Geraint

Dear Raphael. Just to add to Chandler's comments there are at least eight generations culminating in the last who worked at the end of the Shinshinto period. Information is rather scarce so please do share what you find. Some information here; Can we see the rest of the sword? All the best.

Dear Arnaud, You might find this interesting, All the best.

Dear Brian. A nice thing. Some more information here to compare. https://www.mandarinmansion.com/item/hirado-kunishige-fuchi All the best.

Dear Karen. Just to add to what Brian has written you might enjoy browsing here, https://www.aoijapan.com/kozuka/ Originals are always one sided, the back is flat to allow it to slide into the slot on the scabbard of a Japanese sword. If yours is the same pattern on both sides then the chances are high that it is one of the later ones made by pressing thin metal and then soldering two together. If it has the flat back it may still be a pressing, I rather suspect that yours is. Enjoy the journey. All the best.

Dear Mike. Have a look here: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/233862 All the best.

Dear Both. While we have no evidence about Yasuhiro's personality calling him Bitch Yasuhiro is a bit strong! Bitchu Yasuhiro. All the best.

I saw the auction but had my eye on other things. My first thought was Jakushi but I have little understanding of the Takada school with regard to tsuba. Whatever it turns out to be it's a very nice tsyba. All the best.

Aaaahhhh! Methinks you did well with that one Colin. I agree with what has already been said, not cast and not Soten, but would love to know more from Jean about the Takada suggestion. All the best.

Absolutely not! I think that we fail to comprehend the extent and speed of the revolution in Japan post Meiji restoration. I have been looking for the source and have so far failed to find it but at least one English collector of note first encountered tsuba when walking along a quay in London and a barrel slipped from the crane sling that was unloading it, crashed and burst spilling piles of tsuba. In other words tsuba were literally being sold out of Japan by the bucketful. The early European collections were formed from this vast array of tsuba, those who were discriminating enough trawled the sea of objects and selected, whether in Japan, like Mosle, or in European cities. The famous myth of Japanese prints igniting the European art world having been discovered as packing material in shipping boxes is analogous. The significance of people such as Bing with his gallery and extensive holdings gives us some idea of the fervour with which all sorts of Japanese art was being sought after. (Don't get me started on the relationship between Japanese art and Art Nouveau!) When the supply began to dry up the Japanese started to crank out cast copies to supply the demand, desperate not to lose the market and to support a struggling economy in transition. The quality of these is low and they should be fairly easy to spot compared with the rather more sophisticated copies that we are seeing now. Well Paris, your tongue in cheek remark gave me the opportunity to vent some of this, I do realise that it is not what you were after but perhaps some of it might be of interest to someone. To conclude, there are quite a few of this class of tsuba going the rounds. I am quite happy to date these as Meiji or later, certainly post Haitorei, nothing Edo about them. Now dismounting from my high horse and bidding you a good evening. All the best.

Dear Pierre. Some thoughts for you to ponder, or ignore if you feel so inclined. When Tozando sold this piece their description included the following. "The name Harushige is engraved on the nakago. Harushige is famous as a swordsmith of the Soshu school in the Muromachi period, and this tanto is from the Shinto period. All the koshirae fittings for the tanto are from that period and are very tasteful. It is also equipped with a kozuka, making it a complete package for a tanto." That is somewhat ambiguous as it draws the mind towards Soshu without claiming it. They say that it is Shinto but as we know there are no smiths that fit the bill in the Shinto period. If we follow their description then the Meikan more hypothesis becomes a factor. However I tend to agree with Kirill for the following reasons. Tanto in Shinto are rare as a starting point. This tanto exhibits no signs of the effects of polishing around the machi which are well defined and quite deep. The mei shows no signs of wear, the tagane ato are still apparent in the photographs. The crispness of the nakago, the nakago jiri and the colour do not speak of Shinto to me. Given these factors my conclusion would be that this is by the Shinshinto smith Shinryushi Harushige, the one that Bobby mentioned. My library doesn't add much except that he is in Hawley as HAR95. Whatever your conclusions enjoy this tanto and do let us know what the results are if you do send it to shinsa. All the best.

Dear Fred. From the images posted both of these look to be low quality reproductions. Further images would help. All the best.

Dear Jedediah. This is all adding up to the same outcome really. An unsigned tanto with a pretty cautious attribution, something that the seller has failed to indicate. Add to this the koshirae is of little interest, note the fuchi is simply a metal band around the tsuka and I wouldn't be surprised to find that the fittings were very recent. So the question is, 'Why are you thinking of buying this?' If you are heading for Juyo where will this sit in your collection? All the best.

Dear Adam. Purely in the interests of furthering your quest it is Takada rather than Takeda. Al the best.

Dear Brian. Hard to see from these pictures but I think you are right. Bear in mind that tsuba are often made by folding and fire welding steel so that sometimes a weld line is visible in the nakago ana or ryo hitsu, the distinguishing characteristic is that seam lines caused by casting are raised from the surface, weld lines tend to dip into the surface. All the best.

Dear Paris. Yes, this one is cast as well. If you look at the seppa dai on the lower picture you will see little squiggly raised lines, once you have picked them out you can see them all over the surface. And the classic shape for the nakago ana. All the best.