Curran

Jean: nice Aoi-Art pick. With NMB 10% discount, even better. That tsuba has got to go. Wonder what was on it before it got plundered.

Craig was one of us hit hard by the Great Recession of 2008-2009. A gentleman of extremely kind spirit, I hoped he would make it back to our Nihonto community some day. Learned a few things from him and have long missed his presence.

The set was loaned to me a while ago. There is still an image of it up on Juyo-bi.com if you scroll down to prior year of the Sales section. What isn't obvious from the Auction listing is that it is an Oversized set. Large, bold, excellent condition, 450 years old and arguably one of the earliest renderings of guns in Japan. Definitely deserves its Juyo papers on several fronts, though perhaps not enough gold or flash for some of us Westerners (admit it!, we like our kinko to have some gold or other highlights)

Tom, Thanks. Papering items in Tokyo is taking longer, more expensive, and yielding less insight seemingly since Jan 2014' ish. If the Yoshikawa or NPO NTHK can keep the paper price down on kodogu, think I will switch. Then again, not much good "TH worthy" kodogu coming to market. Only got 5 in the pipeline for 2015. Waiting on papers for 2, and have 3 pending for papers. May just take the site academic by year end and fold the business license.

Hi all: Been busy and really not much to sale. I am waiting on papers to come back from NBTHK shinsa. Until then: http://www.juyo-bi.com/sales.html Up new is a Maeda Mon fitted boxed set of menuki and kozuka. In one of my odder NBTHK experiences, they gave it two sets of NBTHK Hozon papers to Yoshioka and Kaga [at the same shinsa]. I have been holding on to them for aikuchi mounts with a Juyo (Yamashiro or Yamato) tanto some day. Haven't gotten the Juyo tanto yet, but may be pushing for a Juyo Hirata tsuba later this year. Some things must go to welcome in a piece at that pricepoint.

Thank Franco. His post is the excellent one. It might help to say or share what the NTHK attribution says. It would give us a clue what to expect. As chance would have it, I'd just started studying up on nanako recently. Trying to improve me own understanding. Don't think I've read the Rear Admiral Layton - Alan Harvie writeup before.

Nanako patterns can be as telling as fingerprints, down to school and particular smith in some cases.

John: ? I wasn't bidding, nor interested in doing so. Impressed by the workmanship, but I try to limit myself to only keep 15 tsuba.

John, Here is the auction: http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f152691431 Unpapered, not so known artist from a lesser school.... It is getting impossible to find good kinko tsuba. Must agree with James and Fred that prices are climbing for non iron. Been searching for over 10 years now for a Tokubetsu Hozon level ko-Mino tsuba.

Thank you Markus. That fits perfectly. If born in 1927 and still alive, he's approaching 90 years of age. If I remember correctly, he won a price in 2007 at the annual competition. That would place him at 80. If Chris Bowen or others more knowledgeable about modern Tosho can comment, is it safe to Sugiyama-san will never be Mukansa? At his current age, it seems that time has past him by and he won't achieve that recognition (the general 'such is life').

I believe this guy is from Awa and been around a while. I've seen some of his works from the 1980s and 1990s. Didn't like the 1980s work. Did really like some of the 1990s work. Two decades later, is he still working and has anyone an example of his work? Has he any chance of Mukansa? If there is a bio for him, please point me at it or post it here. Thank you, Curran

Boris, at danger of having to define 'mid range', I agree with mid to later Higo (4th gen through kodai) taking a clear hit. Owari on the other hand, must disagree. Some of the 'mid end' papered stuff is going for more than it did a number of years ago. Even the 'not quite high end' $2000 Kanayama and earlier Owari are going off rather fast and not many decent papered ones out there. A decent Kanayama with Hozon and some rust issues had a number of buyers line up to the dealer for it. Also noticed a shortage of decent ones at the DTI. Thought it strange, as they were more common a decade ago. If anythings, seems more collectors are getting into kodogu. It is just the New Wave seems interested in things a bit different than the past generation. The Sasano Effect has certainly dissipated a bit.

Kodogu is partially a reflection of what is going on with swords. Low to medium end iron kodogu seem soft the past 6 months. But seeing prices for good kinko pieces mostly holding or climbing in sort of a slow stop-start fashion. Please find me a Juyo tsuba for sale online. Also, NBTHK seems to have raised the standard on what they will Tokubetsu Hozon now. Also: past 6 months, Currency. If you are thinking in US$, those items in Japan that remain priced in yen are that much more competitive. Many US and Canadian dealers will feel that pinch hard. Two or three years ago, the USA was the place to buy kodogu and swords. Now it is the other way., but could flip back in 1 to 2 years. Really think currency & internet availability is a large culprit. For now, if you can find a good piece in Japan- it is a bargain. If you bought in USD or GBP even 1 year ago, you are underwater on a currency adjusted basis. (edit: saw Brian's post and agree with it too. Sometimes this stuff is incredibly cyclical. Things like there seems to be a lot of Akasaka on the market at present, but no papered Hirata, early Hayashi, Ko-Mino, or a few other schools. I went looking for a papered Kaga kinko tsuba recently and found Zero. Maybe missed something, but still...)

