Antti

Thank you so much Chrstian for your input. I am glad to hear my first purchase was not a total failure! More info from the Tsuba and the maker. I will also supply a picture of the papers. Mei: Toshichiku Size: 7,79 x 7,16 x 0,51cm Jidai: Edo period Meiwa Era Few things from Aoi Art papers (sic). Toshichiku was called Masaoki and real name was Iemon. At kyoho era, he was born at Takeya family's son. His family accompanied with Oda Nobunaga at Muramachi period. He got a job from Tokugawa family treatment 5 Ninbuchi (master of 5 person), and also he liked to make tsuba. At the time he was well known polisher. ------------------ Thanks Geraint for your input as well. So the the marks are made to... umm, how to say this, to "stretch" the steel a bit to make it fit. Interesting! And yes I have contracted this disease, which is frightening. As I wrote to the new member introduction section, I fear this new interest will guarantee I will stay broke forever, and the scary thing is, I dont even care.

Greetings everyone! I am new to this forum, and already made more formal introductions in the new member introduction-chain. But as I think this part of the forum will be my new home, just wanted to say hello to every one of you. If I may start with a few questions. 1. Do you use some kind of a digital microscope to observe/photograph the finer details of a tsuba, or do you find a magnifying glass or a nice camera/scanner to be enough? The other two questions are about my first tsuba. I added the picture as an attachment. The flash used in my friends camera makes it look really weird. 2. What is the mark left below the Nakago-Ana, in the Seppa Dai, , about 1mm deep. Ive often seen alterations on the edges of the Nagako-Ana, and seki gane on the top and the bottom, but this mark is outside the bottom edge. Ive seen this mark on one other tsuba I saw for sale some time ago. 3. The tsuba has NBTHK Hozon papers, attributing it to Toshichiku, Edo-period, Meiwa era. Akasaka style. Now he was a sword polisher, and Ive read about sword makers tsuba, armorers tsuba and mirror makers tsuba but how common is it for a polisher to make tsuba? Also, if you fine people would care to comment on the tsuba I would appreciate it, I am sure I have missed something. As I said the flash we used made it look really ugly, the true color is dark blue/grey. Ive skimmed through about 40 pages of topics in the Tosogu-section, and as it is customary for a newbie to buy horrible tsuba, let me have it. The tsuba wasnt that expensive, and I really just wanted something that I can actually hold in my hand and observe. Thanks in advance!

Greetings everyone! My name is Antti, a 29-year old enthusiastic novice hailing from Finland. For about 6 months, Ive been extremely interested in Japanese antiques, especially tosogu, tsuba in particular. For some time now, Ive been reading this forum for quite a bit, observing the conversation as a "fly in the roof", as we Finns say, and now decided finally to hop in. I am not a native speaker of english, so please try to tolerate my rather inelegant use of this beautiful language. Ive always been interested in military history, the second world war in particular, and Ive spent some 15 years reading and studying the subject. About nine months ago I noticed something. No matter what books I bought, I rarely found anything new and interesting. It just seems that without going into too much detail, the subject just wasnt revealing too many interesting new things. Therefore I wanted to try something different. Ive always found the age of the samurai interesting, so I ordered a couple of books. After reading them, I seemed to get even more enthusiastic about it, especially the fine swords. So I ordered another batch of books, this time about the swords. After that, more books have found their home in my bookcase, and the subject simply captivated me. I find the swords magnificent, and will one day own one, but its the koshirae, especially the tsuba that really caught my eye. Then I saw Ford Hallam's Katsuhira's Tiger-video, about 20 times for that matter, and was awestruck. I dont know what is it in these wonderful objects that capture my imagination and stimulate my sense of awe. Neither do my friends or family. The scariest thing is, I dont think I even care to know. Ive never been able to appreciate art for arts sake. Paintings are very nice, but I never found them too compelling. I love art that has a practical application, and the Nihonto and Tosogu are wonderful examples of that. For now I only have one single tsuba, but hopefully I will have another before the end of this year. My main problem is, as usual, money. Im a student, currently working on my thesis work for my second degree, and, as expected, I am poorer that Poor-Jack McPoor, the winner of last years mr. Poor Man- competition. I also feel this new interest of mine will be a wonderful way to be broke forever. The scariest thing is, I dont know if I even care. Thank you for letting me into the forum!