Assistance with part of this Hozon tosogu paper

[Katsujinken]

Hi folks,

 

The standard bits and the attribution to Umetada I’ve got, but the bit of commentary around the attribution is beyond me. 

 

Could someone kindly help me out? Many thanks.

[PietroParis]

Did you buy it? Congratulations! It was in my watching list but it went above my current budget (after factoring in shipping and customs). BTW how do you read the two kanji between mumei and Umetada?

[Bugyotsuji]

後代　godai is later gen.

No commentary around the attribution, Michael, just a description of the tsuba itself.

[Katsujinken]

23 minutes ago, PietroParis said:

Did you buy it? Congratulations! It was in my watching list but it went above my current budget (after factoring in shipping and customs). BTW how do you read the two kanji between mumei and Umetada?

Yes I got it. And that’s part of what I’m wondering. My Japanese is not nearly good enough to figure out what the NBTHK is saying here. 
 

In any case, I bought it because I have a weakness for nice iron plate and sukashi of ume or sakura. Figured it was a good deal for a power tsuba. 

 

What do you think of it?

[Katsujinken]

Just now, Bugyotsuji said:

後代　godai is later gen.

No commentary around the attribution, Michael, just a description of the tsuba itself.

Thanks Piers! I’ll do some research on the later work of the school with this information. 
 

I was under the impression that later work was usually done in soft metals, but I’ll see what I can learn. 
 

 

[PietroParis]

Usually I can decipher most of the information in the NBTHK papers for tsuba using this page:

 

http://jssus.org/nkp/kanji_for_tsuba.html

 

but this time I could not find 後代.

 

I have been looking for a nice “tosho revival” tsuba for a while and this looked like a beautiful example, with yellow papers to boot! (if I read correctly, they were issued in 1992). I had planned to bid near the end of the sale, but the price went above my budget and I gave up, thus I did not cost you any extra money...   I reckon it’s still a very good price for a papered tsuba with no visible rust issues. Maybe the fact that it’s wakizashi size helped keep it relatively cheap.

[Katsujinken]

Yes, 1992 is correct I believe. I think this could work on a katana as well, though certainly it'd be on the smaller side.

 

I keep an eye on this seller because every once in awhile you can get a papered tsuba of good quality (but nothing important) for less than $400. Outside of Japan that strikes me as a good deal for a tsuba I like with Hozon papers. 

[PietroParis]

Indeed, one of my two papered tsuba (both cheaper than $400) also comes from matsu-kaze.

[Bugyotsuji]

Pietro, not strictly Tsuba vocabulary but if you want to learn the generations, use:

初代 Shodai, First(Founding) Gen

二代 Nidai 

三代 Sandai ...

Usually Yondai, Godai etc., onwards get rounded out to: 後代  (Notchi/Ato) Godai, or Later Generations

[Nihonto Otaku]

無銘　後代梅忠 unsigned attributed to the later generation Umetada

碁石形 is the description of the shape of the sword guard. 碁石 could mean "the foundation rock of an architecture" based on the meaning of the Kanji characters. 形 is the kanji for the word "shape".

鉄地 means the material of the sword guard is iron.

小透 片櫃孔 This is the description of the holes on the Tsuba. 小 means "small". 透 could mean "penetration". 片櫃孔 is the description of the holes on the sword guard. I don't know how to describe 片櫃; but 孔 means "hole". I guess 片櫃 could be a description of the shape of the hole on the left.   

 

[Bugyotsuji]

碁石形 Go-ishi-gata is the shape of Go stones, i.e a discus, fatter in the middle

小透 Ko-sukashi is a small transparency, window or cutout. 

片櫃穴　Kata-hitsu-ana indicates one hole for the Kozuka only.

[PietroParis]

And, to state the obvious, 櫻花小透 鐔 in the upper column of the description means "cherry blossom ko-sukashi (small openwork) tsuba".

How do you read the kanji above 透 in the leftmost lower column of the description? Is that another 小 ?

[Bugyotsuji]

12 minutes ago, PietroParis said:

 
How do you read the kanji above 透 in the leftmost lower column of the description? Is that another 小 ? Yes. 

 

[Katsujinken]

Thank you all so much for your help. I love that they compare the shape of the tsuba to a Go piece.