Tim Evans

Why? No way to know for sure, but probably a sword dealer or collector playing the shinsa game with tsuba. Item submitted to shinsa, and deemed gimei Mei removed, resubmitted, and then papered as mumei shoshin to some school This is frequently done with gimei swords For example, here is a yamakichibei tsuba with the mei removed. It was papered to Umetada. This is unfortunate because it was probably not gimei.

I found one mei reference in Wakayama which states: "Eldest son of 12th Mitsumichi. Died young, left few works". Fittings collectors do not normally install blades on kozuka unless it will be mounted on koshirae. Removing and installing blades usually requires heat since glued in with pitch. There are wood boxes with silk pillows to keep kozuka. Shakudo is a copper alloy with a thin layer of black oxide. Scrub too hard and the bare metal will show so go slow and gentle. Do not use an ultrasonic cleaner, it will strip off the oxide. There is a mix of dried skin oil and dirt on the surface. One thing to try is alcohol on on a q-tip. Try an inconspicuous spot first.

What you need are some scrap pieces of same' to cut and fit. You can find old unwrapped tsuka on yahoo Japan/jauce or, try a want ad here on NMB for old tsuka or same', or, you can try a tsukamaki-shi such as montanairon.com (David McDonald) to see if he has any small pieces available. To insert a new piece, wet the silk wrap so that it will stretch a little and then slide in the replacement piece with some white glue on the back. Same' is basically leather, so it is easier to form and cut if you soak it in water a bit first.

A hidden cross example. https://www.jauce.com/auction/w1187376496

You may want to peruse this article by Markus Sesko on translating Japanese, particularly sword related material. https://markussesko.com/2018/02/26/challenges-of-translating-period-Japanese-sword-texts/ It may be possible to "fine tune" an AI with enough text examples and query-response pairs to work as an optimized Japanese translator, but there is still a lot of tricky interpretation that requires extensive experience.

This site is worth checking occasionally. http://tsubaryuken.com/ This is a modern tsuba smith who works in iron and many of them are copies right out of the Sasano books and other references. I don't think there is an intent to deceive or fake, however, second or third owners may misrepresent them as antique, after distressing them a bit. It looks like these are hand cut - drill, saw and file, as opposed to mechanically made - cast, laser cut or CNC machined. There is a "toad skin" like texture on some of them. The fact that some of them are copies of well known tsuba is a red flag to be careful if seen for sale at auction sites or dealer sites.

Comment on the hidden cross thing. I have seen a number of articles claiming basically any tsuba with a quadrilateral symmetrical design is a hidden cross. I disagree for a number of reasons: Quadrilateral symmetrical design tsuba predate Christianity in Japan The Roman Catholic missionaries used a Latin cross. The even-arm cross was used by the Greek orthodox church, and were not present in Japan Christianity was practiced openly in the Oda and Toyotomi regimes, no need to hide it. Hidden cross tsuba that I have seen that look legit have a Latin cross inlaid in the seppadai area, so it can't be seen when mounted. These probably date during the Tokugawa Shogunate If a cross form tsuba represents anything, it is more likely the character Ju (+),or, how the Japanese write the number 10 The Ju-mon was used by the Shimazu and related clans in Satsuma. They were overtly anti-Catholic

In 1993 a group of Yagyu Shinkage Ryu instructors visited New York City giving lecture-demonstrations at the United Nations, and the Japan Society and at Ken Zen Dojo. The visitors included the current (21st) headmaster of the school, Yagyu Nobuharu. The other demonstrators included Ikenaga Koichiro, Ban Yasuyuki, Hirano Yoshiaki, Suyama Yasuo, and Kitahara Masashi. This was their first time in the USA. Yagyu sensei gave a lecture before each demonstration and answered questions afterward. These were translated by Yonekawa Yoshinobu. One comment from the lecture: Yagyu Nobuharu Sensei said: "Imagine that we draw a big circle with three even dots. At the top is the first point, correct teachings. The second dot is practice and the third is invention. This circle represents infinite movements and it represents the way of practice in Yagyu Shinkage Ryu." Yagyu Sensei was not speaking specifically about tsuba, but was relating the teaching to a lecture audience. It is remarkable, however, that the image he uses is identical to the sangaku-en tsuba design. RE: the provenance of the OP's tsuba. Bob Haynes made a hand drawn copy of the the Yagyu design book while he was a student of Dr. Torigoye in Japan. I believe this was published by the NCJSC some time ago. This design is listed as number 103, but no additional notes for size or ownership.

