Spartancrest

Grev When you get the book let me know any mistakes you can find, I am no expert but have opinions gained over a long time. If I know a mistake I can get the book fixed for the benefit of others. My biggest regret is that approx one third of the Met collection are under copyright so we all miss out on whats there [ and that is most of the really good stuff ] The book prices I get from Blurb are cheaper but postage is still a killer.

Ken Goldstein Well we don't have any tourists at all at the moment, that distillery is shut to the public at Burnie,[ Not Tassie's prettiest town. ] Lucky for me I don't drink - can't afford the brain cells! Did you pass through Latrobe in the North West? or Sheffield? [my old stomping ground] Is this a tourist thread?

Grev Boston V1? Metropolitan Museum you mean? Amazon is very confusing price wise they offer second hand editions of books that are not even printed yet!, Vol 2 should be cheaper than volume 1 it has slightly less pages, I bought my copies direct from Blurb.com who do my printing - found they have a better range of paper options and four or five print qualities - To keep price down on the theory that cheaper would make them more available to the many - went for economy printing. Would recomend looking at more book sale sites than Amazon they are not always the cheapest. I couldn't even afford my own books in hard cover, just as well, I had to fix a few spots before I listed them! Proof reading on a screen is hard work! Did not consider doing an electronic rendering of the Met book, why bother if you are on the computer just go to the Met on-line. I like reading in bed with the real thing in hand and its quicker to turn the page!

Stephen K I think they are a bit pricey but that is out of my control, the printer and distributor make all the cash - I do the work and get pennies, but I really only do it for fun and to spread some info, in English. I am sure the other authors [i prefer editor] don't publish for the money and they do a good job too. Marcus Sesko and Gary D. Murtha have some great reference books that I often go back to for information, written well and easy to take in.

Steven K. The book is one of my own ' Collected References .&. book of Utsushi'- This one not available to the general public because it contains some otherwise copyrighted articles 320 pages - could send a copy at print cost that way not making a profit - so does that constitute infringement? I mainly do books on tsuba - I think I am up to forty books by now. Not all out there on the book sites, though I think its about seven going at the moment. Mainly reworked out of copyright stuff some translated from German and French. In my humble opinion "Early Articles for Tsuba Study 1880 -1923" Enlarged Edition. is the most interesting, 390 pages with hundreds of B&W pictures. What is selling well for me right now is "Public Domain Tsuba in the Metropolitan Museum" a two volume edition of over 800 pages in colour. To keep the price within reasonable bounds most of my books are not printed on glossy paper - but I have the original layouts so can change that if needed. I have one book that I am unsure if I should release generally. "The Etiquette of Seppuku" that was originally published in1871 as a section in "Tales of Old Japan" by Lord Redesdale. It is only 30 pages but gives a first hand account of what he witnessed and several other accounts - what worries me is I don't want this out there as a 'How to do' book, some of it is very graphic. This is published in colour - with blood stained paper! Also have a three volume hard cover edition on the "Sir Arthur Church collection of tsuba in the Ashmolean museum Oxford "- on glossy paper with a title page disclaimer reading ' Not for general dissemination and solely for research purposes.' as a one off that I would sell at below cost. Approx 720 pages and contains over 1,200 tsuba in full colour. That one took me months to do! By saying that selling my books is 'going well at the moment' - the sales such as they are, help keep me in poverty, small market in a specialized field. This is all way of subject sorry. Roger d. I have a lot of images of what can only be termed mass produced guards, they look ubu but when you see 5, 6, 50 of them over time they start to stand out, I even have an instance where a Japanese site was selling a batch lot of one design [one I had had in the past - yes like everyone else I have been stung] even managed to offend an Italian 'expert' who had had his piece verified by a prominent European museum- he didn't like the evidence - while he was selling it for several thousand euro!

