Shuko

Nah, some Chinese "aged it" a bit too long ..................

Powerball better be good to me this Thursday night, I like to buy tanto.

Thanks for the help. According to Dale this is a rare 3 crane tsuba. I too initially thought it was a 2 crane tsuba.

Does this help ?

Could someone please translate this signature for me. It is on an old iron 3 crane tsuba. Thanks

Ah, so there is a new Kamon book adventure for you to do in your 'spare' time ................

Can anyone enlighten me on what these sukashi mean on this tsuba. Thanks

I don't know much about tsuba but this one seems very crudely finished and the ring of fake looking punch marks are on the outside of the nakago-ana. Doesn't look like it has ever been mounted on a blade. Chinese ??? Dale will 100% know all the answers.

Rubbing it in the dirt always makes it look older ......................;)

Hi Could anyone help me identify which clan used the two swans facing each other mon. This is on both sides of a black lacquered saya from an aikuchi tanto. thx

Just call it Panther Piss ................

For those who have little knowledge of go (igo) quite a few of the well to do samurai use to play it as it involves flexible thinking and skill; a part of their mental training. I t was mainly played by court officials and some monks. There were numerous castle games where professional go players would play to win titles and rankings. The most famous player in the historical period was Shusaku (1829 - 1862) who unfortunately died of cholera. Famous men like Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu were all patrons of go but it was not until the twentieth century that it became a widely popular game in Japan. Note that there had been professional go players in four schools competing against each other for a very long time but government patronage was not organised properly until the 17th century. Invincible - The Games of Shusaku - translated by John Power and printed by The Kiseido Publishing Company has the important castle games if you are a player. Just like most arts in Japan it takes a lifetime to get strong or good and you are always learning things about the game, even the top flight 9 dan professionals never get to the top, no one can as it is infinite; this is part of the attraction to this simple to play yet extremely complex game.

Hi Jake I was 3d (sandan) but stopped playing years ago as my stamina and concentration have slipped with age. My sensai in Sydney was SongSheng Wu (Chinese 9 dan) but he died in 2007. Unfortunately he was a heavy smoker and couldn't stop.

Soren I am a go (igo) player so when you get the items could you please send me a photo of the kozuka on the lower left. Thx

72 Started when I was about 9 but stopped for 60 years when women fascinated me more. Sad thing is I know more about Nihonto than women and I know very little about Nihonto

My temple example.

I would recommend the new book to anyone with an interest in collecting tsuba and tsuba history. As my library is relatively new I also bought the other 2 books and have many months of reading ahead of me.

Ok, so how to pay you ? thx

Dale How much in OZ pesos for all three paperback copies plus the combined postage to Sydney ? e.g. when the 3rd book is published thx ps: your retirement display didn't have anything on bras and what the different sizes mean in posture, weight and handling efforts................

Around 1963 I was quite young (11) and my father had been buying random swords at auction in Sydney, including some Japanese which I still have. We were frequent visitors to the Blue Mountains and there was an antique dealer in a small shop at Blackheath next to the railway. He had a superb looking katana in full polish in a simple black saya, can't recall the koshirae. Anyway I fell in love with this katana which was ten guineas (e.g. pre-decimal) but with my modest savings I was about three guineas short. So I tried to get aa advance on my allowance but no luck and the dealer wouldn't accept holding it with time payments from a child. We went back to this shop at least two more times but on the third time the katana had been sold. I still long to get this katana plus get one of the swords my father gave me polished by a togishi but with only one (Andrew) here in OZ it also is proving difficult.

Just bought a modestly priced tsuba because of it's design. Is there any meaning to this design ? It doesn't appear to be a totally random design to me with my limited tsuba knowledge. Any comments welcome. thx

the broken blade will be up on eBay soon ...........................

A chapter on "interpreting listings" e.g. what may not have been accurately describe, what is missing, incredibly bad photos and masterful bullshit descriptions etc

The tsuba has been made from cutting it out of a large katana tsuba (damaged ?). On one outer side I can see the cutting marks and it is uneven. The only sword it fits is a very large katana but it looks stupid. The nakago-ana is too big for any tanto or normal wakizashi or slender katana. The Japanese seller made an honest mistake in describing it as a tanto tsuba purely based on its diameter and I didn't notice the plastic ruler across the whole tsuba which did indicate it had a large nakago-ana. The seller offered me a refund or discount but as this was a cheap tsuba I didn't worry as I intend to buy more later on. So we both had a tsuba lesson

Thanks for the information Jean, and yes I did mean yoroi doshi. Will measure this tsuba when it arrives and see what fits as I have a few tanto with motokasane from 6 mm to 9 mm. cheers