Steves87

Not going to lie, I havent read a lot of the posts just yet (I will), but just wanted to post this pic before I forget. Found it on the Facebook doom scrolling... somewhere in India apparently... but masonry for masonry lovers

I am really struggling with this item... I have so many questions about the finish of the Tsuba... I would call it hyper realistic (rust patches??) The surface finish is perfectly real, as is the colouring... but what is really throwing me, is the rust depictions... a state of mind, but I always think of edo tsuba as new (for that time at least... i.e. rust-less?), but for a quality Tsuba depiction to have rust purposefully depicted in a time when edo period tsuba were new?? Does my head in with the awesomeness.... 12 out of 10 for sure.

https://ebay.us/m/uZtBn0 a cute little one

Just want to re-point out this one that Dale posted.... this one is a masterpiece of thought....

Yep, remnant silver within the hatchwork channels... I'm still surprised by the the full coverage into the seppa-dai area... but also, the hatchwork is in the tagane-ato. so perhaps the silver is a later addition?

Jean is right, and there is a really good visual in Sesko's Encyclopaedia of Japanese Swords, which is the partial image below

Yes, it looks like there is nunome zogan hatching all over the plate... including the seppa-dai. I don't think the patina has been stripped, but we are actually seeing the remnant silver. The photos are not great, but I'd be quite confident that this is the case. Can you get us some better pictures to confirm it is silver nunome zogan and not stripped patina?

I have a few, but this is probably one of the better ones

Dale, the top photos in both your posts might be the same guard, pre and post clean... the rust locations somewhat match.

Hi Steve, good looking Tsuba. I think the guys have this under control, but just wanted to say hi from another Steve K.... There used to be another Steve K (aka Tetsugendo) about 6 years ago. Not sure what happened to him, but he was very helpful for me when I first joined.

Very interesting! I can see crossovers between both Jakushi and Soten for sure... Like the trees are very much Jakushi style, as with the nunome zogan on the hill/mountains. The waves carvings and the humanoid figures are a lot more Soten/Hikone style, in my opinion. A few examples showing relatable features that I can give are below. Ill be watching this thread closely!

Not saying it's Nara, but Nara also did the mei panel like that. I'd have said it is a Tanaka that has lived a very hard life at one point, if the plate background was anything to go by. The kuchi-beni have been highly deformed by multiple nakago fitments, and the extra sekigane added

Would you be the same (good) AnewAgain seller I once got an Alva museum replicas item from?

I didn't realise he had passed, sorry to hear, he had some really good posts on some of the different Japanese facebook pages.

And in case you want to see an example of this theme that isn't cast: