Curran

SFswordsociety/togi has long been regarded as a not so secret society of Haight-Ashbury tie-dye ninjas. Descriptions by friends at SF festivals say they are just short of manga buffoonery. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Do not confuse them with Jimmy Hayashi, whose fine workmanship I got to study a bit in Tampa this year. Some nice work on Enju blades belonging to an LA area doctor.

Many NMB members know I am a Norisuke fan. Anyone can search the boards and find my previous posts on the topic. For the June 2014 item, I listed a very nice one on Juyo-Bi.com http://www.juyo-bi.com/sales.html Also, I did up a Niwa and Iwata Norisuke article a few weeks ago, for general reference: http://www.juyo-bi.com/norisuke-tsuba.html

Strangely interesting thread. [i still have decades to go until catching up to the current Japanese proficiency of some members here, but was introduced to a double does of the Kagoshima accent last night. Cross reference that with our daikon or kabu discussion]. As George reminded and I learned last year, "big root" is also a bragging euphemism. There was a KDrama two or three years ago set in the late Joeson period at Sungkyunkwan University. The lead character was given the nickname "big unit" or "big root" by the local Kisaeng [state controlled 'pleasure quarter']. It came the big running joke of the series. Tofu doesn't make for pretty art. Have seen it. Usually it is more fruit, vegetables, millet, rice, dried fish, etc. Another way to approach this is to ask the more Japanese culture knowledgeable what are the NEGATIVE connotations? As Lee hit on, this vegetable is used to do about everything except go fishing. Even then, could serve as a fish clubber. Why would a samurai NOT want such a generally positive and acceptable theme on his sword? He can say it means X to person1 in the castle, and Y to person2 in the street, and Z to person3 in the pleasure quarters? Japanese ambiguity? Pete: love the f/k and do remember the Meeses to Pieces (Snaggletooth from Hanna Barberra, no?)

Perhaps don't overthink it. Daikon is as omnipresent in the food as tofu (and kimchee in my case). Almost anything can be done with it and it grows massively large even in mediorcre soil like our FL sand. I admit to having grown small crops of these. We use almost ever inch of them, and there are 101 different ways to use them. They must have been a huge part of the Edo (non meat) diet.

....Spanish and Dutch (Friisian at that... crazy language) That is it. Hey... it was the university years and I did work in the language labs. Pretty international co-eds showed up at my window 18 hours a week. Why be a sailor taking long trips? Why not get paid to work in a place where they all come to you? Never dated Japanese girl. Best one I knew was dating a classmate I respected the heck out of, so no go. Now she's an MD-PhD in San Fran. Afraid my Spanish co-worker suffered from Yellow Fever, so all those girls were his. Given that he was a tall well groomed handsome guy, it was shooting fish in a barrel for him. Were it not the insistence of a friend that I go on a blind date... would never have met Grace. Then had to keep my co-worker in check. For the record, Grace's roommate was a tall attractive redhead from France. But she was Tilda Swanson sort of freaky femme fatale. The Odd Couple of female roommates. __________________________________________________________________________ Edit: Junichi: from memory, I think she was using catalog photos taken in 1923?

Markus, Far be it from me to play matchmaker. Same nationality, similar interests, etc... But then nothing like meeting a native girl to help the language learning. Had things gone just so slightly differently, I'd be in Basil now. Not a guarantee though, as near a decade married and my Korean is still rather basic.

Thank you gents. I hate to go harsh on what is a substantial amount of work by someone. At my level of german comprehension, I welcomed her work- but felt saddened by such a brutal long effort over so many average tsuba. [~~~~ I agree with most everything others wrote subsequently. Was afraid to see what replies I might get this morning, as I ripped off that post late at night when dead tired and 2 drams of rum had muted the Inhibitor chip a bit.] I fan read through it, understanding some parts and not others. I had thought it was a PhD thesis. Guido: sorry about the German/Austrian thing. Austria, the land of Kangaroos.... [groan- old joke I saw on a tourist t-shirt in Vienna long ago]. 19 years ago: one semester of Intensive German [4 college semesters shoved into one nose cram of a course] and a Swiss girlfriend at the time. This most certainly does not equal much fluency in German. I'm surprised I remember any of it. But that Frau beat the stuff into us. Is the author related to Markus in some way? Being Austrian and quoting Markus' works many times, plus probably being of comparative age- would look further into that if I were CIA or NSA and that curious.

