Curran

Reinhard, Thanks for doing that side by side comparison. With a surprising grinding noise, the scanner announced it had decided today was a good day to die. I couldn't scan in a reference mei. Yes, I thought the signature looked good from the slanted first photo seeing it from a laptop. I did note one stroke missing I expected to see. Hence I asked for the picture. There is some variation in the 3 examples in Wakayama, but I am seeing considerably more variation with Bo's new image. At least another stroke is missing that really should be there in any variation of the mei. Not quite ready to declare it gimei until looking at Wakayama more. Franco's post was helpful as a 4th reference point. Definitely a turn for the worse on the legit vs non-legit. A shame, as it is a pretty piece with workmanship good enough to merit attention. ____________________________________________________ The irony is that many feel Christies is a good place for dumping gimei because so many unwitting buyers trust them to vet things. They get their 26% and the legalese protects them very well.

Survey Says: KAKUJO! Second stringer of the Goto family, but looks quite capable and garners enough respect to be in Wakayama. If you can stand the North American analogy, it is the equivalent of someone who made it to the major leagues with a decent team, though relatively out of the spotlight. The mei is a bit thin for his reference examples and the one Franco linked too, but the strokes are pretty good at first glance from the angled photo you provided. There is at least one stroke in the mei that I cannot see in your photo that I would like to see. Are you able to produce a straight up photo of the kozuka mei of similar quality to the one in your first post? If it checks out, I or someone else here can post the Haynes Index entry in its entirety. Then if necessary we can debate its current relative value. Franco posted a very nice example from many years back on Choshuya, but Choshuya is like Bloomingdales where the asking price is X, actual sale price is Y, and third party resale value is Z. Still, I like the three examples of his work I have seen so far. Has that distinct late Edo Goto crispness.

Got interrupted at home here. Goto is a complex school requiring lots of understanding and still remains largely beyond me. Still, trying to help here. Essentially I am writing as I tick off what information you've provided against the resources I have. Don't build it up as the answer may be anticlimactic but, given that Mitsuyasu isn't a big name in any of the 4 choices, it is less likely to be a forged signature. Just a lessor know artisan. Benjo: 1795-1852 grandson of the 5th gen Hanzaemon Goto line. No ref. signature in Wakayama. Haynes has some hand-drawns of Benjo's various Kao. No exact match to yours. One is close. Joren: 1627-1657 second son of Joen. Died young and his work is rare. Joren#2: d.1737 possibly illegit son of Goto Renjo. Some book debate if he used the name Mitsuyasu, or is confused with Joren#1. Kakujo: d.1810 son of Zenjo, 6th master of the Rihei line. Ref. sig in Wakayama and also supposedly one in the Haynes Catalogs. Given the crisp later Edo (c.1800s) feel of the kozuka, I would bet more on Benjo or Kakujo. Sorry to drag this out, but I will get out the Wakayama 3vol. set tomorrow and check the Kakujo ref. signature for a match. Family time now.

Bo-, First take what Brian says as from very high authority. He does a good job of keeping this rather significant forum in line. If people are contacting you to sell you their treasure troves, just ignore. If the infamous Pawel has contacted you, consider yourself officially initiated into the website. I think I am one of very few people he hasn't hit up over the years. Maybe he did long long ago, or maybe I predate him. He is a persistent bug that penicillin won't cure. As for Nihonto, well Neo.... which will it be... the red or blue pill? This hobby goes incredibly deep and largely in a foreign language with a distinctly foreign mindset. Now: Goto Mitsuyasu + kao (maker's mark) First step is to take the short-cut and pull out the 3vol Haynes Index (invaluable) rather than open the Goto Tomes. I've never been good with them anyway. Haynes. Think of Goto as a very big tree. Lots of branches. I only commit the mainline to memory, as not enough grey cells remain for all the branches. Lesson 1: When Goto school, standard fittings reading of 'Mitsuyasu' often gets read another way. In this instance.... three other ways. Haynes says to see BENJO (H00172), JOREN (H02171), JOREN (H02172), and KAKUJO (H02395). Off we go to track down these 4 candidates. Benjo:

Hmmm. Nice workmanship. With fittings, largely due to the late 1800s demand from Europe.... signatures were often forged. An old truth is that for some smiths or artisans, 1 out of 10 signatures are legit. An older joke is most people believe 11 out of 10 are legit. The name isn't that big, but is Goto school which was a popular target for false signature copies. I will open the Goto books tomorrow and try to verify the signature. As a former biologist, I must say it is pretty and appeals to me though I don't collect kozuka (or as Grey more accurately names them, ko-tsuka).

