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Trying out my real detection skills


Infinite_Wisdumb

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Interesting Mark!  

 

"The Goto school in the Edo period, say from 1650 to 1800 part of the period was still strong and they were producing many pieces, in fact they could not keep up with production. A group of artists in Nagoya had direct access to the Goto school, not the main line, but students and the branch WAKI-GOTO to make pieces in Goto style. Now that style was for the most part the MINO Goto style, which had always been popular, and since the Maeda, who came from Owari, were their patrons, it was that style that was produced in the Nagoya area, to fill the demand. It should be noted that they were made for lower class samurai and those of the Shogun court who could not afford REAL Goto school work or had no access to it ( it was also above their rank to wear main line Goto work). These lower samurai and officials could thus satisfy their desire for Goto style fittings on their swords. Even Soten soft metal pieces were made in Mino Goto style to fill this demand, and signed by the later Soten school workers to help fill this craving. There were SO many petty officials in the Shogun's court and the daimyo who lived part time in Edo that it created this industry for this style of fittings"

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Dear Jesse.

Shakudo should have a deep black colour, look at the seppa dai and you will see a brownish colour.  This is often seen in Nagoya mono.

 

The surface is nanako or fish roe, the quality of this is an indicator of the quality of the tsuba.

 

When you start to look at Nagoya mono you will se repeated designs, often thin and worn gilding on the mimi and distinctive punch marks around the nakago ana.

 

All the best.

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As said above, this tsuba is a Nagoyamono (lit. Nagoya thing or object) and made as an affordable copy of Goto work.  They are often described as shakudo but are actually nigurome, the copper base alloy before gold is added to make shakudo.  Hence the brown rather than blue/black patina.  Quality varies, yours (and mine attached) are mid range.  Although the plate (ji) is decorated with nanako I've always found that the rim (mimi) has a gilded lizard skin nanako finish (as do the rims of the hitsu ana).  Although this quality tsuba was almost certainly cast, the gilding and nanako seems to have been done by hand.  So, not the best quality, but not cheapo castings either.

My tsuba has Soten style samurai on it and I have seen a very similar example on a Japanese website described as Soten.  So I' don't know if the Soten school were involved in making Nagoyamono or whether the craftsmen just copied Soten designs.

 

Best regards, John

   

Soten 1.JPG

Soten 2.JPG

soten 3.JPG

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