Spartancrest

One in the Met says Bushu. Masayoshi (正義), first name Sadashichi (定七), was an Edo-based artist active at the end of the 18th century who had studied with the Masakata (正方, ?-1774), the third master of the local Bushū-Itō (武州伊藤) School. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/25746 Just going by the star shape flower head [top of the seppa-dai] they look darn close to me. Bushu x 2?

What I thought - there is so much overlap between the two that it is very hard to tell without a signature. Thanks very much.

I am interested to know which school this guard may have originated from - I don't have much information from the auction site.

Thank you Curran, glad it isn't 'Tacky' Kanagushi like my wife thinks! Wow I just had a look at Nihonto.com $48,500 is in a different financial universe to the one I live in! PM me if you like and I will tell you what I paid for mine!

Thank you all - indeed I would love to hit the books, but so few are in English [or German] the only ones I can read. So Kanshiro is out, who is in? I too don't think my guard has great age, utsushi of who or what? I did have an image of yet another with the identical fukurin, in that case there was a slightly raised central plate both sides with conventional nami (wave) engraving, the thin (shakudo) plates were riveted at the seppa-dai in sanmei fashion. [unfortunately the image is now missing from my database] Whatever they are, they are all linked by the style of fukurin (odawara?) I just came across this image - same fukurin

I am always worried when I see tagane-ato around the nakago-ana and no movement of metal into the hole, the lack of any seppa 'shadow' can also be of concern except if the piece were for 'presentation' - but why would a presentation guard have tagane-ato?

Yas what do you think of this? https://www.eldreds.com/auction-lot/inlaid-iron-nade-gaku-hokei-tsuba-by-sekizan.-dep_75E43C99FB/ I believe someone was really burnt with the price paid on this very common copy. [My pet hate] Auction house should be ashamed.

I think they used much better technology than the old picture! They are made of steel rather than iron but they do pop up in copper and brass. That one with a fukurin is the first I have seen. I have one myself with an inlaid silver 'Moon' and a hitsu-ana cut in, so there may have been some embellishing going on as well - 'gold' overlay etc.

Many years ago I posted an interesting guard that I had just purchased - it was almost universally thought to be a modern cast fake [it is certainly not cast] Today I have found another attributed to Kanshiro Nishigaki (I) copper with identical fukurin in brass. https://www.jauce.com/auction/h556950818 The one I have, has enameled plates either side over a copper core. [I did at the time think the base plate was iron but it is non magnetic, so copper or Shibuichi?] I am wondering at what the board will think this time? [ I will be watching the auction with great interest]

One with an added fukurin in the same week https://www.jauce.com/auction/x777616974 They look like they are punched out like big coins! These are nearly as common - I got caught with one about five years ago, bought from Poland - so they get around! https://www.jauce.com/auction/f512871912

This one is like an old friend [not] https://www.jauce.com/auction/e516816626 Whomever made it has figured you only need one side of the design. Rather than struggle to compare the images at a slope I have straightened them up. From a cheap display board perhaps? Would not fool a monkey!

Mauro thank you so much for those examples - it really does seem everyone made a version of the design! I may not have enough room to include all the possibilities

Thanks John I know it was a big ask getting attributions from pictures, the museum's lack of thickness dimensions is also a handicap. I have since stumbled on another example of no. 8 in the A.H. Church collection in the Ashmolean museum Oxford. That one is described as Satsuma [EAX.10756] perhaps everyone made an example! Also this one {very grainy picture} described as Satsuma from an auction Sotheby's 2001 abalone on drying rack. If I give both attributions people can make up their own mind - for me the image is often more important than assigning a school, because there are so many cross-over designs. Even a signature is no guarantee because of the number of forgeries.

John Higo was a good lead for 8 https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/higo-tsuba-sword-guard/3QLyDIAlN6VZLg Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art (The Ideta collection) it is all out there it's just a matter of knowing where to start looking. http://www.shibuiswords.com/haynesTsu78.html Not too different drying rack by SAKURA YAMAKICHIBEI but not close enough.

The museum has it as Yamashiro no kuni Nishijin ni sumu Umetada Anyway why is he stealing a Kinai design? https://www.catawiki.com/l/15451427-iron-sukashi-tsuba-dragon-echizen-kinai-Japan-17th-18th-century

Yes it is the same guard and the Cleveland museum collection is what I am working on. - Makes it a bit difficult with two pronunciations - I will include both, thanks for the information. I was a bit taken aback by what I had always seen as Kinai dragon tsuba with signatures ascribed to Umetada in the museum, I am hopeless at reading mei. What is your opinion on this signature.

Sorry John yes it is one of the very few with a signature Hokuunsai Mitsutomo at least that is the museums take on it. Even enlarged it is difficult to make out.

I am trying to get some general attributions for a number of tsuba missing information in a museum collection I am forming into a book. Whilst I can hazard a guess with some I am not entirely confident that a guess is good enough to go into print. Any help with identifying schools or styles would be appreciated. [let me know if you would like to be included in the credits, otherwise I will list as "Assistance from members of the "Nihonto Message Board"]

Piers that link has some seriously weird characters! I have found another guard in the Metropolitan collection. "The obverse of this tsuba shows the relief of a Hyottoko mask and a broken fan and the reverse a closed fan. Hyotokko is a clown-like Japanese stock character which is potrayed through the use of a mask. He is depicted on this tsuba in the traditional way, i.e. with asymmetrical eyes and wearing a scarf around his head." Not sure if I agree the object on the ura is a closed fan, once again it looks more like a truncheon? I am inclined to think with the similar layout that the ugly man probably is Hyottoko - The Cleveland Museum from where the original post image came from, has no idea about the theme either. I think I might include Hyottoko in the new book with a big ?

Can anyone hazard a guess as to who or what this strange man could be? And what the object on the ura might be as well? Thanks in advance.

I am going to cry - everyone has a better example than me! Seriously nice gear guys! Curran those eyes are scary, I hope I don't see you on 'Paranormal Caught on Camera'! https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9863048/

Peter you have given me a heart attack - I compiled a two volume book on the public domain tsuba in the Metropolitan Museum in 2019, now I see the museum is adding little pieces of information that were not available then [in this case the provenance] so looks like I have to go through about 800 items and update - oh joy! I do agree with you that four alloy surfaces is very rare, there are quite a few with different colour plates each side, the Met has several, but not four on the one guard.

That auction says "rare item" - not rare enough, someone paid very much over the value of that cast fake. Check the nakago-ana with the ones in my picture - identical. My pictures are at least five years ago, and I have seen plenty more since. Yas I would say the tattoo is even worse than the fakes.

Sorry I hope that post is fixed now. No I must admit there are no really good frog patterns - they make a lot of fakes though!

Yas you are the king of spotting fakes. I have to confess I do have a terracotta plant pot I am fond of. I have to show this - taking a hobby far too seriously - and why choose this design? [the tsuba is genuine I think, not one of the countless cast fakes] The tattoo, really bad fake! Are they 'Man Boobs' on the tattoo frog? And a belly button? - very anatomically WRONG!