Jake6500

Thank you very much, we'll see how it looks in person once it arrives in the coming week or 2! It wasn't cheap but I think it will be worth it. Some design points to note include the golden eyes of our samurai on the kashira and the way the bow curves over the side which are both indicative of Hamano style designs. The mei also seems fairly close to Mauro's example despite it being from a different Hamano artist... Here is another work example from the same artist and a thread with some other examples of Hamano Noriyuki's mei...

I had considered this possibility and it was in the shortlist of themes I came up with, with the assistance of @Iekatsu, but the rider on the fuchi seems to be wearing foreign armour, likely Chinese or Korean based on other works floating around out there. This has given me some doubts... I was considering the possibility that it is Takezaki Suenaga from the defense of Hakata Bay during the Mongol invasion, however Kajiwara Genta Kagesue from the Genpei War also came to mind per your suggestion as he was portrayed in a similar fashion to the Fuchi in Ukiyoe works and the Uji river theme was very popular... In the battle at Hakata Bay one of the generals on the Mongol side was from Goryeo which might explain our (foreign?) rider's armour on the fuchi if we were to go with the Suenaga theory... Ukiyoe paintings of both examples below, starting with Takezaki Suenaga first followed by Kajiwara Kagesue:

On this topic, it just so happens that I have a fuchigashira coming from Japan signed Hamano Noriyuki... The work definitely has Hamano style features but it could still be gimei. Tell me what you think! If anyone has any ideas about the theme let me know. Spent some time brainstorming about this one but couldn't definitively work it out. Whilst there appears to be a famous samurai on the kashira, the rider on the fuchi appears to be wearing foreign armour (?)

Very nice statue of Acala/Mahakala Dharmapala. Not sure I'm ready to branch out from Tosogu yet but I think this is a great acquisition!

It appears to be mapping the Southern advances of the imperial army from the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo toward Shanghai going from top to bottom... This would presumably place the date somewhere between the capture of Shanghai in November 1937 and the Japanese surrender in August 1945. This was most likely produced around the peak of Japan's military dominance circa November 1937 - December 1941. Very interesting item you have found.

This is a cool and unique style of craftmanship I haven't really seen before! Very nice tsuba and fuchigahira, Geraint and Okan!

I did and it also seems plausible, however from what little I know Hikone works are often half-open works as opposed to fully solid works right? The example you linked has some open sections whilst the tsuba in question is a fully closed design. There are of course some exceptions to this rule that make Hikone a possibility but I would say probably about 90% of all the Hikone tsuba I've seen have a partial open design. P.S. If it is Hikone, it is probably Goshu Hikone

I would probably dismiss Hamano as a possibility. Hamano work often tends to curve over the rim/edge and Hamano figures are known to generally have distinctive, mostly gold eyes which does not seem to match the Guan Yu in your tsuba. Whilst iron is not out of the question, Shibuichi also seems to have been more popular for the Hamano school as a base metal. Tetsugendo or Shoami seem a lot more likely.

Tetsugendo definitely seems possible also. The background of the tsuba almost gives me Choshu or Bushu Ito vibes but I don't think the foreground style matches those.

I've taken a couple weeks off the forum so I'm super late to this one... I'm yet to delve into menuki in my own collection (they sort of scare me risk wise, unless they have a signed attribution like this one!) but this one is beautiful and a great pickup!!!! Yanagawa school as has already been said! I just picked up a kozuka signed Yanagawa Naomitsu which I believe is authentic and I hope to share with the forum once it arrives from Japan! Makes me wish I had found this menuki as well! Great find!

Agree that the image is almost certainly Guan Gong. This was a pretty prevalent design in the culture of the later Edo Period and there are many other Tosogu from many different schools depicting Guan Yu... I myself have a Tsuba as well as a Fuchi depicting Guan Yu. The design is typically identifiable by the long beard, crescent blade and reddish face. The deign of Guan Yu sitting at a table as in the case of this piece is also common. As for the school it is difficult for me to say and there are plenty of others better equipped to make a judgement. I would guess maybe Shoami? The combination of metals, depicted scene and style are not dissimilar from one of my own Tsuba... Link to a thread about that one below: That said there are some marked differences in style as well, so take my attribution with a grain of salt!

