Kanenaga

It's a Kaneie-style tsuba, and I quite like it. Hitsuana are often seen filled in, but I've never seen the nakagoana filled.

Nice fittings. The habaki belongs in Bruce's old "cat-scratch habaki" thread, if not already there.

So it's a kinzogan mei, an attribution rather than a signature. And the kakihan likely belongs to whoever did the inlay work, rather than Sa himself. Just my opinion, of course.

Kakihan on a blade by O-Sa? May we see it?

I was unaware that an export permit is required for a tsuba.

I think Ron's question is about the depiction of what we call a "rain dragon." All the illustrations in the Sesko article show the kurikara with a "normal" dragon.

Perhaps good to mention that the condition of the nakago is important for the monetary evaluation of a shinto or newer sword. Suriage (or machi-okuri, or mumei-ness) significantly diminishes the value.

Hi all, Next month I will be in Kanazawa for a few days, and then a few more in Nagoya. Can anyone recommend nihonto-related things to do or see in those cities? These might include museum displays or sword shops. All suggestions appreciated. Les

Concerning Dale's tsuba from the Spencer Museum supposedly showing a man washing potatoes, but no potatoes to be seen -- well, here's another with the same theme, including the 2 sticks. This one is by Goto Ichijo, and the potatoes are presumably in the basket. So maybe this is a real theme? Title: Tsuba with a picture of sweet potato washing under the moon

Still available?

I've been to the NBTHK Museum (both old and new), the Tokyo and Kyoto National Museums, and the Sano Museum. In each of these I thought the lighting was acceptable for a static display of swords. But "static" is not how we usually appreciate blades, so I would like to see museums get over their prohibition against bringing and using a small flashlight of one's own. TTBOMK, light cannot injure steel (curator alert!). I second Arnaud's suggestion about the usefulness of a quality monocular, especially for viewing fittings behind glass. These take a little practice for orientation, because the field of view tends to be very small. When the Mitsumura collection was on display several years ago, the Nezu Museum would actually lend you one of these, and it was perfect for seeing the fabulous details.

Apologies for the late post, just saw this thread. Here's a silver wakizashi, this one with horimono, basically a tsunagi for the mounts by Goto Ichijo. I haven't tested it myself , but I'm inclined to believe the label. From the Mitsumura collection.

We should keep an eye out for it at the SF show in 3 weeks.

No signed Sadamune.

Appreciate your comments, Colin. The base and anvil are one piece. And the signature is on the base. So I think all original. But I agree a new stand may be in order, so I'll be on the lookout. BTW, that figure is quite lovely. Yours? And what is Gyokko/Miyao ?

In the photos, the sculpture sits on a wood stand which came with it (FWIW) and which needs some TLC. The base is about 3/8 inch high and open underneath, and fixed to the figure with two rivets. The whole things is quite heavy for its size, but I expect the figure is hollow. The sword has a shinogi line, no sori (yet?), no ana (yet), and a short nakago with a kengyo jiri. What is a "general no-kaji" ?

I hope these photos show well, it's all black. It's 13 inches tall by 8 inches at the circular base. Comments?

Thank you Uwe, Colin and Piers. I tend to doubt it's the same guy. The teru kanji is different, as Piers noted. The time period could possibly fit, though I think this is later, ie, Meiji-Taisho. I checked the metalworkers section of Self&Hirose (my signature bible) and there is no such listing. I'll take some photos of the bronze. You will see that it could hardly be more nihonto-related.

I could use some help with a signature. I recently acquired a nihonto-related bronze sculpture which bears this signature: I make it to be Kiyoteru Saku. Is this correct? Might there be an alternative reading? Does anyone know anything about the artist? All input appreciated.

Francis, You have shown us some beautiful things. It would be more educational if you could tell us something about each one. Les PS: Please see my recent post about the Museo Orientale in Venice, for contrast. (Bardi Museum, under General Discussion)

Well, just back from my visit to the Museo Orientale showing the collection of Count Bardi. Or part of it, as the info states there is more (much more?) that is not on display. Manuel's article translates quickly to English, and gives a good sense of what there is to see, and it's a LOT of stuff. My rough count may be off by one or two items: 68 katana 72 wakizashi 75 tanto, sometimes hard to distinguish from wakizashi All the foregoing were koshirae (only one daisho set), presumably with blades inside but there was no way to tell. 26 bare blades, many with dragon horimono. Three of them with Tadatsuna signatures. One o-dachi. 17 firearms, many with prominent inlays 84 yanone, some very complex show pieces 28 katana zutsu 9 quivers 31 jingasa 15 saddles, many with lacquer decoration 19 abumi sets, about half matched to saddles 4 katana kake The foregoing were all in display cases, the lighting was dim, it was suboptimal for appreciating detail. Flash photo was not permitted, but I was not told up front so I took some pictures and will try to post a few once I edit them. I could see that some of the iron fittings had rust, and there was no moisture provided in the cases so some of the lacquer decorations appeared to be drying out and deteriorating. Also... 157 yari, most in koshirae 54 naginata, all mounted and numerous other Edo-period items such as netsuke, lacquerware, small carvings, musical instruments and drums, and hanging scrolls. No inro. Notably absent were fittings per se, not even a few tsuba; and koto items, save for one mumei katana attributed to Aoe, and one or two Norimitsu wakizashi. But then, it is called an Edo-period collection. It's a display that prompted me to think yet again about the distinction between collecting and accumulating. I did not perceive any particular focus or theme to the material, except for the obvious attraction to polearms, and to horimono on blades -- although some of that may reflect more the attitude of the curators rather than the taste of the collector. In terms of appreciation, I particularly liked some of the firearms, yanone, the saddle/abumi sets, and the musical instruments. I'm a bit surprised that no one has cataloged and properly photographed this collection, so that it could be compared to the other great European and American collections (Baur, Festing, Hawkshaw, et al.) from this same time period, i.e., late 19th - early 20th century. Those other collections no longer exist except in books or auction catalogs. Perhaps a project for one or more doctoral students in art history? Anyway, I hope this is of interest to some, and - Brian - that this has not taken up too much bandwidth. Les PS: There's a site that shows some 360-degree views of the exhibition rooms. Very little detail, of course. https://www.italyart...YmkeOM_qkZdQMSIC1Qvc

Yes Manuel, that's the one. I'll use your article to practice my Italian.

Going to visit the Bardi museum in Venice this week, billed as the most important collection of Edo-period Japanese art in Europe, much of it nihonto-related. I believe this has been mentioned previously on this forum, but not coming up on a quick search. Does anyone have any particular item(s) in mind that they would like photographed (if permissible)? Otherwise, I'll just shoot whatever catches my fancy...

It seems this is a topic about which anyone can offer an opinion, no matter how lacking their qualifications (meaning me), so here goes: Is it possible that some clarification about terminology might be helpful? I personally find it useful to think in terms of different categories of arts. Fine arts (painting, sculpture) share the quality of trying to say something about what it means to be human. They tell us something about ourselves. Beautiful though they may be, nihonto tell us nothing about the human condition, so they should not be compared to fine art. Nihonto, I suggest, should be considered applied art, or if you prefer, industrial art. Somewhat like architecture, for example. Making something beautiful when it is primarily a utilitarian item. And that's all I have to say about that. Forest Gump, 1994

TTBOMK, chips do not disqualify a sword from shinsa evaluation, unless one of them penetrates the full thickness of the hamon -- in which case the sword is considered fatally flawed.