jlawson

I have done business with him in the past and have never heard of problem with him as a seller. Although I bought exactly what I wanted and knew exactly what it was. I am not sure what you are looking for from us here on this forum though. Seems to me that you bought an item and were apparently overjoyed to own it from the exclamation and wording you used including that "you didn't pay anywhere near enough for it". In my opinion you paid exactly what you should have for it. To me from the photos it looks like a cast reproduction but even if it is a true carved tsuba with condition issues it is of such low quality and definition that it is rather a tsuba shaped object at current state. There are a good number of actually good tsuba on that page from that seller that I would think someone would rather own and a plethora of other sellers both on this board and all over the internet with good tsuba. I would suggest you save your money for a bit and buy some books and earnestly study before you jump out there and buy another tsuba. Or alternatively, buy things and enjoy them for what you like in them vs what they actually are. If you can be as happy as you were at the start of this post for $300 and continue on that path then more power too you.

Sometimes it is deceptive in photos but to me this piece looks cast as well. Sorry.

Also this doesn't seem to be much of a sales thread but rather a bash a seller's guarantees thread (specifically calling him out by name etc). It would seem that if there was a guarantee then that should have been handled by returning the items or getting a discount etc, don't think it should have been included in a for sale thread.

Gotta agree with Guido here. Brian it is not hard to fake at all specifically when using a candle and spending a little bit of time smoking and wiping down etc. I would not have believed it either Brian without seeing it done as I thought the same as you.

In order to leave negative feedback you have to complete a transaction. This is no different than others selling items for a higher price than a Yahoo Auction that has a buy it now price, then buying it themselves and sending it to you. I had one of these a while back and after the auction conclusion the seller said that they had lost the item in their warehouse and cancelled the auction and refunded my money (because it was no longer available on Yahoo auctions). This way I cannot leave negative feedback and the cycle continues. There are at least 3 sellers doing this now and if you search specifically for tsuba on Ebay you will see the same exact photos of the same items listed by a couple of different sellers that are taken directly from Japanese dealer sites and marked up. I contacted Ebay about this a while back and long story short is they did nothing to stop it. Unfortunately this will continue.

Guess people should have bought them when they were $2250 cheaper and posted above...

This group doesn't create a "pink" sheet. They just write Gimei on the white sheet and don't issue a paper. For your other question yes there were swords that were judged as Gimei as well as fittings.

Looks like an entirely too social group of folks there in that pic. Unfortunately I was right in the middle of someone buying a sword when you guys made the announcement so couldn't be in there. Next time.

FYI I heard from Markus today that this translation is done and he is now just cleaning up some formatting and images. If you haven't replied that you wanted to be a part of this translation or haven't Pm'ed me then please do so now. Really appreciate everyones help in offsetting the cost to have this great book translated by Markus Sesko.

I will be there. Ed you can bring that kozuka to show me :-)

As requested here is a better shot of the front as well as the back of my Hagiya Katsuhira. I actually like the Ura side better.

Here is another monkey and Hawk tsuba with some pretty pronounced feathers as well, Kevin.

Here is the front and back of the Choshu piece, Greg.

Here are a few from my collection.

Mark as you know there are no absolutes when it comes to Japanese swords and dismissing tsuba that come off of not so great swords would be a mistake for sure. I have personally seen one VERY good tsuba popped off of a civilian mounted showato that was used for military service. Remember that it was not just swords that were passed down in families and in fact if you think about it since most samurai had different rigs for their swords there undoubtedly were handed down kodugu. For a young man going off to war that did not have an ancestral blade he may very well have placed his ancestors Jingo tsuba on his sword if it would pass for appropriate.

Certainly looks yagyu in design but in my opinion it is to sharply cut in areas (specifically around the sukashi parts of the mimi) for me to think it that school and the bones don't look right. I don't necessarily think it is a cast copy but that is often hard to tell from photos like this. Bring it to Tampa and lets have a look at it.

FYI several other people have emailed me to commit but we have much fewer than the last time when we did the Choshu book. Markus has already started the translation so please let me know if you would like to participate. Thanks for your help in this project.

RIP, a very knowledgeable collector who will be missed by many.

Works great except they messed up their business about 6 months ago by making a change that excluded anything in certain categories because they think they are prohibited items. Many items that are sword fittings are now restricted. In addition if the item goes over 200,000 yen I think they exclude it as well because of having the do the extra clearance for it to leave the country.

bumping this up to see if we have any other people who want to participate.

Sorry Steve, the book focuses on Echizen Kinai not Akao.

This is the translation for the book so you will need the original book as the photos can't be published.

We are currently working on an English translation for the Echizen Kinai Tsuba 1988 by Tsuruwaka. This will be done similarly as we did with the Choshu book and is being done by Markus Sessko. The last translation was done in super high quality and contained an incredible amount of information that has never been available in English. We expect the same thing from this translation. The Kinai group of fittings makers were prolific and there are a great many pieces in collections. If you have not seen the book before it contains an incredible amount of information on this group including kantei points on each generation as well as differences in their multiple families. Our target for this will be completed in February and cost $125. If you are interested in being part of the project send me a PM and reply here as well. For reference, here is the book on Grey's site - http://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/books/b539-echizen-kinai-tsuba-tsuruoka Thanks.

For many years at Japanese Sword Shows you would see them quite a bit. However you don't see them as much anymore. Perhaps there is a collector out there who is buying them all up. :-) As is the case with many tsuba schools you will see a varying degree of quality in these. Myochin group produced some nice examples as well as some other areas. There are many that are even signed by or mention collaboration with swordsmiths in regards to using their plate etc.

Looks like a temple bell. Very nice work there Pete.