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Here's a different mantis.

Subject is Gama Sennin and his three legged toad. Google that name and you’ll find out all about him! He is quite a character.

Hallam School. Original 2019, shibuichi on copper.

Other side

It's not a monkey but Gama Sennin as Colin says, and they are not flowers but sasa (low- growing bamboo leaves) and a pine tree. One typical depiction of pine trees will show a variety of pine with rounded needle bunches.

two examples of Gamma Sennin and the three legged toad/frog from the Cleveland Museum of art. https://art.thewalte...mmortal-gama-sennin/ https://collections.mfa.org/objects/10064 https://www.nihontoc...t.com/Frog_tsuba.htm

I hope that you and your family managed with Helene and the aftermath of that event. There is a sword show in Orlando. You could go there, see many swords and come home with the sword. No shipping, no waiting and you will have a lot of choice. Many members of NMB will be at the show. Between now and then you will have an opportunity to learn more about swords.

Never use vinegar when patinated copper alloys and brass are involved you can destroy the patina for good! You very quite lucky that you recovered the patina at all. In most cases it is lost forever In general never apply chemicals at all. Regards Luca

I am not sure what the characters mean. If they mean a name, it may be 口田小二 – Kuchida/Kuchita Shoji.

Old sources mention Go Yoshihiro and Norishige as natives of Etchu Province, with Go said to have died young. To me, It would seem highly improbable that he was a Yamato Senjuin smith. Name matching doesn't help us as the only signed and dated Yoshihiro blade (YOS143) doesn't match in characters to those of Go in ancient records, and the date (1343) is far off in time, moroever the records make no mention of a resemblance to the work of Go. What about the Yamato influence? The majority of Go's kitae is typically described as itame, often mixed with nagare or mokume. There is only one instance I could find where his kitae is partially blended with masame: the renowned Kabuto-Giri Go. I have also observed that certain works display his ichimai boshi with a subtle hakkikake flavor. Regarding influences, I've had in hand Go's with traits from three different attribution clusters: the Norishige cluster (Mokume/Matsukawa, complex jiba), the Masamune cluster (angular chickei, yubashiri, inazuma), and the Yukimitsu cluster (ko-itame in the Shintogo style). For Go, I have not personally handled an example where Shizu comes to mind, though the Kabuto-Giri Go is noted for this in the NBHTK setsumei record. It is essential to recognize that, while not all blades attributed to Go feature an ichimai boshi, its presence—when combined with the masterful traits typical of other top Soshu smiths—strongly leans toward an attribution to Go. Now where would such Yamato influence come from, if not Senjuin? We can have fun and speculate. We we might imagine the possibility that Shizu and Go, both supposedly active during the Kenmu era, experimented with one another's techniques while working alongside Yukimitsu, Masamune, and Norishige in the Kamakura atelier. However, this idea rests on many unsecured assumptions, including that Shizu apprenticed directly under the Soshu masters and that certain Soshu-den works displaying Yamato influence are accurately attributed to Go. Attribution is uncertain. As seen with signed works by Yukimitsu, his craftsmanship shows considerable variation, making him the prime candidate for pieces where distinguishing traits are less pronounced. His range spans from Shintogo-like hada with a gentle, shallow notare, to a flamboyant midareba incorporating gunome elements, even producing works approaching Hitatsura. This uncertainty is not limited to Yukimitsu. For instance, of the four extant signed tachi by Norishige, two exhibit a shintogo-like fine hada, a far different approach to Matsukawa. Nor was Matsukawa the exclusive domain of Norishige. Hata Chogi, of which we know very little, left us two works indistinguishable on a trait-basis from Norishige's signed tanto. It's wise to think in probabilities. Perhaps the Kabuto-Giri Go, with its distinct Yamato influence and ichimai boshi, was a masterwork of Shizu? We may never know for certain, as the hand behind it is never known for certain. I think that the key to thinking about attribution and influences is to think in probabilities. The best way is to go with the cannon of tradition. After in-hand examination, it could be 60% Go, 40% Shizu. This is certainly the most tractable way, but is the most accurate way? The alternative is going with the historical dark matter. Or in other words, incorporating the lost record. Imagine that it might be 45% Go, 35% Shizu, 4% Yukimitsu on a creative day, 1% the long lost Shintogo student Kuniyasu, and 15% a master whose name has left our records forever. Then replace all these probabilities with distributions encoding uncertainty and you start to reach the limits of useful abstraction. Not much of a means of knowledge advancement since there is no knowledge, only questions. The supreme quality of the Kabuti-Giri Go, however, is beyond doubt. An accepted attribution to a Soshu grandmaster of this caliber signifies the most masterful craftsmanship that reflects the pinnacle of the Soshu tradition, and one amongst the best Nihonto in existence. This brings a bit of nostalgia. Darcy would have enjoyed this thread. As he used to say, we don't have a time machine.

