stefanbrett

Gentlemen, could anyone please add a complete translation for these characters? Regards, Stefan

Gentlemen, thanks for your judgements. Any more ideas about the nakago ana? And anyone who knows something more about that strange markings "KK" or whatsoever (Christian marked them in the pics)? Cheers!

Thanks Sebastien! My friend also said it is a cast one, but he assumed it would not be a modern or copy one as he said that kind of patina would definitely not be seen on modern ones. Anyway, thnanks for your input, hope there are more opinions out there.. Stefan

Dear all, I am very new on nihonto message board with my knowledge being very little. Inspired from a trip to Tokyo and a Japanese friend, I got interested in Japanese sword history and read a couple of books, however didnt buy anything. Just recently, I ran into that friend again who asked me whether I would like to have this Tsuba as attached. He originally got it on a market in Shizuoka. I like it as it shows a nice landscape with a horse and a tree. I am just curious to get more information about the story this Tsuba took. He said it is probably a imono Tsuba. Maybe you could let me know some more details about the meaning of this landscape, about the origin and the era it has been built? Especially the markings “KK” (or XK, or XX?), which are included into the upper middle of this Tsuba confuse me a lot. I have never seen mentions about western letters in any Japanese sword art so I am surprised and wonder if you know where they come from or what they mean? I attached three pictures and hope this could help you in judging the tsuba a bit more. The dimensions are as follows: Width: 7.5 cm Length: 8.0 cm Length sword hole: 2.5 cm Length kozuka and kogai hole: 1.7 cm each Thanks a lot in advance for your opinions! Regards, Stefan