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Very similar style of zogan on a different plate, quite interesting

Btw seems that tsuba on the book is for sale now https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Japanese-Samurai-Sword-86mm-Iron-Heianjo-Sukashi-AOI-Azuchi-Momoyama-Tsuba-/382694353959?hash=item591a5c6c27

Thanks Steve, even not same subject is definetely same school to my eyes, which is interesting and add more evidence to the post. Florian, my idea is not that plate and zogan been made by the same person buy maybe inside the same workshop, one person(s) in charge of "mass producing" the plate and then other artists in charge of carving or inlaying. Of course this is all speculation, but assembly lines were existing already to produce kazuuchi mono blades, so doesn't sound so weird to me.

From my knowledge the line carving should work for a linear zogan, once engraved the line then you put the zogan in position by hammering it, the brass expanding should stuck inside the carving. But i never did that before so i'm not sure is correct

I'm actually wondering how the zogan would fit in place on that flat surface with only those line carvings to keep it in position, but that's a question for a tsuba maker i guess. If you can find the book would be great

Welcome Steve and thank you for your post, i actually find quite interesting your tsuba cause it can show us the insight of the iron plate under the zogan which appears to be, as Florian say, a "standard" iron plate on which then a carving and/or zogan is then added. But to me the choise seems been taken at the moment of creation of the tsuba, not a later addition cause the flat surface under the zogan, if there was been a carving there the plate would at least been hollow to remove it. So the question still stands, who made these? Was it a smaller school (maybe trading on the Tokaido road?) or was it part of a larger group like those in Kyoto (Kyo Shoami) or Choshu (Hagi)?

I recently bought an interesting tsuba, iron plate with copper and brass inlays, rappresenting a kiku leaf with one kiku sukashi and one zogan. It shows a nice dark and glossy patina with some small tekkotsu I made some research but i couldn't find any similar one on my books, nor a certified example. Searching online i found this topic http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/10101-references-for-the-kiami-school/ where David seems to have my same problems to categorize his piece which looks really similar to mine. Since i had no luck finding a certain attribution i started research simila pieces online to try figure this out. The following are the most similar examples i found: Appears to me that the pieces show all similar workmanship, despite the changes in the composition and even in the presence or absence of zogan (even different kind of zogan). Often the first examples are described as "ko-Hagi" because the kiku subject and the presence of positive/negative sukashi, but that school show no zogan. Other options would be Heianjo or Kyo Shoami, but they don't totally fit either. In my opinion maybe we're looking to another minor school that been uncategorized, probably born in the early Edo (or maybe even earlier) and continued till mid Edo. To add more "head-scratching" there's also this piece which is totally different subject but the zogan kinda remind the one on my tsuba. For some reason they attributed to Kyo Sukashi I look forward to hear your opinion on this matter

大泉住小松正重作 Oizumi ju Komatsu Masashige saku 安政.... Ansei....

Looks like a variant of hako-midare This is a Muramasa:

i guess then only someone with a juyo blade that can actually measure it with his hands could solve this mistery, tho to me this situation is really bothering (probably cause i work in the mechanical industry), how hard can it be to use a caliper??

and another one, this one is a katana from https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-bizen-suke-fujiwara-munetsugu-saku30th-nbthk-juyo-paper/ Aoi's measures: Blade length(nagasa) :　72.0　cm or 28.34 inches. Width at the hamachi : 3.20 cm or 1.25 inches. Width at the Kissaki : 2.50 cm or 0.98 inches. Juyo paper's: Nagasa: 72.0 Motohaba: 3.05 Sakihaba: 2.2 here's my measure from the scan: Now appears clear to me that they measure from ha to the base of mune, not like i always been told from ha to the top of mune

Another visual example, in this one all measures are exact, except if we take the motohaba till the top of mune instead of base: Shintogo Kunimistu - Juyo Token Nagasa: 23,1 cm Moto-haba: 1,85 cm Nakago: 9,85 cm

Another example https://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashi-iga-kami-kinmichi-48th-nbthk-nbthk-juyo-paper/ In the Juyo paper we read moto-haba 3, according to Aoi is 3.4 cm

well 2 mm on 19 is more than 10% error, not so slight difference

Sorry for the late reply Jussi, i was looking for a good example. This is a famous tanto by Ryosai, it's also been proposed as kantei by NBTHK with the following dimensions: Type: tanto Length: 7 sun 2 bu (22. 0 cm) Sori: slight uchizori Motohaba: 5 bu 6 rin (1.7 cm) Motokasane: 2 bu 1 rin (0.65 cm) Nakago length: 3 sun 4 rin (9.2 cm) Nakago sori: very slight This is what i measure from the scan took from http://www.sho-shin.com/sai.htm Even considrering a conversion approximation and a possible parallax error from the picture the difference is too obvious for me, especially the other dimensions are much closer to what NBTHK states

http://www.intk-token.it/forum/index.php?showtopic=9345

Museo d'Arte Orientale, Venice http://www.intk-token.it/forum/index.php?showtopic=9368

The brass inlays would probably classify it as Heianjo, tho the look and the wheel design reminds of ko-katchushi. Anyway a nice old one, late Muromachi seems a good guess to me

Recently i been studying some Juyo papers and i found out something odd, it seems that NBTHK considers the measure of motohaba from the ha to the base of the mune, not like i've always been told, from the ha to the top of the mune. In some older paper it appears to be as mine, but in last years seems something changed. Did someone else notice that too? Or have an explanation?

Masatada left the work at the shrine in 1942 due to illness and died in 1944. Hayakawa Mikio was on Nagato in 1943

兼定 Kanesada

Many of my tsuba have a wabi-sabi feeling since i mainly study pre-Edo pieces. Here's two good examples, one is most likely a Saotome tsuba of early Edo and shows a more "classic" feeling, while the second a Nobuie utsushi by Naoaki shows a more refined taste.

koshirae is not made by him "Iimura Kasyo: He was born at Meiji 34, November 3rd. After that he studied under the Honami Ko-son and also a son of the Miyata Kiyonobu for making Koshirae and fittings. He got the Yusyu syo prize, Ministry of Edocation prize, The best honor president prize at the war time. He also published Tken Yoran, Shinto taikan and also Shinshinto taikan. He made many Koshirae but in case of high ranking Koshirae, he put the name on the Koshirae like this item. The Koshirae is the top ranking sold gold Koshirae and it is well matched for Gassan Sadakatsu."

Signature says 藤原宗長 Fujiwara Munenaga, several smiths with that name, without seeing more of blade hard to tell more

Interesting variation, looks almost it has some ko-Umetada influence