Larason2

I agree with you I see casting bubbles on the ebay one. However, that doesn't mean the other one is cast! You have to examine each piece separately, in my opinion. I don't see any casting bubbles or sprue marks on the first one.

I don't think its cast, but the soft contours of the strokes of the signature and the lower quality of the carving suggest a lower quality copy. So I agree with SteveM probably Gimei (false signature). Dale, I like yours!

I'm not an expert, but I believe it's genuine Japanese. Possibly Shoami school, early Edo. It may have rusted before and the rust cleaned up. The rust pattern suggests it's wrought though. Lovely piece, looks like someone in a fur costume sitting at a trap. Could be a weasel or ermine on the bundles of hay. Either way a desirable animal for fur or a pet. Don't worry there's no signs of use - not all of them were ever mounted.

Thanks for that. Your hard work paid off!

Looks gorgeous. What techniques did you use specifically?

Those monkey tsuba are great! My favourite is the monkey with the sword approaching the samurai. I love that kind of situational humour involving animals. Good, clean fun!

That's actually an ear trumpet! It is a sort of early hearing aid. Apparently also used by Beethoven!

I think 乃 means "to be." This is based on how it's used in both Mandarin and Japanese, but mostly the Mandarin meaning. It must have been picked up from China. It's sort of a poetic/literary way of thinking about being. The other meanings are very similar between the two. In Mandarin it's nǎi.

Nice find, thanks for sharing! Now I have another Ei tsuba to add to my collection! The pictures are a bit washed out, looks like it is a scan of a printed page. Still happy to have the pictures!

I wondered how some members got the gold koban on their profile. Now I get to be fancy too!

My understanding of the grooves like this is that they are all a sort of yasurime. In this case, the tip of a very fine file.

Could also have been made before the regulations.

Good pickup on the Mino school, I agree with you it does have that vibe. For instance look at this katana: https://swordsofjapan.com/product/mino-jumyo-katana/ I will send it to shinsa one day! Right now I just want to enjoy it!

I would still be delighted with it if it was Gendaito, but I don't think it is. One is the polish is too different from modern polishes. The lack of the decorative burnishing lines, and instead a polish on the kissaki end of the mune instead of burnishing suggest against it. Also, I would say that modern polishes tend to emphasize the hamon more than this one does. Also, the strange yellow rust on the nakago I've seen on other swords on this site and suggests to me treatment, which I would assume points to this tanto having gone through the showa period. But I'm sure there are others on this site that know better than I do! It's hard for me to say. If they tried the old candle and cloth method, it can be really hard to tell. The nakago does fit abnormally snug in the shirasaya tsuka though, which points to some modification after it was made. You're right the wear isn't super even, and there's the strangely deep yasurime. Maybe an amateur attempt to make the fit in the tsuka a bit looser (using a file to cut new yasurime, and filing off the nakago ridge a bit perhaps), looks like it was done after the second nakago-ana was cut. Doesn't look like an amateur attempt to age though, if anything the new file marks look younger than the rest. Another point is that the shirasaya looks like it has gone through an abnormally high amount of wear for gendaito. It looks like this blade was used extensively in its shirasaya, which would be very strange for any gendaito tanto.

Here's some better pictures of the nakago. I'm still working on how to photograph these beauties! I used to have a DSLR (Canon EOS 300D), but I didn't use it in so long I gave it away. Maybe using an LED light with my phone?

