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Bamboo Leaves?

Mountain wasabi by the stream.

Dear All. A late iron one. All the best.

Another Peony . The tsuba is tanto size so is enlarged and a little blurry. Ian Brooks

Not sure if you mean flowers & plants or flowers or plants (or both ) but let's start with these 2 pieces from Suzuki Yoshihiko & Kano Natsuo

From my own collection - the nanako is minute and the design wraps around the nanako mimi - not done in shakudo as one would expect, but shibuichi.

My plants

Here's one from my collection, lilys from the Choshu school.

Here are an early OWARI (?) TSUBA (ex Roger Dundas collection) and a rare KO-UMETADA. Sadly, I don't know what kind of flowers are depicted.

Kiri depiction signed Choshu Kiyoshige

My first ever tsuba, on my inherited katana. A permanent part of my collection

Some of mine

A simple piece from my collection, but my favorite as it was my first. Owned by my grandfather, it was mounted on an officer's sword taken back to the USA after WW2. Damon

A few “non native” plants and flowers currently living in Denmark 🌿🍀 /Soren

Knotweed...(or maybe Wasabi..who knows.)

Sakura clusters

This is one of the best threads in a while.... here is another of my favourites

Read from right to left, 第二千八百七十三号 -> No. 2873 コクラケン -> Kokuraken https://aucview.com/yahoo/j1140802752/ Here, this rifle also had similiar number to yours.

Birds and pine trees. One of my few blinged out pieces…

Another I'm quite fond of

even if the subject is not the blade as such but the blacksmith, and the polishing is old, lack of visibility, I send you some photos. Some nie over the whole length of the blade, quite nice. thanks you gentleman. max

Don't use gun oil on swords. A lot of them have cleaning elements meant to dissolve powder residue, lead, copper fouling etc in them, as well as lubricants that may or may not come off with isopropyl. This applies to things like wd40 and 3 in 1, break free, etc as well. Stick with sword oil or mineral oil.

Hi Jake, Just a few simple things to look at- when you look at goto work you are usually looking at excellent and precise execution. Look at the nanako on a verified goto piece. Compare that with yours and you can see there is a big difference in execution and precision. The precision of design and carving in any design a goto artist does is crisp and flows. Look at your horses, they look a bit muddled in comparison. Not trying to knock your piece, just pointing out a few things that caught my eye immediately. I don't know lot about the Goto school but have overtime come across lots of pictures (wish more in hand). You start to see what goes into a quality piece by breaking down the details. There is a reason why the Goto school is so respected. I am guilty as most, looking at the signature 1st. But we always heard from the "older crowd" that the "workmanship confirms the signature " and I understand why now more than when I first started collecting. Why is this so hard to accept? Simply, it points out how much I don't know. Lol. Best of luck and I'm glad you are enjoying what you have.

One of my low end tsuba! I still think it is great artwork!

I always thought that Choshu is underrated as a tsuba school - they have some magnificent work.

The crown or ball of the tassel is a separate piece that covers the ends of the strings. You can see on the sword below where the crowns have come off.

A charming little Ko-Kinko in my collection, understated but I really like it.

My humble contribution - a classical Kyo-Sukashi with bamboo and iris. Florian

Well back to the armor! I think we are talking about a "Tetsu sabiji nimai-dô gusoku" (russet iron two part-cuirass armor - simplifiyed naming!) with nunome-zogan adornment, might dating back to the latter half of the Edo period. The helmet is a so called "Hoshi-kabuto" (or Koboshi-kabuto)* of rather good quality. Unfortunately the provided pictures don't tell much about the whole. What I can say is that kote (sleeves) and suneate (shin guards) comming from a matching set, but it seems the haidate (apron) is missing. This is also true for the dô (cuirass) and the kabuto (helmet)*. In case of the Jingasa (bajo-jingasa = riding hat) and the ogi (fan), however, we can't be sure... Note, the dô is insofar interesting, that it was made to look like a rokumai-dô (six part cuirass)! A word about the mon (coat of arms) that makes the helmet and the cuirass "matching". The example below is very close and probably related at least to 3 families, namely: 島村氏, 河村氏 and 茅野氏. The names have several readings so I won't go deeper for the time being... * The helmet might be older. It would be nice to have some more pictures (front-, side-, back- and top-view) as also some shots from inside, if the liner (ukebari) allows it?!

