Hokke

Good looking tsuba.....I like the texture and it looks like it tapers nicely toward the edge. What are the dimensions and any idea of the motif?

Hell, at $100-$120, if it turns out to be well researched with proper photos like Brett said, i'd buy one for me and another to give away. However, until I see a copy and confirm price, im not committing.

Good find, thanks

Relatively inexpensive tsuba that should be here any day now. Im looking forward to seeing this one in person. What drew me to it wasn't so much the mokume, but the fact that it's over 90x80mm's, a nice full size tsuba. My question wasn't so much about whether or not it was forged, but rather if there were period techniques to enhance the visible pattern to provide more contrast.

Has anyone seen any edo tsuba that were etched with a pattern? This mokume is so bold and prominent it just seems a bit too.....o-mokume. Thoughts?

Im not fluent in Italian, but my father said this one enough that I eventually learned it "Ad ogni pazzo piace il suon del suo sonaglio"

Wow......Good on you for being a patient and accommodating dealer I wonder if Brian has access and the ability to add a "tire kick" icon or emoji to whats currently available.

Were you unaware the seller was a member here or did you just not trust his assessment?

Curious Piers, do you know from what the handle is made?

Thank you so much Jean, I was racking my brain trying to remember this motif....Omodaka, Omodaka, Omodaka.......gotta remember this. Yes, the gourd hits I one of my favorite parts of this tsuba, I always appreciate the modification of utilitarian design elements into theme. I considered yakite, but I always thought yakite was more for a subtle texture rather than something this bold. Wabi Sabi indeed

Thank you Piers.....if you are correct and the reason for the brown hues are as the result of treated red rust, would that mean when the rust was removed it wasn't re-patinated before sealing it? As to your question, when I first proposed the question, my concern was how glossy it was in the lines of the mei. This is before it was settled that this tsuba had been treated with a coating. So no, it wasn't about the authenticating the mei, although id be curious to hear opinions if anyone is familiar with Munekatsu. I have a papered Munekatsu that I will be comparing it to, but I haven't gotten that far yet.......still trying to get better photos.

So I received this tsuba and although it seems to have been hastily made, there are some elements I still enjoy. As for the coating, its definitely there, and water does bead up and roll right off without leaving any residue @Tim Evans. Im curious about the damage present and what could have caused it. To me, it looks like the iron was overheated and melted. Silver can do something similar under the right conditions, but ferrous metals could be completely different in that regard. What do you think @ROKUJURO My camera is new and im still fine tuning the settings, but this thing was a real pain to get good photos of, mostly because of the glossy surface. Might try some low light pictures and see if they turn out any better. The last thing is the colors underneath the coating. It goes from a dark patina to a light brown, hopefully it's visible in my poor pics. Is this something common to see when tsuba have been treated with wax, urushi....etc?

Balmy? An optimist huh We'll see how you feel around 3pm.......not to mention we are only in June, so what you feel is only 70% of what it will be mid july and august. Welcome to purgatory

I’m curious, was the initial response you received enough to have put them on your blacklist? Because, it seems like your reply is what generated the negativity, if that was even the case. Using “basically” instead of an actual quote leaves a lot to be assumed. As a business owner, I can say that in the past when I have declined a customer request, the response became less friendly when they try to find an”work around” to whatever the reason was for the denial.

Is that how the story is invoked contemporarily? I love how things trickle down through the ages

From my F/K Piers.....the likeness is very similar to your netsuke....

Indeed...... and for those wondering about the Kamon Piers was referring to:

I have a set of F/K with the kikujido motif which I purchased specifically because of that story. "Kikujido" has been a favorable theme since ancient times as a symbol of wishing for longevity. A beautiful child who drank water dripping from the chrysanthemum leaves that wrote the sentence and became an immortal hermit. It is said that the water flowed into the river, cured the diseases of neighboring villagers and benefited them with longevity. Recently, it has not been seen much, but the "Chuyo no Sekku" on September 9, where you wipe your body with chrysanthemum cotton and drink chrysanthemum sake to pray for good health, was once an important annual event.

Seems simple enough, I would say both, now, but not in the beginning. Swords and other weapons, were initially created for one purpose, death. However, in the pursuit of making a superior weapon, the artistic properties were revealed. The art was an accident that would eventually become the goal. Today of course, the pendulum has swung the complete opposite direction and the majority of Japanese weapons are created for only one purpose, art and not death.

Just a follow up…..I ended up picking this up, it was cheap enough and I’m curious about the finish. When it arrives I’ll share what I find and I’m certain I’ll have additional questions. Thanks for the input from everyone, tsuba and their characteristics are a new endeavor for me.

Munekatsu? On a side note, where are you guys accessing kanji fonts?

Awesome, thanks for posting this. Today we use gravers with 6+ lines already cut into the tool, had no idea it used to be done with a single edge. That would be MINDNUMBING

The base texture of this tsuba is interesting. In jewelry we would call it a kind of Florentine finish. Is this criss cross pattern common? We have gravers made specifically for this texture, but hard to believe that would have had them in the 19th century…..but then, maybe not.