Spartancrest

Please please Santa I would really like this for Christmas! https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/miyao-a-fine-parcel-gilt-bronze-okimono-of-a-tsub-12-c-9dfc5ad8c7

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/an-extraordinary-and-large-lacquer-'sword-fitting-203-c-d594166dbd Got a cool $10,000 to $20,000 USD to spare?

An interesting take on the design please note the fan sukashi has been enlarged for kozuka or kogai. A little crudely executed? https://www.jauce.com/auction/1123954297

Wow! A rare CARVED namban double dragon tsuba - so many of this design are cast pieces - very nice indeed!

I think the tsuba, O-seppa and seppa just need soap and water - don't go overboard, the patina is best left intact. There may be traces of lacquer on the edges? You might need an ito specialist [Tsukamaki] to do a rewrap of the tsuka.

One going to auction now! https://www.jauce.com/auction/b1193004897 it looks a little older but probably still Edo? You know what I say "never just one!"

Two almost identical other than the nakago-ana: One in the Met. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/35193 what I find odd is the shape of the Met's example nakago-ana, too sharp for its age and little to no wear? https://eirakudo.shop/tosogu/tsuba/detail/324249/ a papered piece as Katchūshi I also see these on some auction sites - makes me think many are Edo revival pieces.

All aboard !

Coca, the Japanese daimyo drug Lords?

https://www.jauce.com/auction/t1229781619

A similar cloisonne guard selling at auction now : https://www.jauce.com/auction/x1229777805 starting at 150,000 yen. By the time fees are added in - this is approaching $1,000 USD

Well I got you all talking! Heck it was just a suggestion - I would like to buy a few of them myself! Not that that would be any guarantee they would survive forever. What is the consensus of splitting up collections? They never "go back together again" do they? + Curran - do you want me to name the prestigious Universities and Museums? There is a long list!

I did spot one cast copy and possibly two guards made for replica tachi mounts. The rest are looking OK and there are one or two I would like myself! Just a suggestion, but as we are really just temporary custodians of these things - any thought of donating them to a local museum? Along with the story of how they were found would add local value to them and keep them together. [Like I say just a suggestion]

Other patterns: https://www.jauce.com/auction/f1229523918 https://tsubashi.com/product/katchushi-style-tsuba/ https://tsubashi.com/product/signed-katchushi-style-tsuba/ and this one with no borders https://tsubashi.com/product/a-fine-saotome-tsuba/ [I am not confident with the sellers attribution ] - but he has found the ishime term - chirimen-amidayasuri

Hi Kin, welcome to NMB. Sorry to say I find a couple of "ODD" features with this tsuba. There is an impossible sword strike mark on the omote side above the hitsu and across the seppa-dai - - impossible because such a strike would need to cut longitudinally through the blade, unless the tsuba was struck whilst dismounted [In which case why would there be a defensive strike?] Also the hitsu is well outside the seppa-dai and would not serve the purpose of slotting a kozuka or kogai into the saya - unless the saya was massively thick. Combine this with the tagane-ato on both sides of the tsuba being identically placed, as a rule punch marks tend to be on one face with occasionally extra when one side is beaten too thin. The odd divots on the seppa-dai where the signature is engraved don't add up either. The indented pattern over the surface is a fast and sloppy way of trying to look like nanako. So for me it is a tourist piece as Jean has said or maybe a paperweight. I will keep searching and see if I can find others like it.