Geraint

Dear George. I have a suspicion that your desire for a neat and confimed description of this feature as either a, or b will never be satisfied. The texts that we all use tend to show, forgive me, textbook examples of features. In most descriptions of swords we see many qualifiers applied to such features, for example, " scattered sunagashi crossing the tani of the hamon, more evident towards the monouchi". As what you illustrate seems to be a feature of the group of smiths you might end up with something like this: "Following his teacher this smith tempered a hamon in which sunagashi concentrate into a dense cluster forming a defined line running more or less parallel with the ha and typically crossing the ashi below the habuchi". Following Jacque's suggestion you might add, " This feature may be a product of the honsanmai tsukuri construction used by smiths of this group". If you think about this in art terms impasto is an easily defined feature of painting but the way in which each artist uses it is distinctive and requires some qualification. I know, not the clarity you were seeking. Sorry about that. All the best.

Dear Bob. If only things were that simple! It is actually quite rare to find a sword and the koshirae that was originally made specifically for it. Given that we could be sure of the age of the tsuba then it still would not add anything to your knowlegdege of the blade as it is very common for koshirae to be replaced and/or modified throughout the swords life. Sometimes this is the result of changes made while the sword was still in Japan, sometimes later by dealers and collectors. It is very rare to find a koshirae of any great age though a tsuba from an earlier period added to a new sword is quite common. For what it's worth I have personally always thought of sanmai tsuba as earlier rather than later but I can provide no evidence to back up my hunch, perhaps others have a more informed view on this. Your best hope of getting some thoughts about the age of the blade would be to post some overall shots of the whole blade without any fittings in the Nihonto section. Given the condition the sugata is about all we have to go on as details of hamon and boshi will be hard to see. All the best.

Come on Mark, show us the rest of it! All the best.

Dear Bob. As a starting point have a look here, http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/tsuba/sanmai.htm All the best.

Dear Okan. The box is genuine in that it is Japanese lacquer, the use of hinges and lock confirm that it is late19th or early 20th century, made for export to the West. The symbols for the card suites confirm this. Whist is a card game where you try to win tricks from your oponent, easy to look up. The Mother of Pearl counters are almost certainly Chinese in origin. Nice find, looks like it could do with some gentle cleaning. All the best.

Dear Dan, no you can't. What is much more likely is that someone took a fairly low level koshire with a nice tsuba, swiped the tsuba to sell separately and stuck this one onto the koshirae. It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that whoever buys this sword will swap out the tsuba again for something better and the offending cast Namban goes back into the bits box and so on. This happens all the time. All the best.

Dear Jon. The essential difference is in the way the sword was worn. Katana and so forth, edge upward and so the design of the tsuba is read in this position. Tachi, edge downward and so read in that position. The most often encountered style is something like the one shown here, http://www.ricecracker.com/japanese_swords/katana/ms11_tachi_kiyomitsu.html They feature on tachi koshirae and often in handachi koshirae. There are many which are esentially plain with the decoration provided by o seppa, see here and scroll down. http://www.samuraisword.com/nihonto_c/SOLD/Juyo/Fukuoka_Ichimonji_kiku/index.htm You will quickly see the inspiration behind the koshirae of shin and kai gunto koshirae. Sometimes the tsuba and the o seppa are riveted together, the two rivets often being quite visble. Add to this other archaic styles such as shitogi tsuba. How's that for starters? All the best.

Well, thank you Stephen, I enjoyed that. Though I have to confess that I was expecting something about tsuba. All the best.

Dear Tony. Not cast, perfectly OK. Though someone was a little unkind to the nakago ana on the back. Do my eyes deceive or are there two colours of gold on the foliage? All the best.

Dear Tony. Us guys this side of the pond are watching as well! All the best.

Dear Juan. While I am not familiar with the pecadilloes of the French aristocracy I think the short answer to your question is no. There is an excellent description of the process of awarding such titles here, https://markussesko.com/2013/02/19/how-honorary-titles-were-conferred/ All the best.

