Henry Wilson

The theme is https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Lucky_Gods My guess is the catch-all Kinko group but my knowledge of menuki is minimal. I am sure others will tell you more.

I remember that well. In fact more than a nudge, you negotiated a price that was hard to refuse. And a guarantee that it would paper as well!!! Many thanks for that. Attached is the scan from the KTK 6 th catalogue for Gordon. I fear this post might be clogging up the thread. It might be a good idea to attached the scan with the kozuka pictures above and delete this post to keep things tidy.

Hi Gordon Not at hand but I can do you a scan this weekend. I can post it here or message it to you if you like.

The kozuka belonging to Gordon above appears to be ex Wilson collection that was published in one of the KTK catalogues. Glad to see it surface again. If you have time Gordon, I would love to see the papers. Lacquer seems to be poorly misrepresented in this thread so to rectify that here is something else from the Wilson collection:

Cheers dudes. Two out of the three above I have tried. I will give the other a bash and see what it reaps.

Does anyone know of custom tsuba box makers in Japan?

That is a very nice tsuba. The nanako in particular is excellent. The video makes it look like the punch knows what to do by finding where it needs to be itself, but I guess that Ford is in complete control of it to make something so perfect. Do you do nanako with any form of magnification or is it as reflexive as it looks, or a bit of both or something else altogether?

The design to me looks Edo because it is quite busy and basically not what I would expect to see on what is regarded as older tsuba. The sukashi gets quite close to the seppadai which to me is bit strange.. for some reason.. (Maybe coz I ain't seen such a phenmenon before......)

Who is the mean looking guy above holding the crucifix? Is it George himself?

The national museum in Ueno does a nice, but very small and select spread of swords and fittings. It is worth a visit to get a taste of what is regarded as top notch.

Here is some browsing for Finesword http://www.finesword.co.jp/sale/kodougu/kodogu_sogo.htm

If I may be so bold.... I would go further and say for Sasano, the gold book for the text and the silver book for the pictures. I think the writing in the gold is very eloquent and a very concise and complete summary of iron tsuba. The pictures are good and adequate, but the later silver book seems to take advantage of camera technology or something like that. Check the sales page here as well. Quite often nice sukashi sells for a good price.

Ford Hallam would be my first port of call. http://www.fordhallam.com

I would go for A. If you are planning to get a koshirae made, I would recommend spending as much time as possible with the National Museum book 'Uchigatana Goshirae'

Nice. Any ideas on the theme? It looks like four points of a ken sword with in a kamon.

Nice find. Many thanks for sharing!!

I have the greatest respect for all those men and women who fought in any war. However the above quote made me chuckle as I imagined how on earth someone could jump from a tree with a sword on the offensive. Call me sick if you like but it reminds me of Pink Panther movies and Kato and Clouseau fighting: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=omek-g6_LAQ What has slap-stick comedy and inaccurate racial stero-types have to do with anything? I wonder how much of these accounts can be taken as reliable. I myself am known to sex up a good yarn every now and then, especially in the nearest boozer. No offence or disrespect intended and the greatest respect to those veterans but I think we need to take certain "orientalisms" with a pinch of salt.

If the joshi are coming, the DTI might just turn into a dirty old man fest!!!

applause. Nicely put Brian. Thanks for all the hard work as always!!

It reminds me of the Aoi Arts shop. Minus the marble staircase and the English descriptions of course.

Great points nicely put Lance.

The hard/soft metal concept always stumped me as iron is hard so what is all the softness about!?!? I interpret it as the type of sheen the iron might have. To me a soft metal reference suggests that the iron has a lustrous sheen similar to what you see on hard candy or freshly mixed pizza dough, if that makes sense. The sheen on the this tea bowl to me is soft. A hard metal reference suggests a drier less glossy finish. I hope this helps.

Hi Jean Hakogaki and wakizashi are both the correct forms. The others I think are typing mistakes.

I am with Brian in that I think it is a real tsuba but not a Shozui. As Grev says the carving is nice and some care has gone into it but as the educated ones imply it is probably not up to the work of Shozui the Great. As Grev also states the general wisdom (when it suits us ????) is for the mei to confirm the workmanship but frankly the quality in the first place is definitely not there. Basically the workmanship is too bland, flat and lacks the je ne sais quoi of great work. Peace and let's get off our high horses✌????

My thought is 'how much is it?' Just curious....