Bugyotsuji

相模国住人久義 Have you considered? (Totally off the wall but simply looking at those strokes…)

Possibly something missing from there?

Are we seeing Rusu-moyo in Dan’s tsuba above, the cave signifying Daruma?

Is there no possibility that it is gimei, with one deliberately misleading kanji?

Sounds great Rob. Can you tell us any more…?

珎州 (住) To me this looks like (living in) Chin-Shu, wherever that is.

There are various facets to Netsuke, and everyone’s approach is different. Also we must remember that a genius is a genius, in every age, even in our present day.

長船 Osafuné 郷 normally read as Gō Heavy? One kilogram or more? Be careful though as there are many Sukenaga fakes, making for a wide disparity in values. The real Sukenaga worked around 1830-1850 ish

Just been reading this thread today, late to the party. There is plenty to learn and enjoy in this set, as Malcolm says, and you could even do some gentle cleaning yourself to make it more presentable. Ask for cleaning tips first! Stabilizing the cracking and huge lacquer flakes will take some thought. So much is lost on the kote that reducing them to bare iron could be a consideration. The kabuto looks nice underneath, and the overall shapes of the bowl and the shikoro look fine. The dealer probably knew little about it, as the sune-ate were upside-down. I'd look closely at the ho-ate though, as that could be (painted) fibreglass showing under the chin(?). I would mend or even change the maedate too as the destruction of the horn tips draws the eye and is ugly to look at. I feel that this armour will be happy that someone is giving it a home, and in return it should give you the new owner hours of pleasure. No need to listen to any negativity. Just save what you can of history, and eventually pass it on, hopefully in slightly better condition.

Thanks Steve. Tsubame had me puzzled!

Azalea and pheasants? The second one seems to read Quail in Chrysanthemums. Kiku Uzura Some kind of red-throated birds in Wisteria flowers.(?) Just off the top of my head in order to get the ball rolling!

Kmad, looks like one sticker over another…(?) Old Japanese price tag???

氏春　Ujiharu

Yes, probably this is the habaki on the Kanemitsu.

The remains of three price stickers I see! The dark dyed signature seal looks as if it was added later, following along some of the ivory cracks. For this reason my gut feeling is that any reading will not help us at all. Ready to be proved wrong of course! Good luck with your project. It’ll be interesting to see what others say.