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I was looking through an old Sotheby's New York catalogue of the sale of the late Charles A. Greenfield. The sale was on 25th March 1998. It comprised of 133 lots of exquisite inro. The final lot was a beautiful Inro by Shibata Zeshin 1807-1891. Unfortunately, the reverse is not shown, rather surprisingly as this was the star lot. However, it featured a kozuka and fuchi in shibuichi, which judging from the tsuba on the front, I would love to have seen. The front featured this yasuchika tsuba. The estimate was $40.000-$50.000

Wangata are mounted opposite to a basket hilt the cupped/indented side faces the blade not the grip. There is a theory that the design keeps water and dust from getting into the saya [just a theory IMHO] Most Wangata tsuba would not fit very well into the hand if mounted like European cup hilted weapons- the size would tend to cut into the hand, the exception being the huge example seen below A HUGE novel mounted example [recycling a childs Kasa or Jingasa] and a more conventional mounted piece. I have at least four Wangata examples. Similar theme and design [A bit more "up market?"] https://tsuba.jyuluck-do.com/TU10197.html Video link: https://www.google.com/search?q=Wangata+tsuba&oq=wangata+tsuba&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBggAEEUYOzIGCAAQRRg7MggIARAAGBYYHjIKCAIQABiABBiiBDIHCAMQABjvBTIHCAQQABjvBTIKCAUQABiABBiiBNIBCDczNThqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:4d96ccfc,vid:ZZQ6A-pRfqA,st:0

I forgot to mention that any successful sale will also result in NMB donation.

Hi! I think this is 濱埜直春 Hamano Naoharu. 埜 is an old-timey way to write 野.

They are for armor piercing. Yari in that style, like others have stated, are typically quite small, even when compared to other yari. So they may look much larger than they actually are. Another point of consideration is the force imparted on polearms when using them. For someone on horseback charging at you, you do not need a super sharp yari to kill them, in fact something very pointed may break in such a situation. Therefore you would want a flatter, wider surface that can sufficiently distribute the force of a charging enemy as well as one in armor. For the palanquin yari I am not sure where you heard that. They carried shorter yari as they were cheaper than a sword(which they would not be able to carry anyways), easier to use, and a key point that many forget: they could be thrown. We have historical examples of shorter yari being used almost like javelins. Combined with the fact that they would be easier to carry than longer yari, and you have a rather multi purpose weapon for an unskilled user. They were not for "bludgeoning" an assailant to death. To add to the point I brought up of them being thrown, Uchine were common palanquin weapons for similar reasons.

竪丸形 鉄地肉 ＊ tatemaru-gata tetsu-ji niku- 彫 銘 一柳友善作 ＊ bori mei Ichiryū Tomoyoshi saku 初代作也力作 ＊ shodaisaku nari, rikisaku 昭和辛亥卯月 ＊ Shōwa kanoto-i Uzuki [1971, April] 寒山誌 ＊ Kanzan shirusu (kaō)

https://tokka.biz/fittings/TS291.html https://www.seiyudo.com/tu-080813.htm https://www.lotsearch.de/lot/a-french-watch-case-repurposed-as-a-nanban-style-tsuba-38922103

Perhaps a variant of Katabami? https://irohakamon.com/kamon/katabami/mitsuwarikatabami.html

That’s a good idea, but it’s not easy. Aside from what Sam just mentioned, a lot of Type 95s were sold into China, including non-matching ones. Usually, sword dealers will have someone grind off the serial number on the scabbard, re-stamp it to match the blade, and sell it as a matching set. That being said, the original number on the scabbard is gone forever。

Leen and I had a wonderful time representing the Dutch Token Society at the JAF. Thanks to anyone who came to have a nice chat. We look forward to seeing you again soon. Greetings, Lex

I have owned a Hitachi No Kami Muneshige Wakizashi with NBTHK papers before; this sword is likely gimei (false signature), which is pointed out wonderfully by @YourBabyBjornBorg his comparison of signatures. The sword is, of course, still an authentic Japanese sword, likely from the Kanbun (1661-1673AD) period, which still makes it a piece worth preserving. Greetings, Lex

Hi! This reads 常陸守宗重 Hitachinokami Muneshige. This signature looks a little off, though......

