Tamagucci

Hi Jack, Yes I did see those volumes, but it doesn't really give school/style or period information. I suppose generally that's not as common as tsuba, or it is but it is all in Japanese?

Hello again, hopefully it's alright to be posting in such quick sucession. Im quite fascinated by menuki, and perhaps even moreso than tsuba's, but i'm sort of at a lost in terms of where to start studying. It is partly the reason why I approached collecting tsuba's first given there is so much more resources available. So my uqestion is: is there any books which would be good starting points? Here's a follow up uqestion. I'm very enamoured by this piece: https://www.ebay.com/itm/277346222077?_skw=menuki&itmmeta=01K5V9V6RRT34ZNCCCJH7XPSZ9&hash=item40931f7ffd:g:F1EAAeSwdfVogk1g , and may very well be a piece I save up for to get a few months down the line if it is still available. However, before that I'd like to know atleast some basic identification of Menuki. I was under the impression (from a forum post here) that menuki often have mei, this one doesn't. So how then does one go about autheticating and identifying? Cheers, Kai.

Yes i'll be sure to remember that, unfortunately I have yet to receive my purchase so when I do eventually get it i'll be sure to post an update with new pictures! As a side note I didn't think there were so many australians on here, well 2 is not a lot, but it is nice to know there are others. haha

Hi Jean, Thank you for responding! I did notice that the sheen was a little silvery compared to the TSUBA that I have been looking at. I spend 133 USD for it so I suppose not the worse mistake but a little sting nonetheless. I'm a huge Vajrayana budhist buff so the wish granting gen on the top and other embellishments was a big draw for me. Correct me if I'm wrong and hopefully u can see it but am I correct in saying it has nunome patterning? I've attached pictures that are hopefully better, these are just from the listing. Also p.s. I'll respond to your message soon.

Hi everyone, I'm an absolute beginner in collecting tsubas. I recently won a piece off an auction on eBay and I went a little over the budget of my first piece. I'm pretty certain (as certain as a novice can be) that it's genuine edo forged iron but I guess my concern is whether I paid more than I should have. Asking for my learning, I don't necessarily regret the purchase either way, I enjoy budhist iconography which is mainly why I chose the piece. My initial impression is mid 18th century to early 19th century shaomi school? I admit I could be very wrong. Cheers!