John, Lorenzo, and Reinhard, I thought about whether to speak up on this one.... I needed some time to get my books out of storage after the house move and also to consult the Shozui (aka. Masayuki) I have owned. Both had NBTHK Hozon papers. I'm 97.5% sure this tsuba is gimei. I like it, but think the signature is too far from a large sample pool with some particular "oops..." in places were Shozui was incredibly consistent. One missing part of the Yuki character in particular jumps out at me and is the quick litmus test most of the time. I paused because the workmanship is very good and says to me very skilled Hamano, but reminds me of later Hamano work by some of the skilled artist in that school. The tree in particular makes me think of a particular late edo branch of the school (sorry for the pun). Go back and hit the books and look at the "Yuki" character in particular. Several things wrong with it, even as much as I try to allow for variation in Shozui's signature. If I can learn to use Photoshop a bit, maybe I can put up an illustrative dissection. I'm leaving a 2.5% margin of error here because I've seen considered genuine menuki by Shozui that have one or two distinct variations close to what is going on with this signature, but don't think it that close.

I have seen a copy of the Index. I remember it to be a large book with lists of entries, but not full information per sword. I do not know if it would indicate which Volume that particular sword is in. I do not know if there is an open digital index. Interesting question, that probably should be addressed to NBTHK directly. I have seen very few copies of this Index. If you find one, buy it. You may even consider writing Darcy and asking about his copy. He travels with work a good bit now. If you are lucky enough to catch him at home, he may be willing to try and locate which volume has the 1352 dated Motoshige in in.

ebay seller: Ryokin30 Anyone know who this person is? He had an item on ebay I was interested in, but photos of the nihonto where a bit too fuzzy. The papers were old 'green' papers and he had no return policy. Item was interesting enough to me that I thought I might try to shout out to him off ebay now that the auction is long since over without bidders. Anyone know him, feel free to PM me or to put us in contact. From his ebay listing, he is supposedly in Denver, Colorado.

Test cuts on tsuba seem to have been an early edo thing. They often traverse the nakago ana in impossible fashion and are done in a way which seems to maximize the visibility when they are remounted. Sort of a manly manly thing? I do not recall seeing it on anything later than early Edo. I have owned one of Jim Gilbert's "test-cut" tsuba. Enjoyed studying it for years.

(#3) Overhead view of WW I Biplane with both guns blazing.

The sage, student, and waterfall theme seem very popular in the 1800s, yet largely limited to the 1800s. Any conjecture as to what this theme referenced in particular? Almost always a sage and student looking at a sharply dropping waterfall. Very popular in Uchikoshi work, and seems to pop up in other avenues of Mito and Hamano work.

This has turned into a parade of ghosts past. I can mentally picture about 6 tsuba that I regret not buying in the past decade when I had the chance either due to lack of available funds or other constraints. Two of the tsuba are here and Martin just produced the Kremers(?) twin of the ko-akasaka I passed on years ago in Tampa. I have seen three of that exact rendering over the years. Given the Jedi undertone to this thread....Martin, you WILL sell me that tsuba. You WILL sell me that tsuba. Okay, so I'm not a Jedi. Ed- I like the shakudo unsigned one. Guilty pleasure are some of those late edo tanto and wak tsuba where skill level is excellent, yet left unsigned. The nanako is as tight as Yoshioka work, the shakudo looks a great color, yet the feel is Umetada or something else. I wish the maker had put on at least a little signature or kao. Bob- yes, gotta get better photos of that first one. It is a much nicer tsuba in hand, and I wouldn't have known from the photo. Very hefty boy. I also think it escapes 97.5% percent of people that it is a "named" tsuba. Some very smart people here will debate that with me, but it is how I interpret the NBTHK papers and the engraved characters relative to the design.

Mariusz, Oooh sure..... List the ko-umetada you know I like. Evil bugger. I kept looking at that one, for sale during the period where I wasn't collecting. Guys (girls anyone?)- Boris has us beat on the old iron one. I'd settle for a single nice ubu ko-katchushi in my collection some day. Passed on quite a few. Ted- very big sigh.... I passed on that one way back when, and wish I hadn't. Very much to my taste, though some disagree about the Sasano attribution. Regardless of what it is, wish I'd purchased it when I had the chance. If the owner reads this, he should contact me about it.

