Bugyotsuji

Some yeses and some noes, Alex. Not surprised you had trouble!

Quick answer for me is no thank you.

Do you have Tamayama Meishito on your list? About Us | 玉山名史刀 玉山名史刀 京都店 刀剣商／ホームメイト PS They often keep their ground-floor shutters down for security reasons.

Quick note on the words 'togi', polishing and 'heri', lessening, wearing away. When spoken together as one word, out loud, the 'h' changes to a 'b', giving us "togiberi". (Interesting discussion, apologies for interrupting the flow.)

And the simple Manjū, plus the Satsuma lady. If she is a netsuke, the strings would have been wound around her body, as with the natural curves of hyotan gourd netsuke etc., but, as with some Netsuke, she can also stand up okimono-like! So there we have a few examples. Ceramic Netsuke will often break if dropped, which may account for their relatively rarity. I tend to think of them as an interesting off-shoot of mainline Netsuke. What do you think? Satsuma peasant lady with giant beet, side view front view

Here is the ceramic or pottery chestnut. The reverse with typical Himotōshi holes forming bridge. Recent antiques fair 灰皿 haizara find And reverse

This is my old faithful, possibly Hirado ware. Quite heavy in the hand, about 4 cm across by 2 cm thick. Silver mekugi peg/post/pin gold-plated at one end, an eye in the other. And the reverse

Some illustrated examples. Two of mine are very similar, the seated Daruma and the manju.

Neither raising nor lowering the tone particularly, but just to add another coal, log , er, uh... another shovel of wood chips to the fire, here are a couple of ceramic Netsuke examples. Unfortunately I do not have any human or animal figures here with me here, or good photos of them, but my general impression of ceramic figures is that they tend to be quite crude. I do have a nice little Satsuma figure of a woman carrying a giant 'kabu' beet on her back, but I cannot be sure that she is a Netsuke, or just a small *okimono. The first of these is part of a sagemono set I carry everywhere with me as it contains my hanko. The next is a similar ceramic 'haizara' ashtray which I found in an antiques market quite recently. The third is a lacquered ceramic chestnut, with quite a bit of damage to it. The fourth is a very simple 'manju' with copper fastenings that I found about 20 years ago in an old drawer of bits in an antiques street market. (Photos to follow.) *Okimono, a free-standing decorative object designed to be placed on a flat surface for display. They might have been carved, even signed by the same artists, but differ from Netsuke in that they were not designed to be worn like Netsuke, they are usually bigger and more intricate, without needing to worry about catching on clothing. Other general giveaways are a large-area flat base and lack of himotoshi holes.

One word of warning. There is no perfect blade, as everyone knows. You seem to be asking for people to point out stuff you cannot see, in advance. But if someone actually does that, you then seem to go off the boil, as with your first candidate above and BBB's subsequent comments. If you show a blade to people, ten people will tell you ten different things. If the blade is really good, and cheap at the price, someone may step in and buy it! In order to rise above small defects, you may decide to spend more and more, until you reach another fiscal limit, only to have another flaw or drawback pointed out by some higher authority later. Some collectors have several swords, each with imperfections of some kind, but each strong in certain other points, a series of compromises...(?). Hoping you can find a nice balanced medium!

Hate to have to agree with Brian, but

常陽住源正兼? https://nosyudo.jp/b08021385/ Masakane(?)

Happy hours ahead!

Marzio, check out Maru ni (Tachi) Kaji no ha 丸に(立ち)梶の葉 Paper mulberry leaf http://cts2.web.fc2.com/img/kaji.jpg

If you do go the rewrap route, be prepared to pay medium to large bucks, unless you do it yourself or know someone special. Does the value of the sword allow for such expense on a wrap? So, do you prefer the refreshed look, and are you willing to shell out? PS Myself I tend to want to 'improve' things I've bought! (In a good, suitable way of course.)