Akasaka or Higo Nishigaki ?

[yogoro]

Akasaka or Higo Nishigaki?
A photo of three tsub is attached.
Left and right are  Akasaka , central pine tree tsuba  is Higo Nishigahi  or Akasaka ?
Any information would be appreciated.

[lonely panet]

im saying not akasaka, the ecentirc shape puts me off

 

edit , but the tagane punching looks akasaka-ish,

 

weres a curran when u need one

[vajo]

None of both. The iron and the patination looks not good in my eyes.

[yogoro]

The above pictures are from the scanner ,I am posting more photos

[vajo]

That picture is nice Mikolaj

 

 

it belongs to higo.

[Dojikiri]

The Tagane look like those of the Tosa Miochin

[Japan2112]

... as does the kebori (hair line engraving) and irregular stature of the work. Tosa Myochin that is. Remember though, that the Tosa Myochin (like Muneyoshi) were taught by and considered better than the kodai Akasaka masters. I would go with Tosa Myochin.Nice tsuba. I like the pine forest motif. 

[yogoro]

Next pair, Higo Nishigaki Kanshiro first generation and Akasaka or  another  school .

[lonely panet]

the first  in imho is Akasaka possibly 5th gen??????

 

2nd I have no clue, looks rather poorly compared to the first 

 

must say im enjoying this little quiz

[yogoro]

However the first tsuba is Nishigaki Kanshiro, not Akasaka, I will add better photos later

[lonely panet]

ahhhhh, ny noobness has been shown to the hole world ahahahahha.

 

i await some nice pics

[yogoro]

First tsuba  is  pictured in Torigoye's "Tsuba Kanshoki" 1975 Edition on  page 151,described as first Nishigaki Kanshiro ,has hakogaki by K.Torigoye.
 

[Michael 101]

Hi Mikolaj,

 

i agree with the opinion of tosa mychin for the irregular shaped pine tree, looks a very nice example.

 

the Kanshiro is very nice indeed, especially with its provenance. Beautiful iron by the look of your pictures.

 

the other is slightly harder from pictures alone it is always helpful to include full measurements including thickness at the centre and at the mimi to help judgement.

 

My thought on this one is Hayashi however the inlay work is questionable in terms of quality versus good the carving of the tsuba so possibly added later. Or it could be a late higo copy ( these tend to be slightly thinner hence my suggestion to include measurements where possible ) but the iron quality and colour looks suggests earlier work. 

 

kind regards

 

michael 

[christianmalterre]

i do agree with Tosa-

 

as i honestly do not see-

 

1.-Akasaka iron to those times

 

2.-nor Hayashi/ Nishigaki Iron ( Owari import ) those explicit times, we are speaking about- Dito.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Tosa iron...would be my personal Kantei.

 

 

( of course!-  my comment without seeing it in live! - is grounded solely on those photos only!)

 

Christian

[lonely panet]

wow your second photos are totaly differant to the first, look at the glossy black patina of the iron.

 

the first photos iron almost looked reddish.

 

heres a montage of akasaka, all with similar points. so as a student of Akasaka, and in the early stages of learning,would your piece be judged purely on iron??

 

edit, sorry guys tried 3 times to get the photos the correct way up. don't know why its post them sideways.  not even yelling at my laptop solved it so I'm out of ideas

[Brian]

Only does that if you upload from cellphone and the cellphone doesn't store orientation correctly.
Edit the pic on the cell, and even if you don't need to rotate it there, save again. It should then store correctly.

[yogoro]

Thank you for all comments .It could be a later copy  , tsuba is surely slightly thinner : hight 75 mm width 73 mm rim thickness : 4,3 mm , center - seppa 4,9 mm.

The first tsuba with an irregular shape with a pine motif has very good iron and can actually be attributed to Tosa Myochin. Akasaka's earlier work has a different iron.

I'm not a master of photography, sometimes the scan gives more details.

Below is a reference to good tsuba (steel) Tosa Myochin and Akasaka and inregular shape pine tsuba with gold inlay

[MauroP]

Looks like Akasaka cast copy...

[Michael 101]

I understand the cast comment but think unlikely, perhaps more likely to have suffered rusting at some point and treated to restore the colour a long time ago - but not really possible to be certain from pictures alone. The square akasaka also so signs of similar treatment. Both are very good powerful Akasaka designs. 
 

kindest regards

 

michael