Henry Wilson

Hi John How about this? http://world.choshuya.co.jp/sale/tousou ... /index.htm

It could have been, but I wonder if the Japanese at time felt they needed tsuba imported from the Chinese? After all the Ashikaga trade swords to the Chinese, I can't imagine them wanting tsuba, as the techology at that time was well developed. I think the Ashikaga were more interested in silk and coins. Just some thoughts.

横屋文助 Which could be a name. This website might help. http://www.alc.co.jp/ I think the koshirae might not be a real.

"It" might not be GIMEI after all http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-19698006

The torokusho seems to say: -the sword was registered in Okayama Prefecture -It is signed MASAMUNE -It has two holes in the tang -The curvature depth is 0.5 cm -The length from tip to mune is 29.8 cm -It is a tanto -The document number is 121822 There seems to be no reference to a horimono Does the sword in question match this information? PS there could be some mistakes as I am reading upside down :?

Could it be mother-of-pearl coated with green lacquer?

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/ft20120920a1.html

Thanks George Most interesting.

Groovy! I was so looking for that site. Thanks Malcolm

Hi all Thanks for the thoughts and comments so far. Hi Pete, It is a sukashi from a Momoyama period tsuba so I doubt it has any connection to WW2. It could be エ, but my hunch is that it is kamon as sukashi on tsuba that are obscure tend to be kamon IMO. If George could post a picture of the kamon from the Hawley's he refers to, I would be very grateful. Cheers

Thanks Morita san, It is kind of close. I found something like this: If anyone else finds something more in a dumbbell shape, I would be very interested in hearing about it.

Does anyone know of a kamon that is this shape, or something similar? Thanks in advance.

Nobody, thank you very much. That is very interesting...

Yet again, thank you very much.

Thank you once again Morita San. Yes, the child is carrying what looks like a Go board. Is the sculpture series your refer to documented any where? This is very intriguing. Regards

Thank you again. Here is were the kanji came from;

Thank you so much Morita San. Is this the game? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_%28game%29

Can anyone read this kanji? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Lee, I feel quite silly!!!

To my eye it looks like it isn't plugged and what appears to be a filling is in fact the background wall.

I think fugu is totally over-rated

Nice!

I agree with Curran. To me, the metal looks Nishigaki not Jingo.

I have no real experience with shinsa (never submitted anything / only observed a few NTHK-NPO ones in my early days of collecting). I usually go on the opinion of senior Japanese collectors I know which is quicker, cheaper and usually a lot more educational than a regular shinsa from what I gather. However, personally I think the tsuba would bounce with a kin zogan, pretty much as a "gimei" would. I have also heard that to remove a signature of any type from a tsuba is much more difficult than a sword, mainly becasue it is very difficult to repair the patina. Cheers

With out sounding like the NMB police, I think Brian can display his swords as he pleases and he doesn't need to justify it to anyone. He seems to get pleasure from posting what he has so let's repsect that. I will now get of my and back to being . By the way it is Friday here and I am having steak and red wine for dinner...... So I am very excited.