MauroP

Here below a link to the complete catalogue (unfortunately I'm unable to remember the original site where I found it). https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wfzaaqgc14q4dxz7k2jh4/Japanese-Sword-Fittings-Naunton-Collection.pdf?rlkey=o3r65azmevpg2prhkmiyd8ny9&st=yez4j0mc&dl=0

BTW, anybody knows the kanji reported on the cover? It should be "tsuba", but I never saw it before. It's a variant of the common ones or just a typo?

I’ve found a link to the downloadable catalogue from Finarte, the auction house that Czerny’s is affiliated with. https://aste.finarte.it/uploads/auctions/502-a158catwebnew1.pdf

Maybe you already know that tsuba with the very same design: from https://tsuba-kanshou.hatenablog.jp/entry/d385ea903371e9967804aebacba147c3

Hi Jake, the armours are definitely non-Japanese, so possibly some story from the "Annals of the Three Kingdoms".

Hi Glen, please post also images of tsuba and the outside side og the hakogaki (sometime the tsuba doesn't match the box with the hakogaki).

Hi Damon, your tsuba looks signed 越前住 記平 - Echizen jū Kihei (?), which is unusual (at least not the common Kinai). Do you have any hints about that tsubako?

Hizen is a good call, in my opinion.

A schematic representation of the Hotei bag?

I'd suggest 葡萄 - budō - grapevine for the second tsuba.

Unusual description, Curran, the paper say 二叉車透鐔 but I don't know how to read it (maybe futatsu mataguruma sukashi tsuba). Anyway it should mean something like "two stacked wheel design".

Hi Tristan, welcome to the forum. Both tsuba have seen better days, so it’s difficult to judge. Sorry, I’m unable to sort out the signatures. The first one shows takabori, suemon-zōgan, and possibly remnants of nunome-zōgan. The coexistence of multiple decorative techniques makes me think of Shōami school (or possibly Nara school). As for the other one, the bird depicted appears to be a pigeon, so the shape is called hato-gata. There are irregular granulations on the rim, which could be either iron bones (a good sign) or casting debris (a bad sign). I’m quite confident the first tsuba is an old piece; I’m less certain about the second one.

Chestnuts?

Jack, the "guy" you are tolking about is Satō Kanzan, one of the most respected experts on the Japanese sword. The point here is that I don't think the hakogaki was genuinely written by Satō Kanzan. Nonetheless nothing written in the hakogaki is false (but the signature, of course).

Steve, my guess was 老, meaning ‘old,’ but in both instances I’m unable to grasp the meaning.