This Tanto has been presented before: First Time: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/40375-help-needed-on-tanto-possibly-osoraku/#comment-417645 Second Time: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/44261-osoraku-tanto/ The person who sold it to me goes by “Katsu” on the Sword Buyer’s Guide forum: https://sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/user/54816 And “William Cardin” on this site: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/profile/6452-williamcardin/ He was very pleasant to deal with. I got him to take a picture of the sword with his name beside it, and he obliged. I ran into some troubles with paypal on my end, but I sorted them out soon after. He couldn’t ship it immediately because of family concerns, but he shipped it within a week, and it arrived less than a week later. Here’s what I found: I’ve never held a tanto before, but it doesn’t feel overly light or overly heavy. The blade is solidly in the tsuka, and overall the fit and finish is excellent, as you would expect from a nihonto. It has a pretty aggresive style, but the polish on the blade and the nature of the hamon feels quite refined. The polish is understated, in my opinion, but I think this goes along with the period that it was made. Saya: The shirasaya has quite a few scratches on it, primarily at the kojiri end, but I’m pretty sure it is made of nurizaya/honoki, and none of the scratches look too deep. On the ura side, towards the kojiri, it looks a bit like the original finish has been altered, maybe by a scrape against something hard. The koiguchi fits against the tsuka pretty flush, though there are a few minor scuffs on the ura side of the tsuka edge. The grain match is pretty good. The glue lines all around are pretty good, except for right where the koiguchi meets the tsuka, top and bottom. They are well glued, just not a perfect closure. The original mekugi was broken into a stub quite short. I popped it out with forceps, and made a new one from susudake I bought from Namikawa Heibei. I used primarily a fine woodworking chisel, though some sandpaper to help shape the ends. The new one turned out pretty good, though the Omote end turned out a bit narrow, and it is a bit loose when put in certain ways. I’ll carve another one when I have time, now that I’ve learned how to do it. The tsuka is the haichi shape, and the bigger mekugi-ana is on the omote side. It fits very comfortably in the hand. The shirasaya appears to be carved for the blade, and there is no blade rattle whatsoever. The fit over the habaki is very good, not too loose and not too tight. The seam is right at the top of the mune, which I understand is not usual practice (usually it is offset so the mune rides along just wood, not a glue seam), but I may be in error. Habaki: I believe the habaki is shibuichi, but I think it is fairly recent, because it is still quite light. There are some marks of black oxidation on the top and bottom, but they are very small. Inside the habaki there are two areas where the polish is worn off toward the blade revealing the original copper colour. It has two brass inserts to help hold the blade that have a very good fit. It has a slanted lines engraving, and the fit on the blade is very good. The polish is very good, with some clear hammer marks towards the end, but otherwise you can see the strokes of the carving tools on the surface to show you it was hand finished. As expected, it fits on the blade perfectly. Blade: The blade itself looks to me to be shinogi-zukuri, with the curvature appearing to be saki-zori. The hamon is a pretty broad gunome towards the nakago side (almost notare) that tightens up as it reaches the kissaki to almost be choji. There’s a fair bit of sunagashi throughout, not sure if that is typical of the style. The boshi of the kissaki looks like o-maru. it has a small “yo” on the omote side of the boshi, but not the ura side. The fukura is rounded. The mune is iori-mune, with a standard oroshi. Overall, the mune doesn’t look very heavily burnished to me, there’s still a lot of the texture of the metal left. There is a sort of yokote on the mune closer to the tip than the kissaki yokote, and the mune looks polished closer to the tip, whereas it looks burnished towards the nakago. Not sure what that line would be called? It doesn’t have the decorative burnishing lines of modern polishers on the mune, there are some lines where you would expect on the nakago side, but I think they are just scratches from the habaki! There is no mei for the polish. The shinogi looks average height to me, and there’s still a fairly decent bit of niku left on the blade. I see some nice nioi and nie here and there, but otherwise don’t see tons of activity, and the hamon could be a little better set off. The hada is a pretty gorgeous and dense masame. It has a long but very shallow what looks like a kitae-ware in the kissaki away from the boshi on the omote side in line with the axis of the blade. I’m pretty sure it is not a yaki-ware because it doesn’t look like it goes deep and doesn't look crack-like. There are also some kitae-ware on the omote side on the shinogi and the shinogi-ji, but they are small and look aesthetic to me. The blade has no hi or horimono. The nakago is kurijiri style, and the yasurime look kesho-yasuri to me. Some of the yasurime are quite a bit deeper than others, especially on the mune side of both the omote and ura. The fit of the nakago in the tsuka is quite tight, but it doesn’t take too much force to get it out, just patience. Some of the rust/patina is actually yellow, suggesting to me that it was treated at some point, but I could be wrong. The nakago-ana is lined up perfectly with the mekugi-ana on the tsuka. There are two nakago-ana, and the one towards the nakago-jiri is the one used for the shirasaya tsuka mekugi. The other one also has quite a bit of yellow material in it, suggesting treatment, though they both have this. As mentioned before, the blade is mumei. Measurements: Overall Length in shirasaya: 46 cm Height at highest point: 4 cm Width: 2.5 cm Nagasa: 30.5 cm Motohaba: 10.5 cm Saki-haba: 2.7 cm Tip length: 4.5 cm Kasane: 0.67 cm at mune machi, 0.60 cm at end of shinogi Habaki: 2.5 cm Tsuka: 11 cm Saya: 35 cm Overall: I'm very happy. It certainly has some small flaws, but I still think it was a bargain for a gorgeous blade, and it’s my first (and currently only) Nihonto. I love the osoraku style, interesting hamon, dense hada, and aggressive curvature of the piece, and I think that’s what attracted me to it mainly. If I’ve made some errors above on the characterization, feel free to correct them, as I will learn that way! I’m still pretty new at this. Rivkin said in another post that this could be end of shinshinto/early showa. Part of me feels like it merits a modern polish by a Japanese togisho, but that’s in the future (as it will probably be quite a bit more than what I paid for it!), and then of course shinsa. I also plan to make a full ei-themed koshirae set for it in the future, a la Ford Hallam. But first learn how to make a proper mekugi! Here are my pictures (still working on learning how to take better ones!):

