Geraint

Ah Ron! Painful memory. Sadly no pictures. My father in law was a long time collector of vesta cases as we call them in the UK. He amassed a fine collection of several hundred, mostly silver and gold examples. The one that was the jewel in his collection was a fine iron case with the most stunning takazogan of two cranes besides some rocks and plants. At the time it was the finest work I had seen. Alas my hints were too subtle and when the time came for him to liquidate his assets he sent them to a London auction house, including the one I coveted. My only consolation is that somewhere a vesta collector has it in pride of place. I have no doubt that some out of work tsuba shi discovered a way of using his skills and produced this work of art after the haitorei. As an aside he was told that the work was called obi kirime, a term I have not heard elsewhere. All the best.

Hi Gary. Picture of your sword would help us a bit. If it is 60.6cms then most people would describe it as a wakizashi as it is just shy of the two shaku convention. However it is not uncommon to find daisho where the long sword is just short of the limit, practical considerations relating to use take precedence over notional limits here. You might chose to call your sword an o wakizashi, some people would go for chisa katana but that will ignite hot debate amongst some. In your original post you mention a swooping tip; not too sure what that means but are we talking shobu zukuri or naginata naoshi? I don't think we are going to get to a point where we can say who owned the sword based on length or the shape of the saya, the market dictates that anything under two shaku, or more usually 24 inches is a wakizashi and adjusts accordingly. As an example I have a wakizashi which is very long and very beefy, the saya has a rounded end and it is from around 1624. Can't say who owned it but it will always be a wakizashi. All the best.

Hi Caleb, Try a search for Niju habaki and you will get many images. Good habaki are works of art in their own right. Forgot to mention this recent thread, viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19561 Enjoy.

Obviously they take a little longer to arrive in these northern climes Jean!

Hi Dave. One swallow does not a summer make but just for interest here are some short wakizashi, two hira zukuri and one shinogi zukuri, all have rounded ends to the saya. All the best.

Unless the mei reads "Nobukuni Yoshi......" Hard to make out what the first part said but one of the Chikuzen Nobukuni school? And just to answer another question it is the smith who made the blade in this case. All the best.

Hi Shai. It is almost impossible to ascertain very much from your photographs, (Japanese swords are very hard to capture in the detail that would allow anyone to make much of an informed judgement). You have a katana in shirasaya, as you do not mention any papers from a Japanese sword organisation I assume it has none. You might find this thread useful, http://www.nihontomessageboard.com/nmb/ ... 5&p=136122 Just to be clear, at the end the quote makes reference to kazuuchimono, this is usually translated as mass produced and refers to the fact that during the period your sword was made large numbers were being made very quickly for war and therefore the quality is usually not very good. All this means that in spite of dating from around 1560 your sword is not a national treasure. One sold recently for $1700, I am not in the US and others may have a different view but I fear this is about what you could expect. All this assumes that there are no major flaws in the blade, something which can only really be seen with the sword in hand. It is an honourable old warrior and deserves to be taken care of, I hope you enjoy it for what it is. All the best.

Hi Trent. Have a look at this thread. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=18738 All the best.

Dear Flemming. I think it will be very hard for anyone to suggest anything given the quality of your photographs. So far we have a mumei wakizashi in shirasaya, possibly machi okuri though I would guess the nakago jiri is original. What does your charming phrase, "wounds of age" indicate? Are we talking about grain openings, rust, kirikomi or something else? If you can see the hamon detail and the hada what are they? What about the boshi? I would suggest that you try to do an oshigata of your sword, the discipline of trying to see and draw the detail of the hamon is instructive even if you are not pleased with the results. If you have the Connoisseurs Book you might try to narrow things down from the details, I have to admit that this is much harder than it seems as the features are rarely as obvious as one would wish. I know you were hoping for more than this but without good pictures any guess would be just that,a guess. By the way, the last image is the torokusho which indicates the sword came from Japan, did the dealer have any suggestions to make about it? All the best.

Thank you David, pm sent. All the best

Hi David. I am sure that John meant the tsuba in my post and not yours which is a cracker. I was certainly contrasting the ones I had shown with the original for this thread.

Hi John. I tend to agree with you about your choice. David. Having trawled through my NBTHK I find that, of course, the article you mentioned is in one of the issues that I am missing. I would be very grateful for a scan if you can find it easily. Michael, thanks for the info, any chance that you have photos of the tsuba you have owned, would love to see them. It would be nice to collate as much information about the school as we can and it seems that we are onto a start Many thanks to all.

