Spartancrest

I'll stick with the dessert - Waffles anyone? https://www.jauce.com/auction/c1109047164

https://www.jauce.com/auction/n1109718497 or https://buyee.jp/ite.../auction/n1109718497 Mitsumasa Hagisumi, Choshu This makes three of this design - are all of them utsushi? How do we know which if any are the "original" piece? [it is a difficult question to answer most of the time I think]

I would have said Kaneie style also but too ornate and no signature - probably Shoami or Aizu-Shoami - They were known to do some Kaneie lookalikes. JMO There is an old post with a frog - it has to my mind a similar "feel" to it - not sure why - [feel free to ignore my unsubstantiated "feeling"] There is one on ebay now - nowhere near as good as your guard - https://www.ebay.com/itm/275898978473 The workmanship is pretty ordinary.

Wow could he afford so much gold? [Are you sure it isn't a crumb left over from a biscuit? ] Hey I thought the moon was supposed to be silver! Whatever happened to the good old days when the moon was made of cheese - [never been a fan of green cheese, let alone grey cheese!]

I bought this little tanto two months ago - it only arrived today - gave it a quick clean and discovered under the dirt and rust a hidden little silver Moon breaking through the clouds. It was just another blob on the auction images, though the focus is a lot better than my cheap camera can manage! This tanto guard of mine is 55 mm in height and I estimate the moon is a little over 2 mm across. Phil Fellman has posted two larger guards back on the 16th of September, which look very small as well. So a question - what is the smallest moon we have seen on a tsuba?

A little off topic but there are a few "Tethered Hawk" Mino-Goto tsuba getting about [Not great quality] Perhaps the kozuka was meant to pair up with fittings like these?

A tsuba designed by Gene Simmons - he does love to play with his Axe!

Well as we should know by now it is a rare thing to find a design that hasn't got a copy somewhere! [I think the detail of the bird's beak is better on Jeremy's]- The description "Illustration of a birdcage and a nightingale, Mumei (perhaps by Shoami)" https://www.jauce.com/auction/j1108926751 or https://buyee.jp/ite.../auction/j1108926751

This is not a tsuba - but where better to post it? The smallest water dropper "kettle" [Suiteki] you are likely to find. Made from a fuchi, 35mm without the spout.

I noticed a new auction piece reminded me of something I saw in an old German book article. The article was written in 1903. The images are so close but there are differences - I can't help wondering what happened to the German collectors piece? [I have no doubt the auction will sell for more than my meagre funds will stretch to, so happy to post it for those interested with deeper pockets ] https://www.jauce.com/auction/u1108703792 or https://buyee.jp/ite.../auction/u1108703792

Hi David, great looking guard. Have you considered that the opposite side might represent "Ken" blades- I could be totally off but I have seen a few with blades radiating, a little like those arrow fletching ones that are more common. Nice tsuba stand as well, fits perfectly. - https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/45393-tsuba-stand-new-version/#comment-470682

The only passage for "Kikyoya" tsuba I have found, comes from the THE JOURNAL-TO-KEN SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN JANUARY 1983 https://to-ken.uk/onewebmedia/The Journal - January 1983.pdf See pages 25 - 26 at the bottom of the PDF. [There is a kind of very late Kyo-Sukashi type tsuba called "Kikyoya tsuba". These have some similarities with Daigoro but are considered to be degenerate and of quite inferior quality.] They show a series of "Daigoro" tsuba. PS. Your English is far better than my French.

Yes - Poppies! If I say they are rare - [someone will come back with a rebuttal and we will see more images! ] The theme can be found on tsuba as well - but not very often. https://www.worthpoi...suba-poppy-469663723 The little tanto guard is mine, it has an undulating surface giving it a curled petal look in profile.

I think your first instinct is correct, the straightness of the plant stems would seem to depict the segmented stems of bamboo. I see what you mean though the leaves are a little wider than normally depicted. https://www.Japanese...anori-sukashi-tsuba/ This one has similar wider leaves, though the stem size is on a different scale to yours. Lots of bamboo species I suppose. Snow on another plant, I wonder if the height of the snow reflects a particularly cold Winter? Some designs have flatter snow piled on leaves? Get the "Luminol" out and test for blood stains!

Please be careful of this pattern, it is perhaps the most common copied design [not the one you have pictured which looks excellent] You can see how close the design is to the one below [junk!] and these are known to have "gold" highlights. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/295825508207 , https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/314847022610 and https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/314840573011 Mito dragon here https://nihonto.com....hitaka-dragon-tsuba/ https://www.zacke.at...agon/?lot=11553&sd=1 https://tosogu.cz/?p=751 Could you show the other fittings so we might find a better match?

I truly don't know if this should go in this thread or "Something to make you smile" https://www.jauce.com/auction/c1108034443 or https://buyee.jp/ite.../auction/c1108034443 ¥ 40,000 - By my calculations that has four zeros too many in the price!