Interesting. There's two sticks and two ants, 足 (ashi) can also be translated as sticks. Maybe two sticks with ants, or two sticks, two ants.

Whether you think the arrow is flexing through the shot or not, if its a traditional recurve bow, it is. They call it the archer's paradox: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer's_paradox You don't actually have to think about that though. If you shoot a bow enough, you develop a sense of where the arrow will go based on repetition of muscles and their memory. That's what the Japanese use in kyujutsu to target.

DoTanuki Yokai, You may be right, if the wood satisfies all the requirements for both the saya and the tsuka. However, if they are made from different wood, or the same wood but different properties, you'd want to make sure the wood was appropriate for the job.

Gereint, you are partially right. They can be evergreen or deciduous, depending on where they grow.

Ah yes, Jean. You are right, I was in error! I would think like most wood magnolia is also acidic, and that the acidity varies with environment though. Magnolia is an interesting wood, being an angiosperm that doesn't lose its leaves.

If you want to know your Alder's acid content, dissolve some alder sawdust in distilled water and use some of those inexpensive pH strips to test what it is. If you're going to make a tsuka for a nihonto, I'd only use imported honoki, and only honoki meant for tsuka. This paper has alder at pH 4.9 (acidic): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353504883_Changes_in_the_Physical_and_Chemical_Properties_of_Alder_Wood_in_the_Process_of_Thermal_Treatment_with_Saturated_Water_Steam Honoki is a type of cypress. This paper says that pH of wood varies according to its environment, with cypress woods varying from 3.3 to 6.4 in the papers surveyed: https://www.proquest.com/openview/cea5592742f8f785925d2616b6341206/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1446337 The cypress they looked at in the paper were a bit less acidic, between 5.1 and 5.9. So, we see that Honoki is probably acidic relative to pH7. However, it's traditional, and we know it doesn't affect the wood long term, and that's what counts. For a reproduction, there's nothing wrong with buying some other kind of cypress. That's what I did! However, for both alder and cypress, the nature of the wood makes a big difference. You can get very soft and pretty hard cypress and alder. Usually young trees are pretty soft, and they get harder and tougher as they age, especially the heartwood. For a saya, you want pretty young/soft wood to protect the blade, but for a tsuka, you want the wood pretty hard and tough to hold its shape and prevent deformation/cracks. If your Alder tree was old and you got the heartwood, it may be good for a reproduction tsuka, but if it was pretty young and soft, save it for some other project.

