PietroParis

So the patina grew back after the corrosion? Shouldn’t this have disqualified the tsuba from getting papers? You are an expert on metals and I am absolutely ready to accept your theory, I am just trying to understand.

I think the crest theory referred to your example from the “Unique Japan” page (note that he mentioned nested masu). This said, I agree with you on the prominence of the hitsu block.

Piers, if I'm not wrong the tsuba with a square masu that you show above is number 65 in Sasano's book. A few pages earlier, I see this one (number 61): Let me stress again that the identification of my tsuba's design as a cross comes from the NBTHK paper, and I do not particularly care about whether or not it is a Christian symbol. Cheers, Pietro

I suppose you must be some kind of big shot in the Nihonto community, to feel entitled to come here, s**t all over the place, dictate to Brian how he should run the forum, and threaten reprisals if things don't go your way. Being as I write above a beginner in the Nihonto community, I've never heard before of a Ray somebody. To my eyes, you are defined by the behavior you displayed in the last two days. No big deal anyway, I'm sure you won't lose sleep about it.

Brian, will you clarify to us mere mortals who this mysterious new member is, and what is your relationship with him? Even in a forum as lightly moderated as this one, a newcomer who introduces himself by trampling on the forum rules and disrupting an existing thread, then moves on to start a new thread full of personal insults and name-calling, would normally be dealt with in a very different way. In contrast, your treatment of this person has been little short of deferential. As a beginner who knows next to nothing about Tosogu and Nihonto I should probably mind my own business, but I am intrigued by the dynamics at play here...

P.S. the seppa-dai is indeed thinner than the mimi. Even the square hitsu-ana are slightly thicker at the outer edges than at the inner ones, as can perhaps be appreciated in this picture:

Many thanks to Yasaka San for the kind input, and to Piers for the translation! I am a bit puzzled by the comment on the rust preventing you from seeing the original surface. If I decipher correctly the description of the tsuba in the NBTHK paper, it reads 槌目地 ( tsuchime ji ). I took it as meaning that the rough ("hammered") surface of the tsuba was part of its intended appearance. There are indeed some slightly rusty spots, but they are far and between, and not as prominent in hand as they look in the pictures. Are you suggesting that the whole surface of the tsuba was badly corroded in the past and then re-patinated? Is that not something that would disqualify the tsuba from receiving the Hozon grade? Cheers, Pietro

Just look at the other items of the eBay seller. Clearly not a specialist, he/she is just shooting a crazy price in the hope of finding a sucker.

This design is described as 十字角 ("square cross", or something like that) in the NBTHK paper. I am not particularly hung up on it being a Christian symbol, I was just wondering whether that would put the tsuba in a specific time window.

Hi All, My new Shoami tsuba has arrived this morning. As I find it devilishly difficult to take decent pictures, I'll just be lazy and use one from the seller: More pictures can be found in the auction page, and the translation of the NBTHK paper was discussed in this thread. I am happy to report that the oxidation spots visible in some of the seller's pictures are really unremarkable in hand. There are two questions that I would like to ask here: 1) Does the cross theme imply that the tsuba was made before Christianity was banned in 1612? Was there a 19th-century revival even for Christian tsuba? Or maybe this cross is just not meant as a Christian symbol? 2) The design of this tsuba looks distinctly skewed, e.g. the arms of the cross are not really at right angles and the rectangle made by the two hitsu-ana is not centered in the circle of the mimi. Am I right in supposing that this is not due to the maker's drunkenness, but rather to the Japanese taste for humbleness and imperfection? Thanks in advance for any help! Cheers, Pietro

A (searchable) PDF version of the 1908 edition is downloadable for free at this address (scroll down the page for the list of available formats).

A quick google search yields this, no idea whether it’s the same artist: https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot/a-mixed-metal-inlaid-bronze-vase-meiji-period-5715404-details.aspx

Another useful link for a DIY translation of the papers is this one.

I was frustrated having spent the whole day following without success the Brockhaus sale. The netsuke I bid for sold (to someone else, of course) for 8.5, 12.5 and 17 times the estimate, respectively. So I let myself be pushed a bit farther than I had planned to go on this tsuba. I hope the rust issues visible in the pictures will not be too serious in hand...

Thanks a lot! I was obviously expecting to see ana after hitsu, but the page I linked above uses a different kanji, 穴 Do 穴 and 孔 have the same meaning?

Hi All, I've just bought my second papered tsuba in a Catawiki auction. I hope I did not overpay, as the seller's pictures appear to show some condition issues. I'll make a post about this tsuba in the Tosogu section when I receive it, meanwhile I need a little help on a couple of kanji in the Hozon paper: Thanks to this ever-useful page, I think I managed to transcribe the relevant lines in the certificate, except for the last kanji in the fourth line from the right. If I am not wrong, they should read something like: 十字角文透鐔 無銘 正阿弥 sukashi tsuba with the design of a square cross (?) – mumei – Shoami 丸形 鉄 槌目地 地透 丸耳 maru gata – tetsu tsuchime ji – ji sukashi – maru mimi 両櫃 ? Here I am not sure of the second kanji, and I can't recognize the third one. Do the first two mean "both hitsu" ? Thanks in advance for any help! Cheers, Pietro

Indeed, eBay links expire after a few months. Here it is, immortalized till the end of NMB:

...aaand I just bought mine, 12 years later! https://www.ebay.fr/itm/254622946911

Thanks so much Morita-San!!!

Maybe in July, when they reopen the Louvre...

Hello Piers, sitting at the intersection of the two universes!

Hi All, Apologies in advance for the non-Nihonto question. In one of the parallel internet universes I inhabit, a question has arisen on the subject of this netsuke from the Louvre collection: According to a website of French museums (see this link) it depicts Lu Zishen, hero of the 14th-century Chinese novel "Water Margin". However, the information in the website carries question marks, and indeed the Wikipedia entry for Lu Zishen does not mention any episode involving an axe, a bell or a scroll. It has been suggested that the writing on the scroll might give a clue on the true subject of the netsuke (maybe another of the 108 heros of the tale?). Here is a close-up of the scroll from a cellphone picture that I took: Perhaps one of the resident NMB experts might be able to recognize the content? Thanks in advance for any help! Pietro

More Tatsutoshi from the internet (the mei on the second one looks dodgy to me, but I'm not really qualified to judge): And this one from the Toledo Museum of Art is described as "in the style of Tatsutoshi": Cheers, Pietro

Hi All, owning only one signed tsuba, I am a bit fixated on its maker. Over the past few months, I stumbled on a few Tatsutoshi tsuba on the internet; those that were on sale were beyond my budget, or, in one case, had rust issues, but I did at least save the pictures. I thought it might be interesting to start one thread aimed at collecting all of them, as well as those of his students, to highlight the common features of this school. As I read in this post, Tatsutoshi's students were his son Tatsunao, plus Tokitoshi and Namitoshi, and indeed there are already several examples of Tatsunao tsuba in the forum, see e.g. this thread. Maybe some NMB members have additional pictures of tsuba by these four makers that they would like to share here? These are elegant examples that I found on the internet, either too expensive for me or not for sale: This was cheaper but rusty (with NTK papers): This is the one I own (see this thread): And this one on the same "Noshi" theme is by Tatsunao: I hope this thread not too boring. If it is, just ignore it and accept my apologies! Cheers, Pietro

Yes I did miss the mugwort leaves in the second tsuba, I was only looking at the first one in the rotated pictures by StevenK/Tetsugendo. Am I still allowed to switch camps? P.S. does anybody have news on Steven?