@John C This was many years ago. I bought them from Michael Dean at Nihon Token, which was a shop just by the British Museum. I often used to pop in to see Michael, being interested in Japan as I am. They were admittedly lesser quality ones. IIRC they were about the £100 to £129 each range, though Mike had netsuke that were in the £1000's even then, and this was back in the early 80's! Funny enough, the last time that I met Mike was in Islington, and he was in a shop in the Mall, looking at netsuke! To put the price into perspective, at that time you could buy a good Shin-Gunto katana for about £175-£200. I did buy two from Mike, an absolutely stunning Asano kanezane in shin-Gunto mounts, and a Nambokucho tachi, again in Shin-Gunto mounts. The Kanezane was possibly the most beautiful blade I have ever owned, that cost £250, and I really wish that I had kept it. The o suriage tachi was £400. Nihon Token was a little oasis and I used to love going there.

I hadn't seen this before. A 椀型Wan-gata tsuba. Seems like it would almost act like a basket hilt. https://www.ebay.com/itm/267698595756? John C.

Hello Niels, welcome to the forum. Your friend has a naval officers sword, or Kai Gunto, which looks to be in decent shape. Value will depend on the quality of the blade, which we will need more photos of to determine. There's a instructional guide on how to safely remove the handle to check the maker:

Hi Brody, welcome to the forum. It’s hard to say much from the photos provided. What we can tell you is that the fittings are Type 98 shingunto fittings with a leather combat cover on the scabbard. The blade inside could be wartime or older, but we cannot tell unless the tang is shown (preferably on a dark non reflective background, oriented so the blade tip is north and tang is south.) Skip ahead to minute mark 6:40 for instructions on removing a blade from its fittings. Best to take it slow and be very careful. Do not do anything to remove rust or alter the patina on the tang. It could severely hurt the value. Best of luck and cool sword. -Sam

The trillium flower is what immediately comes to mind, although I cannot find a corresponding mon in my Hawleys family crest book. Maybe a rabbit hole to follow. -Sam

These are often fairly crude and can vary from having real old blades to oil tempered pieces, it would be interesting to see if you can get the nut off for a picture of the tang. For $5 it's a neat bit of history.

Hi Lucian, It's a noble idea, and it would be nice to reunite mismatched swords with their saya. However, the chances of it working out in practice are very low. The main issue is that a mismatched sword and saya are not necessarily linked to another corresponding mismatch. For example, if sword #1,000 is currently paired with saya #3,000, that does not mean sword #3,000 is paired with saya #1,000. All it tells us is that sword #3,000 must also be mismatched. Its mismatched saya could just as easily be #8,000, or any other number. So, while I think it's a worthwhile idea, I suspect the number of successful reunions would be quite small and exceedingly rare. For what it's worth, I keep a running database of these swords, including stamps, serial numbers, and saya numbers. I have around 1,000 entries at this point, and after a quick look through the records, I could not find a definitive mismatched saya that matched a known blade's serial number. I'm sure they are out there and will turn up in time, but of the roughly 200,000 swords originally manufactured, and considering what has survived today, it would be a rare thing. Most of the swords that I encountered and cataloged have matching saya, which was a surprising revelation to me when I started this project. That said, if you have a sword serial number and saya number that do not match, I would be happy to search my archive to see if I have encountered the corresponding mismatch during my cataloging efforts. All the best, -Sam

I am really struggling with this item... I have so many questions about the finish of the Tsuba... I would call it hyper realistic (rust patches??) The surface finish is perfectly real, as is the colouring... but what is really throwing me, is the rust depictions... a state of mind, but I always think of edo tsuba as new (for that time at least... i.e. rust-less?), but for a quality Tsuba depiction to have rust purposefully depicted in a time when edo period tsuba were new?? Does my head in with the awesomeness.... 12 out of 10 for sure.

@YourBabyBjornBorg Thank you so much for your kind translation.

