Geraint

Dear John. I do not think the plate was/is ever welded in, simply inlaid and secured by the edges. Given that fire welding was the only available option for gaku mei the necessary force would destroy the mei and make the process useless. All the best.

Aaaannndd back to the sword! First picture seems to show a forward stoop from the monuchi, as though is has been struck against something pretty solid. Just the photograph? Or possibly just my eyes. All the best.

Dear Adam. Just a wild hunch but is it the same saya that you love? A nice sword indeed! All the best.

Dear All. Thank you for your contributions and to Okan for sharing his tsuka. If you are not familiar with Kunishige then this excellent article of Peter Dekker may be of interest, https://www.mandarin...ary/hirado-kunishige Edit to add: Alex, our posts crossed but I do remember that tsuba well. As for the dragon theme you are right, an NBTHK article says of him,'For an artist, Kunishige did not much vary his motives (sic) because almost all of his works show this subject of a tamaoi-ryu.' (trans: Markus Sesko) Having said that Okan's rather wonderful fuchi kashira show shachihoko, perhaps more suited to the space. All the best.

Dear All. Very pleased to have received this one in the post today, much better in hand than the rather sketchy photographs would indicate. The patina appeared washed out in the photographs but is a lovely deep brown, there are scattered silver and shakudo inlays of shells on the carved wave background and the obligatory dragons and sacred gems. I have long fancied to add one like this to my collection but assumed they would be forever out of reach. Somehow this one slipped through the auction net and is now mine, just wanted to share it with you as I know some here are interested in this school. Enjoy! All the best.

Dear Grev. As regards the second tsuba what is portrayed is a garden hut; thatched roof supported by wooden pillar and bamboo fence. Given time the shakudo will heal and it will look much better It hink. All the best.

Dear Jason. I agree that it's an unusual feature but not altogether unheard of. https://www.ricecrac...471_tsuba_jingo.html Enjoy the journey!

For any who do not know there is a little information about these here, https://www.Japanese...com/tsuba/sanmai.htm The basic quality point stands but one would not be looking for/expecting the level of quality that one might find in other tsuba when looking at san mai awase tsuba and as they are often early then a considerable degree of wear is accepted, I think. All the best.

Dear Colin. Are you teasing? That's an unusual san mai awase daisho, surely? Good to make us look carefully though. All the best.

Gentlemen. Without wishing to speak for Colin, which he is well able to do himself, it seems that the purpose of the exercise was simply to be able to spot Nagoya mono work and tell it from other examples. The uniformity of the punch marks around the nakago ana, while different from the tsuba in the OP, is a distinguishing feature, as is the brownish tinge to the base metal revealed on the nakago ana. So far, so good. Within the constraints of the post that should lead you to an obvious conclusion in the exercise that Colin set. The responses demonstrate that this was a useful exercise for some of our members. The larger point that I feel Franco is suggesting is that none of the three examples used to illustrate the point represent really great quality, either in design or craft. This takes the discussion to a different level, one which, with a certain degree of irony, Colin has consistently spoken to with his emphasis on training one's eye by viewing genuinely high quality examples on the sites of auction houses such as Bonhams. All who have contributed to this thread have been engaged on the same quest, developing a critical and informed ability to look at and assess tsuba, to learn to see what is good and what is truly great. Some have been teachers and some students but that is the best of NMB, is it not? All the best, (And learning every day!)

Dear Lex. Thank you for sharing this sword with us, it's a beauty! For what it is worth I would not choose to describe the hamon feature as anything to do with Mt Fuji, what are often called picturesque hamon such as kikusui and so forth are associated with Shinto swords. All the best.

Dear Jason. Really like your tsuba, research around Higo Jingo school. All the best.

Dear John. Research nunome zogan. All the best.

Can't say that I'm surprised Brian, and certainly didn't mean to recommend the seller, just illustrating the point. All the best.

Dear All. Just to be clear this is not a sanmai tsuba, or even by my definition a tsuba. It's a modern production and finding fancy ideas about the possible construction is futile. This is just a badly made reproduction. The marks are the result of poor alignment in the making. the surface finish has nothing to do with traditional Japanese techniques and isn't worth discussing unless you have an interest in low level engineering practice. A couple of people have already pointed this out but we seem to be stuck on this. John, if you are thinking of buying it then don't. If you want a few more then have a look here, at the time of writing two of the same design in this Ebay shop. https://www.ebay.co....429486.m3561.l170197 All the best.

Towards the bottom of the page here, https://shibuiswords.com/papers1.htm Jean. All the best.

Dear Mark. This is, to be charitable a reproduction. As you ask about this one it seems that you do not yet have your eye trained, fortunately there is a remedy to hand, have a scroll through this thread; All the best.

Shouldn't that be 'Ronin in the groaning'?

Dear Marcin. As you have 'pulled the trigger' on this one here are some thoughts. I can see why you like it, tsuba with those two shaped cut outs with carving inside are almost always attributed to Shoami and, as has been mentioned the paper is not problematic. It looks to me that someone has cleaned up what I would expect to be shakudo plugs in the ryohitsu, if that is the case then avoid handling these areas and you might find that over time they re patinate to black which would be much better. Hope it arrives soon, it's always fun waiting for and then opening such a parcel. All being well it will feel much better in hand than it looks in the photographs. Enjoy. All the best.

Dear Stefano. To answer what might be part of your question, the smith who made the kogtana, the blade, is almost always a different person to the one who made the kodzuka. Different crafts - different makers. Both kodzuka and kogatana are often swapped and or replaced, for example I have a wakizashi which came without either and I have added them since. It would be impossible to say when this was done or to get the period of the koshirae as a result, after all it is quite common to find a sword mounted with a much earlier tsuba or a late koshirae made with earlier pieces. If your question in bold is what I think then there are styles of mounting without menuki. If the silk ito looks original then you might see some slack if menuki have been lost or the remains of some adhesive if they were fixed outside the wrap. A photograph of the tsuka would help us. All the best

Dear both. Note what happens to the hamon at the ha machi............. All the best,

Dear Jake. Well lots of images I really don't want to see but none of your tanegashima. Why don't you add images directly to your post? All the best.

Dear Jacob. Welcome to NMB. Here is a little something to get you started. https://shibuiswords.com/tsuba.htm and when you are ready for more have a look here, https://japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/ All the best.

Clearly your 'shoddy' sketch was good enough to spark a memory for me. All the best.

Here is one. Perhaps the one you saw? https://nihontoart.c...uishinshi-masatsugu/ All the best.