MauroP

Hi Dale, nice tsuba, but I don't think it depictsa bell. Here another tsuba depicting 高台 - takadai, a kind of raised holder.

When "mystery" is mentioned about tsuba, it translates "Shōami" indeed...

The examples I provided are all from papered tsuba, and all NBTHK papers reported the subjects as karigane. The stylized birds with "twisted body' are reported as 結雁金 - musubikarigane.

Nice kozuka. I suppose you already know that the subject depicted is probably Kojima Takanori.

Love the discussion, although I’m not very confident that we can eventually arrive at a solid understanding of tsuba attribution to a specific school. So, let’s get back to the details, which may become clearer as our thinking progresses. Let’s try to move from naturalistic to more abstract representations of wild geese: Now it’s quite clear how the more abstract pattern is oriented.

Looking for auspices ("auspices" means "looking at birds") in tosogu is almost as varied as it is in nature. Birds may fly centripetally, centrifugally, or in circles (sometimes in the same direction, or occasionally in opposite directions). A brief treatise on “Tsuba Augury”:

Sesko Markus, Signatures of Japanese Sword Fittings Artists, Lulu Inc., 2014, eBook. 680 pages. Possibly the best buy in my nihontō-related library — highly recommended.

There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent. [Mao Zedong] Maybe the pieces in hand would narrow down a decision? Nope! It isn't science, it's a kind of kult. The experts don't consent even on the kind of birds... (clearly karigane, not chidori, IMHO).

Unfortunately, I don't have the book Gai Sō Shi – Study Collection of Japanese Sword Fittings by Haynes, but I would be curious to know how the supposed Gotō Teijō daishō is presented there.

I'm not about to play since I know the book where the first tsuba was taken (but I'm not so sure the attribution proposed by the book is correct indeed). The sekigane which broaden the seppa-dai could suggest that the first tsuba is the oldest...

Hi Tim, the tsuba shown is neither mine nor from a book. It’s simply an entry in my database, sourced online from a link that is no longer active. The snippet comes from an NBTHK certificate attributing it to Shōami (so I’m not responsible for that attribution…) and reports it's made of iron.

I came across a short article in the British Medical Journal by the late Dr. Lissenden. An opportunity to remember a respected member of the NMB ten years after his passing. from: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2359109/pdf/bmj00573-0034.pdf

Hi Julien, most of tsuba offered in auction were quite impressive regarding their dimension, being in the bigger segment of their own school/tradition. In particular the Tenpō tsuba bought by Dimitri (see above) outstanded for its unusual dimension. Anyway, too many eye-catcher to make wise choices... rationality woke up just when prices compelled me to chose.

These are my tsuba from the auction. And, well, my only regret was not having a bigger wallet... Seeing all those tsuba together was like finding Santa's sledge parked in the backyard for a kid... The second tsuba has a paper, but it's a minus, not a plus... guess what's the attribution?