Gents, I attach the following picture because I have it!! This lovely tsuba was on a mate's Kanesada katana and offers a different perspective of the same theme to Alexander's above. Same school, I wonder?? Bests, BaZZa.

Hopefully you were not too disheartened. I feel your sword is still interesting authentic Japanese sword. It would be fun to try to figure it out better but it would require some much more qualified people than me to identify the details and make a good guess on what the sword actually is and around what time it was made.

Many thanks Lawrence. Characters and pronunciation below. Very nice sword in excellent condition. Thanks for sharing! 昭和己卯秋　Shōwa Tsuchinoto-U Aki. 興亞一心　Kōa Isshin. 満鐵作之　Mantetsu kore wo tsukuru　South Manchuria Railway Company (SMR) made this.

In Europe these days similar things are happening. Seems the only thing we're allowed to do is pay taxes and that is not just allowed, it is mandatory...We ended up in a xxxxing communist hell hole.

Thats what I was refering to, Kantaro!

Thanks for the replies. I didn't know who the figure was and what the hitsu-ana were. I thought perhaps the empty hole had lost it's filling Perhaps not in the best condition but most old tsuba's are unaffordable for me, so I'm quite happy I got one I like for 70 euro. I did some research on restoration and I was able to remove the thick rust in the photo's with vinegar, a toothpick and cotton swab. Then I gave it a coat of Renaissance Wax. The filled in hitsu-ana did become a shiny bright copper color from the vinegar and I was kind of disappointed because I lost the patina. But to my surprise it went back to it's original dark color in about 8 days ! Here's the backside photo.

...

Be wary of fancy koshirae. Dealers usually put together koshirae to shift more unappealing blades. You have already mentioned you prefer the look of the 3rd blade with only Shirasaya and that should prioritise the purchase decision. A sword with TH papers trumps Hozon/older Kicho papers. Good luck with your choice. That said Hawley and Toko Taikan rate #1 smith well above #2 and #3. #1 https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/TSU257 #2 https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/JU32 #3 https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/UJI22

Hi Georg, thank you for you hint, that is an interesting background of said royal house, I did not know about that and it is fascinating. And thank you for the links, might be a great place to visit and research. And Little off topic here I am pleased that you like our website, I can most definetly recommend you to visit our museum, but be aware it I recommend to take 2 full days to go through all the exhibits, we have someting like 4 to 7 K items on display, 99.9 percent originals, small items to artillery. Also if you are interested in rare guns and know Forgotten weapons he will be posting some videos from our collection he was fimling there 2 months ago, I know that since I was helping him film.

A single opinion based on alternative facts? Nah! Uwe G.

Hey Mario! Welcome to this great forum! I agree with Paris, your tsuba is not a fake! It looks good to me and was hand carved, not cast. Time period is hard to ascertain. But my opinion is it was made sometime in the Edo period for sure. The fact that one of the hitsu-ana (slots or holes to the sides of the middle slot on the tsuba) has been filled in with some sort of metal shows that someone liked this tsuba and it was probably mounted more than once (they did not need that extra hole!). Just my opinion!

Not an alchemist - he is playing a drum...

Seems OK, not a fake.

https://pin.it/Z6lNh9FVW hey sorry for not replying sooner but could t really work on it with the toddler around and plus my grandfather painted the Saya in the 50 and I guarantee it’s lead based! Nothing is on my Pinterest account are those pictures

https://www.supeinni...ta-iron-horse-tsuba/

Jacques, those are totally different from the examples you posted previously and which were highlighted by Colin. In this recent batch there is no “Rai hada” in that there is no shingane showing. The previous ones clearly have shingane as they are the large dark areas (the ones that you suggested showed chikei). Read the Markus Sesko’s article: Rai hada is a different colour to the kawagane and it’s equivalent in Aoe blades is Namazu hada, which looks different to the surrounding metal and has the quality of cat fish skin. What you have highlighted immediately above are not chikei nor shingane, just some rougher grain/ small kitae ware or perhaps as Uwe says, ji nie in the example with the more consistent grain.

