Matsunoki Posted June 26 Report Posted June 26 I’m getting worried (again). I am being lured away (again) from my favourite kinko tsuba into the dark mysterious world of iron. The brute force of the design of this iron piece really grabbed my attention. Reminded me of fortified castle gates…or similar. A tsuba for a strong guy? It is largeish at 8cm and the fact that the kozuka and kogai ana are the same shape struck me as perhaps a bit unusual. The gold is Hirazogan not nunome if that tells us anything, slightly worn in places. It had a few small patches of the dreaded orange stuff but very careful cleaning and preservation seems to have done the trick. Anyway, any comments on subject matter, age, potential school would be most welcome. Thanks for looking (and hopefully for commenting🙂) 2 Quote
MauroP Posted June 26 Report Posted June 26 7 minutes ago, Matsunoki said: The gold is Hirazogan not nunome Are you sure? It looks very "nunome-ish" from the pic... Quote
Matsunoki Posted June 26 Author Report Posted June 26 5 minutes ago, MauroP said: Are you sure? It looks very "nunome-ish" from the pic... That’s what I thought until I looked really closely and saw these channels circled in red where Hirazogan had fallen out. The rim is quite heavily worn overall. Magnification shows zero signs of cross hatching. Quote
Matsunoki Posted June 26 Author Report Posted June 26 14 minutes ago, MauroP said: Are you sure? It looks very "nunome-ish" from the pic... Perhaps this close up shows the cut channels more clearly? 1 Quote
Spartancrest Posted June 26 Report Posted June 26 10 hours ago, Matsunoki said: lured ..... into the dark mysterious world of iron. Well I congratulate your taste in the Iron tsuba you have chosen ! If that is the DARK WORLD, then I vote for turning out the lights! 2 1 Quote
ROKUJURO Posted June 27 Report Posted June 27 Colin, what you see as strong iron bars might in fact represent a bamboo wicker fence or shade. It is a rather elegant TSUBA in the dark iron world! The HIRAZOGAN grooves are indeed a bit shallow so that the gold was worn off more easily, but it looks as if corrosion did a part of the damage. All in all a very nice TSUBA with many artistic aspects in my opinion. 1 Quote
FlorianB Posted June 28 Report Posted June 28 On 6/26/2026 at 2:44 PM, Matsunoki said: The brute force of the design of this iron piece really grabbed my attention. Brute force?? I can't see it in this way – on the contrary its an elegant piece with subtle variations in the lattice. Maybe strong and self confident describes it better. On 6/26/2026 at 2:44 PM, Matsunoki said: kozuka and kogai ana are the same shape struck me as perhaps a bit unusual. Not really. There are a lot of Tsuba with either rounded or suhama-shaped ana on both sides, maybe to emphasize the balance. 1 1 Quote
Matsunoki Posted July 2 Author Report Posted July 2 I guess I was thinking of the huge iron portcullis gates on some of our castles! Thanks for looking! Quote
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