Might be a bit expensive but you can use this as an inspiration https://en.katana-case-shi.com/ https://www.instagra...atana_case_shi_shop/

Guy, over at this Wehrmacht-wards thread, did a great translation of the Ohmura page on Murata Tsuneyoshi. There were 2 things I learned that I had never caught before: "Baron Murata Tsuneyoshi, a major general in the army, was an expert marksman. He developed the famous "Murata gun." Afterwards, he wanted to improve military swords, so he made a prototype military sword out of saber steel (sword steel from Solingen, Germany) in stock at the Tokyo Artillery Arsenal. Because it cut very well, under the guidance of Miyamoto Kanenori and Yokoyama Sukekane, he cut the Swedish steel and Japanese steel into strips in a ratio of 6:4, melted them at 1,500℃, and forged them into a round shape and hardened in oil to complete the blade. In October 1891, during a blade test at the arsenal, he used two blades to successfully cut a pig's skull. Since there was no abnormality in either blade, they were adopted as military swords based on this result. Because it was inexpensive and easy for even junior officers to obtain, it was widely used in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, and it was proven to be a practical military sword that was resistant to rust and had a good cutting ability. Manufactured at the Tokyo Army Artillery Arsenal. The inscription read "Shoju Kanemasa" and underneath it he wrote the four characters for Murata Tsuneyoshi in seal, creating a seal that combines the two characters. The year and manufacturing number are stamped on the back. In addition, swords that he forged himself were inscribed with the inscriptions "Kanemasa" and "Murata Tsuneyoshi." As it did not have a blade pattern, it did not receive any recognition in the sword world.(For more information, see "The Spirit of the Sword" by Murata Tsuneyoshi) I had always wondered why the only smith we see on Murata-to (not zoheito) is Kanemasa. That's because Kanemasa was Murata's swordmith name! Also, the stamped numbers were his "manufacturing numbers"! I don't think I've ever seen one with "four characters for Murata Tsuneyoshi in seal, creating a seal that combines the two characters." Very interesting!

The gun looks good from here John, well used, with some minor damage and the original coating stripped off completely. The Mei looks to be 正忠 Masatada (or 正良 Masayoshi) + Saku, but I cannot immediately find a record of either personal name without the smith family name above. The gun does have some distinguishing features, but not really enough for me to place it geographically. (Kunitomo?) As to age, we can say loosely mid-Edo. On the side of the butt is the 壬申 Jinshin Bango number from the great round-up of 1872. Looks like 1,873 号 ('go' =number). Under that may be コクフケン 'Kokufu Ken', an early Gifu Prefecture name(国府県?) but I haven't yet figured that out. In early Meiji, the old Han were abolished and a new system of prefectures was introduced. Some of the new prefectures only lasted a few years, merging with others for example, but many kept their original name. (Still working on it) PS Since the barrel has no rifling, it might be better to call it a Tanegashima (smoothbore) matchlock long gun, etc.

Example of deteriorating tassel with strings falling apart. 

Not being very knowledgeable on Korean weapons but: Its a complex question since there is a variety of blades and koshirae styles. If its blade-wise, first thing I personally look at is nakago. Continental swords in Japanese style are more likely to have either completely flat or at least very low shinogi profile in this area. Contiental tsuba has a rectangular opening, which underlines the difference in nakago profile. Yokote is often shaped differently on continental even if it mimics the Japanese style well, and kossaki proportions are generally expected to be different. Polishing is significantly different and generally jigane is not well accented, but this is often not obvious since there can be no polish remaining. Etc. Etc. Etc. In regards to tsuba - often similar to Hizen Nanban, some examples are very large tosho/katchushi-like pieces, but there was a huge variety of styles throughout the many centuries. Late 16th, early 17th century examples often do have kogai/kozuka ana but they are not functional (very narrow or curved), related to period fashion and appear more often on soft metal (uncommon) examples.

Different people. Long lineage of Soshu Hirotsugu with a typical Sagami Hiro name, and a short lineage of Hizen Hirotsugu which is related to it but Kambun+. Entirely possible a student of Hizen Hirotsugu - unrecorded Hizen Hirofusa. Seen dozens of unrecorded smiths, currently own a few. Somewhat more common with periods like 1700 when many smiths were forced to abandon trade and not much information exists about them.

Shodai Shimizu. Founder of the Jingo school. Ref: published in Ito-san's books.

Martin, Google “Japanese boys day” or “Japanese children’s day” and “Genpuku ceremony” This will give you a good understanding of both the annual boys (children’s) day celebrations and also the boys “coming of age” ceremonies. Basically a sword of greatly scaled down proportions ie fit for a child was often gifted on boys coming of age and also often displayed on the annual children’s day. These ceremonies go way back into distant Japanese see history. Such swords are usually of very modest quality and often carry dubious Mei of famous smiths. Having said that, some can be quite fancy reflecting the wealth of the family. Hope this helps. Best.Colin.

I imagine you’ll get a lot of contributions to this thread! Here are a few from my collection. The third is an Akasaka School tsuba with maple theme.

