Martin

Hi Stephen, I actually have a Goishi-Gata Tsuba in my collection. It is an Umetada piece (I think) and here is a link to it: http://www.nihontokanjipages.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=116 cheers,

Hi Franco and all, here you are: http://www.toban-art.de/img/omori/omori2.html Best,

Hi all, many many thanks for your translations Much appreciated ! Best,

Hi all, I have a Fuchi-Kashira, that depicts the famous waves theme from the Omori school. It is signed "Omori Teruhide" and has (old) Tokubetsu Kicho papers. Unfortunately I do not have much material and books to compare the Mei and would therefore like to know your opinions on the signature. I´ve had no reason to doubt its validity so far (not just because the workmanship is extraordinary) but heard that there are some faked papers around and that sometimes the old papers do not reflect the current thinking/attribution of the NBTHK... Here are some images of the Toku Kicho papers: http://www.toban-art.de/img/omori/omori.html thanks & cheers,

Dear all, I would be very grateful for a translation of the following description of a Tsuba which is very similar to one I currently possess. many thanks in advance,

My own evil twin (I guess everybody has one :D ) just quietly asked me if this thread is still Tosogu-related

Hi John, thanks for the great pictures. And Ford, nothing to add here

Hi, I also believe this to be a later (shiiremono) work. What makes me come to this conclusion besides the facts already mentioned are some parts that seem to have suffered some dents (see the picture). Maybe there are even some hollow areas under the surface See this link for similar pieces: http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/tsuba/sanmai.htm cheers,

Max, I think Reinhard wants to point out that Auction houses usually choose the term "signed" when the signature was approved to be valid and "inscribed" if they are not sure (or the signature is false). Using "signed" would then imply the signature to be correct. best,

Hi Todd, IMO he (as everybody) should only charge the actual shipping (and maybe handling) fees. What amount did you see on the label outside? I have to admit that shipping from Germany is QUITE expensive They charge you 32 EUR (app. 50 USD) for a package up to 5 kg to the U.S. (insured of course). It jumps to 42 EUR (app. 66 USD) for packages up to 10 kg. Did you talk to him about the fees? best,

Exactly what I thought Guido :D And don´t underestimate your Tsuba knowledge best,

Hey Guido, many thanks! Great information. It looks like it may indeed was a description for the Tsuba stored in it (http://www.nihontokanjipages.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=168). Although the seller told me it had nothing to to with this particular piece. What do you think? best,

Hi all, may I kindly ask for your translation assistance for the below text? thanks & all the best,

Hi John & Franco, I guess that´s what we already found out ;o) http://www.nihontokanjipages.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=792#p792 cheers,

Hi all, maybe this could be an interesting read here... http://www.nihontokanjipages.com/forum/ ... .php?id=70 cheers,

Hi all, I do not think that these bumps are iron bones. If you closely look at the Mimi, you will see that these appear at regular intervals and are part of the Mimi design. Just my 2 cents,

Hi all and many thanks for your kind words ;o) That would be great Brian, thank you! cheers,

Hi all, just wanted to let you know, that I just launched my new small private website ;o) As a Web-Designer by profession, this was a project I always wanted to realize. So have a look if you like. http://www.toban-art.de I will try to update it from time to time and maybe add some articles or other Tsuba related information later on. cheers,

Hi all, I second Johns observations here. There are many (and old) Tsuba, that have uniformly shaped Hitsu-Ana. But maybe Ludolf only refers to the Soten school with his statement... cheers,

Hi Jean, nice work. May I ask who assembled the Tsuka and if the Saya is new? I also plan to get a Koshirae made with some of my Fittings someday. cheers,

This is the Tsuba Philip is referring to. As far as I know there are LOTS of variations existing of this Mon.

Hi all, I found a nice gallery with lots of pictures showing Tosogu and Armor from the Tokyo National Museum (following the "Arms and Armour" link). Very nice to browse through ;o) Enjoy ! http://www.pbase.com/joanseeuw/samurai best, Martin

Hi Dino, maybe be these links are of any help for you http://www.nihontokanjipages.com/old_forum/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=378 http://home.earthlink.net/~jggilbert/reading.htm

Many thanks Piers and Koichi, I also found this page in Japanese that shows some variations of that Mon: http://www.otomiya.com/kamon/kika/matsukawa.htm Its translation via Babelfish results in the following: "Matsukawa water caltrop - It waits, or is lonesome. With the design which furthermore attaches the small water caltrop to the top and bottom in the water caltrop, it is derived from the form having been similar to the crust of the pine. It is made the Japanese peculiar pattern." What I ask myself is: Could the design also resemble a water caltrop ( http://images.google.de/images?q=water+ ... art=0&sa=N ) ? "Caltrop" also refers to a small iron weapon used in medieval times, with four points, designed to pierce the hooves of enemy cavalry horses. Maybe I just followed a stupid idea here, that was caused by some weak (automatic) translation... best,

Hi Piers, many thanks for your reply and the information. I´d certainly love to see some of these images best,