my first set

[xiaopangshizi]

I'm going to make a combination of them, good luck to me 

 

 

 

[Spartancrest]

Wow Chen! - Great pieces! I especially like the large tsuba in the first image. Welcome to NMB 

[vajo]

Beautiful Tsuba with shoki. Whats on the backside a little oni?

 

[xiaopangshizi]

4 hours ago, Spartancrest said:

Wow Chen! - Great pieces! I especially like the large tsuba in the first image. Welcome to NMB 

thx😃I'll post the pictures here once it's been completed.

[xiaopangshizi]

4 hours ago, vajo said:

Beautiful Tsuba with shoki. Whats on the backside a little oni?

 

thx,that's another tree on the back😓

[vajo]

@xiaopangshizi i found the story of your tsuba.

 

It's from nihon shoki poem

"Agatamori battling mizuchi in the pool"

 

Here a passage of wikipedia

"The ancient chronicle Nihongi contains references to mizuchi. Under the 67th year of the reign of Emperor Nintoku (conventionally dated 379 AD), it is mentioned that in central Kibi Province, at a fork on Kawashima River (川嶋河, old name of Takahashi River in Okayama Prefecture), a great water serpent or dragon (大虬) dwelt and would breathe or spew out its venom, poisoning and killing many passersby.

This mizuchi was exterminated by a man named Agatamori (県守), ancestor of the Kasa-no-omi (笠臣) clan. He approached the pool of the river, cast three calabashes which floated to the surface of the water and challenged the beast to make these gourds sink, threatening to slay it should it fail. The beast transformed into a deer and tried unsuccessfully to sink them, whereby the man slew the monster. The record goes on to say: "...He further sought out the water-dragon's fellows. Now the tribe of all the water-dragons filled a cave in the bottom of the pool. He slew them every one and the water of the river became changed to blood. Therefore that water was called the pool of Agatamori"."

 

 

Could you make 2 good pictures of the tsuba front and back for my archive? I like that motif and story very much.

 

 

Edited April 14 by vajo

[xiaopangshizi]

6 hours ago, vajo said:

@xiaopangshizi i found the story of your tsuba.

 

It's from nihon shoki poem

"Agatamori battling mizuchi in the pool"

 

Here a passage of wikipedia

"The ancient chronicle Nihongi contains references to mizuchi. Under the 67th year of the reign of Emperor Nintoku (conventionally dated 379 AD), it is mentioned that in central Kibi Province, at a fork on Kawashima River (川嶋河, old name of Takahashi River in Okayama Prefecture), a great water serpent or dragon (大虬) dwelt and would breathe or spew out its venom, poisoning and killing many passersby.

This mizuchi was exterminated by a man named Agatamori (県守), ancestor of the Kasa-no-omi (笠臣) clan. He approached the pool of the river, cast three calabashes which floated to the surface of the water and challenged the beast to make these gourds sink, threatening to slay it should it fail. The beast transformed into a deer and tried unsuccessfully to sink them, whereby the man slew the monster. The record goes on to say: "...He further sought out the water-dragon's fellows. Now the tribe of all the water-dragons filled a cave in the bottom of the pool. He slew them every one and the water of the river became changed to blood. Therefore that water was called the pool of Agatamori"."

 

 

Could you make 2 good pictures of the tsuba front and back for my archive? I like that motif and story very much.

 

 

wow thanks so much, i'll put some quality pitures here once it back from the workshop

[xiaopangshizi]

On 4/15/2026 at 4:12 AM, vajo said:

@xiaopangshizi i found the story of your tsuba.

 

It's from nihon shoki poem

"Agatamori battling mizuchi in the pool"

 

Here a passage of wikipedia

"The ancient chronicle Nihongi contains references to mizuchi. Under the 67th year of the reign of Emperor Nintoku (conventionally dated 379 AD), it is mentioned that in central Kibi Province, at a fork on Kawashima River (川嶋河, old name of Takahashi River in Okayama Prefecture), a great water serpent or dragon (大虬) dwelt and would breathe or spew out its venom, poisoning and killing many passersby.

This mizuchi was exterminated by a man named Agatamori (県守), ancestor of the Kasa-no-omi (笠臣) clan. He approached the pool of the river, cast three calabashes which floated to the surface of the water and challenged the beast to make these gourds sink, threatening to slay it should it fail. The beast transformed into a deer and tried unsuccessfully to sink them, whereby the man slew the monster. The record goes on to say: "...He further sought out the water-dragon's fellows. Now the tribe of all the water-dragons filled a cave in the bottom of the pool. He slew them every one and the water of the river became changed to blood. Therefore that water was called the pool of Agatamori"."

