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Item 314 - the Ichiryu Mitsuyoshi Carp Tsuba - what a great tsuba for your first! The ebay aspect adds so much to the treasure hunt beginning of your collecting experiences. So many of us bought fake replicas swords or tourist tsuba as our first acquisition and thought that they were treasures (until we learned better). In your case, you got a very nice tsuba that was a commission piece for someone close and highly regarded. Not only is it a beautiful tsuba with excellent workmanship, it has also been mounted and carried on a sword. The artist is Ichiryu Mitsuyoshi (early 1800’s Haynes 05566 & 05562). The commission is for a Uruno-kun. “Kun” is an honorific like “San” that you use at the end of someone’s name; however, “Kun” is more informal and is common among friends (usually by the senior to the junior). Therefore, we can see that Mitsuyoshi probably made this for a good friend. Haynes says that Mitsuyoshi is from Mito in Hitachi and interestingly, the name “Uruno” is a name that derived from the Mito area of Japan. When signing the tsuba on the back side, Mitsuyoshi has had some fun! Notice the “-“ mark above the kogai hitsu-ana. It is the kanji “Ichi” - the first part of his School/Family name of “Ichiryu". In the “in-mei” (gold seal under his mei on the back side), Mitsuyoshi has written two characters that mean willow tree and are pronounced "ryu” like the second part of his School/Family name “Ichi-ryu”) and the character “Yo” (meaning “presented”). So if you take the (1) “Ichi” above the kogai hitsu-ana, (2) the “Ryu” and “Yo” in the in-mei gold seal, (3) his mei, and (4) the dedication to Uruno-Kun on the front, THEN it means: Ichiryu Mitsuyoshi presented this to his good friend Uruno-kun.

Eckhard Kremers (former student of Sasano) has just published a new book on sukashi tsuba that reflects his research of the past 30 years on the subject It is available from Lulu in either English or German: https://www.lulu.com...t_audience_rating=00 A Study About Sukashi Tsuba From Kyoto – Their Development From The Muromachi To The Early Edo Period – The Workshop of Kariganeya Hikobei in Kyoto and his Move to Edo – The founding of the Akasaka Workshop Paul

Starting with some of the stuff that will be going to SF, as I work through it slowly. I was going to post this in translation section, but I worked out it is by Mitsuhiro, the founder of the Yagami school. No reason to think they are gimei, they match the work this school produced. I see many of these 1000 monkey tsuba by him and the school, so maybe these will find a home with someone who has the matching tsuba. Anyways, posting just for interest now. Enjoy.

Item No 314 Iron Tsuba with shibuichi, shakudo and gold 7.50 cm x 7.10 cm x 0.50 cm Subject of Carp swimming through water weeds by Mitsuyoshi from Ichryu school ( Mito ). This was a commission piece - specially made for a gentleman, Uruno-san. A superb rendition of the subject made with the extra care and attention to detail reserved for a special piece. Although it may not be regarded as the best fitting in the collection, it is my personal favourite. Indeed it was the very first item I purchased when starting out on the collecting journey - no doubt a contributing factor to my feelings. I have some ebay paperwork showing that I bought the Tsuba on the 12th Feb. 2002, which neatly shows when my fascination with the subject and artwork turned towards acquisition. Is that a blessing or a curse I wonder ?

Hello everyone ! Just wanted to share with you a project we are working on from Japan. A 80cm blade Tachi with a Koshirae for one of our customer who wants to practice tameshigiri. The customer gave us a lot of freedom on the details and style so it will be very satisfying to make realise this project. The Tachi will have a long leather handle, silver heavy tsuba and silver fittings. Can't wait to share with you guys more on this sword and show you pictures when the sword is finished ! We're also currently working on an even more crazy project that might have never been done before, let me know if you're interested to see.

The blade is signed Bishu Osafune Tadamitsu the rabbit on the Fuchi Kashira could be the white rabbit of Inaba jumping over the waves. I can’t see much of the blade but with the Signature and size I would say it is from late Muromachi period. Edit: just saw the Date, I think it is Bunmei 3 the 2nd month = February 1471

First thing is that I think the date is 1945 (2 X 10 = Showa 20) rather than 1941. John C.

