Bungo

Secret Agent Man, the tsuba has been discussed a few times on the board ( including the correct reading of the mei ) , I can't locate them all but here's an entry/quote from Ford........ " The subject is" The eight horses of Bokuo" and refers to an historic expedition against the tribes of Southern China by the 5th Emperor of the 5th Chow Dynasty. ............ Ford milt

a small simple tsuba ............... what school you think it is ? milt

As Brian the Humorless said..........there's details in the goose. An above average tsuba, personally I would keep it as a foundation for your budding tsuba collection. p.s. I also notice " better " tsuba has details on BOTH side, check it out............most average tsuba won't bother with details on the flip side ( except sukashi tsuba, but that's obvious ). milt

there's always exception............. the Koryu Korean ceramics........ almost all have cracks, repairs and collectors just look " beyond " that. Brian, you left/lost your sense of humor in Tokyo. milt

" To answer Milt's question; No, I've never seen a hagire that didn't go all the way through. Cracks travel from the very edge back and propogate from the scantest material at the greatest stress point, back toward the mune. They can be longer on one side than another, but I've yet to see one that did not show on both sides " ........................................................................ there's always a reason why I asked. I have a sword with a very faint line that looks like a hagiri but the other side shows absolutely nothing. A few old timers looked it over and came to the conclusion that it could be an " opening " of the grain,but it does looks like a hagiri ( except it's on one side only ). Typical books show what a hagiri looks like but none mention it's one side or both . I just presumed it's has to show on both side of the ha. milt

does the hagiri line has to show on BOTH side to make it a hagiri? milt

what's the actual sales figure ? lots of watchers and not enough buyers ? Or.......... things are moving briskly like Santa Ana wind? milt

yes, and my bloody grill that shows iron bones is cheaper !! milt

you all stop " watching " and place bids instead...... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0318231725 really, this is a give-away MAC busting economic revival scheme to save the world !! milt

played with the pic files a bit...... milt

retook the kissaki pics, " darken " it ....... milt

more pics........

note.... no broken tip, it dug itself into the fabric when i took pic. Hopefully these pics are " better ".......all natural , no flash. milt

lots of flowing masame...... whatever it is, it's not a Bungo. milt

I'll attempt 10A.M. slanting sunlight tomorrow ( weather permitting ) for better pics, the boshi is close to the ha, almost no turn back with " kaen " ( like longish brush strokes, two on one side ., more on the other ) milt

not a sword guy so I'll described what the pics showed to the best of my ability............. the " wide whitish " band of the hamon can only be seen when the sword stays at a certain angle, in a different angle, it actually appears as " darker band " . There are numerous masame running grains through the " choji " , sometimes the masame grains runs perpendicular to the longi. axis giving a lot of peaks looking thingie. According to an old timer in St. louis, there's utsuri..... Mino with Soshu influence ? I think the hamon is nioi based. p.s. there's a hi ( groove ) on the shinogi ji milt

kanetora ? milt

nice koz. milt

Brian, There are times one has to ask hard question like.................... If it's Mumei, do you think Kaneie ( Saga or otherwise ) or Aizu Shoami ? milt

looks pretty close but the " kao " right " leg " was cut off from re-sizing the hole......I give it better than 50 %. Milt

some very expenseive smoked salmon you have there....... the label reads Iwamoto ( ? ) Konkan. milt

Ford, May be student/school works of Edo days ? I mean not every single tsuba were made by " masters ". Milt

" My assessment would be that this is the work of a fairly skilled amateur working sometime in the last 60 years. A tidy copy of an earlier Higo design. " A modan copy ? DO the modan artists/copyists have time to create this ? Seems like the effort is not worth the time spent . Usually the copies are cast ( if design is complicated ) or the sukashi are relatively simple and straight forward. But none of these are evident in the example. milt

Ooopss, sorry about that, especially to Guido, I amended my post, I just sort of looked at the avatar and thought it Guido's, they look pretty similar at first glance. Wakari wa baka gaijin desu. So, Kyo Shoami huh ???????? Why ? :-) Cheers mate, and thanks for correcting me /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// you can get me into trouble...... note I amended my message. I based my opinion on the shape of the seppa dai and the size/shape of the kogai/koz ana hitsu. But......... the inner side of the rim with tha scalloped shape is not typical of Shoami ........ As I said, when in doubt, always Shoami ( Kyo- shoami means it's a better quality work ) milt

where's ----- ? Rich, I think the example is more like Kyo-Shoami............ always guessing here. milt