Oh I didn't do a test, I saw a breast plate in Sekigahara which failed. Antique. Doubt the guy wearing it lived. But I've quite a lot of data on armored combat throughout history, and as a result I'm generally down on the idea of armor penetrators. Most of them seem to have been disproven, except in regards to mail. Armor can be divided into three main types. Solid plate, laced plate, and mail. For mail we know the Japanese had their own version of the European Roundel dagger, the Yoroi-dōshi. And the Japanese did sometimes use full mail, but you don't see it as much on display because it doesn't look as Japanese as the other types that are so very stylized. vs But with mail, to directly overcome it, we usually see the use of needle points as on the above dagger, or an Oakeshott Type XVa, or something heavy like a club. The next major type is solid plate which won't be penetrated by less then a heavy lance on a horse or a firearm, (and the Sekigahara armor museum did have a breastplate with a bullet hole) but perhaps the laced plates could be? Even then you'd seem to be best off with a sharp point... as on the dagger above. I've heard (though not from what I'd consider reliable sources) that sometimes the armor could be opened by cutting the laces, but I haven't really seen a reliable source on that. Generally when hard armor is on a person, it's rarely going to give when it's hit... usually the person is going to move, the point is going to glance off, and they are going to counter attack. That's why we hear so much about either aiming where the armor doesn't cover (the armpit being a prime example) or wrestling/attempting to knock someone down to have an even easier time of aiming at gaps. The second is partly because one of the main drawbacks to wearing armor is that the weight increase/distribution causes the center of gravity to rise, making one more top heavy than out of armor. This is a very slight drawback compared to not wearing it, but it would be known to everyone with armor and so throws such as in jujitsu and ringen were important to armored fighting. Heck, even a hammer blow to the head can largely be shugged off by a man with a solid helmet. This seems to have been done hoping to ring his bell rather than to kill him outright, and having stunned him, move to a throw. So while armor did break, attacking anything except mail with the expectation of breaking it with less then a gun would be overly optimistic with the other guy fighting back. So from all that I've become dubious on the idea that people tried to penetrate non-mail armor at all with less then a gun or a couched heavy lance... and mail required sharp heavy points. But I'll admit most of my data on armored combat is focused on German Harnessfecten, (Liechtenauer system,) which didn't involve nearly as many small laced plates, Norse warfare, Roman warfare, and other European sources... few of which focused on laced plate or lamellar construction.

The tip isnt actually "blunt", it just doesn't end at a narrow point. Yes. 21cm is rather large for a yari, but you weren't giving the impression that you thought that was large. Also if you noticed what I stated, the design isnt necessarily to be better at armor piercing than a standard yari, but to increase durability of the weapon. Yari in standard sankaku form are of course still rather durable, but ones made for war tend to be expediently forged. As a result there is a chance that they develop failures which can prove fatal especially when experiencing high amounts of shock. Also just an fyi but Japanese armor during the muromachi was not that thick on average. We are talking only .6mm-2mm thick at the domaru. No offense, but doing a damage test on a modern western spear repro does not mean anything data wise. Especially not when discussing potential damage on a pre modern Japanese yari.

Hello all Forgive my ignorance on these matters but an elderly family friend who had inherited this sword is now interested in finding out more about it with a view to selling it. I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction. And further, how does one go about getting a valuation on something like this? There is a tag attached of the owners name at time of surrender. I note that it's a phonetic spelling from someone who did not understand Japanese. Chat GPT informs me that the owners name is most likely Naval Lieutenant Tanabe Yoshinobu I apologize for the poor resolution of the attached photos. If a greater resolution is required, I will travel to where the sword resides - about 4 hours away. Thank You in advance. niels

The last three kanji read: Kami Mune Shige, but the first two are unfortunately too blurred for me to read properly. maybe someone with better kanji can read them. But if you are going to post pictures and questions like this, please make sure that the photos are crisp and clear. This is important, especially with kanji. Welcome to the forum by the way

Here is another unusual field belt posted by Geoff Ward on this Warrelics thread. It has a pocket for a folding knife with can opener:

You can read up on the Navy kaigunto here: Naval Officer Sword - Ohmura Site Care and cleaning: Japanese Sword Care Navy swords sell for a bit more than army gunto as there are less of them to be found. On average, they can start as low as $1,800 USD but normally sell for over $2,000. If it's got a valuable blade, it can go even higher. So, it's important to see what's in it. They are welcome to offer it for sale on NMB's For Sale: Edged Weapons page. Otherwise you are looking at ebay or one of the many auction houses.

Very sorry. It was correct in my downloads. Then the ghost in machine did me dirty. The finger you see was the sellers, I'm innocent on that charge.Thank you. Best, John S.

Hi Can anyone help to identify this family mon?

