terminus

Yeah, there's at least two issaku koshirae, both fairly famous: ^one of my favorite koshiraes of all time, incredible iron work ^from Darcy's website. "Blade is called Suiryuken due to the fantastic mounts with dragons and waves he made for the blade. The blade is now Juyo Bunkazai" -Darcy Going back to the tsuba, admittedly that mei is looks quite authentic.

Agreed, the feet and the roughness around the chicken inlay is where I'm like rlly? no way it's anything close to the real thing. Also the composition and surface of the tsuba.

So when I first saw this tsuba I blew it off as fake, since well it's Natsuo and on Yahoo Japan, and additionally never saw this chicken in his sketchbooks before. That being said I just checked the auction results and it sold for $27,441! What's your thoughts about it? Think it's hopeful people with lots of money who just wanted to bid on something "Natsuo"? or is there more to this tsuba that I'm missing? https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/l1001421571?conversionType=browsing_history

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/l1001421571?lang=en&rc=yaucc_sp this “Natsuo” tsuba has interestingly 30+ bids on it already! What are people’s thoughts?

I've dealt with them before. Legit and very good dealer. Had no problems with them and very communicative.

Hi, I'm looking to buy a tanto or hira-wakizashi with horimono from Gassan Sadatoshi or if anyone could put me in contact with someone who sells them. Here's are some great examples of what I'm looking for:

Great, thanks James! Can't miss the 1 to 2pm NBTHK-AB exhibit then.

I don’t want to miss this being an Ichijo school fan. To confirm is this on Saturday only? 11am to 3pm?

That time of the year again when the SF Token Kai is coming up. Wanted to say the original post still stands and if you have any tsubas fitting my criteria and you will be at the SF Token Kai please pm me.

Yep, Juyo for machibori tsuba is pretty incredible work. I only submitted this tsuba for TH at the moment. My favorite of the Ishiguro school is Masaaki. His work is so intricate and immaculate. I wish I could collect more of the Ishiguro school but the school's works are so rare and expensive.

The 2021 NBTHK papers! I guess some leaps of faith are worth it (okay, and admittedly a lot of research).

Thought I'd share this tsuba I acquired last year that recently just got it's NBTHK papers. By Nomura Katsumori(1835-1917), a student of the famous Kano Natsuo and teacher to Imperial Court Artist, Kagawa Katsuhiro. From the mid Meiji era onwards Katsumori worked mostly for the Imperial Household Agency so his works are quite rare. Here's some other examples of his work from the MET Walters and MFA museums. https://art.thewalters.org/.../tsuba-with-a-peony-blossom/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/candidecoating/8541259102/ https://collections.mfa.org/.../peopleSearch%3ANomura... I believe the theme is about General Minamoto no Yoshimitsu (1056-1127), aka Shinra Saburo (who was an accomplished performer on the sho, a short bamboo mouth organ, and founder of Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu, an ancient Japanese martial art style) on top of Mount Ashigara. The back/ura and front/omote side are basically one vertical picture from the back side's stream and tree transitioning to the top of the tree, mountain and sky on the front side. One interesting note is it seems this tsuba was ready to be mounted. Notice the branch in the seppa dai area is engraved and not relief. The mountain on the front flattens at the seppa dai as well. https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/minamoto-no-yoshimitsu/m02w1dnh Tokubetsu Hozon in 2021

Yea that loofah design tsuba is a very famous design by kato teruaki. However it’s also one of the most faked designs out there. When I see it I instantly know it’s fake. Most of them are poor fakes too, the nanako is printed or cast. I’ve never actually seen the real loofah tsuba before from him before. I’m sure the real one must have looked amazing.

Just got back the results from shinsa today. This tsuba passed Tokubetsu Hozon!!!!! 🙌

Being a buyer of only very high end tosogu, Darcy’s prices are actually fairly reasonable. Especially compared to Iidakoendo or other sites.