenjō are probably overlapping attributions. Here below two paperer tsuba with attribution Komai-ha and Kyō Komai respectively. Bye, Mauro

Here below 3 tsuba with hare/rabbit from my collection and 3 more ones found on the net, papered respectively as Aizu-Shōami, Inshū Suruga and signed Toshikage. Bye, Mauro

My guess is 吉次 - Yoshitsugu, possibly Akao school. The sukashi could be kukusaru (括猿). Bye, Mauro

No. 1 Bushū-Itō school, late Edo, depicting 3 oubergines (三茄子透 - mitsu nasubi sukashi). Often those tsuba have very faint inscriptions, so check thoroughly if a mei is present. No. 2 probably Meji or later, depicting a prunus branch (枝梅透 - eda ume sukashi); the supposed straw hat should be part of a branch with a blossom bud. Just my opinion. Bye, Mauro

The flower depicted is clematis (tessen - 鉄線), quite common in tōsōgu. I'm with the late Chōshū school hypotesis (very late Edo or Meji). Bye, Mauro

The signature is 藻柄子入道宗典製 - Sōheishi Nyūdō Sōten sei. Probably gimei. Nice piece, anyway. Mauro

Here what I can read: 黒塗小刻脇指拵 - kuro nuri ko-kizami wakizashi koshirae 縁頭 ?銅 赤銅地 - fuchikashira ??? shakudō-ji 目貫 ??図 ?銅 赤銅地 - menuki ??? zu ??? shakudō-ji 鐔 ?銅地 丸形 - tsuba ???-ji maru-gata (小柄穴) - (kozuka-ana) The elusive kanji could be 真, so 真銅 = shinchū. Bye, Mauro

The origami specify the tecnique: 高彫毛彫 焼き手仕上 - takabori kebori yakite shiage.

One more papered Naoaki here: http://www.e-sword.jp/tsuba/1110-6032.htm Mauro

Hi Luis, nice tsuba here. My guess is: n.o 1 Kyō-sukashi; n.o 2 Aizu-Shōami (is it signed?); n.o 3 Kyō-Shōami (or just Shōami); n.o 4 signed Yamashiro (no) Kuni Fushimi jū Kaneie; n.o 5 Umetada (possibly Shigenari). Just my not-so-educated opinion. Bye, Mauro

Not good, very good!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Kvu6Kgp88

The tsuba here below has been papered as ko-Shōami. Mauro

It's a test, something like "find the intruder"? (the moon has eyes and mouth)

That,s the kind of endoscope I'm familiar with. Are we talking of the same kind of instrument? Mauro

The workmanship remind Bushū Itō school (signed 正寿). See http://www.shibuiswords.com/haynesTsu52.html Bye, Mauro

Ben, Masakata Bushū-Itō school, not Chōshū. The other tsuba could be Edo Higo or Kumagai school. Bye, Mauro

Maybe a rudder (舵透図 - kaji sukashi no zu)? Mauro

There are some errors scattered in the text (at least I think so): p. 14 - tsuba Shingen, but nothing to do with the design known as the “centipede”; p. 20 - the image is mirrored left-right (difficult to read properly the signature); p. 21 - worth to say the complete mei should be Shōami Shigenobu; p. 25 - the complete mei should be Joi Nagaharu (with Nagaharu - 永春 in form of seal); p. 29 - 柳川直春 reads Yanagawa Naoharu, not Naohara; p. 41 - the maker is Kaji´emon, not Kakiemon; p. 42 - the mei in omote should be 干英子野村包教 - Kan'eishi Nomura Kanenori, not Kan-ishi Nomura Kanemobu; p. 43 - Natsuo, as pointed out by Ford; p. 45 - the mei should be Masachika (正親), not Malachi. It would be fine if some advanced fellows here in the forum could confirm and send a note to the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. Mauro

The expressions gomoku-zōgan (五目象嵌), fukiyose-zōgan (吹寄象嵌) or hokori-yoshirō (埃与四郎) can be interchangeably used to define this style of inlay. I've found only 3 tsuba with NBTHK paper, two attributed to Heianjō and one to Yoshirō. Anyway all the papers report just shinchū-zōgan. Here below 3 tsuba in my collection: The no. 1 is a plan maru-gata kaku-mimi tsuba with a shiny ground plate (silver plated?) and symmetrical hitsu-ana. The no. 2 has quite classical ko-sukashi of Shōami school. The no. 3 is a big nikubori ji-sukashi tsuba. The tsuba above have nothing in commom but the same kind of inlay, and in my opinion this support the hypotesis that gomoku-zōgan was just a way to "pimp" old tsuba. Bye, Mauro

The theme is usually referred as ōka ryūsui - 桜花流水 Bye, Mauro

Hi Aldwin, here below a tsuba with similar decoration papered Shōami (when you don't know, say elephant or Shōami...): Helen Gunsalus in her "Japanese Sword-Mounts in the Collections of Field Museum" (1923) take this kind of decoration as an early type (see https://archive.org/stream/japaneseswordmou16guns#page/28/mode/2up) I don't like the Shōami-take-them-all theory but I what I know? Bye, Mauro

Beginner's luck, I suppose