Pete Klein

Kanayama tsuba, mumei, ca. mid Muromachi 7.5 cm H x 7.4 cm W x 0.5 cm T Iron, maru gata, round cornered kakumimi koniku This piece has a black patina and linear and granular tekkotsu in the mimi. The design is of openwork gourds on the left and right and birds at the top and bottom. NTHK kanteisho to Kanayama, 81 points. The above tsuba and information is published on Jim Gilbert's site: http://home.earthlink.net/~jggilbert/kanayama.htm PS: I think it wise to not take Sasano as any form of orthodoxy. In Japan most of his theories has been overturned.

I am curious as to what kind of NBTHK paper was issued?

I believe this is Haynes 04395 -- Masanori -- "This Shoami school master has always been thought of as the finest of Kyoto Shoami artists. It is very difficult to distinguish the works of the two artists who used this name". Nice tsuba!

I have not been able to read through this entire thread but I believe Chris, James and Steven's most recent posts have said just about everything I would have ventured to add. Something which has struck me though is that I feel it is important to remember we are dealing with someone else's history and culture and therefore it is imperative to remember the differences between constructive thought and questioning and the imposition of our occidental viewpoints. I find in myself and sometimes in others that what we complain about the most is actually a reflection of our subconscious realizations of our own limitations / comprehensions and therefore humility and prudence is necessary in our decision making. Often patience and diligent purpose solves all.

Very true. Capon's lament.

Nothing. Absolutely -- nothing. And 'this' is what I anticipated:

To add a drop to what Curran posted, as for fittings it should be remembered that there were no 'meikan' prior to the 1970's so judgments were based more on 'feel' and 'experience' of the shinsa members. This can reflect upon the green papers with mei judgements and is why sometimes the piece does not pass Hozon today. The original 'Kinko Meikan' was vetted in the 1990's and a number of mei were determined to be gimei and removed from the 'Shinsen Kinko Meikan' publication (1998 I believe).

Yes. Stop classifying.

"I am just concerned that it might receive Hozon to "Higo" paper that would be a complete waste of money". Yup - that is always a possibility which one must be ready for in the 'World of Shinsa'...! This I know from much experience... LOL!

The pictures above are from the book, 'Hayashi and Kamiyoshi' by Ito Mitsuru, at the end of the book after Musashi. For those that have the translation there is some brief information on Korin which I will attempt to summarize here. The use of 'Tohi' apparently ties him into the 'Tsuboi' group of artists from Eastern Kumamoto, working in the 1800's. It is therefore no surprise that his works are to be found in the Kumamoto museum (several of the tsuba in the book are in the Kumamoto Prefectural Art Museum). He is considered a very fine tsuba shi and Ito sensei regards him highly in his writing. As to shinsa, might not be a bad idea although getting an attribution directly to Korin might be a challenge. PS: David's post came up as I was writing. There is mention of Jingo and Tsuboi; "...Tanabe Yasuhira studied under Shigenaga, the fifth generation Jingo master, and the fact that Jingo-style was in fashion at that time too would explain why this style was so frequently applied by Tsuboi craftsmen".

Hi Sebastien -- please take a look at these menuki of 'Shi Shi' papered to Goto (NBTHK Hozon) and then compare them to the ones you posted: Here is a link to Shi Shi menuki by Goto Sojo: http://www.nihonto.com/8.4.14.html They are of gold but that doesn't matter. Take care to look at the depths of carving, the thickness of the metal plate and especially look at the back side to see the depth and finish of the inside. These are all important in discerning Goto work. The mainline Goto family were purveyors to the Shogun so what they did had to be of highest quality. As for those, 'secret marks' yes, they do exist but need to be viewed from a greater context. This book: http://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/books/b723-kokusai-tosogu-kai-2nd-convention# contains the translation to the remarks made here: http://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/books/b718-sengoku-busho-no-yosoi-sano-museum Kengo Sekido (now most unfortunately deceased) went over many of these marks in his comments. Those old books are almost untranslatable as they use a variant form of earlier Japanese but the salient points have been mentioned in the Sekido translation. You can get more from just buying the big Fukushi sensei book on Goto and a good magnifying glass to go over the pictures. It's all in the carving and the techniques by which the iro-e was accomplished. I hope this is of assistance.

Aw, shucks Brian... thankee(!), but trust me I can be wrong and am quite often. I just have a feeling for this one. It's really quite nice. Note the fukurin quality.

Higo, Nishigaki Kanshiro, third generation.

For the uninitiated, Mr. Lawson is 'THE' go to guy on Kinai. He's a walking encyclopedia on the school.

Snowflakes on (F/K) water.

Unfortunate that we cannot see the fittings.

I feel it's good. As you observed, there are subtle and not so subtle difference in the pictured mei so this leaves a 'fudge factor' to consider. He is listed as 'Joko' which is roughly akin to 'Chujosaku' in swords so his work should be 'good/very good' when observed which this seems to be. Whenever I look at mei such as this I ask myself this question, "If someone chose to do gimei work then why this name"? This man's work is considered to be good/very good but his name doesn't jump out from the history of fittings makers so why would someone choose to use his name when another, higher rank could be used? Of course it could be student work sold under the table but I'm just not big into conspiracy theories. I'd just enjoy it as is.

From Shinsen Kinko Meikan:

HI - my feeling is that they are either modern or were recently cleaned. The color of the gold is too bright for an older fitting and they have a bit of a 'cast' look to the finish. Without being able to see the back side it is difficult to tell for certain. It also looks like there are remnants of adhesive on the tsuka ito which could point to a recent addition or refurbishment.

This is a scan from the Ito Mitsuru book on Higo Shimizu and Hikozo. Although this example is soft metal (it scanned better than an iron one in the book) you can see the similarity of the water dragon to the one posted on page one.

I found this 'Begin Japanology' episode to be quite interesting and informative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43vLbS1VKLk

I agree with Brian, especially about the need for shows and meetings. You need a place where you can look and ask questions from those more experienced to efficiently learn in this field. They also make possible seeing items which you cannot afford or may choose not to purchase but still wish to study or just learn something of. With the study of fittings, a way to digitally photograph with full accuracy in fully rotational 3D would be a paradigm shift in learning for the field. Digital referencing as Darcy stated will be nexus to the field as a whole. PS: I'll still collect books but that is because I'm also a book collector. They have their own beauty and, just remember what happened to the computer in 'Rollerball'... LOL

If you'd like to see some wonderful tsuba for sale click the link http://www.touken-sakata.com and go to the fittings page. The top one is by Yasuchika (Tou), Juyo, and I don't even want to think about the price. There is a small blue tab at the top right of each listing which you can click on and go to the description page.

Lee - I've been thinking the same thing. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York and a few other cities have direct flights from Japan so some bright boy could start a business re-shipping items. I would imagine there are some out of Europe as well. Doing luggage transfers would be more difficult as there is timing involved with the release of the swords at the airport but it's already being done by some dealers.

Stephen -- this set was on Yahoo! Japan about a week ago and the seller pulled it rom sale at about 825000 Y. This price seems a bit 'optimistic' but then I am not up on the maker or that market. We will see what happens.