Spartancrest

I totally agree, the real aim is to get better at spotting the better options and becoming more discerning. The hard bit is stopping the addiction of these things once it takes hold - - and it does, I went from just having six for twenty years to now over three hundred! As you say help is always available from the forum members, if in doubt just ask. [ Question - How do I stop! ]

https://www.jauce.com/auction/s1120376826

Alibaba have a huge range of cheap boxes [some have minimum orders 50 > 200 ] I can't find any with the draw string element but they obviously look very similar and I am sure they come out of the same factories. I do wish the ones I had bought were available in more "masculine" colours - hey, but that is politically incorrect thinking these days

Genuine - super good nanako [dot finish] with what looks like a catalogue number written on the seppa-dai. Found it - mokko form, silvered metal nanako, inlaid with shakudo and gilt, showing birds and rockery, signed 守一壽. From this auction https://hindmanaucti...Japanese-metal-tsuba your images are far better than the auction house.

Is it still there? What price was he charging? Looks like this one https://www.jauce.com/auction/u1120385514 - still not as nice as the first post.

For anyone just starting out my motto would be "Low and Learn" - I have to agree with Dan. Start off by not spending big money on something that as a beginner, you really don't know much about. Personally I don't know anyone who is born knowing a "good" tsuba from a "bad" one, it is something you need to learn. Something else to consider is that there are many sellers who also don't know what they are selling - this is a double edged sword [not nihonto obviously ] You can get real bargains at times simply because the person selling does not know what he has. Equally you can find sellers who have an inflated view of what something is worth. What we really need is to learn what something is worth not what it costs - I can show hundreds of tsuba valued by the sellers at hundreds or thousands of dollars but those same pieces may not have the value of the metal they are made from. So buying a $600 tsuba does not assure you it is worth that. Worth is also something of a personal viewpoint, it is not what someone else says it is, as much as what you 'feel'.

Thanks Dan for showing the other kamons linked to the silk spools - I noticed one eight point "star" with clipped points that matches a tanto guard I have. It may well have started life with a rim as the images show but I can at least think it still may represent that kamon now.

Are you sure it isn't spelled "Twerp" family? I believe that star was made by our old backyard blacksmith dj2hmyuc https://www.jauce.co...j2hmyuc?search=tsuba Fresh off the forge!

I concur, it is not a casting I have ever seen before. The real markers for me is the way the nakago-ana is cut and the rust damage where the tail meets the rim - that 'dimple' in his rear. It also has that look of "steel wool" being used to clean it? If you look carefully there is a groove at the bottom of the hitsu - identical spot - identical "cleaned" tsuba IMHO

Did the guard come from Ibaraki Prefecture by any chance? This seller on Jauce is well known for "reproductions" https://www.jauce.co...j2hmyuc?search=tsuba Though in this case the quality of yours looks better.

You can find the 'Kitsune' guard in the V&A on a mounted sword - I don't think they show the guard separately https://collections..../sword-scabbard-and/ "The sword's hand guard, the tsuba, is decorated with a design of a magic fox at moonlight using dark shibuichi, an alloy of copper and silver normally patinated to give a wide variety of colours." The guard might be shown somewhere amongst the 3,389 tsuba and fittings here https://collections....&page=1&page_size=50 My eyes were burning after the first thousand!

From the V&A collection

Tony does it have waves on the omote? A similar guard from the D.Z. Norton collection. This particular guard is something of a mystery as it is listed as being 'gifted' to the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1920 - but it fails to turn up in searches of that Museums collection now - where did it go?