 

 

Could you make 2 good pictures of the tsuba front and back for my archive? I like that motif and story very much.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 5 by xiaopangshizi

[xiaopangshizi]

[ROKUJURO]

What a pity! It has not been restored expertly in Japan!

[Hector]

23 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

What a pity! It has not been restored expertly in Japan!

That is absolutely heartbreaking.

 

@xiaopangshizi Why did you remove all the beautiful old patina? 😳

[xiaopangshizi]

11 minutes ago, Hector said:

真是太令人心碎了。

 

@小胖子 你为什么要把那些漂亮的旧包浆都去掉？😳

in fact, this isn't payina. it's more like stains. it fade away when touched and canbe easily washed off with water.

[ROKUJURO]

1 hour ago, xiaopangshizi said:

in fact, this isn't PATINA. it's more like stains. it fades away when touched and can be easily washed off with water.

Chen,

you have obviously no idea what you are dealing with. All soft-metals in Japanese metalwork are treated in special ways to protect them from corrosion and to make them appear respectfully used (look under WABI SABI) insted of new..

On your TSUBA, the original colours are gone, and so is a good part of the potential value of your TSUBA.

It looks horrible, unfortunately.

[Matsunoki]

The patina is ruined but could be recovered by someone who knows what he is doing.

Chen, the copper inlay should be a dark red/plum/brown colour (depending on the alloy content) which is achieved by a boiling/pickling process that coats the metal in an oxide. You have stripped that surface off and it looks horrible. 
 

[Exclus1ve]

I agree. In this case, the cleaning appears to have been chemical. That's worse than simply losing the patina. The copper color will never be the same again because the top layer of the metal has been chemically etched.

Edited August 6 by Exclus1ve

[Hector]

@xiaopangshizi

 

This is definitely stripping using acid such as vinegar or similar.

 

Just focussing on the copper sekigane, they have also been left completely stripped of their patina by the same process which was used on your poor tsuba's copper and silver inlays.

 

Please note the picture of a copper coin which has been caustically stripped in chemicals for comparison.
Water could not do this.

Edited August 6 by Hector

[vajo]

Sad treatment for a beautiful piece.

Now you should invest money to sent it back to Japan to a professional restorator, cleaning and handling rokusho for a good niage patination.  

[xiaopangshizi]

Spoiler

 

I know what the problem is.I used AI to sharpen the background of my photo, but it ended up touching up the main subject too.

So it made the subject look freshly restored.Here's how it actually looks.

[xiaopangshizi]

btw I picked up the sword from the workshop.

[ROKUJURO]

5 hours ago, xiaopangshizi said:

......So it made the subject look freshly restored.......

Chen, 

it didn't look "freshly restored", it looked incompetently stripped of its patina. Restoration does not mean making the item look like coming out of a modern factory!

When taking photos of swords and TOSOGU, it is best to use a plain dark, non-reflecting background for good contrast. 

[Matsunoki]

I think it’s a different tsuba on the sword?

[ROKUJURO]

Colin,

you are of course correct!

[Scogg]

Looks like the large tsuba in Chen’s first picture

[vajo]

4 hours ago, xiaopangshizi said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I know what the problem is.I used AI to sharpen the background of my photo, but it ended up touching up the main subject too.

So it made the subject look freshly restored.Here's how it actually looks.

 

That Looks much better! Very nice tsuba. I like it. 

[xiaopangshizi]

3 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

Chen, 

it didn't look "freshly restored", it looked incompetently stripped of its patina. Restoration does not mean making the item look like coming out of a modern factory!

When taking photos of swords and TOSOGU, it is best to use a plain dark, non-reflecting background for good contrast. 

totally agree with u, I still need a lot of practice with my photography.

[xiaopangshizi]

3 hours ago, Matsunoki said:

I think it’s a different tsuba on the sword?

yes,this is a field of reeds belonging to these two heroes.

[xiaopangshizi]

1 hour ago, vajo said:

 

That Looks much better! Very nice tsuba. I like it. 

[Cookie_Monstah]

Greetings everyone,

 

Can a sword be mounted after it is polished? I thought it was recommended to do it before it is polished. This packaged beautifully.

 

Best,

Khalid 

Edited Wednesday at 11:59 PM by Cookie_Monstah

[eternal_newbie]

7 hours ago, Cookie_Monstah said:

Can a sword be mounted after it is polished? I thought it was recommended to do it before it is polished. This packaged beautifully.

 

It certainly can; often what will be done is a wooden replica of the blade (tsunagi) is made which is then used for fitting and templating of the mountings without any risk to the polish of the real blade. A benefit of this approach is that the tsunagi can then be used to hold the mountings together when the blade is being stored in its shirasaya.