DirkO

A bit of of a visual trick, it's only 2-2,5 mm thick. Looks massive, but is suprisingly elegant and light when in hand.

Jinbei ????

My wangata

Wan-gata

Tosogu no Kansho 1+2 Wakayama books

Did a quick comparison with entries in the book 'The Ishiguro School of Japanese Sword Fittings Artists' - 2016 The Masatsune II mei are quite different (last one is Moritsune, which was an early mei for Masatsune II while 1st generation was still working)

... and ko-Kagamishi or ko-Hagi or ko-Kinai

UPDATE: <<Hello everyone - Bella again. Just to say Ford is out of surgery now and it’s good news He has had seven stents put in and he said it was horribly painful, the doctors has to struggle with one artery getting through and the stent in. I am delighted though, it’s the best outcome for him. I am passing on all your messages and love. And now he must rest! I will have to wrangle him I am sure! Thanks again for all your lovely messages of support and hope. They mean so much to him, and to me. >>

Looks like dragon was added later as an exercise on this tsuba. Space/composition wise it doesn't fit all that nice. Probably seppa area isn't useable due to inlay being a bit higher. Nice dragon though.

Hi Ken, I think the Wada-esque sukashi are original, seeing the inlay and its positioning, the square cut-outs were done later to accomodate a specific mounting.

Yep BPOST (affiliated with EMS and USPS) should be just fine. Sent several books + nihonto to the US that way. But shipping won't be cheap.

Similar one (I really liked it, but just missed out on it, currently in Scandinavia somewhere) - papered to Ko-Shoami

Here are some mei for comparison.

Regarding its first use - after some digging in my books, I found this interesting article: "The words wabi and sabi have been closely linked to the aesthetics of the chanoyu tea ceremony since the time of Murata Shuko (1421?-1502). He described his preferences for using as tea wares inexpensive, locally made utilitarian vessels (instead of more finely wrought Chinese objects) as wabi-suki, an expression that, by the 17th century, had evolved into the phrase wabi-cha (poverty tea)...." Rest in below screenshot. From the excellent book 'Japanese Design - Patricia Graham' (I think it's Ford who put me on that title, so thx for that!)

Typical things to consider. Would a Japanese sell this on eBay, unpapered? He has easy access to shinsa and experts and it would be easier to sell domestically if legit...

More information from Supreme Sword Country, Bizen

This from Markus' kantei book. I know it's also published in another book, but I don't have access to that one right now.

There's one published Tsuguyuki Kozori blade I know of. I'll try and post pics tomorrow.

Signed up as well! If anything, this post gives me some time to build up my warchest

This is not a bad starting point : Markus Sesko's Compendium https://markussesko.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/nihontocompendium-e1.pdf Start at about page 60

While I agree that most of them take place in Germany, it's more than worth the travel if you're at all possible to attend one of these. Friendly people sharing the same passion and very knowledgeable! Not to mention the endless stream of high end nihonto and kodogu.

Yes - I don't have a picture of the exact paper, but it's noted in the sales page that it carries NBTHK Hozon papers

It's Ko-Mino - I have several papered yamagane(although that term is debatable)Ko-Mino kogai on file. This one actually comes close to yours.

I think it's: 大金子拾参枚 Dai-kinsu jū-san mai And as you said, both forms mean the same and are commonly found on Hon'ami origami.

Hi Chris, Being the owner (and obviously biased), I think this one's more for me - the Tohachi attribution is backed up by recent Hozon papers directly to Tohachi and when you examine it in hand, there's really little doubt that this is a correct attribution, albeit not an obvious one. The seppadai, when you look at it straight down, is correct for Tohachi, I can easily find references with the same seppadai shape. The hitsu-ana in this case are part of the rope design and can't really be taken into the equation - otherwise they're indeed a-typical. And about copying designs - this exact design is also noted in the Kamiyoshi Tsuba Ehon, which makes it less likely to be a copy by another school, seeing those usually add their own take on a design.