Spartancrest

An altered colour image of Hotei - best I could do. M.308-1911 Tsuba, is made of brass with gold and silver decoration. It is a rounded oblong engraved in katakiri, a style of carving with a variety of line thickness and depth, with a design of Hotei, the god of prosperity, fording a stream, his bundle on his head, a fan inlaid in gold with a silver tassel in his hand. Before him go three Chinese boys, one, on the reverse, bearing his hat. The tsuba has a hammered-up edge and is irregularly faceted. Signed engraved by Shiryudo Mitsuoki [Otsuki School] Approx. length: 7.87cm Approx. width: 7.24cm Purchased from Yamanaka & Co. (127 New Bond Street, W.), accessioned in 1911.

They don't make it easy but I found all of them except for Hotei which the V&A don't seem to have a current image of - they can run but there is nowhere to hide! Some images are still very grainy. The Tiger tsuba in that image: https://collections..../O199603/tsuba-soyo/ M.20-1913 "This one is made of shibuichi, an alloy of copper and silver normally patinated to give a wide variety of colours from silver to brown as well as a range of greys. It is encrusted with a tiger and a leopard which are gold with shakudo stripes and spots. Shakudo is an alloy of copper and gold generally patinated to a rich black colour. Beneath the animals are tall bamboo, also of shakudo, touched with gold, and on the reverse is a second tiger and bamboos similarly rendered." Length: 8cm Width: 7.45cm signed Soyo, Yokoya school, probably ca. 1700-1800 M.465-1916 - YOKOYA Kozuka no other information. M.464-1916 - YOKOYA Kozuka no other information. M.463-1916 - YOKOYA Kozuka no other information. M.259-1911 - YOKOYA - Purchased from Yamanaka & Co. (127 New Bond Street, W.), accessioned in 1911.

Another more colourful example in the V&A https://collections..../item/O465753/tsuba/

there is an image plate 94 at the back of the book and the Hotei fording a stream tsuba was formerly from the Hawkshaw collection now in the V&A A round one in the by Ōtsuki Mitsuoki, 1766–1834 I just searched through 3,325 images in the V&A and they have not updated their records since this entry https://collections..../item/O187937/tsuba/ images from at least 100 years ago! This image taken from the Hawkshaw collection by Henri L. Joly 1910 [ catalogue number 2463 ].

I have been looking for this for some time - many types of nanako on the one tsuba. https://www.metmuseu...lection/search/35144 Unfortunately the museum does not have much information. Image has been lightened.

From Okan's sublime to ebay's shabby. strong design similarity with these two? I am sure this was not the intention of the thread but this is a display board of mine with some pretty common cloisonné tsuba on it.

Positive/negative manjimon

What sort of tsuba does the Wakizashi have?

I forgot I had this one!

I think you have found the culprit The texture and 'kao' on the seppa-dai, the eye and nose hole match - censer (kōrō 香炉) burner top. I even found a black one [image is too small for details]

Yes. It is called SEPPUKU. There is an instruction book in the downloads section Yum I feel like a snack!

It may have started out being on a display board or was made for a paperweight "Nambu tekki" cast iron souvenir, they were only meant to be seen on one side.

That's what I was thinking Christian, [you beat me to it - well I have to sleep sometime!] Urushi is a pain to clean off if anyone has tried, but the purists might say it adds to the history and should be maintained, I have seen the damage it can cause on Iron guards - not so much on kinko. Shocking Shingen tissue thin seppa-dai.

From an old thread https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/42301-constricted-nakago-ana/ Try fitting a blade into this squeezed nakago-ana!

Books are sold, thanks Clive.

Three cranes - easier to see when the cranes are looking to the right. The bird in the middle is skewered by the nakago-ana

Three general Samurai books for sale and one on weaponry with many examples of Japanese types. All are hardcover. [preferably as a job lot] $60 AU. the lot + Shipping See image for Amazon and ebay prices - they are not including shipping fees.

