waljamada

Dale,

An ever so slight silver (more like lead) lining.  I've asked the seller to cancel the order as it hasn't shipped (its listed as authentic tsuba and mei) so we will see how this ends.  If he doesn't it's theme is quite fitting of showing Enma-O (the King of Hell) who would pull out tongues with a pair of tongs for people telling lies having his own tongue ripped off.  I'll make it a general metaphor as false Tosogu ripping Enma-O's tongue out to protect their own exposure and false tongues.  A keen reminder to tread carefully and in reputable circles until one is learned and prepared for the mean Japanese Antiques streets.

George,

Thank you very much good Sir.  I will go through each of those pages and really take a good hard look at them googling whatever terms/words/names I dont recognize along the way.  This board really is a great source of learning thanks to its members.

=|:^) Found copies of this exact tsuba in that forum.   Good to know and I'm officially throwing my bronze statue casting experience out the window for tsubas.   Officially down $250 bucks for a tourist decour piece (albeit I do think it looks cool).  My first casting "burn" but luckily not a huge hit the the wallet and will look good as a paper weight on my work desk.  The first burn hurts....

Thank you for your responses Gentlemen,

George, was the tsuba in yahoo auction the same as this one, or just the same theme?  The page was no longer available.  Also cool to learn of the story behind the theme as I love hearing the tales.

Jean, I will dig deeper to find prime examples of what is a well crafted tsuba to have more examples to gauge pieces.

I gotta admit I'm impressed by the cast quality even as a copy.  I also collect bronze statues and this is some pretty good work.  It seemed to have details that would at least require post cast tooling to my eye but I really need to get my eye further honed.  The hands, hair, mane and certain raised portions at first seemed not easily castable from what I know.  Then again since it is a modern piece they've gotten better and designed it to fool an eye like mine.

As well as searching out more and more authentic high quality pieces I feel I need to have a side quest of finding some really good tourist piece examples of tsubas to learn how well they can make them.  That "Merry Y" post is a very helpful perfect start in this!  Thank you for sharing that.  Can't catch a copy if I don't know how a copy can look.

Wondering if anyone can translate the mei on this Tsuba.  Also looking for opinions.  It is listed as a presentation tsuba, unknown age....looks Meiji to me which is fine but I lack the eye to tell of this is a hand "sculpted" tsuba or via cast etc...any thoughts?

Personal opinion, not sure of the story this comes from but i like it's imagery and it appears well made.  My eye tells me it would be very difficult to cast the hands as they are or hair/mane finer details for example.  But I am so new to this that I can't discern.  I'd be wanting it just for display as decour.

Found a simple tsuba I think matches.  Wanted to streamline some of the cleanliness of its simple design.

First off, that Menuki is also winking.  It has plans....

I've noticed that there are way too many seller accounts that are sometimes even up to 8 years or older with thousands of reviews that do nothing but list items from other dealers, both current and old listings.  They especially seem to be in Japanese antiques, yoroi and things of the like.  They don't really seem around as much in the nihonto listings with the "antique Japanese swords" search.  But these sellers somehow stay around for a long time without getting shut down.  I've "told on them" to ebay and other sellers whose listings they've duplicated to no avail.  I've picked up on a few telltale signs, biggest/most obvious of which is all the items listed are presented differently on different backgrounds/surfaces/lighting etc...

Peter, sorry no Ainu....just an ol kinda fancy pants merchants sword.  I believe it was one of your posts that lead me down an Ainu search many moons ago.  Thanks for that!

49 minutes ago, Infinite_Wisdumb said:

Looks great! Do you know the smith?

Infinite, description says Fujiwara Morimichi circa Kanbun 1661. 

Here is a pic of the Hozon paper.

Couple closer shots of its parts and one blade pic just to make this post possibly more useful to someone down the line.

Ian, that sounds quite an interesting piece!  Artists using non-typical materials/styles always catch my eye.  Ivory is an example of a material i would expect to see a bit more of in Koshirae but doesn't seem used often if at all.  Perhaps too brittle.  This koshirae I posted seemed to me an earnest attempt to make an uncommon model with a higher level of artistry.  Would love to see pictures of the mounts you described!

Jean,

I don't own these mounts and blade but find myself tempted by it just because it has stuck with me for a while.  Always wondered if there was a story/history to these types of koshirae as I have also seen them in tanto and even shorter wakizashi but this was the first time I saw one done with some elegance at a katana length.  The blade inside is about 25.5" nagasa so it was made to be katana length.  I could easily see this being a Meiji attempt at making a beautiful version of the "merchants koshirae".  But my Edo eye isn't good enough to rule this out as Edo either.  The saya and the tsuka do have a different stain/surface design so they also may not be an original pairing.

I haven't decided I NEEDed it as I wanted to know of there was any kind of meaning or reason for these kinds of koshirae other than just style/price.  Also the blade for personal reasons doesn't excite me and the whole package isn't cheap.

I'm tempted to pick one up but kind of want to buy his book first to see if the ones I like are in there.

I wonder if Mr. Murtha also likes the Beatles...

