Jesta

Good points, and well-made. I have these labelled as “flood” in my collection. I chose the possibility that it was Futami Bay partly because the torii seems to be at that angle on the rock in the woodblock, and the bridge has similarities. The water under the bridge is definitely water, whereas whatever is covering the torii and the shrine is… ambiguous. Do you have any thoughts on the sticks (poles?) supported or held by the ropes on the omote side? I don’t know what they could be, but they get repeated too. As for getting tired of them, I haven’t yet been able to bring myself to sell any of my collection. I gave one tsuba away because I thought that it deserved a better home, but I am rather attached to the ones that I have. Hard to do anything, but accumulate

That’s a beautiful piece. Really lovely.

Agreed. It’s very poor quality, and looks like it was made fast for a quick sale. That was my initial thought. My skepticism around this is that there is no clear depiction of water, so it could be mist or fog, and the bridge is not submerged. Since this scene gets repeated line-by-line in the cheap tsuba I am thinking that it must be a recognisable scene that has elements that immediately trigger the audience to know what it is.

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole on this one. One possible answer that I have come up with is that this is a view of Futami Bay and the temple and torii there. This seems to have been a famous view (see woodblock below), the angle of the torii would fit with the angle on the tsuba, there is a temple or shrine in the mid-ground, and there is space for boats on the left.

Reviving this topic because I came across this in an auction (apologies for the low-res pic - it’s a screenshot of a zoomed in pic on the app). The theme is pretty much identical, but they have mashed together the various parts depicted on the daisho (omote and ura) into a single scene. So… I am still wondering if this was a well-known motif. It would seem strange for it to be repeated in what looks like something for the quick-sale market in the late Edo period (or Meiji period) that wasn’t something commonly known. Are there any resources compiling the typical motifs used on tsuba so that they can be searched?

Looks very similar to Dale’s door handle… https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/53845-oh-goody-another-door-handle/

With the caveat that you shouldn’t take legal advice from a forum post: While copyright law varies across the world it would generally be a breach of copyright to reproduce something and share it, either in translation or not. It doesn’t matter if it is given away free or sold, except possibly in terms of how much you might end up being liable for, if you get sued. If you share it here, then the site might be exempt under the rule that sites are not held liable for posts by their users, but Brian could be asked to take it down, and non-compliance would leave him open to being sued too. In educational settings you are allowed to reproduce up to 10%, or one chapter (whichever is lower), but that is because schools have an exemption for this. Fair use is possible, but you would have to include a commentary on the work, where the work is only reproduced to illustrate your commentary. I can’t tell you whether it is a good idea or not, but that is broadly what the law says (to my admittedly limited knowledge as a lecturer).

No red flags that I can see. Seems like it has been mounted and has plenty of wear. As you note, it is not fine quality, but no reasons to think that it is a modern fake.

I can’t say for certain, but it would seem unlikely. The second one up from the bottom has the little flat area for the kozuka, which would imply an attention to detail that might be a step too far. I would guess that towards the end of the Edo period there would be so many of these things floating around that there would be no need to make new ones for something like this. It fits with the repurposing of menuki into earrings, and pouch clasps, and the re-use of tsuba in furniture and boxes that we also see.

Thank you both. I didn’t know the name, although Swan Vestas were matches when I was growing up, and Vesta was a Roman goddess when I was studying…

I picked this up because I thought that it was interesting. It is a matchbox made from five fuchi, with the top of a kashira to close it off. It is nicely done, and I am guessing that it is Meji-period, using earlier pieces. If anyone has any thoughts on the origins of any of the individual fuchi, I would be grateful…

The one shown here seems to be of higher quality than the two other versions. I wonder if it was the original that got copied…

Thanks… I have seen so many of these that I thought that they were all modern rubbish…

Are the two you posted old, but mass-produced for export?

Training my eye, and I found this on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Katanas/comments/1oor0gw/signed_unno_motomasa/ My initial reaction was one of caution. The flags raised are: 1. The depictions are too colourful. I have not see too many Edo period tsuba with so many colours (outside of the cloisonné designs), so this seemed a little off. 2. The design seems to be back to front. If the kosuka-ana is real, then the simpler design would be on the front, while the complex carving would be on the back. 3. The wear looks odd. At first glance this looks like it should be iron, but the wear reveals a sort of yellowish underlay or white, neither of which look like worn iron patina. 4. The sekigane look like they are decorative rather than functional. 5. I may be biased, but the demon design looks like the sort of thing you see a lot on new tsuba… What are your thoughts on this? Is it legit?