Curran

Well done Nobody-sensei.

Saw a similar one in a museum collection and was asked to identify it. It is one of those I had to say 'unknown'. Aspects of ko-shoami crossed with later Edo Umetada works. We all have our comfort zones, and this is one outside what I feel I know. I lean heavily towards Edo, but couldn't say where it was manufactured.

Please post pictures, if at all easy to do so. I haven't made it to the SF show in years and wish I could.

Agree. Ed is very honest. I think it is at least 10 or 11 years now since I first dealt with him. Never a disappointment. Usually as good or better than expected.

Efu = Edo = former name of Tokyo Ju= Of (or) In , referring to a place. "Yoshitsugu, of Edo." as in: "Johnny Ramone, of NYC"

E(do) ju Akao Yoshitsugu

Photos yes, but more impressed by the polish. Language skill in Japanese still has far far far to go, but this thread got me wondering about "Kenji" etymology. I knew it as Police Inspector or Detective. Online dictionary says: 堅持 kenji holding on to; sticking to 検事 kenji public prosecutor 健児 kenji stalwart youth 剣璽 kenji sacred sword and jewels Guido and Markus can educate us further, but I agree with it as a symbol going back to at least 800 AD- but probably much further - as a symbol of wisdom, judgement, and all things sort of Law or Judicial.

Concur with Junichi: not sure this one is kosher. Not sure it is not kosher. When that large, they tend to be either Muromachi or late-late Edo-Meiji. When that large and heavy, almost definitely on the Meiji side of things. Attached is an image of a ko-kinko I have just under 10cm. Earlier this year I sold a ko-katchushi to a dealer that was 10.5cm. Still, neither is close to 13.8 oz.. Only thing I have close to that is a mixed metal Nambokuchu tachi tsuba that is 1cm thick. Even that is only 13.5oz?

Chris, Knew I had seen something similar floating around. Don't tell Ford though.

Akasaka Tadanori tsuba bonus too, though it needs some TLC. Without reaching for the books: student of Tadashige or of the Tadashige line. Might have been more than 1 generation.

Hirata

Yes Ford, we already established that in the prior thread. Stephen: I wish. Ito-san's books, correspondence, and private translations efforts help. Learn bits and pieces from friends over time. Ito-san and the NBTHK seem to disagree on attributions in his books (he says one, the papers say another) and we students or owners interested in the stuff figure out our understanding between the two datapoints.

Anyone have personal images of iron shodai Kanshiro tsuba? Looking for tekkotsu in his works. I've only handled a few iron ones, but noted that they seem to be rich with tekkotsu here and there. The nidai works and those of nidai's brother [Nishigaki Kampei] seem to totally lack them. I have one I own, and it has a few on the mimi. There is an estate one here going up for sale soon, and it has them all over the face though they seem intentionally worn or shaved down. It is a devil of a time to try and get them to show in photos. I hope to see examples others may have. This sort of feature is never very evident in book photos. Here is the estate one. I'll post pictures of my own iron Kanshiro's tekkotsu later.

Jean is the man. After decades of no-one being quite sure what it was- Jean helped identify this 1862 one an ancestor carried it in the Civil War. Then helped me care for it correctly. He knows his guns. Ed- that is a real beaut.

First book is Vol 7 of the eight volume fittings encyclopedia by Wakayama. http://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.c ... s-wakayama It took me years to score a copy of this eight volume set for less than $1000, then luck would have it one of the estates I recently helped close out had a set of these. So now I have a second set. With some Japanese reading ability, (a) the 3 vol wakayama signature set, (b) Haynes Index, © one of Markus' translations, and (d) this set: you have a base for most things kodogu that you will ever stumble upon. From there you can build outward to study certain schools. The 8 volume set gives you a decent guidemap to many/most of the schools before you start coughing up the $150 to $650 for individual texts on certain schools.

Would love a copy or two, having hear much about the exhibit. But not a member of the NBTHK. Look forward to buying it at some point. Thank you for letting us know it may be available soon.

