Did I overspend?

[Spartancrest]

I won this Kawari-gata "Nobuie" guard for ¥ 4,100. To be fair it was pretty dirty and rusty - but a little elbow grease it has come up a treat.

Anyone got any idea of which "Nobuie" might have made it? 

[Infinite_Wisdumb]

Nice work Dale!

How many hours did you spend cleaning?

[Spartancrest]

Well it only arrived this afternoon - Half an hour?

Lucky for me the guy selling it couldn't take the time or put in the minimal effort, it might have cost me considerably more if other bidders had seen it tidied up. 

[Bugyotsuji]

WOWZ!!!!!!!!! What. A. Contrast!!!!!!!!!!

That doesn’t even need a second clean!

 

Oh, …no you didn’t! (Overspend)

[Steve Waszak]

Kudos, Dale, on the tidying up!  Excellent work.    You definitely didn't overspend.    I believe this would be Echizen Nobuie.  Nicely done.  

[Spartancrest]

Apparently I didn't overspend: https://nihonto.com/unusual-tsuba-by-nobuie-信家鐔　110222/

Of course my new acquisition doesn't have papers and nothing really by way of provenance - but I think I got a bargain!

Thank you all for your thoughts and thank you Steve for pointing me in the direction of Echizen Nobuie. 

[Tcat]

Wow and congratulations, that cleanup turned out VERY nice.

[Bugyotsuji]

Here’s another nata tsuba, probably younger than yours, Dale.

 

 

 

[GRC]

Awesome clean up Dale 

You always manage to get the best deals!

And that's thanks to the fact that you've trained yourself to have a good eye, and have a lot of patience and dedication to go a long with it.

[ROKUJURO]

And another one, probably not by one of the NOBUIE:
 

[Hokke]

On 7/1/2026 at 9:29 PM, Bugyotsuji said:

Here’s another nata tsuba, probably younger than yours, Dale.

 

 

 

Curious Piers, do you know from what the handle is made?

[Bugyotsuji]

Yes Calabrese, it’s probably shinchū brass or 黄銅 Ōdō.

[Spartancrest]

On 7/2/2026 at 11:29 AM, Bugyotsuji said:

Here’s another nata tsuba

   https://www.jauce.com/auction/u1236017056  These are as rare as hens teeth [NOT]- there must be a lot of chickens with dentures!

[Bugyotsuji]

Sorry Dale, busy here sweeping up the piles of rocking-horse dung.

[Curran]

On 6/30/2026 at 4:59 AM, Spartancrest said:

I won this Kawari-gata "Nobuie" guard for ¥ 4,100. To be fair it was pretty dirty and rusty - but a little elbow grease it has come up a treat.

Anyone got any idea of which "Nobuie" might have made it? 

Without even opening the book, I would say solidly Akasaka or Echizen Nobuie.

I forget which one it was that liked the odder shapes and the karakusa squiggle vines.

 

My first guess would have been Akasaka Nobuie, but I see Steve said Echizen.

It feels right for one of those two.

 

[Kanenaga]

Are we to think this is the original shape?

[Spartancrest]

2 hours ago, Kanenaga said:

Are we to think this is the original shape?

Good question - I have a few other guards that have been altered over time, this "Nobuie" has a really thin hammered up edge, I think this is often referred to as a "wire edge" that brings the mimi up to 7 mm from the plate thickness of 4.2 mm

The crescent "bite" has some features that suggest it was made that way - but the small cut out in the hitsu is a little odd to me? I was thinking of the construction method for the placement of the "nata" sukashi. The outline of the guard must have been done first or else when hammering the rim, if the sukashi was already present, it would tend to bend that portion of the rim inwards. I suppose this is normal practice anyway to get the "blank" first then do any cut outs last.

[Bugyotsuji]

Has the opposite side of the mimi been struck/hit and slightly flattened at some point, or did the sukashi for the Nata pull the edge out a little?

[Spartancrest]

I think the shape was intended as Kobushi-gata and the indent was intentional - the crescent may have been so the guard can be used as a Kake to stop the sword rolling when there is no stand for the sword?

This one has an indented section where the sukashi is, but the rest of the shape won't work for keeping the sword oriented blade upwards.