Marius

Oh dear... I see...

I know this might not be the "popular" view, but here I go, if you don't mind: In recent weeks I have seen tassels, tassels, and tassels on this Forum. I understand that members here collect militaria, but this is supposed to be a nihonto and kodogu Forum (mainly). Am I still right? My suggestion is: could we keep those things where they do belong, regardless if they are on eBay or anywhere else - in the "Military Swords of Japan" section? I must say, I don't appreciate those tassel/sarute/other gunto parts sales in the or Sale or Trade section. But I assume I'll have to live with that. Brian, please, don't let this forum degenerate into a place for militaria. Just a humble request, now I am ready to take the flak.

Quite honestly, there are no rules as to what size of tsuba would fit the wakizashi. This depends on the style of koshirae (mountings). Now, it seems that what you are trying to do is to assemble some sort of mountings, any sort, actually, just to have the blade look like a real "samurai sword". If I am wrong, please accept my apologies. If, however, I am right, please do not try to do this. It will not work if you are don't know A LOT about koshirae and HAVE THE MONEY to order one. You will end up with a haphazard koshirae which will not add any value to your sword. If the wakizashi is in a shirasaya, keep it that way. Appreciate the blade.

Attached is my favourite :-) No, I don't own it

Markus, many many thanks on behalf of my friend

Dear All, A friend of mine has difficulties to read the signature on a tsuba. Pictures of signature and tsuba are attached. I am awfully sorry to bother you with something that I think is of fairly low quality, but as it is the request of a friend, I have to comply. Your help will be greatly appreciated

Beware of sellers who post poor quality pictures - they want to hide details. These are new copies, if you are lucky, Meiji. Anyway, Meiji or modern, we are talking about rubish here.

Hello, the signature says: "made in China" Sorry, but Brian is right here. What you have here, are reproductions, and very poor ones.

Steve, this looks like it might be an interesting blade, a shortened wakizashi. But your pictures are simply not good enough to allow anybody to make any kind of statement. It could be a sword from the Muromachi period, but it could be Bakumatsu. It could be a kitchen knife (OK, just a joke ) Please do post some better quality pictures (don't forget the tang) and maybe people here will have something to say about the blade... You will probably know by now, that any "restoration" attempts by yourself or an unqualified "polisher" will result in a serious deterioration or outright destruction of this blade. There are two ways for you to go: 1. leave it as it is. You can cover it with a thin film of high quality machine oil or gun oil (Balistol works for me) or choji-abura (the clove-smelling stuff used for Japanese swords). Do nothing more. OR 2. find a polisher (a real one, not some self-taught idiot) with the help of this forum Send the sword to him to have it assessed (be prepared for a waiting time and for some costs). Maybe the polisher will want to open a "window" to see if the blade is worth polishing at all. If it is, you'll have to decide if you can afford it/want to spend the money. Unless it is a masterpiece, it will probably make no economic sense. Polishing is expensive, you can't do it on the cheap, really not, unless you want to ruin the blade, that is. OK, I think that is all. Has been said here a Thousand times, BTW :D Thanks for your attention

Thanks for your thoughts, I do appreciate it Now, what do you think about a tsuba with a similar motif, that has come to me with the attribution to Akao?

Lorenzo, I think what you see is part of the decoration - it is the bamboo ladle (hishaku)

thanks for your thoughts I must say, I thought Ono as well, but this school is so obscure and there are so few examples with solid attributions (if any), that I hesitate to make such a statement (who am I to do it, anyway?) The well cover is a good explanation of the motif. What about the shape? I admit I like this tsuba, but I think it lacks finesse somewhat.

Thanks for all input, I do appreciate it Some additional data on this tsuba: Dimensions: 74/71/6 mm. Thickness in seppa-dai and on the mimi is the same. Some close-up pictures attached. That is all I have got from the owner...

Dear All, I have acquired this one recently - it was described as ko-Umetada, which I think is It was described as Momoyama, which I think is The tsuba has the following dimensions: 67 x 73 x 7 mm. Thickness is the same in seppa-dai and in mimi. It is nice, homogenous iron, no tekkotsu (unless you take some sloppy forging on side of the mimi for tekkotsu). Colour is chocolatey brown. Heavy in hand. What do you think about it? School? Period? Thanks for your time and effort

Alas, I am not the owner of this tsuba... I asked him how it feels, I hope I'll get an answer :-)

Martin, Many thanks, that sounds convincing, although I haven't seen this particular motive in Iki Na Sukashi Akasaka Tsuba...

Interesting lead... Thanks Not quite convinced, though...

Hello, I have only these bad pictures, but I am very interested in this tsuba. I have no dimensions, will provide them later. My guess is: What do you think?

Sorry, I must try it xxxx xxxx xxxx it does work

many thanks :? I have been looking exactly for this explanation Any ideas besides "the mouse"? I would really like to know WHAT this design is...

Thanks :-) Just to make things more complicated, I have found a "suhama" design here: http://www.shibuiswords.com/BITsuba2.htm One of the tsuba on this page is described as: Tenpo tsuba for katana, thick iron plate, mokko gata, 8.65 x 8.00 x 0.50 cm, two hitsu ana, unclear stamping of combined dai-tsuchi, sukashi design of suhama ("sandbar" which is a mon), and ko-sukashi of two batons/counting sticks.

No pictures of kissaki... You need to see if the boshi is intact.

Dear All, the sukashi on this ko-kinko tsuba - is that suhama (beach)? Or maybe hirute? (drawer handle). Any ideas of what this shape is and how it is called? Google would produce poor results... The second tsuba has a similar sukashi, said to be bracken...

I have allowed myself to write a short review of Nakahara Nobuo's book (with contributions by Paul Martin). You may find it interesting. If not, please ignore my ramblings: http://gomabashi.blogspot.com/2011/01/r ... s-and.html

I would say this is the upper part of a a cut-down naginata pole. They often cut down long poles to ship them. This looks like such a case...