Spartancrest

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5438265

I can't add anything else to the Cleveland Museum one - that museum is pretty poor on information. Another in the N.S.W. Art Gallery collection with a heavier rim - no real information on that site either. https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/439.1996/ I rather like the free flowing look of Luca's example very similar to the Cleveland. The other examples are rather rigid in their repeated pattern. You might have to add Chôshû to your list of possibilities this rather attractive one from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston https://collections.mfa.org/objects/11367/tsuba-with-design-of-cherryblossom-and-net-pattern

Hey just because I find the image don't think I own it - my tastes are strange but not that strange.

Wow Stephen, I even like the way the blade on that plane was made - supper unusual.

Bruno - Me too! That other one with 'crunched' up face is up for auction https://buyee.jp/mercari/item/m48842083660 not a great piece and they are asking a fortune [IMO]

Sorry Soren, I can't help with the school or maker but I would like to show a guard related to the second image you posted.

Hi Mark, that lovely pot was Posted January 9 on this thread - but worth repeating. A little expensive but I am surprised it has not sold yet.

Ford I was thinking "last chicken in the shop" for that one actually. Made by the famous artist 盲目のスミス

What do we make of this tsuba design? Described as a "mouse" - I don't think so.

Hypnotic?

Big bones or butterfly wings?

I found this recently [can't remember where exactly] It is talking about Musashi tsuba but I thought the idea of the "Five Rings" might tie in with this thread. Though from the diagram why is ring one and ring five not the same ring?

Truth in Advertising - wouldn't that be a novelty! I see it all the time, showing an image from a book that is supposed to show the same piece but isn't. One recently had the same sukashi mon but inverted - who is going to notice the picture is upside down? . . . nearly everyone if they use their eyes.

This should cheer people up! https://www.jauce.com/auction/l1081091170

Thanks Brian - it was a pretty bad image, It still troubles me that someone thinks dressing in a similar way is "fashionable."

Grev. There must be a "LINK" there somewhere !

When did Small pox become a fashion statement! No wonder people were put off by the bloody silly look of Doja Cat [bloody silly name as well!] This kid didn't have to pay thousands of dollars for a dress up. Perhaps the fashionista got confused with fashion-blister?

Single menuki from a group auction - https://www.jauce.com/auction/g1080993901 Approx. 28mm long

Jeremy - reminds me of "George" from EVIL

They sure are - and not very good ones either.

Now the Kappa can be very scary - [keep your sphincters well and truly tight!] Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 'The heavy basket (Omoi tsuzura)' from the series 'New forms of thirty-six ghosts (Shingata sanjūrokkaisen)' (1892) THE WATER-DWELLING, ORGAN-STEALING KAPPA Oh look, here's the Look Over Monk — the one with the third eye. Now draw your gaze to the green, frog-like creature that appears to be lurking in a basket. That's a kappa. Kawakami says, the kappa appear in different forms and with different names like kawataro. If you bank in Japan, you may recognise the cheeky fella as the mascot of one of the country's leading banks. But don't be deceived, these water-dwelling yōkai have a sadistic story. It's said they reach inside human bodies through the rectum to snatch at your organs.

Jeremy I recognise one of those tsuba images - Japanese HUMOR. by C. NETTO & G. WAGENER. Published 1901 "Even the Kappa dances with the 'Nirame kura' in its swamp with an old, half-rotten tree trunk, for which a plant leaf has replaced the sticking out tongue." (Fig. 184) [ This book deals specifically with Japanese humor, some of the illustrations shown are humorous themes for designs used on tsuba.] That fake tsuba is totally gross - and in a German "Gross" [Big] way!

Well - - - you might have gotten a much cheaper version earlier on. No doubt in my mind these are modern - sorry about that

It was easier to move it than having to search for it. - https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/42996-nmb-cat-corner/page/2/ Posted January 5 Present-day Osafuné artisan. (Offered as one of the prizes at the New Year’s party.)

Any musicians out there?