Just a very wild hint, are you aware that the royal house of Salm-Reifferscheidt, having their home in Schloss Steyregg, just north of the Danube, close to Linz, and therefore about two hours drive from Blatná, have had a Japanese ancestor? Aoki Shūzō started studying at Berlin University back in 1869 and later was Japanese Foreign Minister and was the great-grandfather of the current head of the family. They still have a few items from him in their castle, but of course some stuff disappeared over the decades too. Some links on this (sorry, they are German, you can try Google Translator): https://oag.jp/event...m-privaten-nachlass/ https://www.nachrich...2-Jahren;art4,575690 https://oag.jp/event...1844-1914-im-profil/ It may also have been a potential connection. One would need to research if any of the Salm-Reifferscheidt family has had a Naval function in WWI to see if this theory makes sense. PS: I love your museums website, especially all the very cool and rare weapons (for me: especially firearms) you have displayed there! Thanks for doing this stuff, despite I can't speak Czech! I hope to one day make it there and get to see at least some of them in person.

No worries, Bruce. Sometimes it’s frustrating to me as well. But we are lucky to have very knowledgeable guys around 🙂

I would like to present my most recent work accomplished with help from Spartancrest who chose the design, did the research to confirm dimensions from the collection curator at the V&A museum where the original is kept and provided the Kanji so I could have a proper mei. Dale and I did some careful planning to create this Utsushi and there are some details I wish to explain that make this work uncommon. As Dale describes it The spider is a problematic design done in this manner because it is difficult to place the legs in a way that make a usable tsuba. The design is based on the Legend of Watananbe who killed a great spider. The project took about six months to complete. All of the work was done by hand using only hand tools and finishing stones The eyes and stinger are Shakudo. The original of this piece is asymmetrical I went to great effort to make my work symmetrical as a way to distinguish the piece as a copy. Funny thing is though despite all the effort my piece ended up asymmetrical as well as if fate or karma predestines this design to be that way.

And some folks might say “I’m deeply sorry!” …when they are not really sorry at all. (Poor attempt at a joke. I’ll get my hat and coat.)

This Ōdachi has just come up for polishing. At the Goryo Jinja in Nara, they have a JPY 3-million yen cloud/crowdfunding event through October. 御霊神社クラウドファンディング | 御霊神社 (amebaownd.com)

I agree, looking at the descriptions doesn't make me any wiser

Sori of 2.5cm is always deep sori for “normal” blades (ie not excessively long odachi). There is little point dwelling about what Aoi meant. They are just using machine translations without checking those too thoroughly. Sometimes, they even copy and paste parts of descriptions from other swords onto another and create confusion and so on. Rely on your eyes looking at the sugata in the full-size photos to evaluate sori.

Emilll, the SORI is of course related to the length of a blade. A SORI of 10 mm on a short TANTO might be called 'deep' or 'pronounced' while 25 mm on a long KOTO TACHI could be seen as moderate.

https://www.invaluab...582192e47cefc6a573fb

For those people interested in the original piece from the V&A as well as another version that was found in the process of the search. [may be the daisho pair?] PS. Any help I contributed was minimal - the praise for the WORK should all go to Gustavo, who went to extraordinary measures to get the metal from the correct period and has the technical skill to see the project finished. [I only found some images which is all I am really good at.] Now there are THREE BIG SPIDERS!

Not limited to tsuba either

Kudos to the forumites (more patient than me...) that have taken the time to meticulously dispel this misguided belief that Kamakura swords never show core steel. Note that these swords - in spite of the core steel appearing in various forms - are Tokubetsu Juyo. First, Aoe and Rai are prone to showing core steel. Hence, the deterring factor is mitigated. But more importantly, the integrity and regularity of the Jigane are secondary factors. Consider the following traits: A Rai blade with an unexpected drop in clarity of the nioiguchi in a section of the hamon near the boshi A late Aoe blade with ashi that slant only in the upper section of the hamon on one side The unexpected presence of clumped nie in the O-choji of an otherwise flamboyant Ichimonji A fall in the quality and variety of nie near the monouchi of a Soshu blade These are subtle things that Westerners typically wouldn't care about that may cause massive penalties that reverberate both in the attainable level of certification and the end value of the piece on the market in Japan. The market knows this and acts accordingly.

