Marius

Sorry to be a bore, but the museum that hosts the exhibition is closed. It has been flooded, but the nihonto exhibition seems to be safe (hopefully).

Short question - how many years does a smith have to work as an apprentice in Japan to get an official sword smithlicence? And how many years of apprenticeship is required to become a polisher?

Yes, his items are mostly genuine, but low grade. Do not expect to buy something valuable. Whatever you pay, you will pay a full price at least. There are no bargains on eBay. Also, you might end up with a fake or with a hidden fatal flaw (been there, done that, it still hurts) If you want some good tsuba, save some money, buy something decent. It will give you years of pleasure. Grey Doffin is selling some very nice tsuba here on the board. Good quality, not expensive: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7474 Or go to any of the reputable dealers. My favourite picka are: Craig Harris' ko-kinko collection: http://yamabushiantiques.com/YBA2_CONSIGNMENT.htm and the tsuba that Boris Markhasin sells on the same site: http://yamabushiantiques.com/YBA2_TSUBA.htm Please note: I am not in any way associated with those sellers, I have just bought a few tsuba from them and I am extremely happy with my purchase. But there are many others who sell good stuff. I wouldn't look for them on eBay, although there might be some exceptions. As far as eBay is concerned... beware. Have a look at this, a fake tsuba, easy to be taken for genuine: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7588

Ford, it does :-) I must admit that I had no doubt about my hyoutan sukashi tsuba being genuine - I have bought it from Skip Holbrook's collection offered here by Grey Doffin. However, your remarks on the finish made me look at it very carefully once again - always a valueable experience BTW, the hitsu ana is a later addition, it seems. It does interfere with the design. And the openings (except for the hitsu ana) are rounded, which reminds me of Higo style tsuba. In some openings I see evidence of folding. The nakago ana is smooth inside, and its lower bottom has been possibly hit with a small hammer when fitting a blade - as a result a small section of it is protruding slightly - a very crisp fold. Nothing of that sort would ever happen with cast iron. The seppa dai has the same surface finish as the rest. It is slightly concave. Cast tsuba have invariably very dull-looking seppa-dai - sometimes this is the first thing that jumps into your eyes. Having said this, and being an armchair expert, I would have bought the first of the cast tsuba as genuine. That is why it is so important to discuss fakes. Thanks again

Joe, maybe it is time to look into your sword collection? Ford, I I think the idea to post modern fakes here is brilliant. What better source than eBay? On the other hand, you have made me nervously browse through my collection :lol: One question: how to determine if a tsuba is genuine or a fake for tsuba which have been designed not to be particularly crisp? Let me shwo you one of these (sorry for the quality of the pic, I can take a few closeups if you want...

Ford, thanks for pointing these out. While the second and the third seem to be rather obvious (they are sooooo bad), the first one, the "early Echizen Kinai" is not so obvious. All three are cast metal tsuba IMHO, but the first one is the best and it might fool people like myself. Do you think they are modern fakes, or Meiji "tourist" items?

Kraków is now flooded, so you might want to wait a bit until you visit it. The Museum which hosts the exhibition is on the shore of the Vistula, the water level is very high. I hope they won't have to evacuate.

The exhibition has started on 13 May. It seems that even 13 can be an auspicious number, as the vernissage has attracted quite a crowd. I have posted a short comment on the exibition, plus a few pictures on my blog: http://gomabashi.blogspot.com/2010/05/j ... rakow.html If some of the NMB members visit Kraków this summer, this is definitely worth seeing

John, thanks a lot

Dear All, do you know when the next shinsa will take place anywhere in Europe? Germany would be the preferred country. A friend of mine has an interesting sword with an inetersting sayagaki. He wants ti submit it to shinsa, but the USA and Japan would mean too much hassle. thanks :-)

Charlie, the pics are bad, the sword could be anything but looks quite new (gendai?), the mountings are bad, the saya is reinforced with black tape . The story about the vet sucks (sorry), the story about the blood on the habaki is so ludicrous that it can only be meant to make the merchandise attractive to complete idiots. Why wasting time on it and on eBay in general?

Oh dear... Screaming fake!

No need to translate anything. This one is a Chinese fake.

Dear All, I know that Poland does not seem a country where there could be a nihonto exhibition, but... the Japanese Art Museum "Manggha" in Kraków (Cracow) hosts an exhibition by the Japanese Section of the Polish Arms and Armour Society (of which I am a proud member) where 80 swords and nearly 300 tsuba from Polish private collections will be shown. I am a modest contributor with a few blades and tsuba I know that those blades and tsuba cannot compare to what is available in the US, but the value of the exhibition does not lie in this... It is the largest nihonto show in Poland since 1900 or so... And it has been organised only because of the willingness to share something which is very rare in Poland, indeed. Here is the link (in Polish only, sorry); http://www.manggha.krakow.pl/wydarzenia/miecze the poster is dreadful, but the Museum is well known and respected, let us hope that our exhibition will attract many people...

Colin, cast tsuba have a lovely ring, forged iron sounds dull. Sorry, couldn't refrain from this silly joke.. . I just think that using our eyes may produce better results. The most beautifully sounding bells in the world are cast, are they not?