Thank you David, I shall immediately go through all the copies of the NBTHK journal I have, (my wife also says, "Thank you very much", but in a slightly different tone.) When I first saw the tsuba that Peter posted I assumed it was shibuichi or another soft metal but I am not sure from the images. All the best.

Hi Steve. If you like handachi have a look at this one, http://www.nihontocraft.com/Koto_Wakizashi_R.htm Or even better this one, http://yakiba.com/Wak_MumeiR.htm Enjoy!

Nice Thierry. Sergei I regret that like many museums the staff are not knowledgeable and not even interested. Their tsuba were part of a collectors legacy and have been largely ignored. For one brief period they had a curator who actually thought that the collection should be accessible to interested parties but alas she is no more. Thierry has supplied good examples for you however. All the best.

Hi Sergei. A piece is in a museum collection not too far from here which represents a piece of weathered wood, bound at both ends with gold as I recall. Yours reminds me of that but I can't suggest a period. I am sure others will have suggestions. All the best

Dear David, Thanks for the reference to your tsuba. May I say first of all that i Like very much botht the tsuba posted by Pete that started this thread and your own which I have already looked at with interest. I believe that yours was already posted by Curran some while ago. Am I correct in believing that the paper your tsuba has specifies Hirado but not Kunishige? I was intrigued by the suggestion that Michael made about a connection between this tsuba and Kunishige as it did not seem to match what I had assumed. Well it seems that there is not a great deal of information available from the sources I have at my disposal. Aside from the papered example that I posted here is another of the type I have always associated with this artist. I have been trawling through my references and find these: The second page from the catalogue of the Monzino collection. A search of the web reveals an alarming tendency for any brass tsuba to be labelled as Hirado and very little information apart from the suggestion that there are thought to be two generations working around 1716 - 36. Bob Benson has a copper tsuba on his site, here, http://www.bushidojapaneseswords.com/sw ... subas.html scroll down a bit 'til you get to it. I'm not arguing that it isn't, just wondering why. Examples that we can be fairly sure about are in brass and iron and include tsuba, fuchi kashira and kodzuka including one in the 100 Kozuka book, number 68 if memory serves. What I glean so far is that we are looking for a Namban influence, seen in the seppa dai and/or in the imagery used as well as a tendency to use western stamped characters, usually near the rim. Michael is right that he used waves and clouds but I am not sure that I can see a connection with Pete's original tsuba yet. By the way, is that first tsuba an iron ground? Anyone got any light to throw on all this? All the best.

Hi Dave. I think that mixed mounts are more usual and quite acceptable. The term issaku koshirae is sometimes used to describe a situation where all the mounts are of the same material and my the same hand, it is rather unusual I think. All the best.

Interested in Michael's suggestion about Hirado Kunishige, I have always associated him with tsuba such as this one, http://www.ebay.ca/itm/7514-Japanese-Sa ... 1180691391 And for when the link goes down:

Hi Lisa. I'm afraid I can't help with the translation but I do suggest you start looking at Chinese ceramics. I'm sure you know about Satsuma wares but I do not think this is one of them. The style of the painting and the costume worn by the ladies is not Japanese, I think. Hope I haven't spoiled your day. All the best.

Have a look at this thread, viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19206 where similar tsuba were discussed, (That is, similar to the original tsuba in this thread.) All the best.

Hi David, It's a little hard to tell but are you confident about calling it a chu kissaki? It looks to be on the large side in your photograph. All the best.

Yes, it's true that most are a little slim for the purpose, I was trying the idea out for size but even if the suggestion regarding yari used in this way is the case most of them have a good deal more rigidity than the average ken. So I guess we are back to the talismanic aspect. All the best.

Hi Ken. My understanding is that in almost all the sources chokuto is used as a term referring to straight, single edged swords and that tsurugi or ken is reserved for double edged blades. Beyond the basics there ares some hints on this page of a sword from Ed's site, http://yakiba.com/Ken_MichiYuki.htm and the link, that suggest them as talismanic protection for the home. I am failry sure that some were made for the Western market, or at least mounted for that purpose, at the end of the 19th century. Another reference from Rick Stein's site suggest that yari tanto were worn as yoroi doshi, as some of these are ryo shinogi perhaps there was a similar reason to carry a ken mounted as a tanto. I am sure that others will chime in here but I enjoyed your ken so allow me to add a shot of mine. All the best.

Hi Dow, From what I can make out the mei is painted on? Does it look like gold lacquer to you with the sword in hand? I think it suggest that the sword is by Soshu Hiromasa, look him/them up. Detailed measurements and photos of the whole blade will help people form an opinion but the whole package is nice, thanks for sharing.