rkg

First off, thanks to everybody who replied! - I started replying to individuals, and realized everybody's input was helpful/and that maybe I shouldn't fill up this thread with "thanks" messages. It is a nice piece, but... it is actually on my short list of pieces to send off for sale. Thanks to not being able to do the "release" part of "catch, study, and release" for a couple of years now I've got too many tsuba and now that I have a moment to think critically, some have to go. Thanks again, rkg (Richard George)

Mauro, Geese/snow theme - yeah, I can see that. Thanks on the bamboo joint observation about the mimi as well. I Really Need to get back to studying Japanese (the last couple of years I've been dealing with family issues, but the worst of that is about over so I can get back to studying - probably a good idea as I'm planning to go to Japan next spring for a while (just need the dates of the kid's last final in March), but I digress...). Best, rkg (Richard George)

Christian, Thank you for your observations(!) Yeah, reflecting on your comments I agree - probably shouami is a better call for this piece. As an aside, here's a "kyo sukashi" tsuba that I believe was a copy of a kyo piece made in owari - even though it looks like a kyo (and actually has old papers to Heianjou sukashi), the metal is completely different from what the Kyo boys used (ever). I saw a thread somewhere a while back about which birds actually went with which sukashi, but I can't find it now. Thanks, rkg (Richard George)

Hi, I am trying to get this piece documented and seem to be having trouble with the description. Since we seem to have some theme whisperers on the board, I was hoping to get some help on this. first the tsuba: The piece is (obviously) made of iron, measures 72.3mm(H) X 72.6mm(W) X 5.59mm(T,max), and weighs in at 67.8g Some bones are visible in the mimi. My guess is that its probably Owari, Momoyama to early Edo period What I am stuck on is the theme (is it "just" karigane (wild geese), or does this combination (geese, mimi shape, etc) point to something else? I am also trying to figure out what this shape would be called as well. Thanks in advance, rkg (Richard George)

Simon, I am not sure what about my comments are annoying you, but ALL of the things I noted have happened to me, repeatedly. Best, rkg (Richard George) EDIT: well, except for the shill bidding, which I have avoided for quite a while by not bidding any more than I'd be happy to have the piece at

I don't know if you resolved it, but you should note that Jauce actually will let you view the bid history - click on the number of bids when you have the item up in their viewer. Best, rkg (Richard George) P.S. YJ is a bundle of snakes. Between the shills, dodgy/misrepresented/cleverly photographed to hide problems items, and the large number of sellers that treat auctions as "suggested prices" and cancel any auction where the price doesn't meet their highest expectations, its not for the weak these days - this is a good reason to -only- bid what you would be happy to have the item at (if it isn't quite as good as it looks, etc).

David, I am not sure which plant that is, my first thought was bamboo leaves, but there don't seem to be enough per stalk for that - maybe one of the resident horticulturist types would have a better suggestion. The problem with exact themes is that often the artist is referencing some insular meaning or image or... that was popular at the time so the reasons for the composition/meaning can be devilishly hard for us gaijin to discern. maybe the protrusion on the left is a rock or something? The piece as you have it (with the bulk of the leaves/branches at the top on the front side) would be my guess as to the correct orientation - that way the bulk of the decoration (the missing piece and the leaves) would be the most visible when worn. I don't believe it is a repurposed tachi tsuba. Aside from it being comparatively young (not that that means anything, as somebody could make anything at any time if asked, but the later tachi tsuba were mostly made for show and in general looked "different" from the earlier ones - more often than not symmetric, etc), the decorations are awful close to the nakago ana and would therefore get covered by any kind of oversized seppa - they kind of did that, but not really. And finally, the shape is symmetric - for this shape, the tachi tsuba was usually "waisted", meaning the bottom lobe was narrower than the top lobe ("aoi shape"). Here is your piece compared to an old tachi tsuba (well, it started out as a tachi tsuba, and got repurposed, so now thanks to the ana, is now a ko-kinko tsuba, but I digress). This often existed in other archaic shapes too, but sometimes its pretty subtle/arguable its mostly there due to layout errors than anything else - On this next one the "waisting" is subtle, but I think its there: And yeah, on a tachi tsuba if there is a subject it is upside up when the blade edge is pointed down. Just for grins here's an old (tachishi) piece that appears to have a "waist" but was actually designed to be worn blade up as is obvious from the waves/seashell to the "outside" so it is prominent when worn, was not meant to have o-seppa on the piece (small seppa dai) etc: Best, rkg (Richard George)

Although the condition on several of them leave a bit to be desired, at first glance only the last one in the group looks "off" to me - it might actually be period, but the shrimp looks odd - almost like it is lacquered or painted or something, and I don't know about that surface... Best, rkg (Richard George)

Skull tsuba: I actually ended up modifying the image for "art": https://smile.amazon.com/rkgphotos-skull-theme-Premium-T-Shirt/dp/B0923Z5XT2/ref=sr_1_50?qid=1665331788&refinements=p_4%3Arkgphotos&s=apparel&sr=1-50&customId=B07536XX75&th=1 Yuurei (apparation) themed tsuba - kinda abstract, but... Best, rkg (Richard George)

OK, here's a few. Not an exhaustive collection, just some current/former pieces of mine that I had images of handy. Best, rkg (Richard George)

Kamakura period tsuba - silver fukurin may not be original. kind of plain, but I hope it helps. Best, rkg (Richard George)

Dale, Welll... There's a copy of Tsuba Shusei up on YJ right now: https://www.sendico.com/ayahoo/item/f1062003575 Sometimes the pieces' condition aren't the best (see my piece), but the book is surprisingly useful - and goes for nowhere what it did back in the day... Amusingly, Haynes has the manuscript/camera ready art for this book (Bot off of YJ, fwiw - Its amazing what used to show up there...) Best, rkg (Richard George) P.S. I think that tea set themed piece you just posted has been "spinning" on YJ for a while (repeatedly put up with no takers)