Silver or silver colored kokinko kodogu turn up occasionally, particularly on tachi. Apparently it was a fashion at one time. Ezo style fittings have a silvery look to them. Below is a kokinko kashira which has a heavy foil "silver" cover over a copper base. Your silver alloy tsuba is a rare item.

This tsuba is similar to number 42 in the Yagyu catalog that was hand copied by Robert Haynes. The design in the catalog is called "distant pines". I agree this is similar, but depicts flopped over mushrooms instead, so a later variant. I am thinking the flopped over mushroom is a Buddhist comment on impermanence. "Here is a softmetal example on a Higo kojiri. There is a distant pines version in Sasano's silver book on page 201.

Interesting observation on those poetic and atmospheric pictorial kanayama being kierei-sabi, I had not thought of them that way before. Enshu was the Tea Master to the Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, where we see the Tokugawa-driven shift in Buke education away from Buddhism to Confucianism, following the Chinese scholar-warrior model. This aligns with ther rise of Kaneie (also kierei-sabi), which this scholarship I recently discovered, (published in the JSS/US Newsletter by Arnold Frenzel) puts Kaneie in the early Edo period, much later than what has been supposed by other researchers. https://www.jssus.org/1975_Bulletin_Part1_Kaneiye_Tsuba__Sword_Etiquette_and_Care_Japanese_Lacquer_Swords_Travels_Oshigata_Artist_Seals.pdf

I don't think these unknown tsuba smiths can be identified to a named person, but I think it is possible to sort some of these mumei ji-sukashi tsuba of this period into groups or shops that show common detail characteristics.

I think it was more of a subtle change. The Tea Masters were a big influence at the upper end of Buke culture and influenced Buke taste and aesthetic choices. Rikyu promoted Wabi tea, which was an egalitarian and transformatory experience. Tsuba that reflect the transitory and transformatory, like Kanayama and Yamakichibe, are about process, mystery and no fixed identity. These tsuba show process through incompleteness, which is usually mistaken for flaw and imperfection. You can think about it as a Buddhist artform or aesthetic language. Oribe used Wabi as a base of taste, but developed Daimyo tea, which was a more hierarchical and confirmatory experience. Enshu continued developing Daimyo Tea and introduced Kirei sabi, which was restrained, rustic but very elegant. For tsuba examples, think of tsuba like Jingo or Nishigaki or Akasaka. Some lumpiness but more sophisticated and artistic. For more information on the transformatory or confirmatory uses of chanoyu, this essay by Herbert Plutschow is a place to start. https://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap0501/tea/

Steve and I have discussed this at length. We think that the deliberately lumpy guards align with the popularity of Tea ceramic aesthetics, starting with the Tea Master Rikyu, (Wabi Tea aesthetics), to Furuta Oribe, (Kabuki aesthetics), but rustic guards started to go out of fashion with Kobori Enshu (Kirei Sabi aesthetics).

The Taiko, Toyotomi Hideyoshi ruled during the Momoyama period, which was known for the gorgeous personal koshirae of the Daimyo. The koshirae of the Daimyo who were the direct vassals of Hideyoshi still exist, and the lacquer on the saya often used a lot of gold leaf, gold lacquer, red lacquer, etc. The formal court koshirae (kami-shimo-zashi) with plain black lacquered saya was a regulation of the the later Tokugawa Shogunate.