Curran

Thanks Pete. I've only owned a few of the early ones and didn't remember if they had kodogu in them. I should have presumed they did. Are they inclusive with photos of all the kodogu that passed Juyo? Christian- I'm dealing with a large tsuba. In photos, I thought it must be a Modern tsuba. I figured 99% chance it is Modern. It was sent to me. In person, I cannot tell. With such tsuba, there are usually a number of ways to determine they are Modern. This one is complicated by being mostly covered in well done lacquer. I've been over it with magnification, for 2 days. The more I look, the more I think it is real and in excellent condition. It has an old Kanzan Sato hakogaki from 1967(?). I am still a 'doubting Thomas'. I don't have any of the Juyo catalogs, but am thinking I need to review them and see if this is a wayward child that got lost from its papers? My feeling is that if it is real.... it must be photographed and recorded somewhere. It might be, "looking for a needle in a haystack".

Thanks and thanks. Regarding that topic: That which was meant to be an insurance ended up being rather what broke the piggybank. I've been doing this a long long time. Friday was nothing more than a sudden jab to the face, but must say things are getting a bit weird this year- from Japan to Cyprus.

Thank you. That is exactly the mimi. Makes sense now.

I long ago sold my Juyo catalogs. Library space has its limits. I don't remember the early catalogs having had any photos of the Juyo kodogu. Do the current catalogs photography Juyo kodogu? If so, when did they start?

Chris, Thank you. Should have realized it was a date. Brain went to mush trying to identify the mimi description. You'd think it would be easy, given I know what the tsuba looks like.... but haven't gotten it yet.

Please see attached picture: I read: Gorinto sukashi Iron (?) Mimi (I could use help with the next column) Then "Kanzan Sato"

Depends who you ask, or who you believe. Some versions: Original Hazama split----> Kunitomo Group one way & Hazama Group other way(Hazama group died off) (#2) Hazama---> Kunitomo Group---> later 'Hazama 2.0' split off, more commercial (#3) Kunitomo group w some simply signed Hazama ---> later Hazama splitoff. I don't really know. I have a long signature (something something) Kunitomo Teiei saku with TH papers and hakogaki Kanzan Sato owner, etc.... I prefer my 'Hazama' Hozon one with a minor forging flaw. The two are very different, and it is hard for me to believe the 'Hozon' one came after the Kunitomo Teiei saku. I'm probably going to put the Kunitomo Teiei into Bonhams this year, as I only want one from this school. Seem to by cycling more to ko-mino, ko-kinko, ko-goto, and Higo kinko nowadays However, I've seen published a 'Naagaki' (3rd Kunitomo?) that was same design as my 'Hazama', but Juyo. There is no way mine will ever make Juyo, with its small forging flaw- but I would like to compare it with that Juyo one to figure out which of the versions / theories I support. Personal current opinion is to believe #2 The Hazama up for sale in Japan is one of what I feel is the Hazama 2.0 variety, though I have seen one or two worse. I guestimate it pulls 2k to 2.5k. Depends on how many bidders just see 'Hazama' more than the tsuba.

Seen that one in person too. So deeply cut. Don't own any kozuka, ~~but if I did, that would be one to own. If it just had Toku Hozon papers instead of Juyo, I would have already found the way to own it. There is a reason I bought those ko-mino books from you. At juyo price, too lofty for the current budget. Like I said, it was a tough week. Working on it.

Glad Peter posted this thread. Yesterday on a rather brutal work day, the one brightspot was a tsuba arriving in the mail. Photo attached. Apologies for the lighting, as it is another grey winter day here in NYC. ~~~~ I've been sort of on a Wave theme bender of late, and liked the paulownia on waves design. This is the tsuba that showed up, 3 piece construction with a black fukurin. After cleaning some dirt off it, proved much nicer than I expected. The paulownia are alternating gold and silver, though it is difficult to see the silver given its oxidation. I don't have much experience with these 3 piece kinko works. Higher quality shakudo mounted over a base plate of copper. As peter said, these things probably looked great mounted.

