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docliss

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  1. I should like to thank you all for your help with this translation; the fact that it was rather 'unusual' makes me feel slightly less embarassed by my own failure. Incidentally, I am fairly certain that the final character is a kao. See Haynes' H06584.0? Regards and thanks, John L.
  2. Much to my despair, all of my attempts to identify the maker of this iron tsuba have failed; any help would be most gratefully received. With thanks, John L.
  3. Dear Rich Thank you for your reply to my query. The Shoami suggestion is an interesting one; the Haynes catalogue, #4, lot no 1022, illustrates an almost identical tsuba, albeit of a reduced size, and states 'KATCHUSHI IN KO-SHOAMI STYLE - the whole feeling is Shoami, but the plate is thin as Katchushi'. The lacquer is an opaque, rich red; I will try to post an enlarged image of the shumei. Regards, John L.
  4. Can any kind person out there please translate the shumei on the attached katchushi tsuba? With many thanks, John L.
  5. Dear Milt Perhaps a sahari inlay, surrounded by a wax-resist area during patination? Regards, John L.
  6. Dear Ed Thank you for posting the photographs; I have, of course, heard of tsuba with a 'made of namban iron' inscription, but have never before actually seen one. The artist is presumably H 10749.0 in Haynes book, and this inscription may be a reflection of his swordsmith background. Your photographs do make very nicely the point that being made of namban iron does not alone make a tsuba of the Namban group. This tsuba, in spite of its inscription, is Bushu work rather than Namban. John L.
  7. Yes, they are all tsuba of the Namban group. In my opinion #06347 and #06348 are pretty odinary examples of the group and #05169 of poor quality. #05581 is an above average example of the group. The main defining characteristics of the group are the presence of openwork and undercutting, with decorated and unconventionally shaped seppa dai. A Chinese influence, commonly of affrontes dragons and the tama jewel is also present. The modified, square nakago-hitsu is only occassionally found - this most commonly in the auriculate sub-group - and is by no means a defining feature. As already discussed, the presence of namban tetsu in this group is a bone of contention, and at present there is no way of detecting its presence in a tsuba. The chemical anaysis of an iron tsuba is a simple proceedure, and would appear to offer an answer to this problem. Locally made iron has a remarkable purity of 99.8 - 99.9 percent, probably because of the use of iron sand and of charcoal in the smelting process. The presence of phosphorus is probably the best indicator of purity, being as low an 0.001 - 0.003 percent in the local iron, and this may be 4 - 10 times higher in imported iron. But the addition of phosphorus has a hardening effect upon iron while inhibiting its carburisation, and it is possible that phosporus may have been intentionally added to local iron for this purpose. John Lissenden.
  8. In reply to Henry Wilson's query, dated 25 December, as to whether sword fittings were ever made of Namban tetsu, this begs the question 'what do you mean by Namban tetsu'? Clearly, iron that was maufactured in Japan by the smelting of local iron sand can be excluded from such a label, but the admixture to this of any iron of a foreign origin probably constitutes Namban iron. The importation of iron from Korea into Japan occurred as early as the third century AD. A few centuries after this, Japan became self-reliant until the importation of iron by the Dutch from China, Korea and India around 1600. In 1882, in spite of the abundance of local iron deposits, Japan produced only 5,000 tons of iron while she imported an annual average of 11.000 tons over the preceeding ten years. In the absence of any definition of what we mean by 'Namban tetsu', and of any present method of detecting its presence, we can only assume that, from 1600 onwards, most Japanese iron contained an unknown, and variable, amount of the imported iron. Whether or not you label such iron as 'Namban' is a matter of personal choice. I do ... John Lissenden.
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