Jesta

My guess is that if it has a function then it’s to do with balance. A heavy tsuba would bring the center of balance back towards the hands. There are some techniques involving locking tsuba against each other in sword combat, but I’d say it is debatable as to how much they were ever really used. Probably not enough to warrant any redesign of tsuba or we would see this kind of thing more often.

I haven’t bought this one. It’s on Jauce. I have put in a low bid, so if it comes through then ok, if not then…

Thanks 🙏 both.

I was browsing Jauce when I came across this one: https://www.jauce.com/auction/p1196107295 Looking closely I am a bit suspicious of the “gold” highlights, particularly on the clouds and the figures. To my eye it looks more like someone has gone over them in gold pen (or gold paint) than if it was gold leaf… Anyone else see it, or did I dream it?

That’s much more definite than mine, it’s very clear that there is water involved. Could it be the torii gates that are in the sea?

Wow… I think that if I want something like this I will go with the S$16 from aliexpress… I can always sell it on Jauce 🤔🤣

Just goes to show that value is determined entirely by what someone will pay for something. There’s no objective value to these items, and that value will fluctuate as people get more, or less, willing to pay. In the current case it appears, for now at least, that the value of the piece is in the Y70,000 range since no-one is bidding beyond that. It will be interesting to see where this one goes.

This forum has been a great place to learn, and all the little details were what worried me in the first place. Then people seemed to be so willing to pay serious money for it, so I wanted to check my intuition. I came back on this morning to see what it sold for and saw the Y200,000 price tag… Genuinely shocked.

Thanks, as always… The one in the MFA seems to be the one that the modern Chinese copies come from (given the obi position), while the one for sale on Jauce looks more like the one on the tansu. I wonder when the different looks seeped into the fake market.

Yes, I also thought this… What threw me was the lack of other copies. It feels cast or stamped. The huge bidding war seems a bit worrying too…

I found this listing on Jauce: https://www.jauce.com/auction/f1193696272 It rings alarm bells, but when I did a reverse image search I could only find similar pieces (that could be copies of this one), (see here: https://pcdetail.taobao.com/TXdRamNqMmVLQTNoYnB6U0djbCtMQT09.html) and the two in the second picture which are from LiveAuctioneers. The listing has disappeared from that site, which is also a bit suss... Am I wrong? Is this the original, made by a master, from which all others flow? Put me out of my misery…

This is what I found too. My guess is that they have both sides where the two sides are sufficiently different to warrant a second picture. It may be a cost or time saving thing, but where there is a reverse side that is different there is a picture, where the pattern is very similar they don’t have one.

Thank you and Koichi. Judging from the book on fans (where they don’t seem to be represented) and the other articles, I couldn’t find them because they are not really fans, but paddles for a game. That would explain it

Slightly off-topic, but what is the name for the type of fans that they are holding? I saw these on a tsuba recently, but I couldn’t think of how to describe them to get a name out of Google…

I am happy to say that they agreed with the notes I sent (thank you to those who gave me pointers), apologised, and I will get a full refund for the piece.

Sent you a DM

Just received my latest purchase from Grev. I am very happy with it, it all went smoothly.

At least the Jauce one gives the dimensions… I would imagine that someone will get a hell of a shock when they order a tsuba and get a porthole cover instead…

Well… they do say that this is “High quality” so that makes the mark-up worthwhile, I am sure.

Thanks Dale. Once again, your encyclopaedic memory astonishes me…

Thanks, I will look into the school. Yours shows quite a bit more refinement, but I can see the stylistic similarities.

Thank you. Approx 6.8cm(w) x 7cm(h)

After a recent issue, I am presenting this one with my heart in my mouth I picked this one up from Jauce. It seems to show rice, either after it has been harvested, or just before. Definitely, iron, and highlighted with what looks like gold leaf. Any thoughts on it when it comes to authenticity, origins, etc? This one was not expensive and it looks and feels OK, but I remain very wary of buying from Jauce in general. Thanks in advance…

I would be more likely to agree with you on the connection between the ana and the design if the design took the ana into account or flowed around it. But one of the leaves is almost entirely swallowed by the ana. If it was added after the ana then I can’t see a reason to do it like that. The ana pretty much have to be where they are, but the design can be anywhere. (I should nore that I recognise that “I can’t think of a reason” is not a good argument against something, so you could well be right, I am just currently still unconvinced without more examples to show that this was a thing…)

I find the second one easier to see the problems with (sperm-shaped nanako FTW, and terrible paint on the mimi). What did you see in the first one that raised the red flags?