Spartancrest

The colour of the alloys is pretty 'off' as well. The rounded top end of the nakago-ana is not a good sign either.

Habaki with gold lettering. https://www.jauce.com/auction/h1133117920

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.

It looks like some of the items of the seven lucky Gods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takarabune Numbers 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 During the first three days of the New Year the Seven Lucky Gods are said to pilot through the heavens and into human ports a mythical ship called the Takarabune, or "Treasure Ship". The gods carry with them takaramono (宝物), or treasure things, including the hat of invisibility (隠れ笠, kakuregasa), # 1 rolls of brocade (織物, orimono), the inexhaustible purse (金袋 kanebukuro), the secret keys to the treasure shed of the gods (鍵 kagi), # 2 the scrolls of books of wisdom and life (巻き物 makimono), the magic mallet (小槌 kozuchi), # 3 the lucky raincoat (隠れ蓑, kakuremino), # 4 the robe of fairy feathers (羽衣, hagoromo), and the bag of fortune (布袋 nunobukuro). Another list below with slightly different items, my best guess is number 5 and number 8 below. 1. a key to the gods' own storehouse 2. a hat that makes the wearer invisible 3. a purse that never runs out of coins 4. the hammer of Daikoku that brings forth a shower of gold coins 5. a straw raincoat that protects the wearer from evil spirits or kami 6. precious jewels 7. sacks and boxes of gold coins 8. rolls of brocade cloth 9. copper coins.

Also many women wore high wigs - held in place by pins. One I bought for my wife https://www.jauce.com/auction/m1079289032 she has a small collection of metal Kanzashi [so I don't make any sudden moves!] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanzashi#:~:text=Kanzashi came into wider use,be used as defensive weapons. Kanzashi came into wider use during the Edo period, when hairstyles became larger and more complicated, using a larger number of ornaments. Artisans began to produce more finely crafted products, including some hair ornaments that could be used as defensive weapons. https://haircombdiva...i-as-deadly-weapons/ "A woman could also use her kanzashi as a deadly weapon. Female ninja, or kunoichi, practiced ninjutsu, the martial art of guerrilla warfare. They used their kanzashi to rake the eyes of their victims while escaping. Or, they dipped them in poison to assassinate people. Fending off male attackers was another convenient function." A fun one here - tanegashima something to really blow your mind! https://www.japantre...-hairpin-p-3476.html

Oh god she is back!

They do need some photo enhancement at times I find their images [and nearly all museums for that matter] too dark. I just compiled a fifth volume of the Ashmolean Museum's collection of tsuba - this hopefully last one, comprises those tsuba not part of the A.H. Church collection and runs to 400 pages. I'd rather read a book than look at a screen but hey that is just me. [Not for commercial release but handy for my own reference and thick enough to use as a doorstop ]

And my wife tells me we are all out of AI [whatever that means?] and can I bring some back from the shop.

I thought there might have been more response to this thread - perhaps Easter and everyone was away? Anyway I will add these two that I have - but I am unsure if they are copper or yamagane, as I say patina can hide what is underneath. PS I do like your katakiri-bori dragon with the fukurin.

To be honest I find it very difficult to tell a copper guard from other kinko metals that are patinated. Some I have are almost black while others are brassy, what defines copper with impurities from one that has had other metals added deliberately? Is there a cut off point between the different alloys and more important are the guidelines set in stone or somewhat 'fluid'? Brian is that a Darren Harvey tsuba stand you have your guard displayed on? - Nice!