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Stephen

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I would be interested in the tsuba if it did not have the holes. The holes are too high a hurdle for me. I once saw a table that was decorated with tsuba nailed around the outside of the table. It made me very sad.  Each had two holes similar to the ones in the above tsuba.

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It would still be fantastic tsuba if it was mounted on a sword so you wouldn't see those two added holes... Otherwise, as a stand alone tsuba for display purposes, it's a tragedy really.

I think I saw another tsuba recently with two similar holes that had been plugged with something that looked like lead.

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I am hesitant about putting my nose in here but could the holes be for rivets that might have held a seppa or some such overlayed attachment. The tsuba below has two rivets each side of the hitsu ana holding an inlayed copper sisc to an iron plate.

OR, I have read here (I think) that sometimes a tsuba has been used as a keyhole plate.

Roger j

Yoshiro 2 a.JPG

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I don't think there's a particular purpose or function to the teeth... I've typically seen it described as a snowflake motif, while the two large holes look like a variation on the sea cucumber motif.

The sea cucumber with one side as a snowflake shows up fairly often. Here are two of mine, the second one has a single cherry blossom added to the mix.

36351508_owariseacucumber.jpg.70be94cdb781c241a87970765d14eb20.jpg1357266939_SeaCucumberSnowflakeSakura.jpg.2f445ec1059f4027d7e80f7bf2c95217.jpg

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Namako - trepang, While the snowflake is a common enough outline either positive or in negative, I think in this instance it could represent a different species of Namko [sea cucumber] there are hundreds if not thousands of species.

image.thumb.png.f9d4f041ab0d39d5f55e0bf8d6c21774.png

 

 There was also a fad in Edwardian times for using tsuba as key hole escutcheons - a deplorable practice. [I had an old article mentioning this practice - but darned if I can find it at the moment] You might notice the holes in this example are recessed for flush screws.

screw holes.jpg

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6 hours ago, roger dundas said:

...... could the holes be for rivets that might have held a seppa or some such overlayed attachment?

Roger,

that could indeed be the case if it were a SAN-MAI TSUBA. With Stephen's TSUBA I think it is a one-piece construction which was indeed misused as keyhole cover.  

See my sample

CHOSHU-TSUBA 0034.jpg

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16 hours ago, b.hennick said:

I would be interested in the tsuba if it did not have the holes. The holes are too high a hurdle for me. I once saw a table that was decorated with tsuba nailed around the outside of the table. It made me very sad.  Each had two holes similar to the ones in the above tsuba.

 

Rather common. Somewhere I have a photo of all the tsuba that one of the Tiffany family nailed all willy nilly around his big hearth.

 

Since this is a soft-metal tsuba, the holes can be made whole rather easy by many a bench smith. The end result could be quite pleasant. These holes don't bother me that much, but some of the WWII era cuts in iron tsuba for mounting on gunto koshirae- some of those kill me. Ex. Clip cut on an otherwise great 1500s Kanayama tsuba.

 

 

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Curran: 

The "Tiffany Tragedy"    http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/59036

 

I  cleaned and enhance the image - [jeez, I hate how dark photos are published]

Even the fire tools are made of tsuba as well as hanging lights. 

 

tiffany tragedy enhanced.jpg

 

 

Stephen - have you been hacking into my 'WATCH LIST"?  https://www.jauce.com/auction/d1012478343  :o

Edited by Spartancrest
being silly
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