Spot on, Peter! I really love your remarks on the nakago :-) And you have a very good eye - the hamon is suspicious, indeed. I would never ever consider a sword in a state like that... it needs a $1.5k polish, that is a fact. Been there. An unpolished sword is just not worth buying, unless you are prepared to risk the whole amount you pay... Has been said a thousand times here, on this forum.

the plum-tree horimono... Could you take some close-ups? It seems to have been added later, made to look like after many polishes. It looks quite bad, IMHO. And it doesn't go together with the horimono on the other side. Just an opinion.

Dear Ford, you don't even suppose how much your "contrarian" opinion is appreciated by some people here. We tend to accept various statements as a dogma.. Hence, it is very refreshing to hear from someone who is an artist actually working in metal, that melting the surface of a tsuba in order to achieve a glazed surface is actually impossible and that "yakite-shitate" could be originally a description of the effects and not of the process... I would also like to dwell on your statement about the quality of steel. I have always wondered, how one can determine the quality of steel in a tsuba without serious metallurgical examination? Obviously, we can see whether the tsuba is carefully crafted, what the colour of patina is, if the composition of all elements is pleasant (a subjective issue), but steel quality? Understood as resilience, hardness, as what? I think your opinions in this post are a very valuable contribution to the dismantling of some myths, from which - in my humble opinion - the study of nihonto and its mountings suffer.

Colin, not at all. No harshness, no irony. Just telling you what experts very often do when looking at a sowrd or kodogu. By expert I mean someone who has such a knowledge of the authentic mei, that he can determine if the one he looks at, is genuine. In the eyes of a Japanese (and many a Western) connoisseur, whatever is gimei is a no go, regardless of the artistic the merit of the piece. Hence, once the mei is determined to be false, the object is of no further interest. Nothing I can say about the mei on your tsuba - I am an amateur, not an expert. I can't say it is shinmei or gimei. I can only say (and I have said so earlier) that I like this tsuba and that the turtle sukashi looks OK to me. Also, that the chance is high that this is a revival piece in the style of Nobuiye. Can't see anything harsh or ironic about it. Possibly a misunderstanding?

Please do. Contrary to the "common wisdom" experts often DO start with the signature. If they find it gimei, there is no reason to further dwell on the sword/kodogu...

Colin, unless there is shoe-polish on this tsuba (which I doubt, but you can cook it in clean water for a few minutes to check if there is some, the "waxy feel" would indicate good patina. I don't want to risk the scorn of more knowledgeable people here, but I think that we can safely assume that this is a 19th century Nobuiye style piece. The copper sekigane looks bright maybe because someone, while cleaning the plate, has not spared the sekigane. I have made this error myself once. Also, the copper sekigane is probably newer anyway that the silver-alloy one. The turtle sukashi is a bit of a mystery, but I doubt someone would go through the pain of having it transferred form another tsuba. I rather think it was done of purpose. Do you have any better pics of that area? I must say, I quite like your tsuba.

I like you, dear Australians :-) I must by an atypical Pole (not north, not south, a Pole from Poland, no, not Holland), since almost everything is sacred in my country. Anyway, the Kao was actually what you get when you try to read the Chinese characters on such a blade...

Got my three tsuba today, and... I am blown away. Especially one of them is absolutely superb! You don't often get a middle Muromachi, stunning waterwheel sukashi ko-kinko with most of its old lacquer intact. Unbelievable. I need to make pictures of it and will publish it on my blog for all to enjoy. Anyways, guys, what are you waiting for for? Honestly, I don't think you will see this quality at these prices anytime soon. One of the tsuba I will ask to be held for me, though :-)

This is a tough one, and, frankly, I cannot imagine we will be able to come to any conclusions before having gone through a whole library of highly specialist positions I think we might start with the Japanese aesthetics insofar as it differs from the Western. We will, of course see the two converging on different occasions, but we will find moments and places in history where the divergence was so great that we even might get close to understanding the Japanese-ness in Japanese art. Maybe we should look for the deepest contrasts? Tea ceremony vs. courtly ceremonies in Europe, Raku ceramics vs. Cellini's saltbox? Or: yashiki interiors vs. Versailles? Where should we start? The Heian court could be a great starting point, even with all its borrowings form T'ang China. But then, where should we stop? Late Edo? Meiji? Or maybe we could try to analyse concepts like wabi sabi and the opposing aspects of ikki and yabu... Frankly, I am lost here. This seems to be a a discussion so vast that it will not fit into a discussion board, unless it will be an affair of scholars who are truly versed in Japanese art. I am sure some people on this Board fall into this category, so a discussion would be fascinating, especially with excursions into nihonto and tosogu.

hm... most people (included myself) would say that Hokusai's work (and that of other ukiyo-e artists) has had a tremendous influence on art nouveau. But that it could display Western influences? That most of us (except for the NMB members, haha) would - wrongly - doubt. Highly interesting topic, and excellent example of how we hang on to our own image of what is "uniquely Japanese". Thanks Ford, for having initiated this discussion. What an opportunity to learn! Here is the answer, hidden in the spoiler