JohnTo

Grev, Just photographed the page from the catalogue. Catalogue says it was 7.9 cm. I remember this auction as I bought my first serious tsuba lot there, Lot, 14, its the tosho fan above yours. Still have it. Regards John

I just came across a similar example by chance in an old catalogue I just picked up (Sotherbys, London, RB Caldwell Collection, 30 March 1994, lot 16). Described as rare Kamakura-Bori tsuba, Muromachi period (16thC). Of circular form, pierced with a writing box design around the hitsu-ana, the plate carved in typical style with clouds and waves on a punched ground, Unsigned, 7.9 cm. Sold for £800. Looks identical to the one Grev posted, especially around the nagako ana (quality of pics withstanding), so probably the same one. Regards, John

Nobody seems to have mentioned that this is a five clawed dragon. Dragons on Tsuba are usually 3-clawed. Five clawed dragons were reserved for the Chinese emperor I believe, and 4-clawed for high officials. Three clawed for the plebs. Regards, John

Unfortunately I did not read this post until after I visited Bonhams on the Monday. As I sat alone viewing the tsuba, I was aware of an elderly gentleman briefly talking to a member of staff then leaving. It might have been Bob and I missed a golden opportunity to meet him. I have been trying to find a copy of his Index of Jap Sword Fittings and Artists. I believe it was only published in 2001 in Germany, but I can't seem to find copies available to buy on the Internet. Anyone can help? Regards, John

I think that the design on either side may be the bridges (ji) used on koto (stringed instrument). I've seen similar on other tsuba. regards, John

Hi Pietro Welcome to NMB and collecting tsuba. Yours looks like Hizen work, which derived from chinese nanban/namban work, but nanban usually has an irregular patterned surface on the seppa dai and odd shaped nagako ana. I'm not sure if this book is still in print, but The Peabody Collection of Japanese Sword Guards (ISBN 87577-041-X), 1975 is an excellent introduction to the different tsuba schools. The other place to look for more info on tsuba is the Church collection at the Asmolean museum, Oxford ( http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/collection). Hundreds of tsuba, well described (unlike many major museums) Best regards, John

No one has posted a nanban copy of Spanish/Portugese cup type sword guard in this discussion, apart from the actual one posted by Grev. So here is one I picked up recently in a job lot of 18 other tsuba. Not really a favourite of mine, but I think has some interesting features. The tsuba is thin and the iron has delaminated on the inside, indicating that the iron was fold forged rather than fashioned from a single sheet of homogenous material. I don’t know how Spanish/Portugese guards were forged, so I can’t say if the basic blank cup was European, Japanese or Chinese. The inner surface of the tsuba retains about 50% of a red lacquer finish (carbon-14 dating would be interesting) and the outline of a seppa, showing that it was mounted on a sword in the traditional Japanese manner. The outside also appears to have a seppa mark and the nagako ana is for a blade with a big nagako (3cm long, 0.8 cm wide). I wonder which way it was mounted. Japanese style would be with the decoration facing out from the wearer with the kogai hitsu on the right, so the open cup would be facing the blade, European style would have the open cup facing along the tsuka and be great for collecting rainwater. The tsuba is pierced with the standard kogai/kodzuka ryo hitsu and also has a large inome bori (boars eye) piercing. The outside surface is a shiny black iron finish and has shallow gilt engravings of three phoenixes in gold with long grey (silver alloy gilding?) tails. There are also three gold and one grey five-petal flowers, looking like clematis with their petals swirling anticlockwise. The decoration looks more Chinese than Japanese in character and so this tsuba may have been made by Chinese artisans working in China or Japan (Nagasaki). Questions: How old is the tsuba? Oda Nobunaga was the champion of Spanish/Portugese styles, but he died in 1582. I would thought that the European nanban style died with him, but see below. This one looks totally impractical for use on a Japanese sword. Is the decoration filled with Christian symbolism? There are three phoenixes depicted. The holy trinity? Phoenixes rise from the ashes. Does this allude to the resurrection? The inome bori is very large for a tsuba. I believe that the sacred heart of Jesus is a potent Catholic symbol, but I’m not big on religion, so this may be a recent development. The Spanish/Portugese/Jesuit influence in Japan plummeted in the early Edo period when the Japanese realised that conquest was in their minds and Christianity was heavily supressed. So does this date from the time of Nobunaga? The ryu hitsu would indicate a later date, but I am left wondering who would want to wear a tsuba like this in the Edo period. I am of course assuming that this is a serious Japanese artefact and not a joke (ancient or modern). Aoi-Art has a similar one for sale (Edo period), signed Kunihiro (www.aoijapan.com/tsubakunihiro/). Compton also had one (part II, lot 11) signed by the swordsmith Sadayuki (fl. 1800). So I guess they were made in the Edo period, but must have been way out of fashion. Dimensions: Height: 8.5 cm, Width: 8.2 cm, Thickness (rim): 0.2 cm, Depth of bowl: 1.6 cm Sorry about the quality of the photos, the colouring of the engraving does not stand out. Comments welcome. Best regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions, trying to learn)

