Kevin Adams

As the technique involves cutting a number of very fine channels into the ground and working the wire/sheet down into those channels, I think it can be safely be called inlay. Although it DOES seem counterintuitive, doesn't it?

There's something about the texture of the iron on the fuchi - I think it would look positively exquisite if the rust were cleaned up. Nice find, thanks for sharing!

This is a highly worthwhile project, and to support it, I'd like to offer up a tsuba I made recently. A copy of a kyo-shoami tsuba in sukashi with a crane motif, it's made from mild steel and also comes with a custom-fit kiribako. I'm selling it for $350USD plus shipping - if sold by the end of September, I'll donate $150 toward's Paul's startup costs. To sweeten the deal, I'll also donate $50 to the NMB if bought by an NMB member. Everyone wins! Thanks for looking, and please consider supporting this project.

Interesting that the wrap crosses over a Higo-style kashira, I've never seen that before. How can you tell there's no ana for the ito, did you pull the knots back during your inspection?

I tend to agree with Barry as well - unless Grey had guaranteed that the tsuba would pass shinsa at some point in your transaction?

I agree with you on this point, but it doesn't "look" like a tree to me - even a stylized tree should imply an awareness of "tree-ness", and this particular composition just looks awkward...

Personally, I find the overall design quite stiff and disjointed - the tree looks unnatural, the gold branches and grass on the omote seem awkwardly rendered, and the rock on the ura seems to be melting into the stream (which appears to have been rendered hastily). Unless of course the rock is actually a waterfall, in which case it still looks a bit odd... The overall look of the brass ground is homogenous and uninteresting, and the composition lacks depth or perspective. In addition, the various design elements are anchored awkwardly to the wavy "frame" around the scene (which serves only to distract from the monotony of the scene). I believe this contributes greatly to the lack of depth in the design. The contrast between the moon and clouds is notable, though. While the work seems competent enough, it doesn't scream "masterpiece" to me like some works of the Tanaka school. That said, I'm not familiar with the work of this artist, so I would be very interested to compare this piece with his other works, and learn a bit more.

Cheers Curran, I figured it would be something like that.

Please forgive my ignorance, but should it look a certain way? Sharper corners, perhaps? Not trying to be cheeky, just gently curious.

Thanks for starting this topic! I'm preparing a talk on ko-tosho and ko-katchushi tsuba for my local Token Kai meeting this weekend, and the development of the uchigatana is a key part of this. I also hadn't visualized just how short the early ones were, so this is very useful. Cheers!

Thanks for the clarification. The term seems very general, though. Can anyone offer any insights as to how and when the term started being used to refer to a certain "quality" of tosogu? It's one thing to understand the meaning of the word, but I think context is critical here too...

"Intention" to mount is the key here - how do we know what the artist intended in that regard? Maybe it was "intended" to be mounted, and just never was...

If the mei is good, Kikuchi Tsunekatsu was born in 1704, which would place his work mid- to late 18th century... Nice find - I actually prefer the composition on the ura to the omote, the treatment of the tree is interesting.

I don't understand, why the need for an "upper limit" of "engineering tolerance"? The language itself is suggestive of an average across a large number of produced pieces. Tosogu would be made to fit an individual blade. If existing pieces were fitted to a different blade after crafting, presumeably they would be modified to do so (sekigane on the nakago-ana, for example). Not so tight as to restrict mounting, not so loose as to permit movement after mounting. I doubt even the craftsmen could (or WOULD) assign specific numbers to this...

Now that's some fine nunome-zogan.

Sahari?

I absolutely agree with you on this, and would go so far as to add my own love of well-worn steel manhole covers and handrails to that. I have to agree on this as well. The lines are a little too mechanical to my eye, and much of the carving seems very "tentative" and over-measured - almost like the artist wasn't entirely sure of the tools yet...

Or a thinner tsuba ? I quite enjoy looking at cleverly executed solutions like this, whatever the original rationale was. Makes you wonder what the relationship was between this piece of a mount and the owner.

David, would you be so kind as to post some closer photos of the forge seams you're describing? I can't see anything from the existing photos... Interesting piece - there's something very homogeneous about the steel texture in these photos, and the photos on Grey's site... I'll have to hit the books when I get home from work, but my first impression is that I would have expected a more obviously forged steel skin on a Yagyu tsuba. The lines and corners in this tsuba's construction are very crisp, and the seppa-dai is more angular than on examples that I've seen, which have tended to be much rounder on the ends. I would agree that this a much later copy of a Yagyu-esque design, but how much later is the question...

What a wonderful piece of work - thank you for sharing!

I agree with Chris, it looks shinsaku to me. Two things caught my eye though: first, the "swirling" pattern on the plate looks kind of like the patina was applied unevenly (looks like milk when it's first being stirred into coffee ). Secondly, there's a strange rotary texture in the surface of the plate that's quite visible on the angle shots - it looks almost like the marks left by a disc sander on wood. I would expect a more uneven texture on a piece like this. Intentional? Maybe Ford will chime in.

Henry, are the scans of the Mitsutada from an exhibition catalog? Also (to everyone), is there a specific reference on Kaneiye tsuba? (I've heard rumours of a "Kaneiye book"...) My references are limited to the information in "Tsuba - An Aesthetic Study", a few photos in collection catalogs and what I've gleaned from this forum. Since I probably won't be handling a Kaneiye tsuba anytime soon, I'm interested in expanding my library in lieu of this.

What an absolutely gorgeous tsuba - thanks for sharing, Fred! I don't speak up much on the forum, but this discussion has made me go through all my literature to read up on Kaneiye tsuba and update my image collection. Thanks to everyone involved.