A Word Of Warning!

[Ken-Hawaii]

I bought what looked to be a nicely-preserved Heianjo tsuba from bushido*omotenashi*bakuhu on eBay (https://www.ebay.com/usr/bushido*omotenashi*bakuhu), only to find that it was a cleverly-PRINTED overlay, instead of brass inlay. It was very well done, & impossible to tell just from photos.

 

Per my conversation with Brian, I was going to let him slide by, until he decided not to refund my return shipment fee (he had also refused to send a prepaid shipping label). eBay forced him to refund my tsuba payment, but they haven't yet stepped in on the shipping cost.

 

So I highly recommend that you do due-diligence in dealing with this seller, as his items may not be shoshin.

[lonely panet]

well the negative feedback this guy has, should be enough to warn off buyer

[b.hennick]

Hi Ken:

I never heard of this before. Do you have any pictures that you can share?

[Ken-Hawaii]

It was new to me, too, Barry. Maybe I should have been more suspicious when he didn't post high-resolution photos, & he carefully did't say that the tsuba was Heianjo, but I wasn't. Here are the photos I have:

 

 

Sorry that the resolution isn't higher. From now on, I'm going to look for small defects, as I don't think that those can be printed. 

[Grey Doffin]

Not that I'm an expert or that I can't be fooled, but.  The fact that the design slops over and into the sepppa-dai and that the nakago-ana has never been adapted for mounting to a sword (it looks very typical modern fake) would have put me off this one.  Water over the dam on this one but a word of warning to beginners who may be considering buying on ebay.

Grey

[Peter Bleed]

I agree with Grey. The bones of this guard just seem suspicious. And that goes for other guards on this guy's site. Look at the slick dragons on this putative Heianjo tsuba!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tsuba-Japanese-Samurai-Sword-Katana-Antique-15/163283810834

The entire seppa-dai is fresh and clean

Peter

[Jacques]

All of items from this seller are suspicious 

 

Unable to provide the name ot the "maker" 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tsuba-Japanese-Samurai-Sword-Katana-Antique-14/163283810779?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131003132420%26meid%3D3bc89535c25b4fcf8b4837e1336e634b%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D163285762212%26itm%3D163283810779&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

 

 

Never buy on E-Bay, and never buy without having item in hands is my mantra.

[Bazza]

Ffolkes all,

 

I'm not convinced this isn't a genuine oldie with an oddball technique.  I recently bought a gaggle of tsuba from the estate of an old, old, old time collector who didn't know excreta from clay, but that's another story.

 

In amongst this lot was an old iron tsuba that had a VERY similar decoration to the OP's photos.  I was puzzled because the decoration was lifting off the surface of the tsuba.  This was a tsuba in very poor condition with rust and it was the rust that had undermined the "on-lay" (for want of a better word) to the extent that large areas of it were peeling off.  Somewhere I have preserved some of the peeled off stuff and will keep an eye out for it amongst my chaotic holdings to append a photo here.

 

My feeling at the time was that this was a "cut out" pattern similar to a stencil and fixed to the base iron, probably by urushi as it certainly wasn't hirazogan.  I felt it might have been a clever technique devised by a Fagan-like operator of the time to minimise cost and maximise appearance for greater profit...

 

BaZZa.

[TETSUGENDO]

By now EVERYONE who has spent a reasonable amount of time on NMB should be aware of the potential perils of Ebay......it has become a 'casino' of commerce.  For all of us "monday morning quarterbacks" omniscience is an easy trick, all the items in question are obvious fakes....how can even experienced buyers fall prey?  The answers are numerous, shopping on a portable device (small screen), making assessments from poorly lit low resolution photos, etc.....these factors combined with 'hunan nature' explain it all.  The ebay shopper must optomize his experience, inattentiveness, a moment of suspended disbelief, and worst of all HOPE are things that must all be avoided.  Unfortunately, rampant fakery and the ocassional dishonest merchant make shopping on Ebay joyless WORK, yet there are very real treasures to be found......some bad outcomes are simply part of todays Ebay experience.  

 

-S-