PietroParis

Also, this book is usually considered a pretty reliable source...

And yet, the NBTHK certificate calls them geese ( 雁 ) Why did you think Mauro had posted snippets of the certificates?

P.S. I guess this is the kabuki play JP refers to, but still no Oni... http://www.zen-garden.org/html/page_window_FujiMusume.htm Maybe the solution is that both “Wisteria Maiden” and “Repentant Oni” were well-known subjects of Otsu-e (see link) and the joke consists precisely in showing them together?

I suggest you download this free book. On page 77, you'll find this: I don't know why she pals around with an Oni, though.

Just seen this on sale in a Facebook group, quite cheap and erroneously attributed to "Nagatoshi" (or maybe both readings of the mei are accepted?). Alas, someone had already snatched it...

See this link for the eBay sale: Rephrasing the question: is there really a market for broken-off nakago? This must be the first one I've seen online (I'm NOT planning to buy it, to be clear!)

For those who don’t know what to look for, could you please be more specific about the anomalies? I have a general feeling that the decoration is messy and inelegant, but the only obvious anomaly that I can detect is the uneven sprinkling of gold dust (?) in the third picture.

I can't be of help with this sword, but I do remember that this strategy worked well for you with those woodblock prints. Maybe you'll be lucky again!

And, to state the obvious, 櫻花小透 鐔 in the upper column of the description means "cherry blossom ko-sukashi (small openwork) tsuba". How do you read the kanji above 透 in the leftmost lower column of the description? Is that another 小 ?

Sure, case closed. I just meant that, for some reason, a heated discussion went on and on based on pictures that the owner himself had said were misleading.

For the record, you had said it already, but it looks like nobody paid attention...

Indeed, one of my two papered tsuba (both cheaper than $400) also comes from matsu-kaze.

Usually I can decipher most of the information in the NBTHK papers for tsuba using this page: http://jssus.org/nkp/kanji_for_tsuba.html but this time I could not find 後代. I have been looking for a nice “tosho revival” tsuba for a while and this looked like a beautiful example, with yellow papers to boot! (if I read correctly, they were issued in 1992). I had planned to bid near the end of the sale, but the price went above my budget and I gave up, thus I did not cost you any extra money... I reckon it’s still a very good price for a papered tsuba with no visible rust issues. Maybe the fact that it’s wakizashi size helped keep it relatively cheap.

Did you buy it? Congratulations! It was in my watching list but it went above my current budget (after factoring in shipping and customs). BTW how do you read the two kanji between mumei and Umetada?

I was not aware that the forum rules forbid linking to ongoing auctions. Isn’t there a whole section of the forum dedicated to such discussions?

Should the typo read 2020 or 2010?

It doesn't look like a netsuke to me, but I have no idea of what it could be.

No, it’s a “green paper” from NBTHK. However, as I wrote above, I am not sure if the dictum “green papers = no papers” also applies to tosogu.

It has the old papers (tokubetsu kicho), which are supposedly discredited. Not sure if this applies to tosogu, though.

I asked the person who proposed the rusu moyo (absent motif) interpretation as gama sennin what they think of Mauro’s theory. I’m curious to see how this ends.

I can’t be of help concerning the authenticity, but I am impressed by the honesty of the seller. A less-scrupulous one would have just relied on the certificate. I bought a tsuba and a bowl from them and I was pleased with both.

1800 yen is about $17, doesn’t sound likely

I expect they will ask you for a full-length picture of the naked blade to assess the shape.

Agreed. The scrolling can be paused, but it must be done each time you load the page. It would be better if the browser could remember this setting. OTOH, I am in favor of the confirmation for “mark as read”. It did happen to me in the past to click it by mistake.