As SpartanCrest rightly acknowledged, I am rather frustrated at these posts now, and the apparently fruitless discussion it has created. Part of me feels I should just abandon it, but I respect GRC’s kind apology. If I have made some ad hominem attacks in the past, I apologize, it was not my intention. So, I’m just going to direct this to some of GRC’s points. There were many other points made, but I don’t really have time to address them all. Please, when we’re discussing Ford Hallam, keep in mind that he has just come out of the hospital with a serious medical condition and is getting better at home. For my first point, I think GRC is in error when he seems to claim what real “authority” is on the subject. Just because someone has letters behind their name does not mean that they have the appropriate knowledge to address the question. Neither does knowledge relating to Japanese history or metallurgy. Someone who does their PhD in metallurgy with their thesis relating to the properties of some obscure metal when alloyed with steel is not qualified to speak on this topic. Neither is someone with a PhD in Japanese history, if they just believed all the papers they read that said something is cast. Neither is having run a successful antique dealership specializing in tsuba. The truth is, the only person who is really an “expert” on the matter is a person who has knowledge relating to the subject at hand, and the acquisition of this knowledge is independent of other pursuits. Ford Hallam isn’t just a “jeweller.” Among modern produced tsuba, those of Ford Hallam and his school are the only tsuba that serious collectors have any interest in obtaining. If he was deceived on what constitutes cast iron vs. wrought iron, then he wouldn’t be a very good tosogi. If someone refuses to accept his authority based on these grounds, then I don’t know what authority they are prepared to accept. Now, the absence of evidence does hold some weight. In science, as in a lot of other fields, the absence of evidence is often used as evidence that something was unlikely to have existed. This is why, for instance, many archaeologists feel that the claim that the Phoenicians made it to North America is very unlikely. So far, no authentic Phoenician artifacts have been found in North America. Of course, the same was thought of the Vikings, but now we know there is actually abundant evidence. if we were to find some piece of Phoenician refuse accurately dated to Phoenician time in North America, it would show they did, but the relative absence of evidence is still evidence that they didn’t go much. So no evidence isn’t proof of something, but it is a sort of evidence. To say that many cheap, mass produced tsuba were made by Japanese artisans in the Edo period when there is no evidence doesn’t make much sense. There should be lots of them hanging around, and enough duplicates that we won’t be afraid to do destructive testing on one to confirm it is cast. But that’s not the case, and it says something. Lastly, many seem to take the assertion that there were Edo period cast iron kettle makers who also made tsuba as definitive proof that cast iron tsuba must have been made, but this also makes no sense. Those kettle makers could have also just made the tsuba from wrought iron, as all other Edo period tsuba makers appeared to have done. If we found a single one of their tsuba that can be proven to be cast, then it will show that they indeed did cast tsuba. But none such exist, as far as we know. Now, a lot of proponents of the “Edo cast tsuba” theory keep repeating theories about how to know if a tsuba is cast or not that have been shown to be false (like the “bell ringer” theory). In science, every test has to be rigorously validated, using positive and negative controls. Clearly in this instance, there aren’t really these tests available, which limits the degree to which we can actually be certain about what we’re talking about. Also, I pointed out that there are problems with the terminology used, which appear to affect the work of even highly educated people. If this is the case, they why do we keep arguing as though some kind of certainty can actually be reached? I for one, am going to hold off from now until some kind of convincing evidence is actually presented.

GRC, if you disagree with Ford or I, that's one thing, but calling either of us asinine isn't appropriate. I don't really do discussions with people who start insulting when they get frustrated.

The ones I've seen are just like Andi's above. A new hole was punched to work with a new style of koshirae, and the other two filled in for cosmetic reasons.