Curran

It took me a long time to fully appreciate these Kirishitan tsuba, though I am not Christian. With enough time and understanding, I too appreciate them. I gauge mine to be around 3rd gen.

I regret letting this one get away about 15 years ago. I have my personal favorite Kanayama now, but this one was On Par. I am glad to see it again.

Ditto

I was unaware there was an unofficial translation. I picked up that book this year, as I have one Kagamishi that I much like and have seen photos of an early Muromachi one in Japan that knocks my socks off.

From prior experience helping with the deacquisition of about 140 tsuba from a small museum, the first two numbers (28) usually reference the year it was taken in by the museum. Then pull the old books kept by the museum and look up acquisition item 722 from that year. The collection I helped with was largely taken in 3 waves during the 1920s and 1930s. I still have two of the tsuba that I bought from it. Over the years, I have had other tsuba with Museum #s. Currently the only one I have is this big thin Ko-shoami or Ko-Kat. For various reasons, I know what country it came from but not what museum. Anyone have anything similar and information to share, do let me know.

Same opinion. Most look real, but 1 image is not great. Rough look to some of them.

Interesting theme. I learned something new today. Thanks guys.

Choshu tsuba. The "Tomo" kanji on your is not the most commonly used one, but it is used by some artisans of the school. Quickly checking Markus Sesko's translation of the book Tosogu Classroom Vol 2, I did not see Tomokiyo among the artists that were written up in greater detail. It was a large school. Perhaps someone with a copy of Nihonto Koza (Choshu section) or the Choshu tsuba book can tell you more.

Tobais: VERY NICELY DONE! I like your STEP 7: DIVE in the scenery most. So many tsuba have a lot more story to them than we appreciate. These days, finding the story often means the most to me.

I will list tsuba to fund my quests for things like a Juyo Hoan or a certain type of Nobuiye, but I don't want to be a dealer. This is to say.... don't expect a whole lot of listings. I want to build out the site as at least 60 to 70% educational or linking to smart people like Ito-san's blog. It seems the design organization might be challenging.

Thank you Dirk, Steve, Andy, Jason, and Luca. I think the email test is over. Time to add more content this weekend.

Got the 4th one from Andy. Thank you all. I seem to have fixed the glitch I made when first trying to set up the basic bones of the site. Curran

3 for 3, including Jason's from a work email. One more and I will cap this little test. I've been rather lazy about building out the hobby site, but want to get it a bit more set up and running by month end.

Thank you Dirk and Steve. 2 for 2 so far. I'm going to give it another 2 emails and then be done n confident that it is working as intended.

THANKS Gentlemen. Test is conclude. The email glitch seems fixed. I need to 3rd party test something tsuba related. --I've been building a hobby tsuba website. Articles, links to good blogs, and listing a few tsuba now and then. The website host seems to be splitting emails between their own mail-system and a hosted Microsoft 360 system. Request for help testing: (1) Can two or three of you rip me off a test email to: cur@irontsuba.com (2) ...and post here that you sent an email. Thank you for the help, Curran

I am late to this thread and will have to read it in more depth to see if I can add any value. For now, here is one I have owned for a while. Thought it has gotten some surprising interactions out of tsuba scholars smarter than me, I have never inquired too much.

Not Ko-Nara. While there was a range on Ko-Nara designs, this is fairly far from from the Ko-Nara examples that I know.

Wow. That is a lot of work. Thank you @MauroP Two or three old friends are listed in there. Good to see them again.

Well, you know, a monster blade with a horimono to Hachiman comes out of the saya.... that band on the koshirae starts up the music Popeye style, and the lion shows it has some serious claws still sharp...

I know that I'm venting. I've got the mindspace and philosophical bend to try to Amor Fati this into a pleasant trip to Japan. I've never seen the sakura in spring. My tsuba live in Japan now. It might be nice to visit them there.

Don't. Give up on papering. It is over. Seriously. No, -really-, don't second guess this. DOA. So many headwinds for USA collectors, unless the Supreme Court actually rules against the current Tariff regime. I sent stuff before the Tariff shenanigans began. At present, it looks like I actually have to go to Japan to retrieve them.

Once more unto the breach. Otherwise, we shall flick your ear in this life.

Quite the rig all the way around. Right down to the sageo AND the shirasaya. I was going to praise the shirasaya before I even before I saw the stamp. Maybe the horn has been restored, but the same is exceptional quality. That is all around a 'flex' piece, quietly very strong all around. Beautiful looking blade too. It was made for quiet lion "umph" musculature when original, and looks so well maintained that it now has an old old lion beauty to it. I don't even know what material was used for under the saya lacquer. Interesting. @Okan Please take careful care of that one. Exceptional condition from head to toe. Wow. Definitely deserves to be on display with the right curator.

I wish I could unsee that one. wow. I do like the one that @When Necessary posted.

For starter's you can get Ito-san's books and the translations available. At times, groups have hired translators to do various Japanese texts. I have some of those translations, but not the rights to publicly share them. And I am in no rush to give up competitive advantage to AI. A simple example that many people know is the koban shape of the Hayashi tsuba seppa dai, especially nidai and sandai. Some like the Nishigaki and Hayashi had no problem intruding the design onto the seppa dai (hidden by seppa or tsuka). Pics attached. These are some of the largest seppa dai you will see in Higo, and the Kamiyoshi followed their Hayashi forebearers with some large seppa dai in late edo. Saya had gotten thicker n thicker by then. A Kamiyoshi pic attached, though it seems to have been spun 90 degrees. Kamiyoshi mostly lost the koban shape of the Hayashi, though sometimes did a darn good utsushi. Others like shodai Akasaka Tadamasa had rather pointy egg shaped seppa dai. I don't own or have an example of that.