Spartancrest

I don't think the tsuba was inverted it just shows signs of having been modified to fit a larger sword.

Overcleaned for sure but the structure and detail remains in good condition. Better to need patina and be intact than to be corroded. Size wise they could [at a stretch] make a daisho as the themes, though different, still have elements the same. Stylised "lightning" [sometimes seen by some as a type of pine bark pattern] and Myoga [Japanese Ginger]. The smaller one with the addition of "fundo" [weight measures] and small birds. I agree with Dan - a better starting point to a collection than I had! An example in the Varshavsky collection has the pattern as "Ginger and double Diamonds" - like most 'abstract' designs the interpretation is up to the viewer. https://varshavskyco...collection/tsu-0308/

Another from the Varshavsky site = He has doubled up with the guard from "Kamakura-bori tsuba with design of a dragon. Muromachi period, c. 1450." and the same guard sold later from the "Professor A. Z. Freeman and the Phyllis Sharpe Memorial collections №36, pp. 18-19." and is once again the second guard as posted by Mauro above https://varshavskyco...ist&product_count=54

We were ten years younger and a lot less attentive! - [you know - just like the Millennials, Gen X and Gen Y are now! ]

The tagane-ato on your piece are correct. But be aware that even these finer details are often copied even in rather crude fakes. Often the design of the chisel, making the mark, can be a form of signature and can be attributed back to a particular smith or school. It doesn't hurt that a chisel punch mark can also look nice and more interesting compared to a simple dent. PS. I like the shape of your guard very much. https://www.yesterye...?variant=19139447749 This is an absolute fake guard and not worth 1% of the asking price on this link! https://www.bonhams....hearly-20th-century/ And large auction houses can still get it wrong with hyper-overvalued prices!

The quote from Japaneseswordbooksandtsuba "The atypical shape of the ryo-hitsu also indicates an earlier piece" It shows the elongated "bean" shape hitsu that were indeed found on early guards, many hitsu were also rectangular in shape and like the one you are referring to, were cut in after the guard was first made, at a much later date. Once again this tells us the hitsu is "old" but does not tell us just how much older the guard is. So I don't see the hitsu shape actually tells us how old the guard is [at least not when it is cut in later] JMO

Hi Brian, check this older thread - it deals mainly with namban tsuba but shows the altered nakago-ana to fit different swords - please also note many namban guards were designed and crafted with the square/rectangular hole and not altered later. There are also a slew of guards where the nakago-ana was cut in an oval or round shape for Yari and other polearms. It seems logical to me that the altered nakago-ana were done relatively more recently on an existing older guard but just having the alteration tells you nothing about the age of the guard itself. A very old guard for certain but when was the nakago-ana recut? Not when it was made or the sukashi would not have been positioned where it is. An extreme example from the Ashmolean museum EA1978.250 - I suspect this was altered to form a Maedate for a helmet

Menuki on a samegawa tsuka https://www.jauce.com/auction/w1132735386 or https://buyee.jp/ite.../auction/w1132735386

Thank goodness for the drool emoji!

An expensive but nice little piece on ebay. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/285810159645

Several years back I showed a tsuba that was dismissed as not being done by a master craftsman as "No smith would make a seppa-dai so obviously lopsided". However the human eye is not infallible and when I tried simple geometry the discrepancy is minute and most of the off-center look is from the kogai hitsu-ana. Some designs look better with a free hand approach and not rigid symmetry. We should also judge design and symmetry from how the piece would look mounted, that after all is the purpose and intent. JMO

1st All Japan Kendo Tournament Buckle Commemorative Participation in 1953

An updated version is available in the downloads section with colour images and museum accession numbers that I did back in October 2023.

This back yard smith with his production line of oily looking strange surfaced 'look a likes' https://www.jauce.com/user/dj2hmyuc some over on ebay as well https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/386180771020 being sold now by other dealers.