Thank you to you all for your time and effort to investigate about my sword. Well it is not such a pleasant news but important of all is that we know more about it and I learned allot from you guys! Hopefully this can helps other future buyers to be extremely aware when buying a sword without NBTHK documents. Again a big thanks and appreciations for all your help guys!!!

Hi Martin, I tried to provide that information but it wouldn't work for me...old age and lack of computer skills. In my post " Value of old German Book" Dale, it seems would be able to provide you with much more information, a lot of it new to me.. Also, I told you the wrong number of tsuba. Basically, it would seem, Rudiger the Baron of Biegeleben was selling his collection. Tsuba 607 - 725 were "linked" to the Archduke. Thanks very much Geraint, for some reason I had thought the blade was much older -perhaps I'm thinking of another of his swords mounted in that way.

@Aethel_berht info on Tempo tsuba in NMB Downloads:

Dear Mick. I'm slipping, here's the sword from the Festing collection. Not Tadayoshi at all. Description: 'A Shinshinto Bizen Yokoyama Katana by Sukenaga, dated 1850. The blade of deep koshizori, shinogi-zukuri with chu-kissaki, gunomr-midare hamon of nioi and ko-nie with yakidashi, midare-komi boshi, ko-itame-hada, ubu-nakago with kiri-yasuri, mei Kiku-mon Ichi, Biyo Osafune Kyo, Yokoyama Kage (no) Suke Fujiwara Sukenaga, dated Kaei 3rd year (1850), 8th month; length 70.5cm, curve 2.4cms, in army mounts, inscribed MAde by John Latham F.S.A. Sword Cutler. Maj-General F.W.Festing, June, 1950, with a chrome and leather scabbard.' All the best.

I do not believe in the UTSUSHI idea in most cases. TSUBA workshops often had standard designs which were copied by the employees over and over again, so it is very likely that close examples appear on the market. Small variations are evident as they did not strive for exact copies.

Alexander, I just noticed the tagane-ato [punch marks around the nakago-ana]. The ones on your example are very, very similar to the old examples I have with the Mantis design. I can't help thinking the same smith used the same tools on all five pieces. I include the three images of the nakago-ana with the punch marks - a series of three dot punches each side, top and bottom. [Ignore the rough outlines of the nakago-ana, that was done manually to give all three images the same background colour] Image is larger and enhanced from the book page example above. Hey Barry is there a Dragonfly on the ura of yours? Nice piece! [that is an understatement!]

Thank you Dale! The perfect example (three mantis tsuba, almost "exact" yet different). Pretty much sums up what's going on for me (although if others have still more to add I welcome the insight). Yes, I purchased it a week and a half ago: while it's an amazing feeling for the two tsuba to be together, I ultimately am gifting #2 to a friend/student. I think it's a fitting gift as they have an interest in Japan, Mantis and have been working on utsushi (a word I just learned) with me as my student. Cheers!

Utsushi - is the word you might need. An "emulation" of a design - not a direct copy but a homage to a design that is well liked. There are thousands of utsushi getting about, but they often get mistaken for the same piece seen in the past - [Who can remember every detail?] I put some Mantis utsushi in my beginners book to compare to cast copies [yes it needs a rewrite] Safe to give the ebay images of your second tsuba as it has already sold https://www.ebay.com/itm/276633048733

Part II

Part I It is always good to see a civilized discussion. With opinions based on facts. This one here seems to be a little bit too theoretically. That´s why you can see now some of the discussed points. From "Jigane & Jihada", sword Nr. 31 Rai Kunimitsu, juyo token with Rai hada, end of Kamakura and Nr. 32 Ko-Aoe Koretomo with sumi-hada. mid Kamakura, Tokubetso Juyo. Uwe G.

Hi Martin, you probably know of this. While researching for something else I came across a reference to the collection of " The Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria" It mentioned that 17 tsuba with a link to him were to be auctioned off on Monday 10th December 1923 in the Kielmannseggsaale. This would seem to suggest that the nobility had the interest, resources and opportunity to acquire some good pieces. Source. Japanese Sword Guards In The Collection Of Georg Oeder Of Dusseldorf.

I believe it is Kikuhide, dated 1945