I’m a bit late coming into the nanban discussion, but here is one of my examples. I can’t say I particularly like nanban tsuba, but I seem to have acquired at least 5 by default in job lots. I’m posting this one as it differs from the more common designs. This one came attached to a wakizashi, the blade dated 1811. It shows a foreigner. I’m not sure if he is supposed to be a Chinese or European Southern Barbarian. The question that arises in my mind is ‘Why would a Japanese want an image of a barbarian foreigner on his tsuba?’ Even accepting that it is probably a non-samurai wakizashi. Perhaps it represents some famous Chinese sage, but it looks a bit like an insulting characterisation to me. The tsuba is iron and the gilt nunome decoration appears to have been done with two types of gold, one with a more silvery colour. Sorry, but I have neglected to record the dimensions, but it is wakizashi size. Best regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions, trying to learn)

Hi Dan, Welcome to the NMB. Sorry I’m a bit late in replying, but I don’t look every day. I see that the replies that you got are a bit short and as a newbe you were probably looking for more info. I’m a relative newbe myself, but I hope that the following might add to your knowledge and appreciation of tsuba. There are a lot of kinko (soft metal) tsuba appearing on the E-sites, somewhat similar to yours with erroneous descriptive words like Mino, Goto and shakudo. The Goto school in Mino province became very important in the Edo period as their style of fittings were required by anyone attending court. They worked, mainly, in shakudo, an alloy of copper with about 5% gold, which produces a lovely blue black patina when treated properly. They also treated the surface of the tsuba with a tiny punch to produce the nanako (fish eggs) finish. Goto school fittings were expensive and not all samurai could afford the genuine article so workshops sprung up making cheaper versions. Much like designer goods today. Two big centres for copies were Nagoya (Nagoyamono) and Kyoto (Kyo kanagushi), but many more workshops were also producing similar fittings of various quality. A lot of Nagoyamono have been coming up for sale recently. These are typified by a mokko shape, so yours is probably from another workshop. These copies did not use shakudo and so are typified by a brown patina (probably a copper/bronze alloy suitable for casting0. They were cast from a mould and then finished by hand (applying the nanako finish, gilding etc). Tour tsuba is probably of this type. Look at the nanako. Lot of work went into punching the individual marks. Lines are nicely curved, but spacing in some parts is uneven. Not the highest quality. The gilded horse looks as if it has been moulded, rather than inlayed, as would have been done by Goto. The photo of the rim is not clear, but looks like it has been gilded, rather than being a separate piece of metal (fukurin). Its not bad for a first piece. You can learn a lot from it. OK, its not Goto, but you paid $80 and not $800, or even $8000. Look at Ford Hallam’s videos on Youtube to see how quality shakudo tsuba are made. Best regards, John

Its the Year of the Pig in the Chinese calendar. So lets have pics of your piggie tosugu. First up from me is a shakudo nanako fuchi/kashira set, still attached to the sword. I bought the tsuba in the forlorn hope that it might be OK to replace the one on the sword which did not match the rest of the fittings, but it is wakizashi size and looks wrong. Happy (Chinese) New year, John

Bazza, Please read carefully, I said 'a sheet of shakudo can be easily shaped into a plug', i.e. a thin sheet, beaten into shape over a forner in the same way as a menuki or kashira. I agree that they are hollow, at least the only half of a loose one that I have seen outside a tsuba was regards, John.

