Tsuba kizu

[Ken-Hawaii]

An old Japanese gentlemen showed me several blades that have been in his family's collection for generations. The blades were interesting, but what really caught my eye were the kizu on two of the tsuba. I couldn't take any photos in his home, but one kizu went about 0.5 cm through the mimi at almost a right angle, & was dark inside; the second kizu looked to be sliced at a fairly acute angle into the edge of the ura, with what looked like a matching nick on the habaki. The second tsuba looked like brass or bronze, by the way. The owner had noticed them, of course, but didn't mention the kizu to me when I had first asked about the blades.

 

As a sword-swinger myself, I've always viewed the tsuba as primarily for keeping my hands from slipping onto the blade, rather than as a sword "catcher," but these were fairly obviously old battle scars. Do kirikome (hakobori?) like these add or subtract from the value, & have others of you seen similar tsuba wounds? Are they common?

 

Ken

[Pete Klein]

Hi Ken -- not common but seen from time to time, more often on Kinko tsuba as they are less likely to deflect the cut. One can always question the origin of such wounds as it's always possible that the tsuba was simply dropped or that the scar was 'placed' on purpose for dramatic effect. If original, I would consider pre-Edo tsuba wounds to add 'dramatic effect' and therefore add to value as they might be from actual battle whereas Edo Jidai scars could simply be from a drunken duel. All very subjective, of course.

[Curran]

There is a well known iron Hizoko Hirata with a large natural kizu. It is considered part of its tea beauty.

I have a nice Hazama with lamination fold kizu along the seppa dai. Somehow, it seems in character with the tsuba.

 

These sword cuts happen. Some real, some not. Late Momoyama/early edo there was a rash of 'test cuts' across muromachi & momoyama period tsuba. There are at least 2 Nobuiye with these cuts across them practically from slightly under 9pm across to above 3pm. Some of these seem done by professional cutter/tester. Jim Gilbert had a few of them back in the day. I've also seen in person a Yagyu with a bunch of little cuts in an area that look more like wear-n-tear via some sort of live blade practice. It seemed ridiculously dangerous to me, but nature of the cuts seemed to imply a sword on the tsuba.

[Alex A]

I noticed this tsuba with a few scars a while ago, but difficult to say if there genuine, as Pete mentioned.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/original-japane ... 5886321%26

 

Alex.

[Ken-Hawaii]

These were Muromachi blades, but I'm not sure about the age of the tsuba. The one kirikome at a right angle could certainly have been a test cut, but I don't quite comprehend why anyone would do that; I can't figure out how that cut would have been made in battle, though, as it didn't appear to be at an oblique angle in the mimi. The cuts on the other tsuba & habaki are almost certainly battle wounds; my wife & I used our iaito to see how a cut would be made to kote, & that's the angle I saw on the brass/bronze tsuba & habaki.

 

Ken

[Soshin]

I've also seen in person a Yagyu with a bunch of little cuts in an area that look more like wear-n-tear via some sort of live blade practice. It seemed ridiculously dangerous to me, but nature of the cuts seemed to imply a sword on the tsuba.

 

Hi Curran,

 

I was reading Early Japanese Sword Guards by Masayuki Sasano and on page 17 he talks about anecdotes found in the Yagyu family album of guard designs. The anecdotes claim that apprentices and students of the Yagyu Shinkage ryu (Japanese swordsmanship school associated with Yagyu tsuba) would perform operations on all the guards shown in the album. The first operation was that they would "shave" them, which probably pertains to the beveled edges of all of the silhouetted metal parts of Yagyu open-work guards. The second would that they would "try them all out." This may mean that they laid them on a wooden block and pounded them with swords to test their strength. Sasano goes on the say that these claims are likely an exaggeration but it sounds like tsuba you examined might confirm what is stated in the Yagyu family design album. I have examined a number of late generation Yagyu tsuba from the late Edo Period and have never observed anything that looks like test cuts or combat damage. Really a interesting discussion and food for thought.