Nice Habaki but I can get it cheaper [half the price] on Jauce https://www.jauce.com/auction/p1107999384 and an extra one! [something tells me these are not old]

Welcome Kevin. Looks good to me, hard to be sure of the date - mid to late Edo? It has been mounted several times by the look. Value is a bit subjective but worth a few hundred at least? [someone else might have a better idea than me.] One question, is the light line on the image just lighting or is it a ridge? Others that are close in design are here - https://www.aoijapan...tsuba-gingko-leaves/ https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/32101-ginko-shoami-tsuba/ https://www.proantic...r-ginkgo-leaves.html I like your design more than the others. Ginkgo leaves and I think the curled side sections are either stylized "fern fronds" or more likely drawer handles such as are found on Tansu chests. An Owari drawer handle design here http://www.nihonto.us/OWARI SUKASHI LD+.htm

Jauce is expensive with their fees, I just find it easier to navigate their searches of what they are selling. If you take the code numbers from the last backslash [ / ] and insert them into Yahoo or Buyee auctions, you will come up with the same item and bid on whichever platform you find suits you best. https://buyee.jp/ite.../auction/g1107835756 It is the last bit of the link g1107835756 which is the specific item, probably more auction sites will accept the code but I don't know them.

Bruno, Lovely piece! My only puppy tsuba - stains and all. At least he looks happy playing in the garden.

Have you seen this one? Bones in the stream under a crescent moon. https://www.jauce.com/auction/g1107835756 It is what is on the omote side that is spooky - Bats from Bruno and now Skulls - we must be getting close to Halloween time! And talking of Halloween, the moon will have a waxing crescent on October 31 not unlike this tsuba!

It was easy to find - I collected the references into two books, I only have to remember which article and which volume. Hey guys organize your knowledge into book form it is pretty easy these days and once you get a print version you can forget about loosing your computer data - it happens believe me! [Besides I can't stand reading eBooks in bed! ] https://au.blurb.com...y-1880-1923-enlarged https://au.blurb.com...cles-for-tsuba-study

Drinking brings out the best work in some people - Rudyard Kipling thought so. From Sea to Sea : Letters of Travel by Rudyard Kipling Publication date 1900 Talk to every one you meet, if they show the least disposition to talk to you, and you will gather, as I have done, a host of stories that will be of use to you hereafter. Unfortunately, they are not all fit for publication. When I tore myself away from the distractions of the outer world, and was just sitting down to write seriously on the Future of Japan, there entered a fascinating man, with heaps of money, who had collected Indian and Japanese curios all his life, and was now come to this country to get some old books which his collection lacked. Can you imagine a more pleasant life than his wanderings over the earth, with untold special knowledge to back each signature of his cheque-book? In five minutes he had carried me far away from the clattering, fidgety folk around, to a quiet world where men meditated for three weeks over a bronze, and scoured all Japan for a sword-guard designed by a great artist and — were horribly cheated in the end. 'Who is the best artist in Japan now ' I asked. 'He died in Tokio, last Friday, poor fellow, and there is no one to take his place. His name was K.., and as a general rule he could never be persuaded to work unless he was drunk. He did his best pictures when he was drunk.' 'Ému. Artists are never drunk.' 'Quite right. I'll show you a sword-guard that he designed. All the best artists out here do a lot of designing. K... used to fritter away his time on designs for old friends. Had he stuck to pictures he could have made twice as much. But he never turned out pot-boilers. When you go to Tokio, make it your business to get two little books of his called Drunken Sketches — pictures that he did when he was — ému. There is enough dash and go in them to fill half a dozen studios. An English artist studied under him for some time. But K...'s touch was not communicable, though he might have taught his pupil something about technique. Have you ever come across one of K...'s crows ? You could tell it anywhere. He could put all the wicked thoughts that ever came into the mind of a crow — and a crow is first cousin to the Devil — on a piece of paper six inches square, with a brush of Indian ink and two turns of his wrist. Look at the sword-guard I spoke of. How is that for feeling ?' On a circular piece of iron four inches in diameter and pierced by the pole for the tang of the blade, poor K..., who died last Friday, had sketched the figure of a coolie trying to fold up a cloth which was bellying to a merry breeze — not a cold wind, but a sportive summer gust. The coolie was enjoying the performance, and so was the cloth. It would all be folded up in another minute and the coolie would go on his way with a grin. This thing had K... conceived, and the faithful workman executed, with the lightest touches of the graver, to the end that it might lie in a collector's cabinet in London. 'Wah ! wah !' I said, and returned it reverently. 'It would kill a man who could do that to live after his touch had gone. Well for him he died — but I wish I had seen him.' [The mysterious 'K.' is Kyosai, given that "Drunken Sketches", is by Kyosai Suiga and his English student, Josiah Condor.] The spellings are original to the time.

Hi Christian, I think you are correct it would not be a problem for someone to make the nakago-ana identical but when you see a dozen or more, then you start to question how they were made. There is a long tradition of making Utsushi - this is not a direct copy but sort of getting the "feeling" of an existing pattern, a homage to a great work. A way of putting a little 'extra' touch of the personality of the new maker into an established design. A copy is not putting anything into a work it is a slavish duplication. [IMO]

Just be a little cautious of these iron ones, many are cast, it is a very popular design. Regardless of the construction method I rather like them. https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1919.248 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364425608174 This is an obviously poor casting of the same design, you will notice the notches top and bottom of the nakago-ana are identical to the one above - well there is a reason for that! Several museums have this exact design [as the Cleveland link shows] - there is a reason for that as well!