Can someone provide background on these recent purchases?

[Winchester]

Hope all is well. I am still a very new collector and came across some pieces recently. Wondering if you may have thoughts to share, feedback or advice. more photos to follow.

 

The tsuba on the wakizashi I believe is brass as the base metal.

 

I think the menuki are dogs but it is wrapped really tight and I can't see 100%.

[Winchester]

Here are some more photos........

[Winchester]

More photos due to file size.....

[Winchester]

Thank you in advance for any help/feedback.

[SteveM]

Looks like a nice, 19th century (?) saya wrapped in polished ray skin (sametogidashi-saya). I don't know what the theme of that small tsuba represents. Grape leaves, gourds, and dragonfly. Hmm. Dragonflies are another symbol of samurai. Grape leaves..are a homonym for "way of the warrior" budō (葡萄＞武道). But I don't know if there is a unifying theme to all of those. 

 

The big tsuba theme looks like irises, which are a symbol of warriors and swords because the long leaves resemble swords. 

[MauroP]

Hi, I see no grape leaves, just bottle gourd (hyōtan - 瓢箪). The flowers depicted on the ji-sukahi tsuba should be narcissus (suisen - 水仙).