PietroParis

I forgot a quite important difference: 4) the buyer pays a 9% fee!

In fact Catawiki does not "publish the sales of various auction houses". It is an online auction platform not unlike eBay. The main differences are that 1) the items on sale are supposedly vetted by "experts" who provide (usually too high) estimates; 2) most items on sale have reserve prices; 3) the deadline is moved when there are bids in the last minute (i.e., no sniping). What happened in this case might be that somebody bought the item on Catawiki and then put it on sale again. Or maybe the sale failed for some reason and the original seller is trying again on a different platform. Cheers, Pietro

I googled this, but I suppose you know it already: https://www.Japanese-wiki-corpus.org/literature/Nozarashi Kiko.html

A mumei tsuba from eBay, very similar to one signed Tatsunao shown in the previous page (see link). If I'm not mistaken, the NBTHK paper classifies it as 武州 Bushu:

Obvious trash has some value as well as it provides entertainment. IMHO it's up to the people who animate the thread to set the balance between fun crap and insidious fakes. Members who find the thread too lowbrow can either skip it or provide worthier items for discussion.

One more with Noshi design, signed Namitoshi (from eBay):

The issue was recently discussed in this thread. It would seem that newer papers don't have the ownership info on the back.

Could it be 芳光 Yoshimitsu? There seem to be several Meiji-period bronze artists signing with that name, although the first kanji looks a bit different in each of the signatures:

It might be easier if you post a picture focused on the animal...

I'd say either 正艮 Masanaga or 正良 Masayoshi + kao (artist's seal)

A naive question: is the rugged texture of the steel in the Varshavsky tsuba an intended effect, rather than the result of corrosion?

Hi All, today I noticed that a tsuba that had attracted my attention for the thread "Tatsutoshi & students" is being offered three times on eBay: seller: tsushu0; price: $950.39 https://www.ebay.fr/itm/Flange-Efu-Sumi-Hoju/203291624238 seller: tsushu0; price: 730.25 GBP https://www.ebay.fr/itm/Flange-Efu-Sumi-Hoju/203293794553 seller: cool-Japan.ec; price: $612.23 https://www.ebay.fr/itm/Tsuba-Sword-Guard-Blade-Katana-Samurai-Japanese-Antique-T-05/124605337567 Note that the first offer listed above came a couple of days earlier than the other two. What do you think the deal is? Why would a seller list the same item twice at different prices depending on the currency? (i.e. 730 GPB is about $1016 at today's rates). And more importantly, what about the second seller who offers the same tsuba at a significantly lower price? Is it just a scammer who stole the pictures from the first seller? Or maybe neither seller owns the tsuba, and they are planning to purchase it at a lower price from a Japanese-only source in case they find a buyer? Cheers, Pietro

Back then I had answered that Tatsutoshi belonged to the Akao school, and indeed in the useful genealogy posted by Mauro (from Markus Sesko's book) he is six generations down from the Akao founder. However, he does appear to be also listed as "founder of the Ito school" .

Do I understand correctly that Tatsutoshi & students should be referred to as “Ito/Ido School”?

Thank you so much Mauro, this is vital information for the Tatsutoshi thread!!!

Yasutoshi appears to be a new entry in the school, see details in this thread. Could anybody please check page 114 of Markus Sesko’s “Genealogies” and let me know how he was related to Tatsutoshi?

Many thanks Moriyama-san! In Markus Sesko's "Genealogies" there appears to be a 保壽 Yasutoshi on the same page (114) as Tatsutoshi, Tatsunao, Namitoshi and Tokitoshi, so he might well be another member of the school. https://books.google.fr/books?id=vNwvaPSEnCMC&q=yasutoshi#v=snippet&q=yasutoshi&f=false Needless to say, page 114 is not included in the preview. I guess I should just buy the book and get over with it...

Hi All, Checking today's eBay offerings, a tsuba jumped to my eye as a possible candidate for my "Tatsutoshi & students" thread (far too expensive for a purchase, though): I was quite excited when I saw that the signature – oddly transcribed as "Efu Sumi Hoju" – reads 江府住 ? 壽, i.e. Efu-ju ?-toshi. The kanji I cannot recognize resembles neither 辰 for Tatsutoshi nor 並 for Namitoshi. I thought I had found an example of the elusive Tokitoshi, the third student of Tatsutoshi that is currently missing in my thread, but I see that the corresponding kanji would be 其 , which does not resemble the one in the pictures either. Could one of the knowledgeable NMB members translate this signature for me? Thanks in advance, Pietro

As a starting point for sword fittings (especially later, soft-metal ones) this book is cheap, easily available and has great pictures: https://www.amazon.fr/Lethal-Elegance-Samurai-Sword-Fittings/dp/0878467750/

For example, some of these might be actual kozuka: https://www.waxantiques.com/antique-silver-and-Japanese-kozuka-cutlery.html While these are just kozuka-inspired cutlery handles: https://www.proantic.com/en/display.php?id=492891

Another (rather similar) Namitoshi in this thread:

These cutlery handles are often decorated on both sides. In that case they are not repurposed kozuka, just kozuka-like decorations.

Would you mind posting the first picture also in this thread of mine? Thanks!

when this happens to me I like to think that I have more funds left for my next purchase...

OK now I understand: Both of the handwritten columns on the bottom are the date of issue. The date of change would go on the left of 変更年月日, and the name of the second registered owner on the left of the leftmost 所有者名. This clears it up for me, thanks!