Bash me for being honest, but that is one of the worst museum collections I have ever seen. So many pieces, so many mediocre examples- and with museum numbers written all up and down them. Page after page of gimei. An NBTHK or NTHK nighmare. Yet the recent German PhD candidate has written so extensively on them. Such significant effort on such a river of dross. I do not know whether to admire or feel sorry for her. There are a few in there that aren't so average. Also, there is a decent Higo or Kumagai one labeled #1551 somewhere around pages 350 to 360 that is a good ringer for one Marisuzk recently sold. Still... over 400 pages? About 450? Page after page of tortured yet cataloged tsuba. A good number of pages are tsuba, but this woman has worked and paid her dues. I hope she benefits from it. Quite the Don Quixote.

Guido, Nice little koshirae with a nice blade. Good starter package for someone, thought I would worry about a newbie properly caring for old ito like that. In the Aoi Arts Japanese listing, where is the mention of chiisagatana? At my mediocre level of reading, I would have thought they were discussing the kogatana instead of koshigatana / chiisagatana. The English version doesn't mention it and my Japanese reading doesn't see 腰刀.

It is a Mino/Owari style habaki. I'm not going to go digging through the books and scan one in, so just take my word for it. There is an Owari-Yagyu book that has a few of these, and it might be represented in one of the Yoshihara-Kapp books. I sold the Owari book and think my copy of Kapp is in storage. Not sure what other books would back up what I say. What is the sword and/or koshirae that goes with it? PM me if you need to do so. Not much to tell you other than it is a particular region style and that I like it. Partial to these myself, and have one on one of my two swords. It does not have any special value, but is something that should definitely be preserved as a study piece in and of itself.

From the kodogu crowd: I can only second Pete's recommendation on Goto and the machibori. It terms of easier books that you [specially meaning Markus and his workhorse power] probably could burn through in a fortnight is the Soyo-Somin book. They influenced so much after them, and the book is not terribly complex or long. Pictures explain many things, but the there are many passages beyond my ability to understand the finepoints of why is authentic and [A] and [C] were not.

Tsuba is a Kamakura bori. Kamakura bori is a wood carving technique, only used to render a certain aesthetic in metal in this instance. Like Yagyu tsuba, there seems to have been several phases. I've seen a few thin early ones with a remarkable feel like ko-tosho or ko-katchushi ones> There were one or two well photographed in the Compton Collection. Cary Condell also had a beautiful one. Later phase ones tent to be thicker, and iron less pleasing though they look right from top down. These we sometimes see on Aoi Arts and elsewhere. Then sometimes we see cast ones.

Two "orphan" menuki, and a water dropper for an ink stone?

Shimosaka was a name used by famous Yasutsugu at a point early in his career. However, Shimosaka is also a general two character school name signature used on many tanto and yari mostly from the 1800s. If a piece simply signed "Shimosaka" then it is probably one of the 1800s works. I only own 2 tanto, but one of them is a Shimosaka in koshirae from around 1865 seen here: http://www.juyo-bi.com/toppei-koshirae.html A Shimosaka yari: http://www.aoijapan.com/yari-shimosaka Copy and pasted dealer notes on Echizen Shimosaka that you originally asked about: Special feature : Yasutsugu school continued to 8th generation. This piece is from 3rd generation piece. The first generation Yasutsugu is from Mino province. At his early carrier, he named himself Echizen Shimosaka. While then, he has become a personal sword smith of Shogun　family. While his presence, he has engraved the letter “康-Yasu-” from Tokugawa Ieyasu and Aoi family crest on the top.

