Antti

Hi all, Just wanted to give a quick review of Tanto I acquired through NMB. The "For Sale" topic has been removed since the item was sold so I wanted to share my positive experience with you here. The seller was Thomas, who runs the site http://www.japanesesword.de/ He is known as "tom" in the Forums. The service was very quick, the price excellent. The item was posted right after the transfer was made and the item arrived nicely packaged. The item was just as advertised and just like in the photos. All in all a very pleasurable transaction with a seller that was very easy to deal with.

http://www.nihonto.us/YOSHIOKA%20TERUTSUGU%20TSUBA.htm This one?

Wonderful set! Do you have an idea what school they are from? Yoshioka? Late Goto?

Thank you for your comments. Axel, I've been thinking about papering but then again Ito Mitsuru is THE expert when it comes to Higo so I will probably give it a pass. I dont feel comfortable papering something for the sake of papering. I am sure it is the same tsuba from the book.

Hi gents, I have been watching this forum fairly closely but havent really written anything for a good while. After 9 months of scraping my pennies together I have managed to get something nice which I'd like to share with you. And I do know the pictures are not great. Shodai Kanshiro Size - 76 x 74 x 3,5mm Material - Shakudo plate with inlay in gold Theme - Design of Ivy It is unpapered but published by Ito Mitsuru, Works of Nishigaki Kanshiro, tsuba #64

The tsuba is this one? http://www.nihonto.us/SHIBUICHI%20TSUBA.htm Lovely. I wonder who was the smith behind it...

Thanks for the comments. I think it is the brown background that gives the tsuba that brown hue. In hand the patina is more grey than brown, but it's not very dark. I did not use flash and the northern lights werent there when I took the photos. And there have been spectacular northern lights on few nights this fall by the way. I took some shots with flash to bring out the detail on the carving.

Thanks for the pics Daniel. What are the dimensions of your example? It looks smaller.

That Nidai Kanshiro is to die for by the way.

There are plenty of Owari tsuba left, it is not that. It just happens to be a particularly pleasing example. The fact that it is not signed is not important. Plenty of masterpieces are unsigned and plenty of rubbish tsuba are signed. Whether a tsuba has a signature or not makes no difference. Owari tsuba in general are unsigned. A good tsuba is a good tsuba. Why the high price? Well the easy answer is because the good people in Tsuruginoya think someone will pay that sum for it. And somebody just might.

Hello gents, If anybody's wondering, I am still very active in this hobby although I have not been commenting much. I still keep reading all the topics but I've been getting great help from few experienced collectors so I havent found the need to pester you with endless questions. I've acquired a few tsuba since my last topic, and wanted to make a topic about my most recent one. Again I am looking for opinions and impressions. Also the Hozon papers only give it to Nishigaki, so if you have an idea who might be the master behind it, I would be most interested to hear. I've heard that NBTHK is very conservative when giving out Higo-attributions, and only the school is usually mentioned. And here goes: Size: 7.95 cm x 7.34 cm x 0.51 cm Weight: 98.7g Material: Steel with shakudo pillows on hitsu ana Papers: NBTHK Hozon to Nishigaki Theme: Tomoe with Kiri-Mon. The shape is irregular. I've attached a few photos and also one with a Kamiyoshi I recently acquired for comparison. The Nishigaki is on the larger size.

http://www.nihonto.com/5.10.12.html Here is a very nice Tokobetsu papered Teruhide for you. Yours for meagre 21000$.

Some more tsuba with nice Nanako:asd Yoshioka-school, famous for their Nanako. http://www.nihonto.us/YOSHIOKA%20TERUTSUGU%20TSUBA.htm http://world.choshuya.co.jp/sale/tousougu/a/a098/index.htm Yanagawa-school: http://tetsugendo.com/images/kodogu/FT-256_Yanagawa_Naoharu_Tsuba_1200a.jpg And welcome to this fine hobby.

http://www.e-sword.jp/tousougu.htm On the bottom, Tokobetsu Yagyu.

I have to congratulate you for the sale. Getting these sold at all is an achievement in itself. Nothing desirable to my eyes. Some are in bad condition.

Greetings gents, I've had this question in my mind for a while and thought it would be a good idea to bring it into the forum. When a newbie, or a friend of mine or whoever trys to find information about a subject, Wikipedia is usually the first place they go to. When it comes to tsuba, Wiki only has a small passage in the main article "Japanese sword mountings": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_sword_mountings#Tsuba Unlinked to the that there are smaller articles on some schools like Umetada and Shoami: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umetada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoami I for one think that the Tsuba deserves a larger, independent article and smaller articles on other schools too. Perhaps short articles about the most famous smiths as well. Given the importance of Wikipedia it might also be a good way to condense information from countless books into a universal format for our enjoyment. Alas, my computer skills when it comes to making webpages or programming are lacking to say the least. So I am simply throwing this idea out there, and if there are plenty of people who agree with me about the need for such an article, perhaps something will happen. What do you think?

I think it is a very nice piece. As Brian said it has excellent Nanako. All in all a nice purchase and a solid piece.

New moon themed Umetada tsuba with Tokobetsu Hozon papers: http://www.seiyudo.com/tu-130515.htm

THAT is what I call a comprehensive answer.

Please keep us informed Grey!

Instead of covering vast amounts of tsuba, I would like to see less tsuba but in greater detail, with large color pictures and more in depth knowledge. A storage device containing high resolution pictures for a closer look could be included.

http://www.tsuruginoya.com/mn1_3/b00081.html This is similar enough.

Andrew Quirt has had this one for a while: http://www.nihonto.us/CROW%20AND%20MOON%20TSUBA.htm For high end needs this spectacular Akasaka Tadashige one: http://tetsugendo.com/kodogu/T-136_Tadashige.html I also acquired a tsuba recently with a theme of moon reflections on ride paddies. http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/15908-new-year-new-forum-new-tsuba/ It is not for sale, but just give you ideas.

What! No... cant be. I just met him in January... this is most shocking news. I only had the chance to meet him twice, but it was immideately apparent how welcoming he was towards a newbie like me. He taught me a lot, helped me during my first steps into this hobby and was all around a great guy. Rest in peace VP...

Thank you mr. Stiles and mr. Klein for you comments. Ive attached some descriptions from the book: Shinsa would just be a matter of interest. I adore the tsuba, no matter whoever really crafted it. To see a NBTHK attribution would be interesting, although what I would really love is to hear Ito Mitsuru's opinion. I am just concerned that it might receive Hozon to "Higo" paper that would be a complete waste of money. It was my first kinko piece and opens a completely new world for me. It wont be the last. I just realised that out of the 5 tsuba that I own, 2 are Akasaka and the rest are non-affiliated when it comes to schools, and every one of the three combines different schools when it comes to style.