Spartancrest

Paris [Kantaro] has shown me the opposite side of his Heianjo guard which from the tagane marks, top and bottom of the nakago-ana, would indicate it was the omote side. This side has much more damage and wear to it - suggesting to me that this side took the impacts from an opponents practice sword, meaning the guard was mounted the wrong way around when altered. Not that it matters very much but that is just an observation. [and may be wrong!] https://www.jauce.com/auction/u1161061203 - A repurposed Shoami - Little expensive for the condition. It looks like no particular type or school of guard was preferred and anything old and perhaps out of fashion could be re-cycled. [I note there is only one hitsu so it must have been attached some other way than what I have proposed]

I am sure there is some law against that now! [I hope you are not a "groomer"]

Lots of these getting about - some much worse.

V&A M.116-1924 https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O465295/tsuba/ NARA is the full extent of the information!

https://spencerartapps.ku.edu/collection-search#/search/works/1928.2426 It is a Museum ! - another that doesn't go out of it's way to give any information, not even a rough size! I have a feeling I saw another like it in the V&A they sometimes have a little information [not much] but as they have around 3,300 guards to search through it might take me an hour to find it.

Whilst I find the first two "masks" cringeworthy, I am very much taken by the two mempo designs - Eye of the beholder - define cringeworthy? There would be plenty of cringeworthy subjects depicted on tsuba - I like this "Freddy Krueger" Daruma rendition. [The tsuba image is poor but I found a drawing of it, which is much clearer] I can find a great many truly ugly "tsuba looking things" - ie. cast fakes for unwary tourists, but as Hamfish has made clear these would not really count as they are not really tsuba. [JMHO]

A lost and unanswered thread here /\ I think Jean is correct there are likely two variations in these large hole nakago-ana depending on the practice sport they were used in. This example from the Kansas City Museum has the oval hole. The symetrical hitsu on this and the one shown by Paris would make great anchor points for a thread of tape/string to secure the tsuba to the shinai/boken - - as you may notice in the thread from Tim Evans, that tsuba is rather loosely held in place and as it is partly sukashi and has a [battered] hitsu it could easily be missing a string that would have held the tsuba more securely. All speculation on my part as I know next to nothing about shinai or boken [at least not what was used in the 19th century or earlier].

Personally I think these are still "old" perhaps even antique - the criteria being they must be at least 100 years old to be classed as "antique" and many cast tsuba are indeed antique because there is a lot of evidence from museums on when they were added to their collections - less evidence on when exactly they were made unfortunately.

A long, long time to add to this thread. However I was doing some study of the Warsaw Museum collection of tsuba and found this guard: 藻柄子入道宗典製/ 江州彦根住 Sôheishi Nyûdô Sôten Sei/Gôshû Hikone Jû transl.: made by the layman Mogarashi Sôten of Hikone in Ômi Province What strikes me, is in the example in the previous post and this one is that the signatures are exceptionally crude and look like they were done like a finger in mud - is this at all normal for Soten signatures? The crude mei also makes me skeptical that they can even be read correctly. What does the forum think?

Two cents worth - Kanayama with yakite shitate 焼手仕立 - I love the slightly melted look.

Please, please don't send a drone! [I don't have a bomb shelter!]

https://tsubashi.com/product/tsuba-of-emperor-liu-beis-escape/ This site has some interesting info : Iron, marugata, carving done in takabori style, depicting a scene from the Three Kingdoms, where Emperor Liu Bei escapes his pursuers by crossing the Tan River. The style is reminiscent of Sōten. Two hitsu ana. Late Edo period. In pristine condition. Never mounted. Now if it has never been mounted why is there fake sekigane? I have seen these copies before and in other patterns and in various alloys and in iron, which must use different casting techniques? The dot "inlay"[ten-zogan] is also not inlay at all and on the soft metal example why are the side walls of the nakago-ana curved-in unless they were cleaning the cast edges? Well if you want a cast copy I would go for the alloy - at the least you won't have to worry about rust!

Viktor, you can often see Kanzan & Jittoku with hairdos like princess Leia from Star Wars Your tsuba has the same look. I agree the figure and the scroll look added later - they chose a difficult surface to mount them on, the undulations of the plate are a problem. I have a small wavy tanto guard with poppies that may have been added later.

Obvious it is crop circles - and hidden Christian symbols!

Alive and well - but it would certainly be easier being dead! The modern digital age is really trying to eliminate the older generation. Did you know if you don't have a phone you no longer exist? When did it become mandatory to even have a phone? I must have missed that memo. Don't get me started with the internet connections! When companies refuse to accept debit cards [ie. actual on hand money] and only do business with credit cards [ie. not real money] they must like people being in debt? Not to mention they won't take money in advance payment for say a years "service"- after all how could they increase their costs at a whim if they did that! Thank you all for the concern for my welfare - it was a nice touch to get a knock at the door at 11.30pm from the police checking in on me I did notice that in the two months I have been out of contact my three children didn't even notice!

https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/q1157883646 & https://www.jauce.com/auction/q1157883646 the buyer could have got a better deal for the cast guard 10,500 yen - but it was still way way way overpriced! this one advertised on a Chinese site for ¥11,840 JPY* Well you know if you see two it is dodgy, three very dodgy!! If only they had used real sekigane - they might have put a bit more effort separating people from their money! [Yes I am back - being dead is much easier though!]

This thread is a long time ago but I found an interesting piece to match the "Taiko drum" tsuba - this version has a rim and is found in the Saint Louis Art Museum, https://www.slam.org...ction/objects/37900/

I found this guard in the Warsaw museum which unusually has good information and most pieces have a signature translations - except this one, which I thought was odd because the signature is still sharp. Anyone got a name or school to the piece? Thanks in advance

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/306055552657 Dealer?

Nade Kaku Gata (撫角形) or Kaku-maru-gata - shaped

Lets not go down that blackhole. [oops too late!] Way way

It might be a good idea to change "Downvote" to "I don't agree with that" - it would be somewhat less aggressive for all. What say you Brian?

Me too!

https://www.catawiki...kinai-mid-edo-period https://japaneseswor...echizen-kinai-tsuba/ https://www.worthpoi...izen-kinai-136723681 https://searchcollec...-of-hollyhock-leaves Un modèle relativement courant pour l'école Kinai

I swear they never just make one - https://japaneseswor...-inshu-suruga-tsuba/ you can see the boards making up the blade of the rudder on this one. https://jameelcentre...ction/8/object/20286