Brooklyn Bridge for Sale

[Curran]

No idea why this one went for as much as it did:

http://page18.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/w94463909

 

Someone dream it was solid gold?

Interesting to look at, but I thought price would be a fraction.

 

If you wanted a nice Natsuo knock-off at decent prices, there is still time:

http://page7.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/g129192666

 

 

~Posted just for fun.

[John A Stuart]

The seller was kind of ambiguous. "Pure gold?" Text later says he thinks it is not pure gold. Foolishness. The second, ahh, I see where the signature you queried comes from now. Kano Natsuo zaimei. That link sure would have made the translation easier. Haaaaa. Tricksy. John

[ROKUJURO]

Curran,

 

concerning the gold TSUBA: the seller carefully avoided a camera look into the NAKAGO ANA, so I presume it may be a SAN MAI TSUBA. Not a beautiful one, unfortunately.

 

Thanks for the information!

[Stephen]

IDK the second pix after the scale looks like its just a plate/foil of gold over the tsuba, kinda like you see on seppa

[Curran]

The plate foil leapt out at me. Just too obvious. That, the mimi, and having handled a even a few of these would have said it was on of the $500-$750 varietals. Maybe with the gold bling, more around $800-$900 to right person with a fascination for wave forms

 

Yeah, I could read enough to realize he was vaguely implying it was solid. Also not a proper lit photo showing the angles.

I just cannot believe it got shilled or dueling banjos up to 350,000 yen. My own interest was purely the waveforms (different schools, different styles).

 

John-

Yahoo!Japan is so dangerous now. Its eBay where Wild West shilling is allowed and the dealers have finally moved in. Fun fascinating place to watch and study, but very few opportunities anymore. It is actually a better training grounds for deconstruction to identify works by the designs and then learning to read the signatures, knowing they are almost certainly gimei.

I've largely avoided Natsuo. I've barely gotten a handle on Ichijo. Only this week laid up dead-dog ill, have I finally taken step one with Markus' Natsuo books. Rather awesome book so far- incredibly easy read. Step two will be some of the Jap texts. Then maybe step 3 seeing some in Japan in next fall or getting to study the ones in Boston Museum next time when up there.

[Ian B3HR2UH]

Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to what school the tsube might be attributed to. There is a similar piece ( copper plate covered in gold foil with a wave and crest design ) in the Compton Masterpieces book ( Number 80 ) which the cataloguer suggests might be Goto

Ian Brooks

[Curran]

Good question.

 

While similar in construction, the Compton one and the Yahoo!Japan one are very different in the detailwork.

Different wave designs, different wave form carving, different seppa dai work, and some different perspective tricks in the Compton one.

 

This leads us to the problem of classification. It largely depends on the tsuba and the papering organization. My memory and records are of Umetada, ko-kinko, and (kyo) kinko attributions. The Umetada classification is a bit of a dumping ground for entirely kinko non shakudo works of certain types/age where they don't have a better answer. It is a slight upgrade from kyo-kinko or shoami, but not much. There are 'umetada' dumped, and then Umetada of exceptional workmanship. Ironically, the 'ko-umetada' seem to sell at a discount to Umetada works as being rather primitive. Most other items earning the 'ko' designation of age get a premium placed on them.

Goto attributions probably do exists, as I've seen this sort of tsuba classified as such by some books. I have never yet gotten to study one of these Goto ones to try and learn why. Still learning. A grain of truth in the Compton description is that such tsuba are a bit dubious for mainline Goto work and might get pinned as Kyo Goto. Kaga Goto was a bit more daring with the use of excessive gold.

 

I probably understated the value of the Yahoo!Japan tsuba, given how much gold has risen in value since I began taking note of such tsuba.

They pop up often enough, and a much missed former NMB member had a dragon-turtle theme one that was a pleasure to study.

It is a small rant against Yahoo!Japan, as it was once a fun place to dig but now is a Chisel Convention.

 

[chisel

1 nv

carve with a chisel

2 v

engage in deceitful behavior; practice trickery or fraud]

[jlawson]

I would tend to agree Curran, likely Umetada would be the attribution.

[Ian B3HR2UH]

Good answer , thanks . Ian