Hi John, I would say ヤ/YA for the top and 五/5 for the right. The left, as you already know, is 六六/66. FYI, the handwriting is reducing the strokes to a minimum. Another comment is that the subassembly numbers can be painted on either side of the tang. I wonder if this was deliberate to alternate the location of the subassembly numbers on the tangs. This would help reduce confusion when reaching 99. Switch to the other side of the tang and start at 1.

It will be available via Lulu.

I have known and purchased swords from Nick for over 15 years and he is the best. His blades are all unique and while maybe not the big names are certainly of a quality not seen very often and all are papered. It is a pleasure to deal with him and his access to Nihonto during his annual trips to Japan is amazing and you can be assured of something of top quality, rare and beautiful pieces. Highly recommend him and if you ARE looking for something special let him know - for example - see the amazing Muramasa on his website Nihontoart.com !

Hi Everyone Hoping might some get feedback on Gunto I just bought from small local auction house. Have a collection of military rifles, but this is my first sword. ( starting to think it maybe a 50/50 chance of being a fake ) after reading some of these posts. Still waiting on shipping so will get some better photos when I can and update, Seller had said it was his late father's bought back to Australia in 1970's from Papua New Guina, they had said it was an infantry sword with NCO rank punched into Tsuba. Regardless, I still like the look of this sword, for collection, just hoping someone could help me any with extra information. Thanks again Mick

Offered today are a pair of iron tsuba, both of which have Higo characteristics, and more specifically hint at being from the hand of Hirata Hikozo. It must be remembered that, while he is referred to as a Higo tsubako, Hirata Hikozo lived and worked in Higo province for only some three years, from 1632 to 1635, when he died. So, however long he lived, he spent relatively little time in Higo. His connection to Hosokawa Sansai (the Higo daimyo from 1632 to 1645), however, extends back well earlier than this; it was Sansai who brought Hikozo with him to Higo when he became the daimyo there in 1632. The degree to which Hikozo brought his designs with him to Higo may never be known, but these two tsuba may be examples of his earlier work in iron. Hikozo is much more well known for his incredible works in soft metal, but he is known to have created some pieces in iron; in fact, the only known signed Hikozo tsuba is iron. Tsuba #1: This is an eight-lobed sword guard measuring 8cm x 7.6cm x 4mm at the nakago-ana and 2.5mm at the rim. The nakago-ana on this piece is very large, indicating that it was fitted to a quite a sizable katana. Two extended rectangular sukashi are adjacent to the nakago-ana, and two udenuki-ana are present below it. The lobes are scalloped along the edges to create a beautifully modeled effect. The condition of this tsuba is excellent. There is a small notch cut out of one of the rectangles to accomodate a kuzuka. If this is in fact an early Hikozo work, it is quite the bargain. $650 plus shipping.

Good eye, Thomas, I missed that.

濃州関住人源天秀謹而鍛之 = Nōshū Seki jūnin Minamoto Amahide kinshite kitau kore. 而 is offset to the right. The characters at the bottom of the tang are 金丸 Kanamaru. See the link below. Arsenal Stamps. @mecox

Early shinto bizen, is what I wanted to say. Either way, nice blade maybe a new polish will reveal more.

The other John, you had it right the first time. Rotate the picture counterclockwise 90 degrees. Yours is written from top to bottom while Bruce's is written from left to right. フ三四 = FU 34. FYI, I had to edit my posts above as I was getting scabbard and wooden handle markings intermixed. All sorted out now.

First got my hands on my first nihonto, all thanks to Nick over at Nihontoart.com. Nick is a definitely trustworthy seller who answered all of my questions. He was quick with sending my item and even gave me a cleaning kit for free. I haven’t had the chance to take good photos of my Odachi but here is the link to it. https://nihontoart.c...original-edo-mounts/ it is definitely an amazing feeling to get my first nihonto.

Great sword !!!!! Nick is a great person to do business with always has very interesting items.

Just thinking out loud Sam, observations. We all learning. Always exceptions to the rules rules and all that.

Just reading that, a blueish look to the steel doesn't remind me of Sue Mino From Connoisseurs. "the colour is black without being blueish black" Added a pic of one of my swords, Mino. In sunlight its obvious dull black, next to another blade stands out as black, no blue. Crap at photography but hope it shows.

