zanilu

Hi Thomas You can be perfectly right too... Regards Luca

Hi Thomas That was my first impression too. But there seems to be a vertical stroke connecting the two horizontal one. This is what I am seeing: Regards Luca

Yes Barry, I had the same feeling. That's the reason why I was asking about the identification of the stamp. Regards Luca

Dear All I need your help to identify a hot stamp present on the iron body of a Heianjo tsuba of mine. The surface of the iron shows hammer marks as on Tempo tsuba and in a couple of places shows sign of the hot stamps that are often shown by tsuba of this school. Only in one place the stamp is clear enough to show part of a kanji. It does not look like one of those usually reported as being on Tempo tsuba (https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/7973-write-up-about-early-saotome-tsuba/). Any information helping in identifying the kanji/motif it is appreciated Best Regards Luca

Hello I do not want to resume an old forum but I have a question for you Ford. In the video you mention that you stabilized active rust with tannin (with a used tea bag). Can you elaborate on the process or is one of those procedure that is too dangerous for us mortals. If it is an easy process it could be of interest for many of us. Regards Luca P.S. Earl grey would be fine?

Grazie Mauro. You are our resident botanist ...

Hi Chris. I do not want to hijack your thread but by chance I have recently acquired a very similar tsuba, even though not as in good conditions as yours. I have also a matching kozuka: My hypothesis for the kozuka is Washida school. For the tsuba not sure yet. Do you have more information on yours? Best Regards Luca

Dear All Any help in identifying the plants/flower on these two tsuba is greatly appreciated. #1 #2 Thank you in advance Best Regards Luca

This is in my collection. It is in overall good conditions with no rust, a nice brass patina and still a good portion of the hira covered with lacquer. Also it has a Tokubetsu Hozon paper by NBTHK. Regards Luca

Dear Markus I have the books affected by the printing issue you mentioned. To avoid you excessive problem and expenses for me it would be perfectly fine to have the replacement in pdf format. Best Regards Luca P.S. I want also to express my gratitude to you and the proof readers Barry and Grey for the great work you are doing.

Thank you Ford. Very informative and detailed explanation, as usual. I really enjoyed it! Luca

No clue, Mauro. If you compare actual picture of the Japanese fiber banana leaves with actual pictures the rendering on the tsuba is quite accurate. Other than that, as I said no clue. Regards Luca

Grazie Mauro.

Thank you guys. So my guess is Mumei (shohami) for the first line. Luca

Dear All I have recently acquired a tsuba with one old kicho paper from NBTHK. Of the paper this part is too difficult for me to translate especially the bit between brackets! Any help is greatly appreciated Best Regards Luca P.S. Here is the whole paper