Tensho

Here's some tsuba turned into drawer pulls.

Nice pictures Pietro! Thanks for sharing. I understand what you're saying about mine now. The Chinese have been digging up lots of mammoth remains in Yakutia. I wouldn't be surprised if this is what they're using. The pulp cavity on mine is rather small and comes out under one leg and through the tongue. Either way, I'm happy with it. I randomly came across it at an antique shop with some other ivory items. They had it listed as a carved chinese hippo made of bone.

Been sitting back enjoying the comments.. Depends on the tusk and where on the tusk this piece was taken from. If the tip, this cracking isn't a surprise at all. They have obviously opened up more over time due to temperature changes. But they would have been present even when carved. I have handled hundred of pounds of ivory including full tusks of elephant, hippo and walrus. They all vary in appearance. But what would I know? As far as billiards go they almost all look like that. Here's a closer up photo of the signature.

One could argue that there's not many elephants in Japan either. Haha Can't comment on where it was made. Could very well be of Chinese origin I suppose. As to "artificial" aging im going to have to strongly disagree. I have been collecting scrimshaw and other ivory items for years. Here is it next to a centuries old billiard.

I acquired an okimono of a Hippopotamus. Google translate is telling me its signed Takayoshi but I cannot find any carver of this name. Thoughts?

My gut feeling says this is a Murata-to blade.

I would agree. Was only looking to take apart to clean the corrosion that is in some tight spots. But, in the process I may damage the nut way to much.

I picked up a 1883 navy. It has quite a lot of verdigris on it and I'm looking at disassembling it. But, I'm not sure if the "cherry blossom nut" is clockwise or counter clockwise threaded. I can turn it by hand about an 1/8th of an inch counter clockwise but it won't Go anywhere beyond that. I don't collect these styles so this is beyond me. Thanks.

Thank you for the replies. The second tsuba is definitely a match for the "style" of the kaneie tsuba I have looked at.

Help would be very much appreciated. 1) 2)

https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/46738-info-needed-for-katana-from-battle-of-iwo-jima/#comment-484317 Already has been discussed here.

Not sure if this is of interest, but this is whats on my Zohei-to that I thought was a fake blade. I asked about a while back. No Mon, or ink stampings but has a cord sarute.

Interesting koshirae on that. Can you take a photo of the underside of the metal hanger on the sheath? It looks like it "could" be a removable hanger as was mentioned earlier. The tsuba and seppa are cut for a Chuso, but the tsuka, fuchi and saya are not. But the one seppa was obviously modified for the leather button strap. Perhaps a late war "high end" koshirae purchase/piece together of what parts were available at a shop? I guess this would be better discussed on the military sub forum.

Here's how the ito should look(3 of mine ) I can't speculate when yours was re-wrapped. The ito alternates for a reason(so if it is torn it won't just unravel) is there any additional holes visible inside the tsuka? I wouldn't be questioning it to much if all the seppa were correct, but at least 5 look added(the hole for the Chuso/locking mechanism on the seppa have been elongated)

I wouldn't call this a Wakizashi. And as was just mentioned, the ito is incorrectly wrapped. And the "diamonds" aren't very well done. Someone appears to have re-wrapped this. Ito looks to have a decent amount of soiling though. The seppa are also incorrect. The "O-Seppa" are added. There shouldn't be 4. Some appear to be numbered, others don't match. This maybe a replacement tsuka and a bunch of seppa were added to make it fit.

Here's one on mine. Never noticed until this thread.

You are correct. https://www.warrelic...-1871-1945-a-708090/

Tsuka, Tsuba etc.. all look army to me Bruce.

Ahh, I see the "black" piece is solid like Bruce said. Without messing with it all in hand its hard to say what's what. But, I see the sheath isn't notched out for the locking latch. I'm thinking the handle is not original to this.. Is the handle "sloppy" when you put it on the sword? And does the hole in the handle line up perfectly with the tang hole? Handle would be much easier to fit to the blade than the sheath.

Whats this piece? Doesn't look like the same Fuchi with hole in it? Perhaps for the sheath? This is an idea of what everything should look like when together. Does your sheath have a "square" cutout? To add, the tsuba(handguard) isn't for this(no cutout for latch mechanism) Or, it is for this and the handle isn't.

This is just speculation on my part i guess. But IMO, if the original owner of the tsuka went out of their way to have a matching bamboo theme fuchi and kashira they would get the tsuba as well. This is OPs tsuka.

Someone mounted the fuchi under the habaki instead of on the tsuka. And yes, it looks like it has a hole for the Chuso. I'm with everyone else, more pictures of the mounts would be nice.

I would double check that the tsuka is original to this. Seller had tons of gunto parts, not sure why he never "completed" this. This is the correct tsuba for this:

I asked seller when this first popped up about a star stamp. He said there are no stamps?

Its Showato. Seki Smith.