Marius

David, unless you are some kind of millionaire or billionaire, I would advise you to keep the sword in the koshirae as it is now, save any money for the polish, and when you have polished it (please choose a qualified polisher only, there are maybe two of them outside Japan) you will have a new shirasaya made. It looks lovely, a naginata/nagamaki naoshi which seems still healthy. It is likely to be a stunnig sword when polished. Enjoy the blade in a good shirasaya. BTW, a good shirasaya is really much better than a crappy koshirae, assembled of various pieces.

Brian, patience, please. Allow people to be a bit sarcastic. No offense intended here, just some friendly joking. Underlying message is: go, look at great swords and great koshirae and soon you will stop looking at stuff posted on eBay. I have a newbie collector friend who does the same. I keep telling him "how can you learn what is great by looking at all that crap", but he keeps on doing it. He is taking up my time asking me for opinion on some crap tsuba and swords he has found on eBay. A pointless exercise. I get irritated because he does not get the message. You seem to behave in a similar manner. This wakizashi you have found is crap, and so is its koshirae. Both are genuine, but crap. You may like them, but most people here will not find anything interesting in them. That is all, I guess.

Roy, do you have only this one photograph? I would surely like to have a look at the interior of the hitsu and, so that the tsuba would have to be photographed from the side. What we have he is a scan, which tends to distort a non-flat object. I am reasonably sure that the mimi is very delicately raised. As to punched vs. chiseled - I would leave that to guys like Ford - he knows all the techniques.

Thanks for the pic, Roy. Somehow I have the impression that the sukashi are a later addition. The gold applications seem to be low quality... The placement of the sukashi is awkward. I can imagine the tsuba without them, it would look much better. Is that a subtly raised rim I see there? Also, can you post some pics of the interior of the hitsu ana? They seem to have been executed rather carefully...

Roy, I can't comment the tsuba, but as for the picture... do you have something better?

Ron, I agree with your attribution. It seems a Momoyama tsuba, judging by the shape, wave design and goldwash. It is not earlier as seppa-dai is too wide for early Muromachi. As to attributing it to tachi-shi/tachikanagushi - keep in mind that these are a construct, popularised by Torigoye, and accepted in order to put earlier tsuba into certain categories. Nothing wrong with that but, there are no sources which would indicate that tachikanagishi (or tachishi) were a group separate form ko-kinko or kagamishi for that matter. I prefer to say early soft metal tsuba. A nice tsuba, that is for sure. I have one that is similar in shape, however made of yamagane, you have most likely seen it. Boris Markhasin from whom I have acquired it describes it as a shitogi tsuba utsushi dating to the 15th, beginning 16th century. This might be right, although the shape of a true shitogi tsuba is much different. Here is my tsuba (there are a few pictures there if you care to click "next"): http://s1150.photobucket.com/albums/o61 ... G_8067.jpg

What about Fuji-san?

Like?... Could you elaborate, please?

Yes, and this seller does it on a regular basis. No sense to waste time with him. And... no hidden gems on eBay

No need to take offence. All Kaneie besides the original Kaneie are just BS, if I may say so. Some Saga Kaneie were really good, though..

Ford, Thanks :-) I think this is a very good wrap up. And I guess we have thus arrived at the end of our thread (unless someone is able to explain what a squirrel is doing over the waves, that is, LOL). Thanks, gentlemen, for your opinions. I hope you have enjoyed the tsuba :-)

The squirrel-fox-(endowed)rabbit seems to have been cast separately and soldered into the plate. On the two tsuba in my collection the animals are virtually identical.

Thomas, the tail of a rabbit is short. I go with Ford and all those who say it is a squirrel. Anyway, it seems that all three tsuba come from the same workshop. As a friend has told me "I think its the same shop -- the Muroamchi IKEA of sword furniture!" Two questions remain: 1. What is that squirrel doing over the waves? 2. Are those pegs in the seppa-dai designed to hold the three plates in place?

Wikipedia anyone? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-tailed_fox

Wow! Now, this is getting positively interesting! Thanks, BaZZa!

OK, gents, here come the first "quick and dirty" pictures of the two tsuba in my possession. The third will follow in a few weeks, I am afraid. A friend has brought forward a theory whereby my tsuba might be cast from the same mold: "This is actually not surprising. I know of a specific little tsuba design that was cast and mass produced. You could even tell which way was up in the mold due to very clear air bubble cavities as the liquid metal degassed (...) I have held totally identical tsuba of this type. I'm sure it was not the only type to have been cast enmasse." Well, while this sounds plausible, it does not seem to apply to my tsuba. Have a look at the pics and judge for yourself... I have also added pics of the third tsuba, which I am to receive later. I have bought it on Yahoo Japan with the help of Yasuhiro-san from Menukiya. If you need high resolution pictures, let me know, I will send them via email (only the first two tsuba)

I guess such things do not happen very often... Imagine - I buy a papered ko-kinko tsuba from one of the NMB members. Some time passes and... lo and behold! There is a nearly identical tsuba on eBay (yes, I confess, I visit that evil place in search of some underestimated kodogu). I buy it. After a week, I post my first tsuba in a thread concerning sanmai tsuba and their quality, and an NMB member points out that there is a third tsuba (nearly identical with mine) on Yahoo Japan auctions. I use one of the NMB members' bidding service (thanks, Yasuhiro-san!) and I win the third tsuba (which is being sold as a... ko-kinko). I now have the first two tsuba. They are like twins, but seppa dai are of differenet size (the size of the tsuba is identical) and details are slightly different. I am currently waiting for the 3rd tsuba. I will post pics of the first two for now give me some time, please). I hope this thread will help us all learn something - when was the last time you had 3 tsuba with identical size and motif on your hands? I shall post pics soon

You say "katana" - may I ask how long the cutting edge is?

Yes, but this tsuba is made from 3 layers of yamagane, I believe. At least, I am sure there is no shakudo in this tsuba....

@Ford Thanks for pointing this out. I wonder why the sandwich construction @Curran Thanks, this is quite amazing... A third one!

Well, it was me who has bought it I will now have two identical tsuba - I will compare them carefully to assess to what degree ko-kinko tsuba have been manufactured "from one mold".

since Ford has mentioned ko-kinko sanmai, let me show you a sanmai tsuba papered to ko-kinko. See the difference?

One of our members has a rather interesting omi-yari to sell. I am not making any comments on the asking price, it may be very low or very high, you can't tell with the photos. But the nagasa is awesome. And so is the broom http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-sword- ... 586wt_1398

Sorry Gents, I miss a conclusion regarding storage of urushi coated items in paulownia boxes... Forgive me if I am too insistent, but I have a beautiful tanto koshirae and a paulownia box (scroll box) and the two fit ideally.

and what about the koshigatana?