Curran

Kyo sukashi basically means "Kyoto" sukashi. Kyo being short for Kyoto in this instance. Sukashi just being the openwork (null space) style. Kyo sukashi usually refers to the open work sukashi tsuba of a certain "aesthetic sense" associated with the refinement of Kyoto. Some of them are truely elegant. I don't know if Bob Benson attribution is 100% correct, but it is relatively close enough. You aren't missing much in Florida currently. Too much rain. Luckily no hurricanes so far- *knock on wood* (is that just an American saying, or internationally recognized?). Curran

Mike, My pleasure to help. I've been too busy recently to keep up with the NMB as much as I'd like, but felt I could help on this one. Hope I'm right on all of it. I do have one minor correction: My post should read "Higo or Edo HIGO production". In shortest version: Higo style having gained in popularity in Edo (Tokyo) and being a bit far from Higo, artisans (some from Higo and some local joes) set up in Edo to mimick the style for sale locally. Their work is known as "Edo Higo". With tsuba it seems often possible to distinguish Edo Higo from Higo with a fair degree of confidence. With kozuka, I doubt I could say what is Higo vs Edo Higo. Curran

Mike, Just off the top of my head quick thoughts: Higo style rain or water/river dragon . The kozuka being iron is nice. Ones in decent condition seem to be more and more difficult to find, given than the majority of soft metal ones and the nature of iron kozuka to deteriorate if not cared for more than the soft metal ones need. Often the iron ones are Higo or related product. So I'd hazard a guess yours is probably a Higo product or Edo I'd guess mid to late Edo. I'm not much into kozuka, so take my thoughts as novice. Hope it helps. Curran

Nigel, See if this one fits the bill: http://www.bushidojapaneseswords.com/hb ... _tsuba.htm Curran