At last I've managed to paste my text! Looking at various tsuba incorporating shakudo has raised some questions in my mind. Shakudo, as we all should know, is a copper alloy with about 5% gold, which when treated correctly, produces a lovely blue black patina. In the Edo period I believe that the Togugawa shogunate specified shakudo sword fittings for samurai attending the court and so boosted the sales of the Mino Goto school workers, who were the master craftsmen with this material. Their products were no doubt expensive and not all samurai could afford the genuine article and frequently bought cheaper imitations made by other schools. Much like today where people buy ‘knockoffs’ of designer goods. I think that this was part of the Togugawa strategy to keep the daimyo poor and thus unable to have sufficient money to fund a rebellion. The most common Goto imitation tsuba seem to be the Nagoyamono (Things from Nagoya), which seem to frequently appear on Japanese dealers Ebay and UK auctions. I use the term Nagoyamono from the Christies Compton Catalogue. I have recently picked up three in mixed lots. They all seem to have the same common features, namely: Mokko shape and same size (6.8x6.1 cm for wakizashi), nanako ground with a gilt nanako rim (not a fukurin), a seppa dai with 10 punch marks in a characteristic pattern (probably the manufacturer’s quality control approval mark; Note there is one of mine that does not look like it passed QC and has no punch marks) and standard designs, cast from a mold, then finished by hand (nanako punched and gilded). Designs I have seen in the last few months include the Treasure Ship, Pagoda, Lady writing, Deer amongst plants, Samurai mice, Chrysanthemums, Dragon and Chinese sages. Another example of a Goto clone that I have recently acquired is a Soten tsuba for a katana (see pic). Soten are famous for their dubiously signed iron sukashi tsuba depicting heroic samurai scenes, but they also seem to have made kinko tsuba, again with little samurai figures. The other common feature of these two types of tsuba is the patina of the seppa dai; its milk chocolate brown, not blue black. The main body of the tsuba, in my examples ranges from what looks like black paint to chocolate brown colour where original patina has been lost. The words ‘shakudo’, ‘Mino’ and ‘Goto’ seem to appear with great regularity in the sales description of these tsuba, although, to be fair, some sites do omit these terms. My questions regarding this type of tsuba are: Can the base metal be considered to be shakudo, or is it a bronze alloy more suitable for casting and, perhaps, devoid of gold content? Nigurome, the impure copper used in shakudo is a possibility but is it suitable for casting, unlike copper? Has Ford applied his friend’s XRF spectrometer to any? Is the brown patina solely due to the alloy or due to the Goto craftsmen keeping the patination process a closely guarded secret? Lets now turn to hitsu ana plugs. I have several iron tsuba with shakudo plugs in one or both of the hitsu ana (see example). All of these are blue black shakudo. So why are these ‘real shakudo’ when the kinko tsuba are not? I suspect I’ve answered this question above and it is because the kinko tsuba use an alloy more suitable for casting whereas a sheet of shakudo can be easily shaped into a plug. Also, I can’t see the point of a samurai going to the expense of having a hitsu ana plug fitted to a sukashi tsuba when the body of the tsuba is full of holes (piercings)! Were plugs offered as an optional extra by the maker? Best regards, John So many questions, so much to learn ,so little time.

Hi Grev, Last bag of bones for you, this time Kanayama, which are supposed to have lots. I’ve seen pictures of three Kanayama tsuba with tekkotsu described by the same author in the same catalogue as ‘extremely fine….typical of this school’, ‘strong’ and ‘exploding’ (the explosions being put down to carbon in the iron) It’s the first time I’ve ever heard of carbon exploding, except in gunpowder! I believe the tsuba I have once had a NBTHK TK certificate, now lost. A similar tsuba is on sale with Seiyudo, so I’m happy with the assignment. There may be some tekkotsu on this tsuba, but it is on the feint/fine side of the spectrum and difficult to photograph. There are grey patches on the side of the rim, which are not prominent. Maybe a few more years of rubbing against clothing would have exposed them more (according to some pundits). There are some small specks on the rim. If it has tekkotsu, they are not worth raving about. Finally, I must apologise for a couple of my posts. I don’t believe the Kuninao tekkotsu are genuine (I indicated they were not). Nor do I believe the two etched tsuba can be considered as displaying tekkotsu. Etching iron is likely to preferentially dissolve the harder iron, so the bits left will be softer iron. Not that it excludes them from being described as tekkotsu, as Ford points out (and I have read elsewhere) there is debate whether tekkotsu are hard or soft iron. I really added these to expand the debate, especially as when I get the chance to handle a tsuba up for sale, described has having tekkotsu, I often find it difficult to see anything. And finally, a pic of some fire rake that I made on a one day blacksmith course. The material was modern homogenous mild steel. I left the rake in the fire too long before the final quench and it got burnt. I’ve seen worse lumps and bumps on tsuba described as tekkotsu, so buyer beware. Best regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions, trying to learn)

Hi Grev, More bones. Not very spectacular, just small granules on the rim. The tsuba was catalogued as Kyo sukashi, but I would lean to Owari. Best regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions, trying to learn)