I think the backstrap is a cast replacement. The badge on it looks soft and indistinct. The lines on the side look chiseled. The original should have been brass, so I think it was probably broken/damaged and then a cast copper replacement was made using the original; thus the weak appearance of the badge and the chiseled line trim.

A little more info on this diminutive Norishige tanto. 4mm motokasane, 18mm motohaba with iori-mune (2nd Norishige tanto after the Compton piece to have this style mune).

Grev: This happens to be one of my collecting areas. Love these. Anyway, they were used throughout the Edo period by yoriki (inspectors who worked for the magistrate) and by doshin (local constables who worked for the yoriki) and even komono (assistants to the doshin). The kagi, or hook, is sometimes referred to as a sword catcher or breaker, however in practice, this would not be easy to do. The hook was actually used to apply pressure to the torinawa (rope capture; i.e., handcuffs) or to hook onto clothing or even hands to affect the arrest of the criminal. Most are simple in design and materials since they were everyday use tools. Most are heavy iron, though I have at least one made out of heavy brass. The older ones tend to have forgeed kagi while the slightly later ones have a peened over through tenon on the kagi like yours. Later, they were welded. Earler versions also tend to have a boar's eye design for the tassel hook, later ones have the straight loop like yours. They all spin to keep them from binding. Occasionally, you will find the torinawa still attached to the loop. One last thing, most came with tassels. I have read that the type or color of tassel can be used to identify the rank or status of the wearer, however I have not been able to confirm this. I have several books on jitte (ten hands), however they are in Japanese. If I can translate them some day, I might find out more about the tassels. John C. p.s. see also sodegarami for related samurai arrest and control weapons.

Who has some spare cash? https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/397817591639 Antique Tiffany Studios LCT Iridescent Blue 4" Tsuba Favrile Glass Tile OTHER EXAMPLES OF TSUBA TILES EXIST, IN VARIOUS COLOURS- JUST VERY HARD TO FIND AND EXPENSIVE!

Something similar? https://www.jauce.com/auction/c1101293589# This one looks like a rough wire wheel has been run over it! This is mostly ruined and not worth the asking price. Seeing a cloud dragon is generally viewed as a powerful, auspicious omen but there is also the Divine Emperor Myth: Historically, early Japanese emperors were believed to be descendants of dragons. Because the dragon was viewed as an incredibly divine, celestial being, it was a common belief that actually seeing a full, whole dragon would cause a mortal to perish from its sheer power. So parts of the dragon were obscured or could only be seen on the opposite face. It might be a liberty but most large collections will likely have a similar example ["dragon" collectors may have several]

One for the ladies - Obi. https://www.jauce.com/auction/e1217356383 an expensive but attractive Obi!

Please please Santa I would really like this for Christmas! https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/miyao-a-fine-parcel-gilt-bronze-okimono-of-a-tsub-12-c-9dfc5ad8c7

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/an-extraordinary-and-large-lacquer-'sword-fitting-203-c-d594166dbd Got a cool $10,000 to $20,000 USD to spare?

https://www.fromjapan.co.jp/Japan/en/special/order/confirm/https%3A%2F%2Fjp.mercari.com%2Fitem%2F2JP3ZzTjeBHaSvmGRQycNb/13_1/

Either a giant has got a sukashi tsuba for sale or that tsuba came off a tiny sword! https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/406839530729

Tsuba in tsuba. A friend tells me this was the first tsuba he ever bought as a Junior High student on a trip to Kobe about 40 years ago. He uses it as a (large) Netsuke. And

So, here is something interesting. I found another tsuba in my collection that is convex in shape (Goishi-gata -convex both sides). I was taking some of my tsuba down from my walls to take pictures for another of my threads here, the Kamon (motifs and shapes) of tsuba thread. It was then that I noticed that the tsuba was convex, since I probably have not held that tsuba in my hands since I purchased it a couple of years ago! I still feel that to make a tsuba in that shape took some extra effort from the craftsman! Pictures attached.

Gilles, let me en-courage you! Please post them!

Dear Piers, Nice collection, congratulations. They are in very good condition. I love the little one. If I can gather some courage, I will post pictures of the little ones I have.

Piers, Nice collection! One day you have an representative example of a yari, and the next you look around and you have a collection of them Love the 3 sizes and the ginko nut comparisson. Brian

This gets even better. The seller ended up pulling the item and relisting at 250,000