This is the one I own. John C.

I don’t plan on using the saya. I only put the sword in there to check fit. The inside of the saya probably isn’t proper fit and will most likely scratch the blade after polished. Definitely won’t place the blade in this after polish. I was just bored and thought it would be cool to build one for it. Stand was made from dowel rods and some scrap lumber laying around.

Ah, with the right name, I found it! Ha! Already have it in the Stamps doc: "on a 1721 Masakiyo blade – A single Aoi leaf indicating the smith is approved by the shoganate. Also seen on Yasuyo blades. Both smiths were in the line of Ujifusa smiths."

By "Sand Flowing Gold Wire" they probably mean SUNAGASHI.

This one is a hollyhock leaf. ("ichiyō aoi mon") 主水正藤原正清　Mondo-no-shō Fujiwara Masakiyo "Mondo-no-shō" is a kind of title. Smith's name is Masakiyo.

Definitely an older sword mounted for the war. Could easily (and probably) be an antique. Remember that during the war, the authorities purchased thousands of old mediocre blades to be remounted for the war effort. Also dealers would take orders using old blades and mounting them in Shin Gunto fittings, or even partial civilian fitting which this one has. Double habaki leads to an old sword most likely. It's a mixture of parts, mostly civilian, so likely an old sword taken to war, or even just an antique civilian sword taken during the war. Once you remove the handle and we can see the tsuba and nakago, we can tell more.

Thanks again Bruce, for clarification... seems like I have opened a can of worms for myself regarding this sword origins. Will get some better reference photos. Mick

Built a stand and saya for it. Here it will set until I can get polished.

Yes, this sounds like a very plausible hypothesis. Steve

Very interesting choice for a ‘first’, but unique and very well done. Seems you took the advice to study first and know what & why you want what you want. Very well done indeed.

Here is paper shirasaya video… and his advice can be trusted to be top notch…

If you don’t want to mess with glue yet, here is some EXCELLENT and VERY SAFE advice posted by Grey Doffin about using paper bands to hold shirasaya together: ”Try this technique. Cut strips of paper about 1" wide and long enough to wrap 1 1/2 times around the scabbard. Wrap one around the scabbard about a foot below its top. Tightly wrap the paper strip with masking tape. Place the scabbard top down on a table and force the paper/tape downward towards the table. The scabbard is small diameter at the bottom and largest at the top. As you force the paper/tape towards the top of the scabbard it gets very tight and locks to 2 pieces of woodtogether. It may take a try or 2 to get the paper/tape where you want it but You'll get it right. Do the same 2 or 3 times further down the scabbard and you're set. When the time comes to have the scabbard properly glued the paper/tape can be slid back down and no tape residue will be left on the wood. Do the same with the handle, which is smallest at the top and largest where it meets the scabbard.” You can also always make a paper shirasaya and there is a video on YouTube about how to make. If you can’t find it, let me know and I will try to help. On vacation in Cabo Mexico so all this advice is under the influence of tequila , but I will do my best to help when I can. Just hope you will understand it may take some time to respond.

Sold!

@Kiipu Thomas: Could one of the two symbols on my #66 fall into this category? I assumed one was just a number 5. John C.

@Kiipu I am no expert. It just clicked in my head after you brought up the フ that 伊 was maybe a kana symbol. Originally when I saw it on the Takayama-to #65 I was thinking there was some relationship to the Inaba forge. Interesting for sure the combination of numbers and different formats (Roman Numerals on habaki, Arabic/Chinese numerals on fittings) the Japanese used. There are more characters below the 伊 but unfortunately the heat marks from shortening the jiri damaged them. Probably not correct, but looks like 伊五六. Conway

Well it was a blessing for us! (And probably also Ford!). I personally like this one a lot. I'd say it's exactly my taste, and I'm also a fan of the carp!

Here's one on mine. Never noticed until this thread.

