which wakayama: 3 vol or 8 vol? other good soft metal ref?

[kaigunair]

Would like to build up my library on tosogu as this seems even more diverse in study and gimei prone area than nihonto. I currently have only a few books (lethal elegance, two volumes of the kokusai tosogu kai, some past auction catalogs). Mostly learning from online articles, some very good about the different schools and thoughts about tsuba and tosogu appreciation...

 

I'm looking to knock out some of the more expensive reference books first, since these seem to be the most useful for research. I have recently ordered the large haynes tosogu index from a overseas bookstore so hopefully it will be here in a few weeks. I was looking at the wakayama books for shoshin signature examples. It seems the 3 volume is the one for signatures, but I was wondering how people use the 8 volume and if it would contain more shoshin examples than the 3?

 

Right now my tastes are towards the artsy tsubas of mixed metal;I haven't developed an eye for the iron stuff. Perhaps that will come with time, but it means I am not looking at the sasano books (I think). I will also probably order the Marcus Sesko book on geneologies since what I've seen online has been helpful, but I know that it won't help with signatures or examples.

 

Any other good reference books for soft metal study would be much appreciated. I've seen the FAQ on books but it is geared towards nihonto and less tosogu. I do like the murakami school and was wondering if there is a catalogue of jochiku and his student's works out there in any language?

 

Thank you in advance!

[Curran]

3 vol. Wakayama.

 

With that and Haynes Index, you can tackle 90% of the signed mix metal ones you come across.

There are a lot more gimei out there than most accept. Most want to believe the signature when the quality of the tsuba is decent.

 

Minor dissents is that the ref. signatures for some people are only one or two, and that they are too strict for others. For instance, SHOZUI (aka. Hamano Masayuki). There are one or two other variations of his signature that I think other texts would say is his signature, but the Wakayama set only has examples of what I will call the "right handle" Masayuki version.

[kaigunair]

Thanks curran.

 

What is the 8 vol set normally used for then? Is it more background? Is it less useful bc not cross referenced in English?

[george trotter]

I am not a collector of tosogu but I keep a couple of references.

I have an old copy of Hara 1902 (in German) "Die Meister der Japanischer Shwertzierathen". Very good IMHO (Haynes used him)

I have a Wakayama volume called "Tosho Kinko Jiten" which is only one volume so must be different from the multi volume sets you mention...I find this book very adequate for my limited usage, but I must warn that a very prominent former member here violently disparaged Wakayama and said his work was inferior...so, better get some feedback on Wakayama from members before you invest.

Regards,

[Pete Klein]

HI -- the Wakayama three book set is a meikan, or mei reference set and is used along with the Kinko Meikan by shinsa teams for validation reference and correlates with the Haynes set. The Wakayama eight book set is an encyclopedia and is very good, especially if you read Japanese or are up on your kanji and can decipher attributions. It is B&W and covers pretty much all the schools but has not to date been translated to the best of my knowledge. As you are just getting into kodogu and have expressed an interest in 'Kinko' as opposed to iron, I would suggest the three books by Fukushi, Goto, Machibori, and his latest which is a book on design themes. Grey has all of these on his site for you to look at. They are a bit expensive but are in color and the Goto and Machibori texts have attributions in English (but not translated in text only areas) while the third (name escapes me) has more complete English descriptions. If you get into the Higo schools then the three Ito Mitsuru books, Nishigaki, Shimizu/Hikozo and Hayashi/Kamiyoshi texts are excellent as they too are in color, have English attributions but also have full English translations available (you might have to look a bit for those but they are available). Grey has those also.

This is a big field and I would suggest going to sword clubs or shows if available to you as it's a mine field for the uninitiated.

 

Hope this helps a bit,

 

Pete Klein

[Grey Doffin]

The title of the 3rd Fukushi book is The Art Appreciation of Japanese Sword Fittings: not too expensive. Gotoke Ju Shichi Dai no Tosogu by the Sano Museum is another book in color that won't break the bank.

Grey

[kaigunair]

Thank you all for the info and help.

 

-George: I came across the text version of that german book online. Does seems to be a good reference but might be difficult to find? Will try to search the forums for the counter opinion to wakayama.