Modern. Best, rkg (Richard George)

Here's a piece of mine with the "tea items" theme - If I recall correctly, this piece was binned as Owari sukashi in the Elephant Book: Best, rkg (Richard George)

Glen, Its one of the ways they staked the inlay in. You see it on some Ounin and Heianjou tsuba. here's a piece I have (out on consignment) that was done this way. I believe these were originally lacquered so they would not have been visible on the finished product. It would probably be an interesting research topic to try and study ones done like this versus the more "typical" inlay methods... Best, rkg (Richard George)

I shot this a long time ago so the image isn't the best, but... Gassan Sadakatsu Best, rkg (RIichard George) Edit: it looks like the above file got shrunk, so here's a crop:

Chris, Oh, its "growth" alright. it wipes right off if you're not "careful". several of the images above came off of this piece - you can see the "blooms" on the silver in this image: You usually see this kind of metal migration in the presence of an electric field (used have to plan to defeat this when doing PC board designs (no joy to have one grow between the power and ground traces on your 48v supply, but I digress). And... you see this happen a LOT to silver nunome on older pieces - which isn't fire guilded. Best, rkg (Richard George)

I've been fascinated with the dendritic growth you sometimes see from silver on tsuba - still don't understand the mechanism (is there something on the surface that enables this, etc): Best, rkg (Richard George)

Colin, That piece looks like one that would be binned as Hizen work. The shape is called wan gata, and while I'm not seeing the meaning of the pattern on the back this morning, the shape + design does look to be in the namban style... Best, rkg (Richard George)

Robert, Thanks for taking the time to reply! Since nobody replied earlier, I bit the bullet and used EMS. The trip from Japan to the US only took a couple of days, but then the package spent a week in or around customs in Los Angeles before they cut it loose and actually shipped it to me. I recently had a second one shipped via EMS so I guess I'll see what happens this time around. I had to decide on shipping right after I got notification that the package actually got from to Japan to LA quickly, and... Thanks again, rkg (Richard George)

Jay, There are a bunch of them listed in Haynes- these specifically seemed to sign choshu hagi H 09972.0,H 09974.0,H 09975.0,H 09978.0 and there were a couple more that were from Hagi that might well have signed this way: H 09976.0,H 09977.0 These go on for pages and I actually have to leave now to shoot some stuff so I can't screen grab/copy the pdf right now - you might need to go to Wakayama and see if you can find the matching mei (at least with that you can then go find it wakayama's meikan and use that to get the right Haynes entry for that particular one - I don't happen to have a copy of wakayama's meikan so...). If nobody else posts I'll see if I can get the time to do it tomorrow Good Luck, rkg (Richard George)

And.. on the most recent iteration, the piece apparently got up to ¥2,151,000, and.... the seller zeroed the bids. Whatever. Best, rkg (Richard George) EDIT: And... its now up with a buy it now of ¥2,000,000: https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n1047820061

John, How good a box are you looking for? You can often find lots (both in terms of quantity per listing and number of listings) of "base level" Japanese made boxes pretty cheap on YJ and sometimes even fleabay (as Dale alluded to). you can buy a bunch of these and toss the existing otoshi (or use it as the substrate) . Just be sure not to get the Chinese ones - they're awful. For a while I was buying old tsuba boxes on YJ, but you have have to be careful not to pay a lot as sometimes base/lids are mismatched (and,like most everything else on YJ, anything good has started to get bid up to crazy prices - so YMMV). Unfortunately the company making the "mid grade" boxes everybody used to sell went out of business - hopefully somebody will chime in with contact info for the high end guys/a box maker us gaijin can interact with. Good Luck, rkg (Richard George)

Jesse, Omori Hideuji - he's buried in the middle of their genealogy chart (one of teruhide's "spare" sons) - an actual omori guy, but apparently not a big name. I don't know how he stacked up vs. Terumitsu - there's probably a story there since Terumitsu was the 5th son and Hideuji was the second (and was passed over as the successor). Maybe he died young or something (don't have time to dig out the Haynes to see). I also saw a chart where the 4th son (Hidetomo) was also labeled as Hideuji, but maybe that was a typo, the guy changed his name, or... But I digress. It looks like decent enough work, and it is a daisho, but its not the greatest omori work I've ever seen. That said, there doesn't seem to be a lot of good kinko work available/offered up in public forums these days. Between that and the yen going down vs. the dollar (and, of course, the aforementioned shill bidding) prices of anything even halfway decent seems to be getting bid up up quite a lot. And yeah, on top of the rampant shill bidding, the purveyors of these higher end pieces seem to love to cancel auctions unless the piece gets bid up to ludicrous prices, cancel auctions and through it out with a buy it now for a day at an even more ludicrous price, etc - Teabagg-er, prince_de_darjeeling is another one that does stuff like this - I don't even bother bidding on his stuff anymore as well. Too Bad JY doesn't seem to have a reserve price system - it would save everybody a lot of time/grief if you knew your bid was actually going to be accepted, but I digress... Best, rkg (Richard George)

No. I've seen this piece in hand and under the microscope. The black areas are filled sukashi, the black Lacquer is newer, but is maybe late as Meiji or so but definitely not modan. The filler is that traditional stuff you sometimes see used to build up mimis, etc. It could well be that the filler/lacquer was done to spiff up the piece for sale to tourists at that time. And yeah, like Rich posted I would say saotome rather than shouami. good price. Somebody should buy it... Best, rkg (Richard George)