Appraisal of some Tsuba

[kRoy]

Hi,

I bought this multiple tsuba a few years ago and the sellers claim they are about the Edo era (early to late). I would like to know more about them, Era, School, Who create it (if possible).
I toke some pictures, if you need more pictures, just let me know what exactly do you need me to picture and I will.

Thank you

[Dan tsuba]

Hi Roy,

Welcome to this great forum.

I do not know enough about tsuba to tell you the Era, School, or who created them.

Other much more knowlegable members than I am will more than likely tell you that.

 

But from what I can tell (just guessing here!) about the Era-

Number 1 tsuba just doesn't look right to me.  Maybe made after the Edo period?

Number 2 tsuba looks authentic and Edo.

Number 3 tsuba is a plain tsuba, but it also appears to be Edo.

Number 4 tsuba appears to be cast iron.  Maybe Edo, maybe not.

Number 5 tsuba looks authentic and Edo.

 

The 3 tsuba shown in your bottom picture are plain, but may be Edo (that tsuba on the far right

looks really thick!).

 

Hey, just my clumsy guesses!

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Roy,

If you can take pictures on a black background we will be able to see better what you have. If you can crop and add item numbers to the photos it will be even better. Grey

[Spartancrest]

  As Dan has said this one is a cast copy. There are many getting about. The cast in "tagane-ato" punch marks around the nakago-ana are a giveaway in this design.  Two sizes, the smaller has different punch marks

    

 

The second one [which is upside down] is snow flakes on Wagasa [umbrellas]    

This one only has the one umbrella 

 

The three plain guards may be standard types that were often sent out to be embellished by other craftsmen like this one:

 

    Signature: 国廣 (Kunihiro)  Is there a signature on the squarish middle one - other side?   

 

 

Edited December 25, 2025 by Spartancrest

[kRoy]

17 hours ago, Grey Doffin said:

Hi Roy,

If you can take pictures on a black background we will be able to see better what you have. If you can crop and add item numbers to the photos it will be even better. Grey

Sure, Will do. What do you mean by crop?

[ROKUJURO]

Dale,

please have a second look at the second TSUBA. To me, the design looks like 'rain hats' ( KASA (傘), not umbrellas.

[Spartancrest]

You could well be right Jean. Not a lot of difference, just three little sticks [maybe the maker was a bit lazy and didn't want to do the extra cuts ]

The umbrella handle is what we need to look for apparently - unless it is lost in the seppa-dai?  Mecox's example has avoided the cut out "sticks" altogether [clever]

      Image taken from a post by Mal [Mecox]  https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/39845-tsuba-reading/

 

 

Cut through the middleman and get a tsuba umbrella! - I would not recommend a sukashi design myself   

 

[kRoy]

Hi all,
I toke the pictures again with black background and label them. I hope it will help appraise them better.
I am having an issue to upload the pictures, so I will try to upload a pair of picture for each post.

[kRoy]

Another Tsuba #2

[kRoy]

Tsuba #3

[kRoy]

Tsuba #4

[kRoy]

Tsuba #5

[kRoy]

Tsuba #6

[kRoy]

Tsuba #7

[kRoy]

Tsuba #8

 

Sorry for the multiple posts but I had no other options (multiple posts or lower the quality of the picture which will make it hard to see the details)

[FlorianB]

Better pictures  but sorry for further nagging - dimensions of the items (width, height and thickness) would be helpful, too.
BTW Tsuba are correctly pictured with the pointed edge of the nakago-ana upward, even those with symmetric themes or even no motif at all. 

[FlorianB]

The motif on the first Tsuba (Chinese general Guan Yu or Cao Cao?) looks remarkably simple.

Maybe a forgery - or maybe the figure has had overlays once but those got lost.

[Brian]

Don't think more details are going to change anything. They are real, but very entry level/basic/utilitarian tsuba, except for #5 which is cast and of minimal value. The rest are fairly generic, there isn't much you will find out about them except they are real tsuba of average quality

[Spartancrest]

6A & 7A Signature: 国廣 (Kunihiro) as I thought might be the case - generally good quality iron.

 

There are many like 1A - I have a theory they were "Shiiremono" (仕入れ物) - ready made for quick sale. None of these were very well done or elaborately inlaid. They tend to be the same shape as well.

 

           

 

[ROKUJURO]

Roy,

no. 6 is still upside-down and will get dizzy in that position! 

All that was said above is correct and fitting, but I want to add that these simple TSUBA mainly suffer from their corroded condition. They were probably never high-end, but looking much better (except no. 5) before they were neglected .

There is not much you can do for them unless you get very well informed about the restoration of iron TSUBA. No fast and easy work!

[kRoy]

2 hours ago, Brian said:

Don't think more details are going to change anything. They are real, but very entry level/basic/utilitarian tsuba, except for #5 which is cast and of minimal value. The rest are fairly generic, there isn't much you will find out about them except they are real tsuba of average quality

 

Is it possible to know which school made them?
How much would you value each one of them?

[ROKUJURO]

Roy,

no. 4 is made in HEIANJO style, but I believe your other TSUBA do not show specific details which would allow to assign them to a tradition or school. In my opinion this even applies to the TSUBA with KUNIHIRO signature. 

Among other factors like rarity, the value of a TSUBA depends on the basic quality and the preservation condition, which results in a higher or lower desirability to collectors. In this case, it is very difficult to guess a "market value" as there are also collectors who buy TSUBA outside of these criteria if they are cheap enough.

Keeping my personal scale out of the game, your TSUBA may sell between $ 100.-- and $ 20.-- each IF you find a buyer.