zanilu

That was my first thought too when I saw the pictures on Buyee. But looking at the signature I have seen it was signed Kyozan Mistunaka [Kao] in kinzogan. Mitsunaka is one of my favorite artist. Washida Mistunaka tsuba are rarely seen on the market signed and with peonies and karakusa decoration. Usually Mitsunaka (signed or from his workshop) are usually characterized by very high quality iron and the kin zogan is usually also of high quality rarely missing some pieces. From the pictures, except for the rust that looked superficial, the iron looked in good shape and the kin zogan didn't show any missing pieces. Thus I decided to take the risk. In the end I was just lucky. As I was lucky to find Manuel that made such a wonderful restoration work. Regards Luca

Hi Thomas. It could definetly be Washida (probaly from the workshop of the 4th generation Mitsunaka) even though they usually come with a silver fukurin in the inome sukashi. Here is one from my collection It is identical to two NBTHK papered one that are attributed to Washida and Washida den. It could also be Kaga Yoshiro. The iron looks like typical Washida. If you could zoom on the the arabesque leaves there are some differences on how they are inlayed between Washida and Yoshiro. Take a look at Section A.6 of this pdf file: Here is another one from my collection of uncertain attribution for which I am leaning toward Yoshiro rather than Washida due to the inlay used in the leaves. I hope it helps Regards Luca

The same is true for me. My copy is signed and I bought both the book and the translation as a package. When I inquired, on the auction house website, about the book they wrote me back citing upfront the existence of the translation and provided a nice discount on the package. By the way I am just now sitting on the sofa with the translation and the book on my lap. Luca

Credici

What I wanted to say is that the tecqniques where already there pre 1700, how the Masampri in question, acquired them is the mystery. A mystery that will probably remain unsolved. This is what I tried to say but my English is not up to the task and the result was quite convoluted... Regards Luca

Me too Curran. Looking at it I would have guessed mid to late Edo, but the style of the inaly reminds me of some Kaga Zogan works. The main lines of artist doing that kind of work in Kaga domain, i.e. the Tsuji and Katsuji lines, first generations where active just before 1700 (https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=153423) so... Can I suggest to look for referenced signature of the artist for comparison? Just to dismiss the gimei hypothesis. Or look for referenced works from him to see if this tsuba has similarities with it? Very nice piece anyway. Regards Luca

It is indeed a lovely set! Congratulation! Regards Luca

Thank you for the info @Curranit is greatly appreciated! Luca

I have this Hamano ({浜野}) school tsuba signed Nobuyuki ({鋪隨}) in my collection that have a red lacquered number painted inside the nakago-ana. By enhancing some images the number seems to be composed by five digits and reads like ``28722'' or ``28.722''. I have tried to find the provenance from the number but without success. If any information about it is available or you can find out more I will appreciate it! Dimensions are 65.1 mm x 59.0 mm thickness 4.2 mm. Regards Luca

I would side with Pietro on this. Look a lot like a Soten piece or to be more precise (or more generic, you choose ) it looks like one of the Soten like pieces made by various artisans that took advantage of the Soten school popularity. From the reduced number and larger size of the human figures I would also say a later one. As always I could be wrong... Regards Luca

Sent

I may suggest Giorgio Movilli. He did a top notch work for my Yoshihara for both shirasaya and koshirae. You can see his works at http://www.Japanese-sword.it/ Among the examples you can also find my sword. Regards Luca

Sad to hear that! We had long private conversations on Washida school, especially on the later generation Mitzunaka. He has deep knowledgeable on the subject but he was also able to convey it in such a simple way to make it sound obvious... I will miss him a lot. Luca

Thank you Moriyama san! Thank you Dale! It seems we are on the right track! All the best Luca

Wonderful Dale! You are our image hunter! Thank you. I will work on it. Regards Luca