Museum mei

[kissakai]

I thought this was the last set but I will still have a few more queries that are a bit more obscure. I wasn’t going to puts these on the NMB as they are so indistinct, but that was before I saw the mei ‘Hoanh’ translated and I though anything is possible!

Obviously without help from the NMB I would never have got this far, so again many thanks and I have had the opportunity to learn so much and buy some great stuff!

To date, with the help of the NMB and some PM’s there have been over 150 mei translated.

 

The tsuba shown below, as before are a combination of the museums descriptions with my input

 

1) 75 x 72 x 3.6mm - 18C

Tembo: LH Tenho 天法 RH ** Tembō 天法 (Tenho, Tenpo or Tembō)

Generally which is the most commonly used term for the above school?

 

 

 

 

2) 91 x 83 x 5.0mm - 16C - 18C

Myochin: Mei too faint for me to read

 

 

 

 

3) 88 x 84 x 5.5mm - 1650 Cira

Shōami: Saōtome Iyehisa

 

 

 

 

4) 72 x 70 x 6.0mm - 1760 Cira

Chōshū Nakai: Nakai Zensuke Tomotsune 任積 Nakai. RH side Chōshū 長州 Hagi 萩 ju 住 (Tomotsune II)

 

 

 

 

5) 75 x 73 x 3.8mm - Date unknown

School unknown: Mei unknown - Too faint for me

 

 

 

 

Grev UK

[kissakai]

Hi

I realise that I was not a good idea to post this just before the Tampa show doh

 

I see that these tsuba have had over 180 views but no replies

Would anyone please let me know if this mean they are too vague or obscure to make a suggestion?

If this is the case I will just say to the museum that they are undecipherable

 

 

With thanks

Grev UK

[ROKUJURO]

Grev,

 

it may have to do with the fact that the photos are not very helpful as the light seems to be too direkt. I think it would be better to have the light from the side, so that the signature grooves formed by the chisel are in the 'shade'. You might be able to further improve the readability of the MEI if you brush them with a toothbrush so loose red rust comes out.

 

The signature of TSUBA No. 5 seems to start with CHOSHU which would comply with the style.