John, Live auction. I will post it when it is over. Within recent memory I posted a live auction that others on NMB were bidding. After that one and some joking/well meant words of caution to me, I will try and refrain unless it is something I think of general education or interest. This particular auction, the artist is a relatively lesser or unknown artist of a late Edo school that sort of got lost as side stage relative to the Natsuo, Ichijo, and other biggies of late Edo. A 3rd chair underling in a 3rd chair school.... yet darn darn skilled. Maybe the Muses got into him for a bit. I think Pete's ID is excellent, as the style is very in keeping with Uchikoshi designs popular at the time, but the base material is different and the execution a bit different.

Fittings: Is the tsuba signed? Fuchi is signed Mitsuyasu with a 'kao' mark after it. Tsuba is of same design and I will hazard the guess that it is by the same artist. Haynes Index of Fittings makers has 8 possible matches. 'Sekibun' Mitsuyasu, 4 Goto students, and 3 others. It is not the Sekibun school Mitsuyasu, nor is it the most well known Goto student, and I can rule out one of the 3 others. If the tsuba is signed with more of a signature, I can probably determine which fittings artist.

Multi bow to Pete. :bowdown: Haynes entry doesn't give much onthis guy, nor do other texts I have. Only Markus' all too useful 'Japanese Toso-Kinko Schools' has some information on the school. Founder of the school [Yasunori] was formerly a student beside [ichijosai Hirotoshi]- the founder of the Uchikoshi school. It fits well, so think Pete nailed it. Exceptional work by a relatively unknown [barely listed] artist

Gentleman: thank you. I do these exercises with Japanese auctions and found a few tough ones this week. The Herculean Haynes Index is sort of the answer key, but sometimes I find NBTHK or NTHK papered matches where Haynes uses a different kanji. Other times, on some of the papered ones either it can be a name with many Haynes entries and the preceding 天長斎 = Tenchōsai isn't listed amongst any of the Hoju or Yasutoshi enteries [possible I missed it in first two tries] In this instance there is a "Yasutoshi" where the style of his wormanship and the period match this tsuba, but Haynes has him listed under a different Yasu and 天長斎 [Tenchosai] is not listed among those alternatives he used. Fun exercise, but this one has me beat and the work is too skilled for the artist not to be one listed in Haynes. Just none stand out head and shoulders as a clean match.

天長斎保寿 How to correctly read 保寿 for this artists. Is this artist "Yasutoshi" [Amanagabun Yasutoshi" or are we dealing with "Ho____" Arggh......

Ko-Mino kogai. Awesome. Thanks for the link Pete. Currency issue too. We are basing in US$ here, and have seen a 50% pop in that. The $600 kogai of 1 to 2 years ago is currently $400. Last time the yen was this cheap was 2002? That has a phenomenal impact. I was tempted selling off 6 to 8 pieces and taking a shot at a Juyo Hirata tsuba for my next birthday. That is only $40k, but much cheaper than the $60k of 2 years ago. Still, more than the price of a car or 1 year of some higher level educations [feel for Guido here, congratulations on his daughter's graduation. May he buy himself a Toku Juyo as reward next year]. Topic should be "Average Price of a Generic Late Edo kogai" ?

George, Boy, that Yasuchika one snapped my head back a bit. Humbling to imagine making that one. Or many of the others, but man... ....break your brushes, toss them in the bin, and ask yourself what you want to do with the rest of your life.

We need to buy Markus S. a Superman shirt.

Update: The replies netted about 33 sets of 2014 'Higo' papers, 3 sets of 2014 'Jingo' papers, and 0 Nishigaki, 1 Hayashi, 0 Hirata, and 0 Kamiyoshi. Someone today shared with me June 2014 papers to Hayashi. The particular design is distinctly Hayashi thought later taken over by the Kamiyoshi school after they basically replaced the Hayashi. Still, a minor bit of anti-proof meaning that there are or were some papers other than 'Higo' at the Hozon and Tokubetsu Hozon level last year.

an example of Edo Mino f/k http://page14.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/s442687991

Any of you that can bid on things in Japan, here is the 3 Vol Wakayama signature reference set. http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f146368502 If into kodogu, this is invaluable to have. Currently super cheap-cheap. Expect this to go for $500 + fees and $100 shipping. Someone might get lucky and grab it for less than 40,000 yen? I'm never selling my copy unless blind or dead.

John, yep. Quite a range with the Edo examples. Cut the gold content even a little bit from 4.6% or whatever the magic number is [not going to bother looking it up right now] and you go away from that beautiful darkside of the moon black.