Marius

Well, you have real treasures to share, both in terms of tsuba and other kodogu you show on your blog, (all special and all in excellent photographs), as well in terms of your commentary. I have ordered the second book as well (from Bob Benson). I will read it and post a review on my blog. I believe I will be delighted to do it, given Sasano's exquisite taste.

Dear fellow-beginners, On my blog, I have published a review of the Sasano Masayki book "Early Japanese Sword Guards. Sukashi Tsuba". I hope I you will find it useful - http://gomabashi.blogspot.com/ I post this on the NMB as an exception only. I would never even think of announcing my blog articles here, this would be arrogant, preposterous and I would only irritate Forum members. There are things much a thousand times more worth reading, works of deep knowledge and scholarship, like Richard Turner's excellent kodogu blog - http://kodogunosekai.com I have decided to post this article on Sasano's work here, only because I have found only very short reviews, and nothing really personal on this excellent book. I just hope I am filling a tiny part of what I see as a big gap. And I hope I will manage to encourage beginning students of tsuba to acquire this book. I am afraid, I don't have it for sale Thank you for your understanding and hopefully you will find my review useful.

Thank you :-) It is not great, but I can promise to post on a regular basis.

I have always wondered how the shaft of a yari is made. I think it should be made from one piece of wood (ash?). Then again, how did they make the hole for the square nakago in the shaft? I have found no reference on this. Any ideas? A friend of mine supposes the yari shaft is consists of two pieces, just like the tsuka of a sword. What are the facts?

Got my three tsuba from Grey recently. Ordered another two including the ko-kinko which had a fabulous price.. These tsuba are just great. And great prices too. Thanks Grey :-)

Dear All, just to let you know - I have decided to put my money where mouth is and bought three of the tsuba from the collection. I am actually raising money to buy a fourth :-) I will certainly share my impressions when they arrive.

Yes, it does. But it is sometimes misleading. A large tanto, exceeding 30 cm is, technically speaking, a ko-wakizashi. But then again, it could be a sunnobe tanto or o-tanto.

Hi, 1. tosu were knives, not tanto. Never heard they were only womens' wapon...I think they were worn as a set. I think I can recall that Toshiro Mifune, who was playing Makabe Rukurota, a high ranking samurai general in "Hidden Fortress" by Kurosawa, was wearing several tosu, when ha was walking disguised as a peasant. Have a look here: http://books.google.pl/books?id=vFS2iT8 ... es&f=false 2. hamidachi refers to a type of mounting with a tsuba not much bigger than the seppa 3. aikuchi - type of mounting, no tsuba, with fuchi flush with the koi-guchi. 4. tanto - well, any short sword below 30 cm cutting edge was a tanto. It could be aikuchi, hamidachi, yoroi-doshi (armor piercer, refers to thicknes of the tanto), kaiken (short tanto worn mostly by women), etc... 5. katakiriha zukuri - a form of the blade (see: http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/styles.html) Hope that helps

Darcy, The fact that you own a Go Yoshihiro is mind-boggling (well, not really, knowing what treasures you handle). But your picture seems like trying to reflect the majestic beauty of a mountain by taking close pics of the rock it consists of. It might (or it might not) be interesting to metallurgists (although I think they would prefer pics from an electron microscope). Still, very much appreciated :-) You might want to tell us a bit about this sword and its nie? It is on nihonto.ca, I think?

Dear Philip, you are too kind, thank you :-) I will try to make this blog fun to read and at least a little informative.

I am not exactly a specialist in shields, but I am pretty sure it is NOT Japanese and it is NOT old. Actually, it looks like a tourist souvenir made yesterday. Just my unqualified opinion....

Dear Richard, Dear Peter, thank you for your kind and encouraging words. It is a great feeling to have kind, helpful and knowledgeable people from whom you can learn so much. Without you, gentlemen, and without this Board and its members, I wouldn't be able to start at all.

Of course I cannot dream to reach the quality of Richard Turner's blog Kodogu No Sekai, but I have thought a nihonto/kodogu (mostly tsuba) blog for beginners might be interesting. I run this blog both in Polish AND in English. http://gomabashi.blogspot.com/ Please have a look and let me know what you think. Feedback would be greatly appreciated

I am a new membrr, BTW. Since yesterday

It is bent. So what? I would leave it as it is. Not a fatal flaw (at least that is what I think). I have bought a late Akasaka tsuba which was slightly bent and I have never regretted it. Maybe the NMB experts would like to elaborate?