Yes, but I took a pill and it seems to have settled -

Well I think these 12,14,16 etc. petal kiku are just not trying hard enough - one of mine has 32 petals so is that twice as good? Waka size 74 x 68 x 4 mm 100g - Impossible to tell its age but it has a very old feel to it. [The image is lightened, it is much darker in real life] The imperial Chrysanthemum is misleading as it shows 16 petals prominently but there are another 16 hidden at the back with just the tips showing. https://aminoapps.co...Mpoo0kKz7aL0NoLEmjDe

An image taken from L. Gonse, L'art Japonais, Paris I883 You can see the carver is wearing glasses while the sheet metal worker doesn't need them.

https://ukiyo-e.org/...-00043402-111129-F12 Japanese Parrot Art Parrots and other exotic birds were a favorite subject of shin hanga print designers. In many of the prints pictured, the birds are delicately perched atop a beautiful flowering branch. These compositions, more romantic than realistic, are typical of shin hanga kacho-e. A few prints, such as Kurumazaka by Hiroshi Yoshida, depict the birds in more natural poses. Ohara Koson (1877-1945) Cockatoo and Pomegranate, 1927 Ohara Koson (1877-1945)Cockatoo and Pomegranate Ohara Koson (1877-1945) A Pair of Macaws Ohara Koson (1877-1945) Cockatoo on Bar, 1927 Ohara Koson (1877-1945) Two White Cockatoos on a Red Bar Ohara Koson (1877-1945) Parrot on Flowering Plum Utagawa Toyokuni (1769 - 1825) Shoun Yamamoto (1870-1965) The View of the Four Seasons Kiyokata Kaburagi (1878-1973) Isoda Koryusai (1735-1790) Toraji Ishikawa (1875-1964) Blue Cockatoo, 1934 Shiro Kasamatsu (1898-1991) Cage Birds, 1957 Ito Sozan (1884-?) Parrot on Pomegranate, 1925 Ito Sozan (1884-?) Two Macaws in Tree, 1925 Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) Kibatan Parrot, 1926 Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) Obatan Parrot, 1926 Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) Kurumazaka, 1926 Tsuruoka Kakunen (1892-1977) Parrot on Flowering Branch, 1940 Hodo Nishimura (active 1930s) Parrot on Magnolia, 1937 Hodo Nishimura (active 1930s) Cockatoo on Branch, 1938 Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) Parrot on a Flowering Crabapple Branch, late 1830s https://www.panteek....pages/kns164-272.htm I can't say who designed and made the tsuba [magnificent] but the subject is not native to Japan.

Sir Elton John: ‘I collect for the beauty, not the value. I’m in awe of these things’ https://www.theguard...e-modern-radical-eye How is that for a quote! - taken completely out of context, but a nice sentiment to aspire to. On the other part of the serious discussion, would the said Samurai not replace the entire koshirae? A beautiful lacquer saya is bound to get damaged and would the tsuka for "town & court" be ideal for battle? Or could the samurai have a separate "battle sword" already mounted and ready to go? I have no idea how they managed to work it out, I guess it would depend on how much notification time they had?

Don't go breaking my heart - nothing wrong with "Kiki"

I think so it is featured in this thread .

Bruno, not much of a meal with only a three legged frog.

A signed Jakushi which is very similar to Saga Kaneie work. https://www.facebook...&type=3&locale=en_GB https://bilbaomuseoa...f-ingles-2-55-mb.pdf http://mizusumashi.com/post-11668/ "Ironwork four-way folded large tsuba, Kaneie, stolen item." Any one seen this stolen guard? One of mine I picked up for about half the asking price several years after it appeared in a catalogue. A lot of these are described as being by Kaneie but I seriously doubt that Nobuie, Jakushi and Kaneie three BIG names all did this style and decorated them so similarly - they were far too busy doing twenty different styles all ascribed to them! This one still listed on ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/404702540914 https://www.jauce.com/auction/e1096786988 An older auction that had a heap of possible makers lined up! Owari/Kanayama/Yagyu/Ono/Akasaka

Check this link out https://note.com/kat...5c-8877-fa9c150d001d English translation is available.

I put a "flippant" snipe bid on a set of five Japanese books with the full expectation that I would easily be out bid - woke this morning to find I had won. Now my bid was for the 'princely' sum of 550 yen, however, what I ended paying was 220 yen, So what did the other bidders [3] see that caused them not to pay more than a rather miserable $1.55 USD ! Have I done my money? https://page.auction.../auction/k1118545073 or https://www.jauce.com/auction/k1118545073

Me either! Post Christmas is only as long as the bargains last - then you 'ante-up'! [ante up (something) US informal. : To give money, often unwillingly ] https://dictionary.c...nary/english/ante-up