Matsunoki

Sadly doesn’t help much. What I meant (but didn’t explain it very well) was use a torch to shine a beam across the tsuba from the side or all around at various angles to see if it picks up the remnants of the kanji which can appear in the shadows created by the beam of light. It’s a technique I’ve used on corroded nakago with surprising results. It’s difficult to explain…..grab a torch and play around!

Hi Grev For once I think the image is too “close up”. Can you try shining a light source across the area rather than straight down onto it? You can sometimes see a “ghost” of the kanji via shadows. Try it from all sides at various angles.

Curious design. To me it resembles some sort of “party popper” going pop. Don’t know if Japanese have these things….I guess they do. Looks like inlay work?

Cat netsuke are also very uncommon…..not really sure why. Also can’t recall seeing many cat inro. There must be a reason? I’ll have a dig around.

Kanenao saku??.

Wow Ian, that’s some kojiri! how about the f\k , menuki and tsuba? Habaki suggests quality. Still trying to work out position of ana vs Mei vs date. Nakago doesn’t look suriage? Well done I’d say. Colin

Hi Gabe, yes, in due course I would like to add nicer tsuka fittings and re wrap in black. Trouble is can’t find really nice daisho tsuba, f/k etc. I must be patient! Thanks for looking. All the best. Colin

Hello Howard As Steve rightly says this is a Chinese reign mark that basically says “made during the Guangxu period of the Great Qing dynasty”. It is trying to convince us that this is a piece of Imperial porcelain, which sadly it isn’t. It is modern and mass produced but loosely in the style of what is usually called “Canton enamel” or “Rose medallion”. One common giveaway is that the mark looks like it has been applied with a rubber stamp rather than actual calligraphy. Also the colours are “off” compared to period pieces. This type of porcelain was never made for Imperial Court or domestic Chinese consumption…..it was exclusively for export to the West. I hope this news is not too disappointing. With any Chinese porcelain nowadays it is safer to assume “fake” unless proven otherwise! All the best. Colin

Hello Grev Many thanks . The images are after I’ve gently cleaned them in soapy water!! The whole daisho was dirty and neglected…..but the blades were still in good original polish miraculously! I think the Samurai put all his money into the blades and the saya. I’m still pondering what to do……I would put better fittings on but good daisho stuff seems very scarce. All the best Colin

Thanks Bruno. I knew that they were nothing special but they are pre Meiji. They came from a Bakumatsu period daisho where the Samuarai put all his money into the blades and the saya!……out of interest…..

Hello from the UK These tsuba are from a recently acquired Daisho. They are heavily age patinated. Please can anyone tell me anything about them? Any particular school/age etc? I’m guessing very late Edo and a brass type alloy? Many thanks in advance. All the best Colin

Hi Mark Quick images of tsuba herewith. All the best Colin

That is true! Japanese artists are usually very accurate in how they depict things so maybe we are wrong??

I think (might be wrong!) that there is only one “Emperor node” on same ie the one that is obviously the largest. Leading up to that large node is usually a series of graduated nodes in a straight line. See the image below of very fine same packaged for presentation. Emperor nodes are often “faked” by inserting carved ivory pieces into poorer quality same to make it more impressive. In the original image posted it is difficult to actually see what the pattern is due to the Ito. I don’t think they are all “Emperor nodes”……but there might be one hidden. All the best.Colin

Agree.

Hi Bryce Congrats on your purchase. I must confess to having had little awareness of the lots that preceded the daisho, in fact the ceiling could have fallen in and I would not have noticed. Talk about nervous……🙂🙂 Glad that you had some luck as well. Enjoy your new prize. All the best.Colin

Hi Okan well, I’ve got a few things to think about. I would prefer to source a really good mixed metal daisho F/K rather than go with the existing black horn kashira and also one menuki and a kurigata is lost so I’m not going to rush which is unusual for me! Ideal would be to go for dragon mounts…shakudo nanako….and dragon menuki….but they must be originals. Then a matching dragon kozuka and kogai. Not holding my breath! But to answer your question, when I can speak to the restorer with all the bits in my hands it will be black. All the best. Colin

Some very hasty pics for anyone interested. many thanks for all your comments!!…….

Hello Francois The auctioneers pics are in the links above but yes I will post more pics once I get them tidied up a bit. For example the Katana tsuka will not go back on without some slight easing, it was rock solid and had shrunk slightly. All the best Colin

Well, let’s be honest. It’s a bit of a rough wakizashi. It is a genuine old Samurai item but with several problems. The polish is in poor condition, it has chips to the edge and the koshirae (fittings) do not look particularly good. If we could see the nakago (tang) and an overall picture of the blade with no mounts whatsoever then we might know more. But based on what the images show us, I don’t think it’s one to chase…..unless very cheap. I don’t think there is much to study in this condition. All the best Colin

This might help 🙂🙂…….THE ORIGINAL POST WAS IN SPANISH SO I TRANSLATED. THE OP HAS NOW EDITED IT INTO ENGLISH. I’M NOT GOING DAFT!! Hello, group. First of all, I'm from Spain and my English isn't the best Anyway, I want to share this wakizashi that I saw on a website and I want to buy a real piece to study, not to practice, so I'm here to hear new opinions.