Hi Grev, Maybe more bones for you, but now for something completely different. I have seen tekkotsu described as small pieces of hard iron poking out of a soft matrix and as small pieces of soft iron poking out of a hard matrix. What makes these pieces stand out from the bulk matrix is also subject to different opinions; forging process, rubbing against clothing or with sweaty hands. These two examples seem to have been made by etching the surface causing one of the iron components to dissolve faster than the other leaving bones. Are they tekkotsu? I’ll leave that for more expert NMB guys to comment. The first example is a simple tosho tsuba (9.2 cm dia), nicely forged with a goishi gata plate. The odd feature of this tsuba is the ‘toad skin’ surface (on both sides). It almost looks like it has been decorated with a nanako punch. I assume that it has been etched with acid to reveal the small round lumps of a different iron to the bulk material. I have never seen another example of this finish. Not a great tsuba, but interesting and I’m really quite fond of it. The next example is a Heianjo/Kaga Yoshiro brass inlay tsuba. The iron surface of this also seems to have been etched. This time the ‘tekkotsu’ is granular. The rim is also slightly granular. Neither of these examples have any significant rust and both have a shine to the ji, possibly from a thin film of lacquer. Of course I cannot tell if the little bumps are a different iron from the main body, but if they are, I guess they can be classed as ‘tekkotsu’, by definition. Best regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions, trying to learn)

Hi Grev, So, you want photos of bones. They are elusive little devils to photograph. Well there seem to be different opinions of what bones are and how they are formed, so I’ll try to see what I have got amongst my tsuba. Lets start with another example of ‘dinosaur bones’, big lumps of iron poking out of the rim. There is also a 3x5 mm lump sticking up on the left side of the plate near the rim (see pic 316) This tsuba is a 19th C example in perfect condition with no rust to hide the features. It is signed and dated ‘Nobuie no katachi o motte Myochin Kuninao saku’ (made in the style of Nobuie by Myochin Kuninao) and ‘Koka sannen uma shigatsu bi’ (Koka third year of the horse [1846], fourth month, a day). It has some lumps and bumps around the rim, but they look a bit contrived to me. It is, after all, a copy. Maybe Kuninao deliberately added lumps with skilful application of the hammer rather than trying to include real tekkotsu. Difficult to tell, but as there is always someone on NMB who is quick to point out faking, I’ll jump in first with the suggestion. I bought this tsuba at the same auction where a ‘genuine Nobuie’, with NBTHK Hozon was up for sale at £15-18K (unsold). This was reported to have granular tekkotsu in the rim. I looked hard but could not see any. Best regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions, trying to learn)

This was one of my first serious tsuba purchases (RB Caldwell collection, 1994), a tosho tsuba that typified 'bones' to me at the time. It still provides a pleasurable sensation if I run my finger over it. I can understand why the Japanese find it so exciting. Interestingly the tekkotsu is only at the top and bottom of the tsuba. I assume that it must have something to do with the way that the iron was folded and the bones squeezed out during forging. Best regards, John

Hi Guys, Grev asked for examples of non ferrous Nanban tsuba. Here is one, together with an almost identical one in iron. Both have animal/demon masks at the top and bottom (the iron one has them at the sides as well) and have dragons in the side panels. The brass tsuba has pearls in inome bori (boar’s eye, heart shapes) piercings at the side. The iron tsuba has some gold nunome and the rim of the brass tsuba may have traces of gilding. The brass tsuba has copper seki gane in the nagako ana, indicating that it was mounted, and a shakudo plug in one of the ryu hitsu (must have been quite an effort to have shaped that!). The Compton Collection had a similar brass tsuba (Part I, lot 100) which was described as a Canton tsuba from ca. 1600, with no ryu hitsu. Reading between the lines from various sources (I don’t have hard evidence) it would appear that this style of Nanban tsuba originated in China (Canton) and was exported to Nagasaki, along with Chinese craftsmen who set up shop there. From there they migrated into the adjoining Hizen area where the tsuba became more Japanese (e.g. nagako ana lost the square shape of these examples) and possibly kicked started the Hizen style sukashi (100 monkeys, etc). Best regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions, trying to learn)

There is a similar iron tsuba in Greville Cooke's Birmingham Tsuba Collection, page 26 (col no 1930M893), size 78mmx78mmx41 mm. This tsuba has five leaf bamboo sprigs (kamon?) in the lattice and is described as Choshu, ca.1700, which I suppose covers a lot of artists and sub-schools. Nice tsuba by the way. Don't forget to add the metal in the description, which I assume is iron. Best regards, John

