Frank B

I was about to say, thank you for clearing that up Ford.

You're right, always have to be cautious

True, but we aren't talking about fakes.

It was good while it lasted.

I think we've veered slightly off topic.

If I had the money I wouldnt think twice.

Yeah, top tsuba by Ishiguro Masayoshi can easily get to 60k. https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/an-ishiguro-school-shakudo-tsuba-edo-period-4461929-details.aspx

Fred, another thing to consider which Jeremiah mentioned was time frame. Ichijo's works are beautiful no doubt, but he had so many examples of past artists to work from. In that regard early artists who worked at a high level and had original idea's should be held in equal regard. What Somin did for tosogu was outstanding, and most of the great machibori artists stem from him.

I've seen Ichijo's work in hand, and it's truly spectacular. To be fair I've never seen a Natsuo or Somin so until that day I cant say which is better in hand.

While Ichijo has the most works at juyo, I dont think that most would agree that he is the best kinko artist of all time.

Yanagawa Naoharu is a big name and one of the best of the Yanagawa artists. It's impossible to speculate whether the signature is genuine without seeing the front. I hope to see them soon.

Do you mean total works at the juyo level?

No X2

George, As it seems you are leaning towards keeping it. Take Darcy's advice and get a proper shirasaya made/oil the blade. This won't fix anything, but it will delay the rate of the blade's deterioration.

George, as Ray pointed out the blade currently is in need of proper restoration. Without restoration it is subject to further damage, by taking this stance you are indicating that you are complacent with the blade further deteriorating. As others have clearly told you, this is an important blade and historical object and as we are all just custodians of these historical objects it is our responsibility to keep them in good shape. Ultimately it's your choice what to do with it, but know that virtually everyone interested in nihonto would like to see it properly restored and maintained.

Richard, thank you for that link it was a great read(anything by Markus usually is). So I'll concede that it was basely off of popularity, but some credit is due to the high end makers. I do not think that many would argue that Natsuo, Ichijo, Somin dont deserve the top title of Meijin. On the other hand, Otsuki Mitsuoki is rated below them at Meiko, and below him Hagiya Katsuhira is raked at Joko. There really isnt a logical way to say one is "better" than the other. It does however show which artists were most popular at the times of it's publication.

It is the "brownish" hues on both sides of the tsuba.

I would be wary of the patina issues. Its a decent amount for such a "young" tsuba

By this point in time, there was certainly overlap between artists and schools. Were this a earlier tsuba, tanaka would not have been my first guess.

That'd be very interesting to see in the future. He did train under a mukansa rated Smith.

Steven is correct here

Were ratings for artist ie. ryoko, joko, meiko, meijin contextual like sword ratings? By contextual meaning by time frame and skill of other artists during said time. Similar to how a jo-saku smith from a good school in nanbokucho, is usually more desirable than a jo-saku smith working in shinshinto. It's not possible to merely rank hundreds of years of artists merely by a title. I was wondering if anyone had any insight to how the kinko meikan gave such rankings. Thank you

Glad to help out

The difference in quality should be immediately apparent.

Yes, that's a great Kaga Goto tsuba.