Following a previous discussion of Hazama tsuba, one is up on Yahoo!Japan right now: http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f121924384 It isn't even a particularly nice one (sort of boring and thin design, condition is *fair*), but as these things are very rare and desirable to a lot of collectors- this auction is worth watching. Closing price will probably be in the 60-70% range of what a dealer would charge. Unfortunately for us non-Japanese, agency charges of buying this would probably bring it closer to 85-90% of what a dealer would charge. I had one like this years ago, unpapered and sold it for just under $2000. I'm curious to see where this one goes, as I haven't seen one up for auction in years.

Gut instinct on this one is southern Kyushu area work. I cannot say what school. Others of you have made more intelligent articulated observations that I could. I'm just adding my datapoint of opinion.

Dave- I have enjoyed following this story, crossing its tracks every now and then from the first time you posted. I look forward to better photos from Dr. Melaville's grandson, be it a stainless steel or something more than that.

But they do care! Why.... I have no idea. This is the second time I've had tsuba stopped. NBTHK shinsa is getting to be an impossible thing.

Chris, Something like that. They want proof the items are antique. Never mind that one of them is Nambokuchu or earliest Muromachi and looks it.... Its getting to be a ridiculous amount of work, and I'm rather mad about it.

This is important to me to resolve an issue with Japanese Customs. Can someone please to me the great favor of scanning in the entire Sasano Silver Book page for the Hayashi tsuba similar to the one discussed in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14486&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=hayashi Japanese Customs needs to see the time period before they will admit a tsuba to Japan as an antique. Japanese Customs is getting to be a real pain in the arse. Please help, if you can. I don't have access to my books.

Ouch.

David, My feeling on Namban: Nice to have a few for a while, but not to keep. Only keep the if they are: (1) Really fine condition early examples (2) Something very funky or different You definitely have #1. This one on ebay is #2. Signature is one of the most unique I can remember, design is straight out of a D&D Monster Manual, and NBTHK Hozon. That table of Nambans in Tampa: 49 out of 50 didn't interest me much. Give me #1 (yours) or #2 (something like this ebay one). I visited Katana-Maeda website, and it looks like they were regulars on Bidders.com until it got shut down. Then they decided to migrate to eBay and give it a try.

I had a very pleasant purchase on eBay from a Japanese seller. In my experience, they are a class act. I decided to recommend them. They have an interesting tsuba up now: http://www.ebay.com/itm/TSUBA-Japanese- ... 1e78e285dc NBTHK papers and all. It actually says made with namban tetsu. I've seen this on swords, but don't recall seeing this on a tsuba. Enjoyable looking tsuba too. Attached below are images of the fuchi kashira I purchased. I was a little shocked to see this on ebay. They are 4th generation Nishigaki, signed and dated July 1776 He was about 76 years old at the time of making these very large f/k, and did them in a very non-Higo shape. Really interesting experimentation by a retired mainline maker at an old age, at a time when our USA founding fathers were off trying some experiments of their own. Since we are moving soon, I offered to pay for express delivery. They told me not to worry, and sent it right away lighting fast. They paid the extra $15 or so to send it that way, and did a phenomenal job packaging it. Both wife and I were just impressed by old school class of the seller. Highly recommended, and I hope others have similar experiences.

$20? Newbie luck or you took a really good shot after having learned from NMB a bit. I can only back up Boris' comments about the hitsu-ana. I put on my dark glasses, grab my zato cane, and stumble around in his area of expertise, always learning something from him. The similarity to ko-mino point was a good one. Please share a photo or two of the tsuba in natural sunlight, if you ever get the chance or can photograph it near a window in what is probably still cold weather in the UK. David are you in Japan, or just about to head to Japan?

Peter- PM sent

Henk-Jan, Thank you for that. I was so starved for English when a foreign exchange student in Japan in 1989. A classmate handed me a copy of 'The Dirty Pair' in both Japanese and English. I wonder now if that was some of his work.

Even if it is a moot point, I'd like to know how he died. He added both to the Nihonto and Japanese Art / Anime world. It should be given at least a moments respect here.

I agree with Peter. Leave this one alone. Maybe a light horse hair brushing now and then, and some handling. Nothing more. Its hard to age that gracefully. Curran

I'm looking for fellow friends of Toren Smith. I haven't spoken with him in years, but Darcy contacted me. Word is the former collector and well known translator has died.

Much of it doesn't come from Japan. It comes from farms in Georgia, South Carolina, and the likes. The Japanese came in the 1980s and bought up all future production for 30+ years out.