Roger D. My own suspicion is that most of the 'good' copies/fakes were made in Japan possibly as late as the early 20th century - and they must have really cranked them out! They had the skill and knew what features to include. You don't have to be an expert [whatever that means] to spot the huge number of Chinese fakes that continue to flood almost every auction site. I have in the past even notified some major international auction houses to let them know they are selling - poor and to me at least very obvious fakes, and to their credit some have removed them from sale or at least relisted them as copies. I have also been in contact with a few museums and showed them evidence that some of their pieces are cast copies [and hardly worth displaying as genuine to confuse the general public]. (Yes I have too much time on my hands) Museums like the Ashmolean and the V&A are good at replying but reluctant to change their listings - certainly not in any hurry. As an example of other copies and showing the [vast] difference between Japanese copies [not utsushi, one exception being a Shoami utsushi top left page 300] and the Chinese, see the illustration [taken from a self published book I made for my own better view ] The design is Soten school I think, but the pieces are not genuine. [Let me know if the image is hard to read.]

Grev. Thanks for that, found another up for sale/auction tonight in Japan with a Buy it now price 18,000 yen- think that gets me to 25 or 26 different images of all the same [if that makes sense.]

Axel I didn't know monkeys only had one side - is it the outside? Chris S. Given there are only 62 monkeys you need to factor in all their toes as well as their fingers - then you get 1240 - now 1240 is interesting because that was the year the Heike Monogatari (The tale of Heike) was compiled from unwritten traditional tales and variant texts composed between 1190 and 1221, gathered together probably by a scholar named Yukinaga, to form a single text. - Now you know just how bored I really am!

Just a general enquiry, but has anyone any evidence that any tsuba or fitting ever actually had 1,000 monkeys depicted on it? I have done some research and can't even find one with 100 on it - can't they count! As a fill in time exercise I have found one that looks very thick with monkeys and actually numbered them - not even close - 62 is a far cry from 100 and a long plane ride from 1,000. Any thoughts?

Grev So sorry to be the bearer of bad news, yes your guard is a typical copy. Almost all have an identical nakago-ana - though a few have casting spills at the top of the hole making it even narrower. I don't know how they were made so well so often! I assume the maker didn't have injection molding! The mei is sometimes blurry, worn or non existent - so possible multiple 'die' were used. I have mine before me as I write, they are certainly big bold and heavy! Just checked my records and found it cost me all of 23 yen [approx 25c] - postage and fees were most of the bill! Thats a bargain even for a paper weight. For others out there I have posted an image showing the main points to check out - I love this forensic stuff! Ps. Can I add the image of your guard to my ever increasing data base?

Brian I have seen some examples that are close to this design that were hand cut [ the one pictured is clearly in a league of it's own ], but I am just giving a caution on the large numbers that are copies. I have also seen a large number of what purport to be Hamano guards that are also copies - the difference with those being they are sometimes in different metals and some have iroe (colouring) but every one has the same simulated tagane-ato marks done with a Chysanthemum punch - the detailing is mainly good though some are very worn because of the soft nature of what-ever alloy was used. I watch with some alarm at some of the set prices on a few of these that reach into the thousands of dollars - especially since I purchased one for less than ten dollars [knowing full well it was a copy] I also know that there is one original or at least utsushi that is on the market now with N.B.T.H.K Hozon papers selling for ¥530,000 - which puts it out of my league! Some people may not like to know, that what they have are only copies - especially if they have paid big dollars, but equally others may be relieved they didn't 'invest' in a fake. I have plenty of other 'mass-copy' files on record.

This subject has been discussed previously as far back as 2011, but just a short update on the growing number of these "tsuba" to use a word very loosely. I have added an often neglected view showing the bottom edge where the giveaway casting marks are often found. Collectors should be made aware of these often high priced 'Paper weights'. I continue to collect images of these things as they continue to pop up, there are a few right now on auction sites so have a real close look when you buy.

Peter There is a real similarity with your example Italian [plate XVIII] and the thickened edges of the first new example. The finish of the edge is a bit plain though, when you consider the detail on both faces. And of course there is no cupping of the plate that I can see but as most Japanese cupped tsuba were mounted in an opposite direction to European guards - perhaps as a way of keeping dust out of the saya - pierced guards would let dust in, so why cup them anyway?

