waljamada

SteveM, there is no date on the otherside. So just the signature. Ill try and find some mei comparisons.

Had my eye out for o-kissaki swords and came across this one. Appears to be post 1940 and hope to learn the translation of the mei and hear any opinions on the blade. I am very untrained in modern swords and their authenticity and I'm unaware of how good "fakes" are from this modern era or what kind of quality a blade lile this could be considered.

Dale, Wow, thank you for showing that link. I lived in a dorm (which has been torn down since like most of the old campus buildings) on JoChi's campus and never saw that they had a "museum" space. Neat little collection. I guess as the paper does admit it was done "later" it seems an accurate thing. It attributes the tsuba to its original maker and says it also has this thing done by someone else. Guess if their role is to attribute things in an official manner it does that correctly. It seems worthwhile to have an organization that will honestly paper odd ducks (yet real antiques even if modified) to clarify what is there and is/isn't original. Reminds me of this sword below that has now sold on ebay. The papers don't mention a horimono so it just attributes/ confirms the blades maker/mei. I had wondered what the nbthk would do if asked to paper it now. I'd think they would do like this tsubas papers. Confirm the mei and state horimono added more recently type thing.

Just in case here is the correct papers. Totally missed that the papers didn't match the tsuba in that photo. Interesting development on this one as you guys have shared a glimpse into the "underground" Christian tsuba market. What would Jesus think!? The title of the listing mentions nbthk but only seems to have the ntkk document (posted below) and really does almost try to appear like an nbthk document to untrained eyes.

Saw this tsuba for sale and it caught my eye. I haven't seen anything like it. Christianity has some old roots and complicated histories in Japan. The Martin Scorsese movie "Silence" touches on a period of this and the University I graduated from JoChi has a part in this history as well "The origins of Sophia University could be traced to 1549 when Saint Francis Xavier, a prominent member and co-founder of the Society of Jesus, arrived in Japan to spread Christianity. In his letters to his fellow Jesuits, he had expressed hopes of establishing a university in Japan.[10][11] During the so-called Kirishitan period of Japanese history, the Catholic Church had been responsible for establishing and administering educational institutions in Japan called Collegios and Seminarios, serving as bridges between the East and West. William H. O'Connell had been appointed as a special ambassador of the Vatican to Japan. The establishment of the University only began to take place more than 400 years from St. Francis Xavier's arrival in Japan. In 1903, three Jesuit priests from Europe came to Japan to continue the missionary work of the Church and to help establish Sophia University. One of the founders, Fr. Joseph Dahlmann, SJ from Germany, who had come to Japan via India, had listened to the requests of Catholics in the country, who expressed their desires to construct a Catholic university to serve as the cultural and spiritual base of the Church's missionary operations in Japan." Anyways, cool tsuba I thought would be fun to share.

One of his with that wording with an o-kissaki tempted me recently, but I didn't buy.

Ended up buying that red German seven samurai poster (from 1976) and last thing is a woodblock print that calls to me. I do also have an oshigata of one of my swords I could use. Its funny though as I'm going to be buying a house soon and all of this is in preparation for some future space that doesnt exist yet. But soon.......sooooooon............completed an armor stand for my yoroi, menpo and kabuto and purchased a second foldable sword stand (im a big fan of these) im going to modify to hold more blades to fit the entire collection. So should have a nice little corner when done.

Been on the hunt for some artwork to go along with sword displays. The go to seems logically Japanese woodblock prints and I'm still waiting to find the right one. Other tempting options for me are original akira kurosawa movie film posters. Then there are possibly some on theme original paintings, antique photos perhaps calligraphy. So far I've only purchased two pieces which are original manga art from the 80's with samurai (posted below). They won't be everyone's style but I also collect original comic art so it bridges the two. Wondering what others have and do with any artwork/images to go along with their sword/armor/fittings etc...collections.

Maybe this? https://www.ebay.com/itm/293892155185

Oof, a kai gunto is on my want list. Woof! Sold!

Guido, interesting and thank you...I wonder if Yamaha had a meaning behind that when it commissioned those in 1986...

Bummer its s good little video. Took screenshots of the view and the little hidden shrine.

