A tsuba auction I won. Thoughts?

[FBJ]

Some of you might remember that I tried to score a nice edo period tsuba with a silver fukurin off eBay. As a iaido practitioner, I'd always wanted a nice tsuba with fukurin to compliment my 2010 shinsakuto, mostly because they look elegant; not to mention that many high-ranking Japanese iaidoka use them.

 

Well, I scored one and the price I earned it at appears to be a fantastic deal. Perhaps at least a couple of you were participants in the auction?

 

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 925wt_1139

 

I've read a bit about this design and the matsukawabishi kamon that's featured on it. Interesting to say the least. What are your impressions?

 

Thanks,

 

Mike H.

[John A Stuart]

Not bad, should look alright. A lot of work to mount on a katana. Originally mounted on a naginata? John

[Grey Doffin]

I'm puzzled by this tsuba. The strange nakago hitsu-ana coupled with the round seppa-dai lead me to wonder what exactly this is. Imagine this mounted on a katana with normal (oval) seppa and tsuka; wouldn't the protruding section of seppa-dai look out of place?

But what do I know about the subject? Not much, actually. Hope someone else can enlighten me.

Grey

[FBJ]

Imagine this mounted on a katana with normal (oval) seppa and tsuka; wouldn't the protruding section of seppa-dai look out of place?

Grey

 

Good points, both of you. I imagine the round seppa-dai was to ensure the uniformity of the kamon along the outside. I figure that with an oval seppa it wouldn't look completely odd; it would still come off as a symmetrical 'eye' shape.

 

To me, it seems to definitely be a katana tsuba given the kozuka hitsu-ana though. Were there swords that would require the nakago to be shaped this way?

 

Definitely a strange one.

 

While I'm here, here's a quick update to my first post on the board. I received my shinsakuto nearly a year ago with the tsuba mounted on it. Great fit. I haven't taken the sword apart so I don't know if the nakago ana was modified in any way, but I suppose we'll find out when I fit this new one on.

[Lorenzo]

Am I the only one that sees the original nakago ana plugged with iron and angled 90° to the new rectangular cut? :?

 

This tsuba seppa dai has been heavily modified in my opinion.

 

Lorenzo

[Ford Hallam]

I see it too

[Kevin Adams]

Alright, I'll ask the obvious question - what could this have been mounted on, given that the nakago-ana appears to be basically rectangular?

 

Fitting this back onto a sword seems to require further modification of the nakago-ana through the installation of sekigane...

[Grey Doffin]

Or an even more obvious question: was this originally a tsuba or is it something else modified to look like a tsuba?

Grey

[estcrh]

Alright, I'll ask the obvious question - what could this have been mounted on, given that the nakago-ana appears to be basically rectangular?

Jutte, yari tanto and hachiwari can be found with square or rectangular tsuba.

 

 

[Kevin Adams]

Or an even more obvious question: was this originally a tsuba or is it something else modified to look like a tsuba?

Grey

 

For some reason, the round seppa-dai makes me think of the round washer used to hold the tsuba in place on a shinai....

[Marius]

Am I the only one that sees the original nakago ana plugged with iron and angled 90° to the new rectangular cut? :?

 

Yes, it is clearly visible. Out of curiosity - what was the purpose of such an alteration?

[Klop]

Well, the description does mention "tsunagi sukashi" twice, and I don't think that has anything to do with the mon or the kozuka ana?

 

No idea why a tsunagi would require the job done on this plate, but the seller probably has a reason to mention this.

 

Best regards,

Eric K.

[Klop]

another thing caught my eye in the silhouette picture; the nakago ana shape resembles the space between the bishi mon, like an hour-glass in square forms. May not be relevant at all ...

 

Reminds me of the batman logo, either you see a bat or you see a mouth missing some teeth

 

Best regards,

Eric K.

[FBJ]

Thanks for all the input, guys.

 

I managed to fit the tsuba to my nihonto with surprising ease. The middle part of the nakago ana held to the tang quite snugly. There was virtually no vertical looseness at all. Rotational looseness was expectedly another story though. I managed to shim it real tight with several small slivers of a coffee stir stick on all edges of the opening for good measure. All in all, no modifications to the tsuba required.

 

The end result is that it holds even better than my current tsuba and it looks great. Can't find my still camera right now, but I'll post some pictures once it turns up.

 

Regards,

 

Mike