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/lockdales/catalogue-id-lo10206/lot-03238198-86b6-4d4d-93a8-af7000e5a8d9#lotDetails https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/lockdales/catalogue-id-lo10206/lot-c0c2dc01-16ad-45c6-a025-af7000e5a8d9 These links should still work.

Are you sitting comfortably?….then I’ll begin. This goes on a bit!…sorry. I am recounting this event, not for egotistical reasons, but because it’s almost unbelievable nowadays. Last week, during my routine trawl of online auction sales etc I came across a few swords in a smallish regional auction. This auctioneer sells coins, Militaria, medals, weapons with a few Japanese pieces from time to time. Two SEPARATE LOTS caught my eye…a Wakizashi with just one “collage” image showing it dismantled. Looked decent. One member on here even posted an image of the Mei asking for help! Brian persuaded him to try it himself 🙂 The other was a large katana, very briefly catalogued “unable to remove tang cover” sold “as is”. Looked very very decent. I left it another couple of days and then had another look at them online. Decided to spend a few more minutes enlarging the 2 images. Then I noticed…..both had a large dragon nicely lacquered on the saya. Backwards and forwards between the images…surely not….oh yes….the Auctioneer had split up a daisho! I asked for a couple more images of the katana…..sure enough…matching Hawk chasing sparrows tsuba….matching dragon saya….no doubt a Daisho mounting. By now each had 45 people “watching” online. The wak had attracted several punchy online pre-auction bids but the katana was sitting at £230!?! The auctioneers obviously didn’t have a clue what they had done so, on sale day I drive on dark icy roads to have an “in hand” look. Get there and the swords are not out for viewing……they are locked in a back room in case someone cuts themselves……but I gain access. There are some issues…..the Ito is damaged…..one menuki missing….one horn kashira lost. The wak has a lovely Mt Fuji midare hamon with sunagashi and dense hada etc. The katana is very substantial and from the one online image I thought it classic Shinshinto….and so it was. A beautiful heavy blade with bo hi both sides, a lovely sugata, soft old sashikomi polish, active nioi choji hamon with delicate ko nie and ji nie etc etc . Sure enough the tsuka was utterly jammed, no one had even tried to remove it so I left well alone. The sword was almost (I hoped) guaranteed to be signed and dated…..classic high quality shinshinto. Worth a gamble I thought. It will be ubu and signed and maybe dated. Both swords filthy but blades in good original polish…a few scratches on the wak but that’s all. Now the heart was really thumping. I register to bid and enter the saleroom with half an hour to go. There are only two other people there….that’s all. Auctioneer, a lovely young lady, was in full swing selling bayonets and a few guns. The swords were consecutive lots with the wak coming up first. With three lots to go 3 members of the auctioneers staff come in with phones in hand and I listen as they contact the phone bidders. I could clearly overhear each conversation. Couldn’t believe what I heard….all of them were only bidding on the Katana, not on the wak which came up first. Surely someone else had twigged they were a daisho? Panic…..had I got the lots numbers wrong or mixed up. Calm down, you’ve checked them at least ten times. So, the wak comes up. No phone bidders interested, no room bidders interested (I think they’d gone to sleep!), just me vs the internet so I decided to bid whatever it took…I’d come this far….the red mist descended. I bought it for a very reasonable bid. Now the katana….now I’ve got to buy it whatever…..me vs the 3 phones. Can’t believe it but they drop out and it gets knocked down to me again, very reasonably imo. Im stunned…..no one else saw they were a daisho???….and one with lovely blades and (dirty) mounts! Did that really just happen or was it another optimistic dream? Grateful thanks to the auctioneers for a couple of truly lousy online images and bare bones descriptions. Pay up and drive home almost shaking with excitement and disbelief….which at my age doesn’t happen that often. Out come the tsuka removal tools. It (katana)definitely hadn’t been off for eons….possibly never since it was last in Samurai hands. Took me half an hour of very gentle persuasion before a lovely nakago with full length hi and the Mei of Nobukazu (noted pupil of Korekazu) was revealed together with a date of 1855. No doubt in my mind that it’s “right” ….it’s a really beautiful and hugely impressive blade. Some tsuka restoration required but the blades, saya and tsuba simply needed the appropriate cleaning. It was whilst doing that that I noticed the dragons were lacquered “in confrontation”….a lovely subtle touch. A truly bizarre chain of events which you would never believe could occur nowadays. All the best. Colin

Hello again Vitaly I can understand why you might think plastic, but from the images it looks like you have a perfectly “normal” set of fittings (koshirae). Maybe not high quality but certainly from the samurai era. The black elements that you question are almost certainly lacquered horn which was very commonly used on the koi guchi (the mouth of the saya), the kurigata (fitting on the saya for the cord) and the kashira. The red saya itself is simply lacquered wood.

Hello Vitaly, Your menuki depict Peony flowers….a popular subject in many Japanese art forms. Yes the fuchi (ie the fitting at the tsuba end of the tsuka) should match the Kashira (fitting at the pommel end of the tsuka). However there is one common exception where the fuchi is a “normal” metal fitting but the kashira is black polished horn (usually black buffalo). That black horn style was usually worn for formal court occasions. To my eye the tsuba looks a pretty basic cast piece ( as opposed to the more normal forged and folded iron examples) I’m sure others will add more detail….or correct me!! All the best. Colin