Your brilliant Conway! The kana characters have an origin in kanji characters. For example, Japanese submarines used the iroha order for numbering. In formal documents, 伊 is used instead of イ. However, the conning tower would use an イ followed by a number. 伊 = い, イ = I. 呂 = ろ, ロ = RO. 波 = は, ハ = HA. 仁 = に, ニ = NI. For the rest, click on the characters at the link below. In the column to the right, find the characters 字源 [character source] and the source character will be shown. いろは順 Now, back to swords. You answered something that has been nagging me for awhile. I remember seeing a black painted 呂 prefix on a sword tang and was wondering why they would use that character. I thought maybe it was the first character in the name of the shop or the fitter. I now think one of the swordshops could have used the kanji source characters as a prefix. What do you think Conway? cc @SteveM

How to draw a long katana part 2

What a remarkable sword, congratulations. One can only hope that you have high ceilings...

I think I cannot handle such a long katana. How to draw a long katana: (Watch from 2:30 - ) (1) ＃39【長い刀の抜き方】日本刀専門店 銀座長州屋 - YouTube

You won't decrease the value if restored by a togishi, and then papered, only increase it - but this can be an expensive process as stated previously. It is common for koto blades to not have a signature by the maker as they have been shortened over the centuries (signatures are chiselled, not stamped)

Aaron, the age is not really important, but the quality is. There are 500 year old swords that have much less value than one made by a renowned smith in 1800. Just to mention it: Polishing means a traditional restoration by an expert, not done by the scissors grinder around the corner!

Genuine, real and antique. Condition is not great though. Worth preserving. The 2 holes means it was shortened and remounted, very common. Nothing spectactular, but a real Japanese sword a few hundred years old.

Offered today are two Owari tsuba. I will provide descriptions for these separately below. 1. This tsuba depicts a kiri-mon motif designed in such a way as to depict a family crest, in all likelihood. The tsuba is iron, ji-sukashi, marugata, and dates to the later Momoyama or earliest Edo Period. Tekkotsu are present in the rim, and the finishing of the sword guard is done in a light tsuchime together with what appears to be yakite here and there. Dimensions are 78.5 x 77 x 5mm at the rim. This piece was included in the 2015 Kokusai Tosogu Kai catalogue, 11th International Convention and Exhibition. $550, plus shipping. 2. This iron sword guard is papered to Owari, and features a bold cross (ju-mon) design punctuated with inome in ko-sukashi. The particularly interesting aspect of this piece is that it is a design known to have been favored by the Yagyu, as it appears in the Owari Yagyu daimyo's illustrated inventory of tsuba designs. And, in fact, the appearance of the metal is reminiscent of Yagyu guards in that the surface has something of the "sandy" or "cloudy" quality associated with Yagyu works, and signs of striated laminations may be seen in places on the rim. The ju-mon motif has strong associations with the buke, especially in Satsuma Province. I believe this tsuba dates to the early-Edo Period. As with the other tsuba offered here, this one was included in the 2015 KTK catalogue. Dimensions are 73.5 x 69.5 x 5mm at the rim. Such dimensions are also consistent with Yagyu guards. $850, plus shipping.

This looks promising imho Do you have any more closeups of the blade (middle and tip)?

Hello, Iron Soten style tsuba decorated with Ebira No Ume theme for sale. During Genpei War Minamoto Clan general Kajiwara Kagesue took a branch of flowering plum and stuck it in his arrow quiver. This elegant gesture greatly impressed opposing Taira forces at the 1184 battle of the Ikuta woods. This event inspired many Edo period artist to create works of art with Ebira No Ume theme. Tsuba is made of iron and extensively decorated with gold nunome zogan inlay. There is also copper, gold and shibuichi inlay applied. Made in late Edo period. Size: 77 mm x 74 mm x 4,5 mm Price: $900 More photos here: https://soryu.pl/col...eme-kajiwara-kagesue Best regards, Krystian

Tsuba #2 This is a beautiful sword guard featuring sukashi of "rays" in addition to gently-incised lines expressing the same. The motif here may be referencing the rays of Amida Buddhism. This tsuba boasts a subtly masterful shape, measuring 8.1cm x 7.9 cm. It is a very thin piece, just 2.5mm at the nakago-ana, and 2mm at the rim. The color and condition of the metal are both excellent. As with the tsuba above, if this, too, is an early example of Hirata Hikozo's iron guards, it is a fortunate find. $900 plus shipping.

My kind of blade. Excellent offering!