Marius

If Fred allows me this shameless commercial plug - I have a very nice Soshu tanto (koto) and a lovely little Mino yari (shinto) to sell. Both items are very good and priced to sell. I wonder if everybody is broke these days?

Since that tanto was mine (I have bought it from paulb and was very happy with it), I think I'd better add a comment... Of course, those fingerprints were not mine. Must have been the Polish customs who have held the blade until I have produced a certificate stating its value (I won't go into uninteresting details here). They must have "inspected it" and left those fingerprints behind I am happy that they didn't damage the blade. Sorry about that, Fred. For your enjoyment - an oshigata and pics of the blade by Aoi Art.

Robert, please show us the other YKB you have..

I did not say it is. Neither is 'Sakura' YKB. A far cry from the freewheeling work of the oshodai, shodai and nidai YKB. But still, a good tsubako in his own right. Futagoyama... Nah! They would fake some classic pieces, a not a kukurizaru tsuba

Steve has written an interesting paper on the iconsistence of the yamakichibei generations as described by Okamoto. Very refreshing and interesting, especially in the light of existent Yamakichibei (style) tsuba which show excellent workmanship but which do not conform with accepted signatures. And, BTW, those 'kodai' Yamakichibei were artists working in the style of the original Yamakichibei line. Somewhat like Osaka Gassan and the ancient Dewa Gassan. Nothing wrong with that, of course.

Robert, Your tsuba reminds me strongly of the work of tge 'Sakura' Yamakichibei. And it is very nice Care to show us your other Yamakichibei? Don't tell us the attribution, it should be evident from the workmasnhip...

Kiritsuke mei?

Grey is one of those really great dealers out there. I have bought books, tsuba from him, always a great experience.

@Kevin, I remember, I bought a very nice Shitahara wakizashi from you, an excellent piece But your eBay sales are just an addition to your website, through which you sell some really good stuff. And there is your reputation which backs you ebay sales. That is different. @David Thanks for the kind words about my tanto

An impressive list coming together, thank you All :-)

A bunch of excellent sources, Jussi. I have forgotten to mention the Nihonto Koza, which, as you say, is also a great resource. So you use the Toko Taikan? I find it extremely hard to do so without an English Index.

Same goes for eBay in general.

Franco, I was mulling a purchase of Yamanaka's Newsletter, but wanted the re-formatted version (Grey cab surely get me one). Question is: how much useful is it when you have a sword in and that you want to assess?

Yamanaka newsletters? Are these useful?

Which I have mentioned in my first post :D

Whoever has cleaned those blades and fittings... I hope that not much steel was removed, but both blades require an expensive polish now. As for the fittings -now they look... flashy

This one is always with me :-)

Thanks guys, what about reference works with on specific traditions/schoold with oshigata and descriptions? Any favourites here? Again, I don't know Japanese, unfortunately...

Dear Members, I have always wondered what books you use when trying to attribute a blade to period, tradition, school and master. Especially when you don't know Japanese. Most of us know books like Hawley's Index, Fujishiro's two volumes or Nagayama plus Nakahara and also the recent NBTHK kantei volumes translated and compiled by Markus Sesko (excellent!). What books do you use? Can you name those you use for Koto and those for Shinto Shinshinto and Gendaito? If you have Japanese books without English translations/indexes, how do you use them (besides looking at photos or oshigata)? Which ones are a must?

Ford, thanks for this highly interesting info The pictures are excellent. I must say, I am also in anticipation of the finished tsuba...

You should have seen my first tsuba purchases But yes, books first :-)

Grev, actually, the first tsuba is the "worst offender" here

You can always count on me in this respect Neither of these two tsuba has a particular style. They seem to belong to a large group of late Edo/Meiji run-of-the-mill guards. Any attempt at attributing them is pretty pointless. Enjoy them for what they are. Or, better still, sell them and spend the money on something much better. Let us say... books with pictures of good tsuba?

Auction has ended, price went to more than JPY 2m. And there were 371 bids. Interesting auction. Now, somebody checked that Juyo Token Nado Zufu?

Actually, there is one for sale right now at Aoi with a Tokubetsu Hozon paper: http://www.aoijapan.com/katanaushu-shon ... ra-kiyondo