 

-Pete: Thank you for the books suggestions which I had not been aware of before. The fukushi looks great and I will keep an eye out for the machibori volume.

 

-Grey: wonderful website. I did send an email a few weeks ago regarding one of the catalogues but probably got lost in the holiday shuffle? I ended up finding a copy at local university which I am borrowing at the moment. I will hopefully be placing an order for books sometime in the near future.

 

Thank you all for the book and ref info!

[Ron STL]

I would suggest the three books by Fukushi, Goto, Machibori, and his latest which is a book on design

themes.

 

I have both the Goto book and Michibori book in my library and they are fantastic printings, but I do not find myself going to them on a regular basis to check out mei. Great to see what the works of these masters "should" look like, though. I still have the extra copy of the massive Goto book for sale ($430pp US) should anyone be looking for a Christmas gift.

 

Trying to judge mei on tosogu, for me, is much more difficult than on swords. A few years ago I bought a wonderful, very small pair of gold menuki of "two puppies," signed Omori Teruhide with kao. Obviously, the mei and kao has to be oh so small to fit on these menuki, but they looked absolutely 100% to me, comparing to book examples. They ended up not passing NBTHK shinsa, to my disappointment...a pricey misjudgement on my part. I am still amazed at how accurately the mei is on these menuki.

 

Ron STL

[Ron STL]

Here are the "puppy" menuki I mentioned. they are "thumbnail" size and of a couple grades of gold and shakudo. Guess this is okay with this topic...really not worth starting a new one. Ron STL

[george trotter]

Junichi san,

The Hara book 1902 is all text except for a few general comments on schools with pics at the front. I borrowed a copy from my museum library (when I was working there) and photocopied it as a copy of the book is very hard to find.

 

About the negative comments regarding Wakayama...instead of trying to track down previous comments, maybe the tosogu members here could give their opinions of his work.

Regards,

[Brian]

George,

There is no reason to obsess over previous comments or track them down. Simple fact is that there are errors like any older publication. The same goes for many old sword references, including Hawley to a great extent. However it is still one of the leading works on the subject, so we use it and use the quality of the work to confirm the mei as we have always done. I do not want to revisit that subject please.

 

Brian

[christianmalterre]

Indeed!

And it´s insult such to rely on "Signatures" preferably or only(in mine eyes).

Myself,like others i do know-do use an Signature only for an (maybe)first reference!-Further study-and here the real study just begins-is in looking for the "Inner Signature"...

Same procedure like we did learn in Nihonto Kantei,jbw.

 

Christian

[Jean]

A very good old friend of mine when it went to kodogu told me that the methodology was the following:

 

Order: (1) Study tsuba workmanship.

(2) Read signature.

(3) Then look at kodogu again.

[kaigunair]

Sorry I missed all of the recent replies. I appreciate the comments and am taking them all in.

 

I understand the need to evaluate a piece on its merits first before considering a signature, the problem being my eye hasn't studied all that many tsubas and other tosogu "in hand". I've also found often that I can't see the stylistic subtleties that make one good smith from a famous school better than his even more famous predecessor...this is especially true when it comes to the different bori/carving strokes.

 

I did make my second tsuba purchase based on how much I liked the design and what I perceived as quality work. Then, as I went about researching the artist, I found out that the work I like wasn't typical of his school at all, at least from images found online. But after reading about his background, I found the artist had a pretty strong link to another larger school which the work does represent. I am still doing my own research but plan to do a little post on this over the holiday break to get feedback from the members here.

 

From all the advise here, I think I will try to find copies of the machi-bori book for its pics, and the 3 vol wakayama for the signatures before I continue. I'm trying (very hard) to follow another piece of advice regarding the fact that building a good collection is also about knowing when to pass over lesser items in order to go after the better ones. Definitely is a lot of appealing items out there to buy. At the same time, all the appealing tosogu books would leave me without any funds to go after the actual items!!!

 

Much appreciated.

[nagamaki - Franco]

all the appealing tosogu books would leave me without any funds to go after the actual items!!!

 

However, if it prevents you from making one costly mistake or helps you to discover one excellent purchase, you've recovered the price of the book. As much as these great books should be endorsed it is still essential to view great fittings in hand in order to truly begin to understand, which means attending sword shows and finding study groups.