OK, here is the solution to tsuba 3. Yes, it has been cut down to its current size - you can see that parts of the mimi have been removed and the tsuba has been reshaped into mokko-gata (it used to be maru-gata). Then, look at the ko-sukashi - it is damaged on one side. It used to have the form of a pentagonal cherry blossom (a ka-mon), which is still visible in its middle section. My guess is that this tsuba has received a strong blow which has caused a contraction of the sukashi - you can see that some of the outlines are bent. Subsequently, a part of the damaged tsuba has been filed down, but the damaged ko-sukashi has remained unrepaired. Yes, the damaged sukashi is something one should see immediately. Well, I have not :-)

Here is an interesting picture of a tsuba affected with fire scale (courtesy of the JSSUS): http://www.jssus.org/nkp/fire_scale.html just look at the colour - it is greyish or blueish. The scale peels off.

I am not teaching, just sharing :-) Ford and others here can be teachers, I am just a student. As to the third tsuba - the nakago ana is OK, if you mean that the yose-tangane are deep, that is not a problem at all...

OK, here is another one that I regret to have bought. This one is easy, so you should identify what was wrong on right away :-) Still, an interesting case...

I agree it is not easy to recognise fire scale on that tsuba and as a matter of fact, I begin to doubt it was fire scale at all having read Ford's opinion. Fire scale is usually brittle and little flakes are discernible - nothing of that sort was present in this tsuba. It was the strange color which made me think it had fire scale. Besides, the tsuba had parts (mostly left side of the omote) which were very very hard - I couldn't even clean off the rust with a piece of bone there... Of course I may be wrong, maybe it was just heat-treated without the "molten surface" effect, hence the surface hardness... But it was so different form other late Edo Katchushi tsuba... the colour, the hardness... But if Ford says it has no fire scale, then it surely doesn't. Thank you Ford

Thanks for the answers, you have hit the nail on the head with the second tsuba. It was indeed cast, and my purchase is insofar a cautionary tale for beginners, as I was sloppy when looking at the pictures. I have ignored the signs of casting and the lack of decent color. I was buying form a seller who was usually selling decent and genuine kodogu. The first one is tricky, I agree, and perhaps it is not so easy (OK, it is almost impossible) to see the flaw in the pictures. The tsuba had firescale and the luster you can see in the pics resulted from this flaw rather than from a rich patina. You can see that this tsuba is shining, and that the shine is greyish? Well, that's it - that's the fire scale. It must have been in a fire for a short time, as the scale was thin and hard. This was definitely not yakite shitate (fire treatment at the end of the manufacturing process to give the tsuba a rich, molten look) as the color was really ugly - greyish, blueish, nothing like the deep, moist look of good patina. I think it really wasn't fair of me to post it, but at least it shows us all the perils of buying tsuba on eBay, judging its quality by pictures only (even if the photographs are in high-res). There are many honest sellers on eBay, and among them many people seling out of Japan. They have tonnes of low-grade or medium-quality items that find no buyers in the Japanese market. Some of this stuff has been in a fire like the first tsuba, some is rusted, pitted, stripped of patina, etc. It is almost a wholesale business and these sellers pay no attention to details. This was such a case. Now you can draw your conclusions. Philip, thanks again for your nice idea :-)

Philip, this one is extremely tricky, I wonder if anyone sees what is wrong with this tsuba. Photisgraphs are a very imperfect medium. No wonder that experts on this forum always point out how difficult it is to make an assessement wothout holding the item in your hands... Just for fun, here is an easy one

Good idea, Philip! Let us start then, here is one tsuba I have bought and regretted having done so. I have a couple more,so if your idea catches on, I am going to post them :-)

Dear John, sorry to reply with a delay - somehow I didn't see that you have added your attributions and that the thread was not closed :-) Many thanks for the valuable input - I have learnt something thanks to you and Marc One question - what makes you think the wachigai tsuba is modern? Not that I would disagree, but the patina on it is much deeper that on #3 (the undoubtedly-Owari tsuba). It is very dark, almost black, I cannot reflect this in my pictures... Maybe some other characteristics which betray its young age?

Henry, Steve, many thanks for your input. No doubt that this tsuba is gimei. I wouldn't expect a Yamakichi for the price I paid :D BTW, Steve's tsuba shows a wonderful patina and a very moist look, while Henry's looks a bit dry and my impression is late Edo Saotome (despite the molten mei). But then again, who am I to give an attribution... The rust spots on my tsuba seem only skin-deep, but they do exist. Patina does not indicate great age, but my untrained eye can be mistaken... Those plugs are a mystery... The yasurime seem very good quality to me... Shall we say - it is a late Edo revival piece woth a false mei added later?