A most unique Koshirae / Interlocking Tsuba

[Amenur]

Hello,

 

I am new around here, stumbled onto this messageboard when looking up trustworthy retailers and saw quite a few interesting pieces around here, thanks for that ^^

 

So, I would like to share one myself that has been listed today on https://www.thelanesarmoury.co.uk/ (they don't allow linking directly to items but if you open the shop it should be on the first page.)

 

A highly intriging interlocking two part tsuba, the outer part is permanatly fixed to the saya and the inner tsuba is unlocked via a spring on the outside of the tsuka.

 

Hope you enjoying looking up this most usual item.

 

Good day to all of you

 

Amenur

[Brian]

Odd and interesting. Doesn't look completely modern, so maybe Meiji.
Of course, it shows that innovation and experiments were just as much a part of things back then as they are today. There will always be people willing to try now things.
I suspect this was a play around with having a tsuka lock. Would have been natural for someone to try that.
 

[Curran]

Toppei style  =  late Edo.

Ie. Influenced by western military things coming into the country.

 

In your case, with Namban type Hirado style fittings.

I have one of these locking mechanisms and really like them.

They are fairly rare.

 

Very cool. Thank you for posting that. I will save down the pictures for my own files.

 

[Curran]

Pic added

[Amenur]

Thank you too for sharing

 

It seems no matter how much time you spent prowling the web and exhibitions, there is always another unusual/rare style to discover :-D

 

There are some more pic's on the lanes armoury website, though they are a bit of a pain to copy (had to use the windows snipping tool)