Spartancrest

You might have to strain your eyes a little but there is a weasel on the lower left near the gold goat.

I just found this link to the archive of the "The Peabody Museum collection of Japanese sword guards" - https://archive.org/details/peabodymuseumcol00peab_0/page/n51/mode/2up The full book and images are there, Perhaps this link could find its way to the downloads section ? Nice that a museum has made this available to the general public - Cheers to the "Peabody Museum of Salem". [ I could have saved my time photographing the book pages at home! ]

Some images here of similar menuki and matching fittings from the Peabody collection. Book cover., 1975

Do you mean 'UBU' tosogu?

Try looking for "Ghost tsuba" This one is a different take on that 1916 image from before. MFA Boston

Jean that wooden snake has been around for a long time, you are correct it is upside down as far as the snake is concerned. Now if you want to be scared [of a wooden 'tsuba'] this one takes some beating! It too has been on-line now for several years. But this "Freddy Krueger" Lookalike would put me off! From the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Farnham ca. 1916 [It is one way of getting rid of unwanted tradesmen!] By the way that wooden snake is going for it's third auction that I know of - way overpriced starting point! https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/yoshiaki-a-rare-wood-tsuba-depicting-a-snake-1372-c-8bd461aab5

Porcelain tsuba - still a little 'potty'

Bottle openers - BaZZa, you got it! Even Ford posted about them back in 2008 https://www.ebay.com/itm/354484325058

This image of a 'fox', 'ferret' or 'weasel'? from 2012 https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/10475-wakizashi-by-masasada-opinions-appreciated/ looks like it was held in high esteem sitting on a pedestal.

Jeremy Who said "Great minds think alike, and so do yours and mine" Whoever did, the message has been misquoted more times than you can poke a proverb!

Howard, FERN LEAVES (Urajiro or Moromoki), are symbolic of exuberant posterity [all future generations of people.]; they are used in the New Year's Eve ceremony. [Taken from: Legend in Japanese art; a description of historical episodes, legendary characters, folk-lore myths, religious symbolism by Joly, Henri L 1908] This link should be in all collectors files, some handy information: https://archive.org/details/legendinjapanese00jolyuoft/mode/2up

Hi Jean - that means more for me! These are still out there! https://www.jauce.com/auction/x1014861456 https://www.jauce.com/auction/s1018459866 https://www.jauce.com/auction/n510108027 https://www.jauce.com/auction/v774574905 https://www.jauce.com/auction/c1003611698 https://www.jauce.com/auction/q1009022046 https://www.jauce.com/auction/g517286314 https://www.jauce.com/auction/1029302916 https://www.jauce.com/auction/e524211134 The seller has 2,343 key-rings [I should get a search fee! ] For those with similar interests, there are Key-rings with Jitte, Kabuto and Swords from the same seller - and just about everything else you can think of, but you will have to do those searches for yourselves via the links above. Happy hunting! I think I am going 'Potty" [This definition not the other one! ] Go potty: 1. To become irrational, crazy, eccentric, or addlebrained. Primarily heard in UK. [and Australia]

Jean, why stop at one? These are some of my key-rings and Kendo badges.

Piers, we would get a visit from the police if we had Bingo prizes like that - but can you save me a seat! [tsuba: is that a squirrel and grape vine?] Shedding more light on tsuba objects : And monkeying around with one

Ten tsuba on one side - this is a collection in itself! Sorry no image of the ura.

More items: Tsuba decorated leather "Bill-fold" 1970s-80s Gold lacquer inro Wood and metals netsuke "Kashigata" wooden cake molds

For some time I have been collecting "tsuba related objects" - Items that are decorated with tsuba images but not of a Warlike nature and the breadth of items is staggering. A paper could easily be written just on the place in Japanese culture that tsuba take outside the role of the sword. Some items I turned up just today: Tabletop cabinet Tsuba censer cover Koro or incense burner Amalgam of tosogu parts as decoration

Brian - especially with a little ice!

I found these two today - the first is missing all the 'sticks' of the fans, these would have been inserted separately and they have since all fallen out. The other looks like it was a modern casting.

A little too late for the New Year celebration but for the drinkers out there something to toast with! https://www.iichi.com/listing/item/1537933 tomoe https://www.iichi.com/listing/item/1017343 Axe and gourd https://www.iichi.com/listing/item/1017952 spiral leaves https://www.iichi.com/listing/item/1017285 tsuru https://www.iichi.com/listing/item/1023440 Tachi inome https://www.iichi.com/listing?q=猪目（いのめ） https://www.iichi.com/listing/item/1533284 kiku 乾杯 "Kanpai" !

So do we take from this that the melting of Chinese coinage only occurred for a short span from 1670 onwards - till the available stock was used up? Say ten years at most? If the Chinese coinage was still in circulation up to 1670 you would assume it still had monetary value and would thereby be uneconomic to melt it down before that date. If this "speculation" on my part is right, then the use of melted coinage to obtain brass was for a very short time span. Logical?

Normally there would be Peonies on the ura side, as this other example from the same book shows.

This design comes straight out of the Chosen-Gafu book. [I knew reproducing it would come in handy!]

From a book I just purchased. "Tsuba: Japanese Sword Guards from the Ota Collection" Publisher International Christian University, Hachiro Yuasa Memorial Museum, Length 43 pages " written in 1997. It only has 65 tsuba in it and most are sukashi, written in both Japanese and English but it also has some details I had never heard of - it relates that:- "SHINCHU [brass]: alloy of copper with lead and zinc. Also called "yellow copper"(odo) due to its color. Since very little zinc was mined and no technique for its production was known in Japan, old Chinese coins were melted down to provide the material to make brass." Remembering this is a book specifically on Tsuba - Melting coins to make tosogu? - Must have been 'money' in it! Where then did they get enough Chinese coinage to meet the demand? Would it not have been cheaper to import zinc from China or brass scrap rather than coins? Fact or a myth?

Yet another example of the fans design in a current auction. https://www.jauce.com/auction/l1077595652 The 'Ji' [background] is once again decorated differently to the other examples. [Heianjo style?]