Not sure if this works but there's a picture of thr level up shrine in this little sideshow video my brother made of the trip. https://www.facebook.com/thebestlaw/videos/619249921723/ Its at 6:54

Not quite the same...but its a positive side of the coin of something like that. My brother and a childhood friend of mine came to visit me in Japan. We did this thing I liked to do of hop on the trains, take random transfers and get out at a random place. We probably switched and rode trains for 2 hours and got out in a more rural town 2 hours outside of Tokyo along the shoreline. We wandered and wandered and found an empty temple. These temples have a different air to them when empty. An old energy. An aware yet not necessarily Intelligent ancientness. Like the start of a few horror movies we decide to enter the forest behind it which was mostly pretty tall hills or kind of small mountains. We hiked for maybe 40 minutes and after we reached the very top of one of the higher hills amongst a beautiful view of the shoreline and horizon we found a small little shrine. Far away from everything and everyone. We decided to call it a level-up shrine and that those who reach it level up in some way. +1 to some attribute of yours, or maybe even a few. Its one of my favorite memories.

I worked at an International Japanese Film Festival in Tokyo for a few years after graduation from University. One day a visitor came to our offices in Ichigaya and left three masks (one more of a carving...see pics) for whoever wanted them. All my Japanese coworkers claimed they were haunted or scary but I loved them and was allowed to claim them all. Sadly an oni clay mask was destroyed during shipping back to the US but I still have two. Then maybe four years ago I found this other oni mask that must have been produced by Yamaha for some reason or another at a thrift shop. Thought I'd share them and see if anyone else has cool masks to share.

George, thank you. Thats the first bit of info I received on the menuki. Will have to see if I can find out what family it represents. As to the tsuba, my thoughts on that are that it obviously is done in a style of some old paintings and scenery. So if done as a homage piece then it would look like this and resemble the original work/style. The Kanji and even the little seal are all quality work so I haven't let the scenery/Chinese painting style rule it out for me completely yet. Might be a fools errand but my data is insufficient for a complete write off yet. My eye tells me as well that this is a much simpler design than the others I've seen (which isn't many especially from someone with a long career), but the form and edges match some of his work so there's little bits keeping me going. Plus half the fun of getting a new sword is going down the roads it presents. Like an Easter egg hunt.

Well I'm coming up pretty paltry on any searches. Not really find much to compare it to. Heres what I have found searching for Hashimoto Isshi (橋本一至) and Yūshūsha (夕秀舎)

Oops double posted for some reason...

Ahh, the ancient oni demon playing guitar motif. Goes back to the ancient shredding technique of the heavy metals. It is said that it beats rock and even when it rolls. Wish I could add more than a stupid joke and that I personally really like them. Can see the detail and quality and oni are a somewhat uncommon theme to see really well done in my searching experience. Plus they are just cool.

Steve, thank you very much. I really appreciate it. I will dig into Hashimoto Isshi (橋本一至), also known as Yūshūsha (夕秀舎) and see what I can learn. I'm excited by the possibility it could be from a well respected maker so hopefully I can find some good comparisons. Will keep my hopes tempered due to the many fakes.

Wondering if anyone can translate this tsuba. I can tell it maybe refers to a mountain but beyond that I am unsure. Does anyone recognize the maker symbol, mei and school? Was told it was Edo period. This menuki is interesting to me but I don't know what it is other than a leaf? Also I believe it is gold (plated?) but not 100% sure. Do you think the "stem" parts are just there to slide under the leather ito to secure the menuki or also meant as part of the decoration on this one? Also told the entire tsuka is Edo period. The sword is signed Ashu Ju Michimasa from 1840. Also told it could be one from the 1700's.

Ok, reading between the lines in my searches/research thats basically what I saw. I could tell they were being used kind of interchangeably. One pattern I did notice is the carved wood demon/oni heads or little figures that were on kabuto used the term maetate more often so had the theory it could be based on the materials/style. I really love the carved wooden ones as I imagine they could have even been made by the samurai/soldier that wore it. A form of trench/war art. Obviously too they are one offs but may follow a larger motif or famous imagery/story/legend etc... They have that personal touch on history that gets to me.

Here's that terrible photoshop of my pieces.

So I had been on a maetate quest for a while now. Found a few I loved but I had a $200 max budget I was willing to spend and lost out on all the others to other bidders. One I just went too cheap and still kind of regret it....but I'm happy with the one I found and I stayed under my budget. As a fair warning im positive this maetate will not "float everyone's boat". But I have a penchant for folk art and things that give me a feeling and this checks both boxes. It was only described as "old" so I'm not sure how old it is but it is simply a carved wooden maetate. I think this will go well with my old rough edged yoroi armor, menpo and zunari kabuto. Still haven't put everything on the stand I built due to lack of space currently but ill photoshop this new piece on my old photoshop of my pieces (sadly seller didn't have a straight on shot of the maetate and I don't have it in hand yet). Few questions...1) is the difference between maedate and maetate the construction/materials? Google isn't helping me solve this. 2) anyone else want to share their carved wood maetate?