Bugyotsuji

Thank you so much for appearing, Koichi san. You were just about my last hope!!! So you feel that the first Kanji must be 蔦　and the second 亭 regardless of the reading? I cannot find Tsutatei in any Netsuke artist list, but then again I can't find any other possible reading either! :lol: Thank you very much for your very precious input.

Ah, Bordeaux. I was visiting just three weeks ago. Sunshine, vinyards, hilltop villages, old churches and castles. Heaven. So, if 400 of us come to visit we can empty your cellar in one night, Jean? Very glad Ford has elected to refresh and revitalize. Excellent!

The following Mei is on a Netsuke with very good provenance. It is Japanese, antique, and finely carved, the owner assures me. He has tried unsuccessfully to read the Mei: http://forums.netsuke.org/tool/view/mb/ ... &id=671031 even enlisting the help of two Japanese native-speaking scholars in the US... I have offered the following possibilities, but without much confidence Can anyone help in any way, please?

The Last Samurai, hmmmm................. The Last REAL Samurai?

I have a feeling that it won't make any difference to ivory Netsuke values. There will be separate antique Netsuke markets around the world. Stupid, but that's life and politics nowadays. Perhaps now is the time to invest in non-ivory? Dunno. This is just some people feeling good that they've forced a high-profile business to make a public statement, IMHO. I won't be selling mine.

Trojan elephants! Elephant-shaped tanks with machine guns in their tusks! Actually it's all a big mess. The elephants are increasing, their land is being fenced off, the human population is upset when the elephants lumber through their fences and crops, people speak of the need for culls...

Henry, the late Edo Myochin tsuba I bought last night is covered with similar surface swirls to yours. PS Forgive the thread-napping, Milt. I saw your cranes/snipes/ibises? and admired them! :D The Japanese must have loved such outlines.

Today I was lucky enough to be invited to hold some swords. My Sensei must be desperate to get me off the ground! :lol: While I was there he showed me a Myochin Tsuba, which I bought. The swords were: Nanbokucho Mumei Kanenaga Katana Bizen Morimitsu O-ei 31 Wak Bichu Kunishige (Otsuki-Yogoro) Edo shoki wak Inoue Shinkai Kanbun Kikumon Wak Nobuhide （Kiyomaro's disciple) Shinshinto Katana (Kyoto) Ryokai Katana x 2 Mumei Aoe end Kamakura Katana Fukuoka Ichimonji Sukefusa (Yoshifusa's father) Katana Still feeling that tonight was a special evening. PS A friend writes to say that there is a Nihonto up for sale at Christie's for 280-300,000 GBP.

Yup, Milt, those are they! I am not quite sure what to tell the good lady. She says she has some more pics which she will post in due course. I have written and asked her for some overall measurements.

Nice find! PS How large is that?

Maybe if they cut all the tusks off African elephants in advance, so the poachers wouldn't feel the need to kill them, (and gave all the elephants a pair of implants, mammoth/plastic slip-on tusks instead ) then ivory could be used legitimately as 'renewable, responsibly-farmed' ivory. :lol:

... and Brian is? :lol:

Thanks, Brian. I can sort of see what you are seeing, as you describe it. She was just passing through. Maybe there is still time to check the blade length. I'll ask. Later!

Thank you, Brian. You have moved the story forwards. A possibility that it might be 'at least a few hundred years old.' (What is telling you that, I wonder?) Hmmm... Looks like no Mei on the Nakago, but I told her not to touch the rust in any way. The surrender tag seems to have the name and address of the owner or owner's relative at that time.

A friend of mine is visiting her sister in the States and has taken pictures of a sword that their father left them. He was in Japan at the end of WWII apparently, and brought this back. They have no knowledge of swords. I had asked her to see if she could take some shots of it. Please add any opinions or comments, positive or negative, but useful if possible, to this thread! Thanks... http://forums.netsuke.org/tool/post/net ... &trail=210

Thanks for that Paul. I enjoyed hearing about your lovely swords, and your write-up gave me needed food for thought!

Well, I am full of admiration. Well done on the purchase, the study, the photography, the recommendation and the write-up! :D

Sounds like you have your head screwed on the right way round, Brian. One of the reasons that I have hesitated to take close-ups of wares is that the stall-holder might feel justified in saying "Are you just going to stand there taking photos, or are you going to buy something?" I suppose you could say something like, "Shashin wo torasete moraemasu ka? Uchi no Kollekushon no tame ni...!"

LOL Stephen, you can't have your cake AND eat it! Let the romance do the rest. I expect Brian will get some close-ups on his trip in a couple of weeks.

Ouch, tell me about it. My salary is soon gone each month, so I have been pulling pounds from the UK, but it's scary how much the GBP has fallen against the Yen... this really affects me. Yesterday I didn't actually buy anything apart from a skein of indigo yarn for 100 yen. The old coin dealer was offering a Hime-koban gold coin for a mere 40,000, but I didn't even feel like reaching for my wallet/billfold. There were some nice Tsuba too, but again I thought, :| and that was it...

Ako Castle was dismantled in punishment for the 47 Ronin's revenge attack on Kira in Edo. Some nice sections of wall still remain with a couple of reconstructed watchtowers around the main gate. There is a shrine dedicated to Oishi Kuranosuke (Oishi Yoshio) within the walls, and the antiques fair is held around the back, alongside the shrine. Always quite popular, depending on the day there may be 40-50 stalls, and people come from allover, including Himeji and Kobe to the East. Quite a few stalls with Nihonto bits and pieces, though no guarantee as to quality! You must know your oats.

Unfortunately despite starting off with great fanfare, few people visit this antiques fair any more and I am afraid it will die a death very soon. Sign of the economic times? Saidaiji.

Well, there you go! I am happy with that. Gold tends to stay shiny, but silver tends to go black and brass red, black or green.

I have seen people habitually rubbing tsuba with their thumbs. This could be acidic, though, and might remove too much of the precious patina. I was advised by a tsuba collector to carry a terry-cloth *cotton towel and rub it gently, me love you long time. * Make sure it is 100% soft cotton and not a mixture of artificial textiles. If you cannot guarantee the purity/content of the cloth, don't bother at all, as the tsuba looks pretty good as it is. NB This is just one person's advice, to be ignored or altered by subsequent readers...

You are all thinking that the corner has gone silent, so this is just to say that I have been carrying my camera recently with me to a couple of local outdoor antiques fairs with some nice background scenery, and plan to post them here very soon. Following on from the Fukuyama Castle Gardens Antiques Fair posted earlier on this thread, you will be able to see the Saidaiji Fair held at the temple site of the Hadaka Matsuri, and a shot or two of the bigger one held in Ako Castle. Watch this space.