Gentlemen. I think we are making heavy weather of this. As I understand Yanchen's point it is that Noshu ju or Seki ju mean the smith was working in that province while Mino no Kami is an honorary title and could be awarded to a smith working anywhere in Japan. A smith signing Mino no ju would not need any permission to so sign, one signing Mino no Kami would need permission. As the sword we are discussing has the honorific Mino no Kami it is not pretending to be by one of the Seki Kanesada smiths at all. As such it is not a gimei for any of the Mino Kanesada smiths. All the best.

Naaah! Use your own toothbrush! That lingering taste of rust and choji oil! All the best.

Dear David. I am interested that you say, " It definitely has a lot of patination on the tang for being so young." What age do you think it is? All the best.

Hi Daniel. As I might have given away I had been keeping my eye on this tsba for some time and had come to a conclusion. However far more learned students than I had come to different conclusions and so I assumed that I had been mistaken. Tonight, while browsing NBTHK Journals I came across another tsuba which re awakened my thoughts and so.... My earlier conclusion was that the inscription on your tsuba was attributing the design to Hiroshige, so Hiroshige zu might translate as, 'to a design by Hiroshige'. The example in NBTHK No. 47 is a tsuba by Ito Shoken after design by Toba Sojo and uses the sme form as the inscription on yours. No nearer an artist I'm afraid but worth knowing perhaps. One is tempted to assume that this references the great Utagawa Hiroshige, compare here,https://collections.artsmia.org/art/62136/at-changban-bridge-utagawa-hiroshige Still love it! All the best.

Dear Grev. I think Ken might be reffering to your books when he asks anbout V2, rather than your list.............? All the best.

Dear Jason. Each part of the sword has a story to tell but they are not all connected. For example a 19th century sword might well have a tsuba from much earlier and the kozuka might be original to the koshirae but it might also have been swapped out at some stage. A much earlier sword would be expected to have had several koshirae during it's life. The way forward is to photograph the whole sword and each element and share it here. Post the fittings in the Tosogu section and the blade in the Nihonto section, that way you will garner the best expertise. Plenty of wisdom and people very willing to share. All the best.

Just to add, the mounts are Shingunto or army officer not NCO. All the best.

Dear Mark. If you search for Tsuda Sukenao you will find several papered examples. To start with here is one, http://www.sho-shin.com/osaka-tsuda.html Things to look at include the handwriting of the mei, the shape of the nakago and the nakago jiri, yasurime to start with. Start with that first kanji, some smiths have distinctive styles of calligraphy and this does not look like a confident variant, it looks much more like my handwriting, which is appaling. When you are looking at a big name the chances of gimei are high, but the quality of the work should also be high. So the questions are, is the quality of this nakago high and is the calligraphy of the mei also high? This is probably a perfectly good Shinto blade but ........ All the best.

Just one more to share, the noshi theme in another version by Masatoshi. Noysure where he fits into the lineage. All the best.

Dear George. I think Chris has done it, so what we have is notare komi boshi with ko maru and, a phrase I'm not familiar with, kaeri katai. This describes the three elements of the boshi. All the best.

I would think that all you have to do is describe the hamon in the kissaki now. All the best.

Dear George. Late to the party but just some thoughts. The boshi is essentially what happens to the hamon within the kissaki, and of course down the mune of the blade. As such any description usually specifies three things; the hamon running along the ha, the return and the way the return finishes at the mune. For exmple, midare with ko maru and taki- othoshi kaeri. When these three coincide into a particular form which becomes the distinguishing feaure for a school then it gets named, e.g. Mishina boshi, Sansaku boshi and so forth. Given the sword in question it is unlikely to conform to one of the school specific forms, and even if it did then that would to guarantee a connection to that school. Hope this helps. All the best.

Dear Bob. I love the way the foliage creeps over the mimi on tht one, a touch of class. All the best.