I’d like to present this tosho tsuba for comments. It is a small (7.0 cm height, 7.0 cm width, 0.3cm thick), sukashi tsuba, probably depicting a flower with six petals, the centre of each being removed. The piercings on one of the middle petals has been widened (maybe at a later date), presumably to accommodate a kodzuka. The plate is flat and slightly pitted, I think after burning in a forge rather than rusting (pitting is too even and lack rust scabs), or hammering (indentations look too small) and has a black (rather than brown) patina, worn in places to show the bare iron. The seppa dai is a long oval shape and the nagako ana looks too long in relation to the size of the tsuba. The size of the nagako ana relative to the tsuba looks wrong for a katana, perhaps it was used with a wide bladed tanto. There are three areas of shallow punch marks around the nagako ana rather than the heavy bashing seen on many early tsuba. The initial impression that this tsuba gives is one of something that a village blacksmith knocked out during his lunch break, anytime during the past 150-450 years and it has little artistic merit. However, there are a couple of features that may give it some historical value. Firstly, looking at the edges of the piercings there are signs of delamination of the iron showing it was possibly fold forged or welded from iron plates of different hardness. Secondly, there is the provenance. This tsuba was bought as part of a bag of 19 loose tsuba of mixed quality (all rattling together in the auction. Ugh!), being part of the remnants of the stock of an oriental antique dealer who died 30 years ago (Albert Newall, 1920-1989). There also appears to be traces of an old collectors number (70) on the seppa dai. So, it looks like at least two previous western collectors attached some value to this tsuba. I have only found a couple of tsuba with similar designs. The Church Collection at the Ashmolean museum (EAX.10010) tsuba has a similar 6 petal design, but the edges are rounded, ryu hitsu have been incorporated, the tsuba is much bigger (9 cm) and described as Heianjo, 17th C. The British Museum have one with six cherry blossom shaped petals (1613-93, illustrated in their Swords of the Samurai catalogue, plate 96) also forged with rounded edges and attributed to Nishigaki Kanshiro. My tsuba is crude in comparison with these. Best regards, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions, trying to learn)

I recently bought this odd ‘tsuba’ along with 19 regular tsuba in a job lot at a local auction. It is quite large (8.4 cm dia, 0.4 cm thick) and appears to be cast brass. The subject looks like a cross between a fish and minogame turtle. The more observant NMB members may notice that something seems to be missing, but I’m sure that a bit of work with a drill, hacksaw and file would soon remedy this. I have no idea what it actually is, but perhaps it is stretching things a bit too far to suggest it is a tsuba blank and the Japanese tsubako would have cut a ‘made to measure’ nagako ana for his samurai client. You thoughts will be appreciated. Happy New Year, John (just a guy making observations, asking questions, trying to learn)

Hi Ruben, Sorry for being so tardy, I've had other things than tsuba and Old Pec to attend to. Thanks for the pic of your tsuba. I like to copy tsuba with similar signatures and put them in my research notes. Masa was the first kanji I learnt about 60 years ago, just in case I found a Masamune blade in a junk shop. I did not want to miss it. Back in those days, even as a kid, we would not consider buying a blade without a signature, but never found a Masamune. Marcus Sesko lists nearly 30 'Masa' tsubako in the Bushu Ito school, so, yes, a common kanji. Yep, I did note that the badge on the Old Pec was etched, like my tsuba. It is not so apparent on the bottles and that is a far as I usually get. A word of warning. One pint of Old Pec @5.6% enhances the appreciation of iron tsuba, two diminishes it. Old Pec and katana viewing should never be mixed. Best regards, John

Thanks Kyle, Your photo of the Asmolean tsuba is much better than their on-line version. I would say that the signature and kakihan are identical to mine, as is everything else about the two tsuba. So they were probably made in the same workshop, by the same hand, though probably not Goto Renjo. Thats the great thing about NMB, there is often someone out there with the info that you want. Regards, John

Richard, very good pics. It is easy to see that the mon inserts and the surrounding brass rings are one piece. In my example, shown previously, the mon are separate from the brass rings, just ahmmered into place. Best regards, John

Pete. Thanks for the reference, I don't have it, but luckily you do. One thing puzzles me about the number of gimei in the Edo period and that is how did they become so numerous in what was effectively a police state? As I understand it, the Togugawa Shogunate kept a pretty tight contol on everything, for example the kabuki and ukiyo-e print makers were subject to strict censorship. How come those involved in making swords and kodogu were making so many forgeries? For example, I hate to think how many examples of waves inscribed Omori Teruhide I have come accross. It makes me think that officials, maybe even the local daimyo, were taking bribes and turning a blind eye to the number of forgeries being produced in their locale. Best regards, John