Spartancrest

One just like it sold a week ago - small world! Is anything truly unique? https://www.jauce.com/auction/s1149942830

They should have named that team the "Pensioner brigade". Great actors in a not so great movie. [ the youngsters would never have seen it]

I am going to start charging finders fees! The one I have on record could be the one you now have? https://www.easylive...t-carpets-ru-lot-28/ Auction Date: 12th Nov 2022 No dimensions.

Gendai? see Post August 17, 2022

There is a similar Wangata in the Ashmolean museum shallower cup and two piercings later filled with silver. Two suhama ("sand-banks", three-lobed devices forming the badge of the Sanada) EAX.10158 http://jameelcentre....ection/7/10237/10344 I like the vermillion red lacquer on the ura. [PS good luck finding the ura image on-line. Why do museums like to hide things?]

I like the London sale 2014 better than the ebay one.

No way do I know even 10% Hizen for sure. Well 90% Check the outline of the seppa-dai - pretty close style. At first sight that Kappa and Oni has a lot of Jakushi influence to it. The way the gold nunome looks like a rubbed wash. but Jakushi don't have such an extensive range of colour inlay and the seppa-dai are not "highlighted" or raised as far as I know? Perhaps the image Jake has is a little harder to make out the details.

Ebay sale? https://www.ebay.com/itm/156363421734 I have seen the twisted wire inlay "vines" before on a few tsuba but I can't track down those images at the moment - not much help with the signature. Nobumitsu (written: 信光) is a masculine Japanese given name. The kanji look pretty close to me. PS. Mercari has it at half the price of ebay https://jp.mercari.com/item/m48220885862 And please Cornelius saw it first!

1st generation 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 2nd generation 2, 4, 9, 10

Do Chickens count as "Wild things"? I like this little guard because the hen manages to disappear on the ura side.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/387325793378

Well I think it is an obvious warning - Keep your pine bark out of the stormwater drains!

Thanks Piers that search led me to find this. Supper cool guard! Many crosses there, but not a Christian in sight!

Not an uncommon type of design. I think you could get a nice "Christian tanto guard" out of this 2,000 yen buy! [I hope not though!]

Australia [the continent where everything would like to kill you! ] has some large centipedes as well - they are very friendly and will come right up to you [so run!] https://australian.m...des/giant-centipede/ Australasian Giant Centipede Ethmostigmus rubripes

I wonder why the mice are often shown with spotted coats? - Wild mice are usually uniform in colour, pet mice often have a spotted or patched coats - are these "pet portraits"? They look like they had really big rat problems in the past! https://collections.mfa.org/objects/27594

I do like the odd tsuba shapes that turn up from time to time and have built up over fifty kawari-gata guards. So at first I was highly delighted to see this guard turn up at auction. https://www.jauce.com/auction/b1150937496 However the pattern sparked a memory of another guard, maru in shape with small sukashi squares cut into the Heianjo plate. I found a maru version [albeit with larger squares] and you can work out where some bright [or not so bright] person has removed portions to end up with the cruciform shape. There are details that show where the cuts have been made even though there is considerable patina covering the cut surfaces. In my own nomenclature I call these "Forced - Kawari" as they never started out in this shape. We have seen a few other "Forced-Kawari" in a few other threads.

You are right but it is a centipede I think. https://historyofjapan.co.uk/wiki/seta/ I am not sure what the centipede has to do with the lotus sutra, but it does have a big place in Japanese folklore. Bishamon and the centipede 蜈蚣 or 百足 – Bishamon’s messenger is the centipede or mukade. In the "Handbook of Japanese Mythology" by Ashkenazi it says: “Centipedes are impure, polluted animals associated with the dead.” On the Seta bridge Otohime met Fujiwara Hidesato (Tawara Toda). Him she recognised at once as the hero sent by the gods to free Omi from the frightful terror. Him she implored to kill the mukade, to which he assented. The same evening the hero arrived at the foot of the Mikamiyama where he perceived the large body of the centipede twined round the mountain in seven coils. The eyes of the horrible being burnt through the semi-darkness like two flaming moons. The intrepid hero shot four arrows in rapid succession at the mukade but in vain, not one of them pierced the armour, all rebounded from the steellike Seeing this he, on Otohime’s advice wetted the head of the fifth with his spittle — human spittle is popularly believed to be fatal to snakes, centipedes and creeping things in general — shot, and with this last arrow pierced armour and body of the centipede. The next morning it was found dead at the foot of the mountain. Deeply grateful Otohime took Hidesato as a guest to her father’s palace. The dragon-king awarded him suitably with a costly bell of bronze, a never ending bolt of brocade, an inexhaustible bag of rice and a kettle that even without fire always held boiling water.

This design is one of my pet "hates" - they constantly appear, some like the auction piece at horrendous prices. Plain ones, coloured ones and in two sizes, but the details are always the same. I do/did? have an image of one that was mounted and it could well have been the original - but you would need to see it in hand to be sure. The "bulk buy" image is a real scream! Found the mounted example [I keep everything but that doesn't mean I can always find it again!] [I even found the original link - https://new.uniqueja...h-navy-seal-trident/ ]

That link is not working for me Peter [sold Jun 14, 2024] - But I tracked down the image. On another issue the same Auction house [and others that are linked ] has this "thing" listed https://www.zacke.at...&sd=0&pp=96&pn=1&g=1 I do hope no one has put money towards this mass produced piece of junk! You can confidently disregard all the BS description except note in the lot details - 20th century. Yet the artist is listed as living 1722-1787!!!

That would be an understatement! For those who can't visualise the sword size - here is one I prepared earlier 1447 to be exact.

From this site originally? https://www.samurai-...723/109724/list.html https://commons.wiki...ishi_ni_Oni-zuta.svg One with a bird and jumbled Matsukawa-bishi [logo of https://tsuba.info/ ] Owari school - no karigane [birds] Akasaka school - no karigane [birds]

Probably way off here but the hitsu shape reminded me of a Tibetan/Burmese Buddhist ritual gong. I am not at all sure if something similar is in the Japanese list of ritual implements?

Strange it works for me? It looks like a Japanese blog site - probably not much information anyway.

https://japaneseclass.jp/trends/about/金鍔次兵衛 same guard the kanji a little easier to see.