Looks authentic, I think probably late Edo circa 1850. Not great quality but having an entire matching set is nice.

This is something I was wondering about but didn't have the confidence in my knowledge to raise in the thread... Every Higo school spider tsuba I have ever seen has had an iron base and usually gold adornment. For example: https://varshavskyco...collection/tsu-0206/ I've seen several of these of varying quality, but never one with a different base or a wood grain effect.

Uneven, off-angled hexagonal shape... Guess there's a first time for everything in the knock-off market, that's why it was labelled as "original"

One way is Google reverse image search if you want to find the origins of a particular image on the internet, but Dale's real superpower is being able to see a new photo of a tsuba and connect it in his mind to a similar and/or identical example in some abstract catalogue book somewhere! https://sites.google.../reverse-images/home

Higo school seem to have been big on the spider designs. I've seen quite a few different Higo school tsuba with similar (but never identical) spider and web designs.

My main piece of advice, to build upon Collin's comment is: BUY. FROM. THE. SOURCE. Something I learned through this forum and some of the collectors I've interacted with is that Japan has its own auction services which see more traffic by domestic Japanese users than Ebay does. What that means is a lot of great pieces don't ever make their way onto Ebay. Prices on good pieces through Ebay are also often a lot higher than on Japanese Yahoo auctions. Services like Jauce or Remambo allow you access to these auctions, so if you are serious about collecting Tsuba you should probably make an account on one of them. The majority of my best pieces have come through these services and only my first one or two pieces came through Ebay. Other than that it is largely a repeat of what has already been said, the more examples you study the better your eye for quality will become.

This image is a lot more compelling to me.

I can see where the fish drying on lines comes from but where/what are our fishing nets?

Admittedly, this is the one aspect of the design I am most puzzled by! But I think the tower with the four ropes is the strongest indicator that we are looking at an Obon Matsuri. Festival towers often have 4 ropes, one from each corner and I don't know what that part of the design could otherwise be. The boat shape from the 1930 depiction of a seaside Obon Matsuri can also be seen on the tsuba motif...

I think the stiffness of the design on this tsuba is particularly apparent in the design of Hotei. The linework just doesn't feel very natural. Often times human outlines or faces can be a good indicator of overall quality when you are trying to judge the craftmanship of a piece. The mei is also a bit of a giveaway here. There is too much deviation from the confirmed examples. My profile picture is of a kashira signed "Hamano Shozui". Whilst it is also likely gimei, I think the qualitative difference in the linework between your Hotei tsuba and this Tengu piece should give you an idea of what I'm referring to. Here are some other examples, this tsuba is signed "Toshinao" and is authentic: This next one is Hamano Noriyuki: Still, you got a tsuba with a nice cultural design to enjoy which is always a plus!

This is one possible answer, but I have an alternate hypothesis. I think the tsuba is showing people travelling along major roads into a city/town for the Bon Odori Matsuri. ^ Picture from a modern Bon Odori Festival in Yokohama Note these boats? We can see these in our tsuba design as well, near the festival tower.

This is 100% Benkei, cut and dry! I was watching this tsuba myself but the auction was not at an opportune time for me unfortunately. Great pickup!

Interesting... I know some collectors have reservations about green papers but personally I think they are still reliable 95% of the time. If the paper makes an attribution to a particular artist or school, I'd be of the view that it is probably correct. Given the added context I think the text probably is referring to the first generation. Have you translated the certification to see exactly what it says?

The weird blobby lookin' thing is probably an octopus (I think)! The bird is most likely a phoenix. I agree about the elephant head. It's probably of no relevance but I did find this neat story about an elephant during the Edo Period: https://www.morethan...et-Japanese-emperor/