Came across something I personally haven't seen before.  A wood koshirae.  Wooden tsuka but with metal menuki, fuchi kashira etc.. I mean technically I suppose the only thing that makes this stand out to me is the wood tsuka with inlayed fittings.  But still, is there anything beyond aesthetics behind such a thing?  The tsuka lacking ito and grip aspects seem less functional to me.  Also does this look Edo to you?  I get a Meiji sense, but I'm very much still training my eye.

GRC, thanks for that, that's all I could have hoped for.

Roku, so decent pun and almost historically possible.  I'll take it!

Infinite, thank you!  It didn't fit the blade I hoped but found a perfect spot for it as decour.

First Yari train!  Congrats, love the mounts.  A complete set, signed papered, poll arm and blade cover...beautiful thing to have.  Bought my first one a few months the back at the Chicago Sword Show and still haven't figured out quite where to put it.  Right now have it against the fireplace until I find it a proper place.   Also made me want a naginata.....

Thought I'd get at least a snicker for my punny B- grade dad joke "Carshirae".  Hopefully at least a half silent snicker smile happened somewhere out there.

Tom, thanks and you're helping me get to the milestone of 20 followers!  I am trying to go down the path of nihonto, learning along the way, so I can in the future be a true contributor to this hobby/field.  Forrest Boots is the aloof mysterious boss who gets his patte on demand and to the schedule of his liking.   I love them all dearly.

Tbone, Thomas, Micheal, Brandon and Ken,

Thanks I really appreciate the feedback and the blade is now my crown example.  I have others that I have real sweet spots for that I may favor slightly more but that's just because I like oddballs and flawed beauty.  Also Ken, the research part was mostly being able to recognize quality and traits to appreciate...plus just knowing Tokubetsu Hozon is a good thing =|:^)  I got lucky with a seller who accepted my offer and has been nothing but class in his interaction with me and the pictures I had to go off of were pretty rough.   I still don't know much about the maker (Google isn't very helpful in my research on him) as I don't have the appropriate books but I can tell the man knew what he was doing as did the togishi.  It was taken care of by many hands before mine.

Wave get bunny but this bunny get wave.

Tom and Brian, I lord and love over three pups and a cat.  We got Kiki (the smallest and my golden child but I don't let the others know), Lela and Luna.  Then there is Forrest Boots.  All the dogs are chihuahua mixes, a chorkie, a chipin and a pomchi.  I found Forrest Boots as a kitten in the forest behind my house and he has the Hemingway paws and maybe some maine coon from a generation or so back.

Jon, thank you and the dog thrives!

Also forgot to upload the gunto shot pre-polish.  Here's that photo.

Additional photo dump.

 Greetings all, 

I purchased my first Tokubetsu  Hozon Katana signed  Bitchu no Kuni Matsuyama ju Akamatsu Kotobuki Minamoto Ujisada Saku

Bunkyo 4 Gatsu Hi (1864 February)

I must say after spending some time with it, I now have a real life reference for what a Tokubetsu Hozon blade can be/is and this is an absolutely beautiful blade.  I get it now....It is in shirasaya with silver cat scratch/rain habaki and was sent to Japan to be polished/shinsa by the previous owner during which it obtained Tokubetsu Hozon.  The seller originally found the blade in gunto mounts which when sent to Japan for polish were not returned sadly.  I also attached a photo of the blade as it was originally in its gunto mounts before polish.  

Sadly, I know almost nothing of the smith and the owner didn't have much info on him specifically.  He gracefully did share all he knew and his own tale with the blade which was much appreciated.  I want to keep even the modern histories alive with a blade whenever I can.  Any additional assistance in learning about the smith is greatly appreciated! https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/UJI138

Either way gentleman, for your amusement and thoughts I present my first tokubetsu hozon katana!

Also a quick little shakey because it's hard video of the blade: 

First off gentleman thank you for your help identifying the maker!  Great to have his identity confirmed, again thank you SteveM and Kyushu.  I'll try and find other works by him if possible just to see what he was up to.

Valric, yeah during the mid 1800's Mercedes had a go at the luxury Carshirae market =|;^)

Alex, yeah the blade Im hoping it will fit has a tsuba that would clash with the more modern sleek design of that koshirae.  Already started looking up copper tsubas.

Thanks Brian.

Good buy, interesting little bohi, good enough condition to appreciate.  Does look muromachi.  Interesting that the tsuba was black and the raising looks colored if that's not just aged grime.

If I had seen that it's one I would have taken a stab at.

My first foray into a lone koshirae and fittings and went out on a limb purchasing a Wakizashi koshirae (no tsuba and some missing inlays) because honestly I like the look of it and do have a blade that would be a great upgrade for it if all the stars align to have it fit.  A Google search didn't provide anything on Matsuyama Junin TOSHINOBU whom signed the koshirae.

I also ended up getting a Kozuka lot (one will just be a shelf or inside drawer decoration) to work towards completing some Koshirae I already have

I would classify these as "beginner" pieces, and you get what you pay for, but thought I'd share a humble little haul and of course always open to hear thoughts/feedback and if anyone knows the koshirae artist that would be amazing.

*the photos got uploaded in a weird order but koshirae description is in between kozuka images.