Peter I have the opinion that some of the guards you displayed are repurposed "European" pieces, those that have a re-cut tang hole (not nakago-ana) would never have been made with a square section cut-through if made in Asia / Japan for domestic purposes why would they? The sword blade tangs of Asian swords were not thin square cross-section like those of Rapiers and Foils from Europe. Is it reasonable that these tang holes would be put in just for show, when if mounted there is no way this could be seen? It is perhaps more reasonable to assume that if they were indeed made in Asia or Japan they were intended as guards for European weapons not Japanese at all. What we see are leftovers altered for Asian and Japanese swords. I believe we have been looking in the wrong direction at a lot of 'namban' guards. As an after thought can anyone tell me if 'namban' or 'nanban' is the correct spelling? You can Google both and get just about the same results. It may well be a time to call them what they really are - Asian export guards.

Bruno P. Did you buy it from Japanese Antiques.com ? Listed as 'Bushu', You have removed the the catalogue number I see. (I stole the image from them for my records) I like the kagome ategane (ume if you prefer) - One that got away! I notice one small detail that is different to the guards I have, the background is more like ishime rather than dot punched (I won't go as far as calling it nanako.) Let me know if the ura is the same or if I have trouble with my eyesight! PS. mine were lot cheaper.

Torrez No not sarcastic, but I should have checked the subject image (thanks Jean) I didn't even notice the toad!

Just purchased number six in this series - that's near half the worlds supply (well maybe, I've only found thirteen in 30yrs! )

Torrez Your Daruma guard sparked my memory, it is a fairly common theme used by some great artists. Found these two: First Signed Yasuchika (on Worthpoint.com), the second by Umetada (and listed on eBay now). With your Kaneie, what a set that would make!

Torrez I think Jeans assessment of the guards is spot on. No.1 I have seen a lot of, must be thousands of them out there. No.3 also fairly common - there is what could be a collection series in this type, there is one with a fat faced child sitting atop a emakimona (picture scroll) that has the same 'look' and is also very common. The Kaneie (Kaneiye) are a real mine-field nearly everyone has one, but they were one of the most copied and there are a great number of 'Kaneie style' - meaning they have similarities to the works of the three 'Kaneie' masters. There are lots of these that have the signatures added at a later date, difficult field!

There is a very similar tsuba for auction, The flowers in this case held in a basket. https://www.jauce.com/auction/r388661477.

to Torrez What is the tsuba made of - the images are a bit vague, looks like iron but I have seen alloy guards that 'patinate' to look like iron. Does the tsuba attract a magnet? The only metals that are magnetic are Iron, iron alloys eg. steel (generally not stainless steel), cobalt and nickel. I only ask to eliminate the idea that your guard is cast - a soft metal alloy can withstand the impact forming the punch marks evident on your guard, but not a cast iron one. Believe it or not every collector should at least have a magnet in their tool kit! Meiji may get a bad rap from some circles, (not a favourite of mine) but some very pretty works of art were made then. Depends if you collect works of art or practical (often brilliant) parts of a weapon, there is room for both.

Torrez I have been collecting tsuba for near on forty years - but that doesn't make me an expert - There were many copies of tsuba made late Edo through Meiji and beyond, some were 'Utsushi' this at the basic level means 'to emulate' a past masterwork. However many cast pieces were made and these often come in various 'grades' some castings are very detailed, others are poor blurred pieces of junk. A section of cast guards were reworked and some carvings added after they were cast to give more definition to the piece, this is called 'Izarae' to clear/clean a cast piece and finer carvings then applied. See "Handbook: Of Sword Fittings Related Terms" Markus Sesko - 2011. It is my belief that at the beginning of the Western interest in all things Japanese, the demand for tsuba was such that at first, copies were made in a traditional way but as time progressed it was found expedient to cast copies and rework them, however as demand decreased so to did the quality and effort put into these cast works. This in my opinion would explain a lot of variance with some common examples. I don't think your example is cast, the tagane-ato (punch marks around the nakago-ana) don't look cast-in and would likely break the seppa-dai if punched in cast iron. Sorry to disagree with Jean C.

Ian C Nice - but you can see how fast this thing is spreading! 'Disinfectant' Dale

Richard George Hey that's a nice example, strong signature - not seen one before that is signed, Maybe we can trace the source of infection ! ☣ Same tsuba - different auction site. https://www.jauce.com/auction/c811784911 PicClick (Think these two were in close contact !) best bio-security ! Tasmania ☣

Alexsadr That one looks like it has mutated - getting scary. Lucky we have closed our borders so it can't get in!