Hello Jake , as no one else has commented I will give you the bad news . There is no chance of these being Goto . The workmanship is just nowhere near good enough . You would expect the Shakudo to be a dark bluey black wheras yours are a coffee color . Sorry to ruin your day . Attached is one of my pieces signed Goto Deshi ( I forget the rest ) which will show you what the color should be like . Ian Brooks

Well you could well be right. Even so I had an absolute blast and got to see the entire collection of 60 blades of which 40 I removed from their shirasaya and inspected. The overall condition I have to say was a little upsetting. The blades have been languishing in a storage room since Anton Petermandl donated them to the museum in the late 19th century. The curator was more than gracious and allowed me to remove the tsuka and inspect the nakago of the 40 blades. I spent 3 hours in the room with the swords that were stored in 4 pull out drawers and could have enjoyed 3 days. When people say old polish that would have described these blades, probably rarely out of their saya in over 100 years. There were 2 Heian era blades and a total of 4 or 5 blades that had signatures. Then we can judge if Albrecht von Roretz had been taken for a ride. The Masamune is in desperate need for a polish. So much Ware and uchiko like scratch patterns it was almost impossible to see the finer detail hiding underneath. At first blush it looked like a good blade, whether it is up to the standard of the top Soshu master is yet to be determined. The motohaba was approx 2.9cm. I will post the photos I took of the sayagaki for the 30 or so blades that had attributions and the Mei on the Nakago. Maybe those more knowledgeable will be able to say who wrote the sayagaki. My first cursory inspection suggested there were maybe 5 blades that could benefit and justify the post of a proper polish. One Bizen blade and what might be a Go seemed especially worthy. Here's a teaser. I was a little perturbed a Masamune would have a copper habaki though.

Ok. Finished my tally of mei types - Tachi vs Katana - on stamped blades. It is clear that blades inspected by civilian authority (Showa and large Seki stamps) used Katana mei, with minor deviations; and blades inspected by Army arsenals (small Seki, and Arsenal inspector stamps) used Tachi mei. Blades with the Tan stamp used Katana mei, supporting the proposal that it was a "gendaito" approval stamp of the Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Assoc. Unexpectedly, the Toyokawa Navy Arsenal used Katana mei, while Tenshozan forge used just the opposite, Tachi mei. The implication, to me, is that smiths knew which inspector their blades were being made for and engraved their mei accordingly. I tested this theory by looking for smiths that had blades inspected by both civil and army in the same year. I didn't find many, but those I found fit the pattern exactly. 1941 Large Seki w/Katana mei Na stamp w/tachi mei Kanetsugu Kanetsugu 1943 Large Seki w/Katana mei Na stamp w/tachi mei Kanenori Kanenori Kanetaka Kanetaka Nagamitsu Nagamitsu So it does appear the smiths knew who each blade (or batch) was heading for and placed the mei accordingly. The star blades were predominantly Tach mei, but they did have an unusual number of blades with Katana mei. Here's the chart: TACHI OR KATANA MEI SHOWA KATANA MEI TACHI MEI 1935 1 1937 1 1939 4 1940 21 1 1941 21 1942 1 ND 63 1 SEKI Large 1940 4 1941 7 1942 37 1943 19 1944 5 ND 108 1 SEKI small 1943 1 1944 1 Star 18 (8 Star) 1945 10 (2 Star) ND 1 NA 1941 1 1942 8 (1 Star) 1943 46 (2 Star) 1944 15 1945 1 ND 3 GIFU 1944 1 1945 16 ND 1 SAKA 1943 2 1944 5 ND 7 Ko 1935 1 1942 3 (1 Star) 1944 1 (1 Star) ND 2 1 YAMA 1943 4 (1 Star) 1944 1 TAN 1940 1 1941 1 1942 2 ND 13 STAR 1941 1 1942 5 16 1943 19 47 1944 5 61 1945 2 19 ND 6 12 Toyokawa 1939 20 1 Kiyomichi Tenshozan 28 All Dates

I am so happy to see this tread up and live again. Archery theme too! Just a great balance of exhibition. As an archery aside: A favorite of my small collection are Goto Tokujo father and Goto Kenjo son pair of goto kozuka of arrow design. Poem is Taira no Tadanori's death waka.

Dear Piers: Exciting find. Bravo. Jacques nailed it with the Imura Taikan I have attached the whole page of the oshigata in question, and the cover title of the taikan. I have it listed as 4th generation in my inventory, but could be 3rd generation. Hope these give you more info. Regards, Bill E. Sheehan (Yoshimichi) .

Your inbox is full? Oh, well, wasn’t planning to strip naked in public, but ‘in for a penny in for a pound’. I’ll have to go take a shot! 😂 For Paul and Dirk