The moons are all inlaid at an earlier stage in the construction. We can look inside one of the ana and see a cross section depth of one of the moons into the plate. It isn't very hard to reverse engineer the design of this one. The fukurin is a shakudo twisted rope type fukurin. Much nicer than I anticipated from photos. This came from an antiques dealer about 20 miles south of me in Port Charlotte (site of a class 4 hurricane landfall about 1 decade ago- totally flattened it). Unfortunately, it was the only one she had and no word where it came from. As you say, some of these independent artists are a mash-up of the 4 main schools and whatever else. Nishigaki <-> Hayashi mash-up on this one? I haven't had the time to go further than confirming it is probably Kohrin work. Often they bridge two schools, and I like the results.

Well, the Kumamoto artists are a complex topic beyond me. Some of them were incredibly skilled and it is a shame we don't have more in English on them. I am not sure there is that much in Japanese. A talk with an eBayer led me to this attached tsuba. I just assumed it was 3rd gen Nishigaki work, but one of our Higo smart guys said to look in the Hayashi book at the works of an artist known as 'Kohrin'. His works are rare and mostly in the Kumamoto Prefect Museum. I agree with the gent that this is a work by Kohrin. I thought the shakudo trees on the mountain were nicely done. No intention of sending it to the NBTHK for a paper that says 'Higo'. Anyway, love the design of moon reflected in the rice fields. Nidai Kanshiro did a famous tsuba of this design, and part of why I just assumed it was 3rd gen work in the same line. There are quite a few Kumamoto artist works I would love to own.

I have never looked at the Tetsuguendo.com gallery before. I looked at the Nakane there. A nice one recently went off in the Bonhams London sale. The iron Kanshiro in Mike/Cyrus' gallery section is here now. I will list it in a few weeks if it doesn't go privately first. The pleasing thing about it that I would never have been able to tell from pictures is the presence of several tekkotsu on the face and back. I might have expected them along the mimi, but not where they are on such a thin tsuba. Some things just never to show up in photos.

I do not know which shinsa yours went into. It is good they confirmed it was 'Higo', as one of our NMB members thought. However: recently everything Higo seems to be coming back from NBTHK shinsa with just 'Higo' attribution. No more specific attributions. A mumei shakudo piece I sent in got a very lofty attribution to a specific ko-goto master, but a pair of nidai Kanshiro menuki got the 'Higo' papers. At the very very least, should have gotten 'Nishigaki'. Seemed an overshoot and undershoot of the target. Others have confirmed similarly vague 'Higo' results: be it published 1st generation works or just 5th gen unsigned works.

Ah.... Yes - 8cm would be a particularly thick tsuba. At that size, I think it definitely affect the balance a bit. Off to correct that now. Curran

Hi David, Yes, it is thicker than many hamburgers. In the photos, I compare it to another large ko-akasaka and to a more normal sized tsuba. It is the most robust Ko-Akasaka I know of from the books. I contemplated selling one of mine so I could take this one in. I am trying to stick to certain types of kinko works these days, but this one vexs me with temptation. Only problem is I don't know what I'd move out.

First impression is as Ludolph said: 'Gimei' The snowflake designs being common to the school, and have seen quite a number of mumei pieces. Mike Y. also had an authentic signed shakudo one, no? Here is one in Japan: http://www.e-sword.jp/sale/2010/1010_6010syousai.htm Maybe because of the number of unsigned ones, the snowflake ones seem to often sport gimei signatures. Possibly the signature was added later to make it more marketable. Ichijo ippa without the signature, but turned into Gimei.

Tsuba #2 sold before I could list it. Tsuba #3 and #4 are up: http://www.juyo-bi.com/sales.html Two extremes of the ko-Akasaka. Both very large. Take a look or take a buy. Either way, stop on by. They are not mine, but top quality pieces that I get to study for now.

Tsuba: Higashiyama Motonobu [Haynes 05901.0] Mito work. Dated examples from 1847-1875 exist. Not a big enough name to be in the 3 volume Wakayama or other texts, but a very nice looking tsuba better than many we see here. I like the design, and would definitely look this one over at a sword show.