Spartancrest

You beat me to it Brian, I was going to say the same thing. But why not? If you had a larger guard laying about why not modify to fit. [Wonder what the small hole was for?] The first Ho-ho one is a rather too common 'Mino' ? type, I have seen perhaps twenty just like it. Even Mauro's Rabbit in the waves is a very common design, and why not, it is a great design and much coveted.

There is a guard in the V&A with Sennin riding the Carp.

Sorry Adam fixed now. It was impossible for me to see the problem. Since found another - not perfect match but very close. The Guard is from the D.Z. Norton collection, in this case the oni is hidden up a tree rather than running away from the reflection in the stream. My theory is it may be a daisho pair to the original design?

Adam I found another guard represented in that design book. Found in the Detroit Museum of Art. ID. number 70.705 The real guard has a seppa-dai but all the other design elements are there, I could not find the ura side of the real guard. - So we know the designs were in fact made, others may turn up. [sorry I am getting off the main subject of the post but all these cross links are fascinating.]

There is an image in "Japan AND ITS ART by MARCUS B. HUISH (October 1912)." I have it in my "Early Articles for Tsuba Study 1880 -1923" book page 238 . You will notice the over large Pectoral fins on this example. The smaller image has already been shown in George's post.

Yes Adam a great reference. I have found one image from the same volume that matches the design of a guard found in the National Gallery of Victoria [Australia] The guard though is unsigned. I am seriously thinking of doing a copy of the volume for my own reference, it is all in the public domain so there would be no copyright problems. I do wonder if the designs are for "new" pieces or is the book a collection of "past" pieces? Some pictures look like rubbings of existing work.

Robert. It is a balance toy, the balls at the extremities are weighted so the centre of gravity is below the pivot point. I would guess it could still spin on the point if there were no obstructions. They are not unique to Japan of course. The tsuba design would not have worked if the weights were extended fully.

I found two hand drawn images of Ruyi menuki in the Metropolitan Museums collection from "Album of Designs for Metal Carving (Chōsen Gafu)" by Ranzan Tsuneyuki [mid 19th century]

Mothers club meeting - my baby is not ugly but yours is! [sorry for the sexist bit] Please just get over it, opinions should always be welcome - you don't need to agree however. [getting shot down in flames makes me take a closer look the next time I comment, which is not a bad thing.]

Apologies, it is the lighting - has the box been used for another set of menuki? I have seen many menuki pairs that are not the same size. Even those depicting the same object.

I have to make a coment on the voracity of museum descriptions and how we should not blindly follow their interpretations. The McLean Museum and Art Gallery - Interclyde council [Scotland], has a rather unusual tsuba in its collection. "The tsuba is in the form of a rack holding a Japanese robe and hat, in gilded relief. There is gilding on both faces. Inscription one face. Signed: Shigeyoshi Umetada." [1981.134] The Powerhouse/Museum of Applied Arts [Australia] has this as the ura side of a guard. The description has this "The reverse of the tsuba has a relief of a shirt on a hanging implement." [A5308-101] The final image will give you a clue as to what both guards are in fact representing. A childs balance toy. What is more damning of the description by the Powerhouse museum, is the fact that two toys are represented on the omote side.

Yas, you have the English translation off again, Google translate [not that it is accurate] Hiroyoshi Tsu (1721-1762) A sword metalworker in the middle of the Edo period. Born in Kyoho (kiyou-ho) 6 years. Awa Tokushima (Awa Tokushima) Clan's master of Nomura Masamichi (Nomura Masamichi). He is said to be the best craftsman in the Nomura school. He decorated with flowers and birds, rims of botanical drawings, petite, scales, etc. Horeki (hou-reki) died in June 2012. 42 years old. Born in Edo. Known as Hachizaemon. Research book: Shigeru Kajimura, "Tsuhirogo", 1966, self-published

I notice there is a shadow in the fabric under the gold flower that doesn't match the present menuki and the colour of the gold looks different to that on the Ruyi so my guess is they are a mismatch pair. Steve I think the description by aoijapan is accurate but 'brush' is certainly not right and a hossu is more of a whisk. The translation I see as Nyo /Nyoi should read as Ruyi [ Probably a Google Translate mistake] Brian I am amazed how good the work on that guard is, from the hairs in his beard to the wrinkles on his face. It is a pity the " Lady/goddess? " face is a little rubbed or oxidized on the ura. Does anyone think the design is reminiscent of an Egyptian Pharaoh?

Thank you very much for that information Steve. One mystery solved. They do make some excellent castings, in fact at times too good!

I have been studing these cast reproductions for some time and untill now had no clue as to who made them. This one comes with the original [I hope!] box, any help in what the box says would be appreciated.

Yes a Ruyi, a septre used by Chinese scholars, I have seen a few on Japanese action sites, they appear on tsuba rarely as well. The tsuba pictured is found in the Metropolitan Museum number 29.100.989

I see a few cast pieces and modern reproductions being posted, Daruma in his cave comes in lots of fake patina colours. As does the 'Tosa Miochin'

Just an update on these Serpentine/Rain Dragon designs, I have found evidence of at least one rather obvious Iron casting of the design - there is no evident Izarae [cleaning a casting] Even for a casting there should have been some sort of 'quality control' - The asking price is way off the scale. I will leave it up to the viewer to find the faults - many.

I think the lack of inlay gives it a tooled leather look that is not unattractive. The motifs are very well done with no real damage - do we even know if there was extra inlay?

I have a guard [fairly ordinary] with the same cloud formation - this time over Fuji. The papered example shown, has two - possible three points of contact within the 'cloud', whilst the 'thunderstorm' example has only one. My Fuji example has three points of contact as does the more elaborately decorated example. I don't have any information of attribution on my examples. I would suspect there is a lot of 'cross-over' from school to school. I find the inlay work on the kaku-maru sukashi a bit distracting and unnecessary.

Just a picture save before it is lost, of the poor casting from post [ 6/08/2020 ] The seller was wanting 30,000 yen. You will notice there is no oni and the area otherwise undecorated in all the other examples has had a pine tree put in, Shoki has lost his applied face entirely.

Thank you so much Colin, I found your post [seems a bit more difficult since the changes] I do recall there was another example that had a round hole cut in it as well but I can't track that down as yet. As a bit of fun you could always set a small diamond in your Dragon - it would look like he was crying? 😂 Real Samurai bling! I must say I love the patina on your guard.

Yuk! Keep that parasitic fungus away from me!🤮

Yes the size of the eyes give it away - Cicada just before it transforms to the winged stage. They can drive you mad with the noise here, in an Australian Summer! We have Mole Crickets here as well. There are dozens of species of Cicada, perhaps their life cycle is what the design is alluding to?

Greg I have three iron daisho on record, iron examples tend to be in the minority, of the 34 I have, only 12 are in iron and of these, six make up the three daisho. One surprising thing is some of the smaller guards (sho) are not signed, so they may have been cobbled together. Particularly the two from "The Japanese Sword & its Fittings", Cooper Union Museum N.Y. 1966. The design does not match. [these pictured are both signed by the same artist]