Nice quiet thread where I get to see pretty stuff and do not need endure overly long posts with little content. The pictures here are proving, "worth a thousand words". Some real diversity of spectrum. Ububob- you need better photographs of that first tsuba. Nice to know RKG had entered the Tea House with a Yamakichibei. Also like the more funky wabi-sabi one. Boris, will trade you a lightsaber for either one. Jason K.- that is exactly the sort of tsuba I get a kick out of now and then. I find it easy to imagine the koshirae for them, and have noted similar canting in some nice Akasaka tsuba where they add to the sense of swirl in the design. Had a really nice example years ago, long since sold off to Europe. Lorenzo- good to know where that one. Love it and the original. Fernbracken always makes me hungry for korean bibimbop or yukgaejung. Keep the images coming....

I recommend : http://pages.suddenlink.net/afuresearch/afu/Philly.htm Nobukuni School by Kowalski. Easily worth $12. My copy is currently in storage, but I remember this being a good resource. You can ask Harry to confirm that it contains the information you seek.

My personal favorite 4, as of 3 years ago. Slight change since then. No photos yet. To emphasize the idea behind the thread- often favorites are not those of particular value to others. One of my current favorites is a simple iron tsuba by a samurai who retired and made arrowheads afterwards. Only made a few tsuba, and is relatively unknown.

Probably Umetada. Inspect the keyfret under a loop, looking for any open channels on the mimi or thereabout. If the keyfret is all inlaid using gold wire, you may have a Kozenji tsuba instead of an Umetada tsuba. My wife would like this one. Thank you for sharing.

Max, You seem to be off to a fine start. Just be patient as the hobby covers centuries of variation across a good sized country. Building you basic framework of understanding and then filling in particulars can take a while. Unless you are incredibly devoted to it, give yourself at least a year to get your bearing and sort out what you have absorbed. (1) Is there no Japanese Sword club within visiting distance of you? (2) How many of the swords you are caring for now exhibit the minor rust or spider rust exhibited on the 2 blades shown? As Jean said, (den) Osafune Tadamitsu is quite collectable, though a shortened unsigned wakizashi from the later muromachi war time mass production is worth significantly less than an unaltered katana or tachi from the earlier end of the school. Still, it is something i would stop and look at.

Shinny? Seriously, I know that one of our Australian members was in an unusual situation which involved having to cut down an (ostrich) or large emu- but taking a sword to possum seems a bit Southern Fried Samurai? Where does your cousin live?

Mia culpa-- Thought I was helping, but Peter is right that it is not the Goto book. Careless of me.......I've edited out the link due to my error. I have only purchased 2 item from the Japan auctions in the last 2+ years. Mark-up including shipping only added +10-15%, so I didn't have a good frame of reference. I'll take Peter's word on the added agent and shipping from Japan mark-up. Forewarned: Yes, the currency rate is now FUBAR for those of us in the USA. If you know what you want and where to find it, USA is best place to buy. Last tsuba I purchased was in Tampa, only to see a similar damaged one with only Hozon papers go off for about +30% on the Japan!Auctions. Prior to the earthquake, things were actually selling back to Japan. Not sure about now. Found something else I'd like to buy if the funds come together...again here in the USA.... The Japan auctions continue to be downgraded to browsing and practice.

I keep an eye out for certain books fellow collectors told me they'd like to buy if I see them at auction. Recently there have been a few good one on Yahoo!Japan. I hesitantly passed on a fair priced Higo Kinko Taikan because we are moving soon. This TOSOGU GOKECHO MEIHIN SHUSEI is up for sale a second time: ---------------edit-------------------------- After shipping and agent fees, it will be $300 to $325 to those of us in the US. The US dealers offer it for $550 up to $600. Can be read about here: http://www.nihonto.com/3.1.10.html and here: http://www.satcho.com/ Anyway, not a book for everybody- but I already have my copy and enjoy it. Figured I'd share the heads-up with the NMB.

I heard this at the Tampa show, but believed it was in confidence. I was waiting for confirmation from the West coast club, as someone like Fred Weissberg could probably confirm it. It seems it is now public knowledge or rampant rumor. Most likely he has passed, as he was supposedly ill for a long time and had severe complications with his eyesight. For various reasons he and I had little overlap of interaction, but I greatly respected his aesthetic. I once went after a tanto at a Christies auction and found myself outbid, only to see it in Cary's possession shortly thereafter. Regardless of how some felt about him, he did teach and share with the community. I regret his passing.

Sort of heavy handed on the sambontsugi. I would think this later generation Kanemoto.

For 150 Honkies, sure. It still pays for lunch and a drink. The 150 Honkie version is non-calligraphy version, but still on decent paper.

Kyo-kanegushi? I'll put it in writing for $150.