John, As others have said, please do not clean the tsuba. Even after 25 years appreciating tsuba, I am still cautious dealing with the kinko ones. During the 16th Century Warring States period http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sengoku_period tsuba were very utilitarian with less decoration that would follow in the calmer periods thereafter. Many tsuba were made, used, and lost. However, the Japanese appreciation for "Keep It Simple" would often look back to these tsuba. Also, with time, some of them developed deep patina or character that could be appreciated much like an old tea bowl. Yours is imperfect, like a chipped old tea bowl, but has some of that aesthetic that a number of collectors like me appreciate. A 17th Century master of making these Keep It Simple tsuba was Hirata Hikozo. The tsuba in the link is "Den Hikozo" with the Den largely implying it is probably his work. 'Den' is an uncertain term and can mean 'almost like' in both the positive sense [has more positive traits than X, but X is our best match], though usually it means [has almost all the traits we feel necessary to say X, but not quite X]. It is a term that gives us fits. The "Den Hikozo" with the link is lacking in some ways and not worth the $12,000 asking price- thus sat on that site for a few years. A ko-kinko like yours is probably worth a few hundred USD to the right person. I only keep one ko-kinko in my collection, and it is a nice huge example from which I can see the influences Hikozo studied in his works. If I were so bold as to attempt an American NBTHK lecture on Hikozo and the Hirata school of work, yours would be a good ko-kinko piece to compare and contrast with some of his simpler works. The metal "fukurin" on yours has a worn off or broken point that shows the metal underneath, and that alone would be a great example of showing how it was done in ko-kinko works and how Hikozo intentionally did his differently. In conclusion, it is a very nice find for coming out of an old house. It is not super duper rare, but an interesting piece that either will become a good starting study point for you or something that you will eventually sell off to a person who will care for it.

John K. welcome, As Barry H. said "ko-kinko" with "ko" meaning old and "kinko" meaning soft metalwork in this instance. Dates probably mid to later half of 1500s. A utilitarian piece probably used on a smaller sword during the Warring times of that era. Such simple pieces would go on to influence the Cha or Teahouse Aesthetic of peacetime that would develop most well known in the Higo schools of the early 1600s. For a pricey example of that desired school, see here and compare to your own: http://ginzaseikodo.com/hikozoE.html Any typos or error by me, others please feel free to correct. It is late here and off to bed. I'll revisit this tomorrow and make corrections or expand on other comments or questions.

Mr. Stuart is an Admin here and one of the most fair handed people ever to help hold the reins on this place: for many years, nations, languages, and thousands of members that it has encompassed. To my surprise, your tsuba turns out to be an interesting old one and predecessor to more valuable ones. It would be very easy to teach/explain too. Good that you got the photos up. Please re-read your thread and the forum rules and honestly ask yourself if you've been fair. I encourage you to try again anew. Clean the slate and start over again. You can burn the bridges another day. Put another way: It is worth your time, but why is it worth our time? Or you can submit it to shinsa for a few hundred dollars and get an answer that way. We're almost free, but do ask courtesy- especially toward the Admins.

Previous year location. Would this be the 2014 location? http://orlandojapaneseswordshow.com/us/location/ Staybridge Suites 7450 Augusta Drive Orlando, FL 32822

For the Japanese proficient, I have a question about how to interpret, " ko-saku" Why the use of 'ko' here?

Umetada: +1 Later in the school.

Oh sure... go ahead and take away our 'oldtimer' competitive advantages! Some of us have worked for a decade putting together a suitcase light version for taking sword shows. .....What , you think Ludoph has all those signature photos just because it beats collecting stamps? Now you've gone to arm everyone with tablets and character recognition software..... gah! *If anyone cannot tell, I am joking*. Markus has done Herculean things in the 21st century to open up fittings collecting. Very grateful to him, though he just partially obsoleted the existence of my own mini database on such signatures.

I just see 4 chicken or rooster heads. Looks like Stephen beat me to it. +1 to what he said.

Christian- I thought the same thing, though it is partially my own fault for not leaving more of a verbal marker on the one. I didn't think it would come up for sale. However, it is neither here nor there... I will have a go now rather than speculate on whether I could have gotten it cheaper privately. I've had a lot of years to look for better ones of this particular school in Japan. Recently came close, ....but 'no cigar', we say. Also, I know and have had in person some of these. ie. No Japan dealer surprises. The Japanese dealer use of spray wax seems on the rise.

This seems to come up 2 or 3 times a year. Basically it is the four 'Commercial Links' list. There have been various iterations: North American, Japanese, European There was one done in this same sub-section within the past few months.

Yes, as Pete said. It is one of the 'other' Nobuiye listed in the Nobuiye book, and this particular example it the one shown for the artist in the book. Not a very prolific fellow. I've seen that particular one in person and like it better than a few of the mainline Nobuiye I have seen, but not one of the major league Nobuiye. Still, wouldn't mind owning it for a while. Just one of the others is my first pick.