rkg

FWIW, you have to kind of be careful when you decide to do that. Using anything caustic will remove any period urushi that's on the piece in short order, the piece might have been "brown waxed" or otherwise primped at some point and you can open yourself up to a world of pain if/when you blow a hole in that (do you try and copy whatever they did, strip the piece and deal with the rust, etc). And actually, while probably not true for this piece, on some work that wax can be original to the piece (Hirata work for example) and they would use multiple layers of different colors of wax to create effects. I don't happen to have a pristine Hikozo to show this (someday maybe), here's an example where the wax is original to the piece as part of its decoration: Best, rkg (Richard George)

I just happened across this thread, and was wondering if your Kaneshige piece had another stamp on the other side of the nakago. I have a piece by shoda masafusa like this, and... FWIW, the stamp you show is described in Slough's book (see attached) I am not sure if the piece I have is oil quenched or not. Best, rkg (Richard George) masafusa_info.pdf

Hi, I have been going back and forth with my agent in Japan about an item I recently bought and am trying to get shipped to me. Does anybody know about any recent changes (starting Nov. 1) regarding shipping items from Japan? Did something change? -------------------- here's what they said: Dear customer, 1. Now you can declare 80% of the total price of the parcel and unfortunately we will not change this state in future. 2. You can edit your declaration only at parcel creation stage. 3. You can not edit names of the items or change the amount of lines in declarations due to Japan new customs rugulations. This is very important because from november it will become essential to have clear parcel content description in the declaration. In case it is incorrect the whole parcel could be declined by shipping service and our company will suffer penaltys. We really hope for your understanding. Best regards, -------------------- Is this something that is happening everywhere now? Thanks, rkg (Richard George)

Curran, It is tough to tell what is going on there - yahoo's autobid got delayed, shill bidding, your agent had somebody else who was bidding at the same time on the same item (plenty of weirdness around that as the agent can't really bid against themselves), etc. Were you bidding close to the end time? Yeah, there isn't a lot on YJ that is -really- interesting these days - the trouble is that fleabay is even worse, with a surprising number of the listings being for items that are on YJ (or Japanese dealer/junk shop sites) as well at a much lower price.... On the other hand, if you are buying in dollars, a lot of the pricing went from just stupid to "maybe an OK price", so YMMV. Sucks when you sell though - I just went through that with a big stack of "catch and release" and other tsuba that I haven't had time to deaccession for quite a while - dollar prices should be down a lot given what you can buy equivalent pieces for in yen now... rkg

And... Speak of the devil. I just won a piece on YJ (pending the seller not cancelling the auction because he didn't like the final price, of course). It went for my maximum bid on the piece, which always makes me suspicious. It looks like the under-bidder bid the same amount as me but I put my bid in first - or did the shill go over my limit and then cancel back to my max bid? I am not sure how to resolve that, but again, I didn't bid more than I would be happy to have the piece at, so YMMV. Best, rkg (Richard George)

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)