Heya,
I'm new to the forum, so please point me in the right directions if my forum ettiquette is off. I read the FAQ and the nihonto kanji pages. I can read Japanese (almost N3 level - JLPT), but I'm very new deciphering degraded mei.
I recently acquired 2 tsuba. 1 is mumei, and I'll post about it separately. The other, pictured below, is 7.5 by 8.3 cm, mimi is 4cm, seppadai is also 4cm. it's a lovely high-relief scene with cranes and sakura or ume blossoms. It looks to be shakudo to me.
The mei seems to be 3 kanji, the middle of which is 成 "nari". I can't, for the life of me, decipher the upper and lower kanji. They are so curvy that I can't map out stroke order. What do you guys read from this me?
Also, does this look like it could be from the Jingo or Onin school?
Full disclosure, I do plan on selling this and my other piece. I'm willing to give a small donation to the site for an appraisal.
Thanks for your insight.
P.S. I recently moved back to the US from Japan, so I'm pleased to find this message board where I can keep up my interested in nihonto.