Uwe they never just make one of anything, these type of snake tsuba are reasonably common. This coppery coloured one from the "Fine Japanese and Korean Art including Japanese Screens from The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Simone and Alan Hartman Collection of Japanese Art Part II" https://www.bonhams....th-and-19th-century/ One in the V&A https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O461256/tsuba-zuiryuken-terutomo/tsuba-zuiryūken-terutomo/ Ashmolean museum has two https://jameelcentre...ction/8/object/21543 https://jameelcentre...ction/8/object/21544 Met - https://www.metmuseu...lection/search/28482 - never mounted - Inscribed on the reverse: 水府住一柳軒友壽刀 Suifu-jū Ichiryūken Tomotoshi horu (Carved by Ichiryūken Tomotoshi, resident of Mito) Old thread here The inevitable FAKES https://www.ebay.com/itm/314125213484 https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/204979008025 https://www.aliexpre...gatewayAdapt=glo2usa - TRASH! https://www.etsy.com...387aeb1%3A1290205401 - mounted TRASH! https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/204956011110 - mounted TRASH! The Walters museum has a snake wrapped around the saya https://art.thewalte...des-5112691-5112695/ but the images are rather poor. However I have never seen a koshirae as good as the one you have, and I have no doubt your tsuba is genuine and top of the line.

This is what passes for a tsuba on Yahoo /Jauce - and probably some escutcheon salesman's catalogue! Who's a pretty boy then? https://www.jauce.com/auction/u1152194818 Hey you get a free Kiri box with it Reminds me of these machine dial plates that were sold as "tsuba" [I wonder if they came from some WWII aircraft dial? - would at least have some story value!]

From Markus Sesko's book "Encyclopedia of Japanese Swords" pages 315 - 316 nanako (魚子) – Nanako means literally “roe.” In earlier times, many different characters were used for nanako, like (魶子), (七子), (粟子), or (鉾子) but these passed out of use. Nanako was frequently applied by specialized craftsmen, the so-called nanako-uchi (魚子打ち) or nanako-maki (魚子蒔き). According to the Japanese nomenclature, nanako is “beaten” (utsu, 打つ) or “sown” (maku, 蒔 く ). For this, specially made nanako chisels (nanako-tagane, 魚子鏨) were used. According to the arrangement of the “grain,” we know different terms for nanako surfaces, like Tatsuta-nanako (竜田魚子, horizontal nanako which resembles the Tatsuta-gawa [竜田川] in Nara), gunome-nanako (互の目魚子, wavy nanako), daimyō-shima-nanako (大名縞魚子, nanako where between each row of grain a polished row is applied), or shaka-nanako (釈迦魚子, very coarse nanako). Nanako was mostly applied to fittings made of shakudō and sometimes also to shibuichi and suaka surfaces, and we know examples by Tanaka Kiyotoshi (田中清寿) who applied nanako also to iron. As you can see there are single or multiple punches that were used.

Just carrying on from the previous post I just noticed a "new" fake been added to the huge list! Though the colours are not even close to what you would expect, the design is one that many of us are familiar with [I call it the "Tea room window"] You can compare the design to the numerous other "real" examples. The makers of the fake have done a pretty good job of the design - and a bloody awful job of the paint work!

Just a smaller list from Bonhams of the tsuba [and a few other things] https://www.bonhams..../search/?query=tsuba For me the most telling aspect of spotting fakes is they tend to turn up in significant numbers, but you have to spread your searches over a lot of sites and need a good memory for recurring "faces". The makers of these things can also get very creative and issue several colour types or even make them in different alloys - they then hope you will buy the other version because it can't be a fake if it is different can it? [Answer: Oh yes it can!] These examples below should be obvious to anyone [even the visually handicapped! ] Also you should never judge a tsuba by the signature - especially when it is cast in! Ps. these are shockers in more ways than one!

I haven't found an identical design yet . . . Could you show the other side of the guard? Or is it identical? You might get more responses if it was posted over on the Tosogu threads where the "tsuba people" hangout. I was toying with the idea it might be Sanmai construction but the raised seppa-dai would probably rule that out. I think the guard is not modern as such but might date back to pre-war?

A lot of movie names coming up!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:花菱_Hanabishi.png This is only one of many designs used as a Kamon - Family crest. Not at all sure this is the correct one used on your tsuba. Pity about the damage to the very fine elements in the Mon design, one almost completely gone. It is said that there are 20,000 to 30,000 types of Japanese family crests!