Spartancrest

The bulging forehead makes me think it could be Otafuku (?) The profile view on the kozuka doesn't help.

They look like they are based on this design https://www.touken-m...uct/shousai/MEN-2546 but the reverse is not what you would expect. https://www.ebay.ph/itm/256530038696 https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/255378773008

https://www.sothebys...l07680/lot.1040.html

https://www.finarte....-naga-126411?lang=en This has the lower image above. https://www.aoijapan...zen-ju-kinai-saku-3/ https://www.ebay.com/itm/305262181544 https://www.ebay.com/itm/166867412692 https://www.ebay.com/itm/326086720705 https://www.ebay.com/itm/394966059648 https://www.ebay.com/itm/116180403602 [Bloody awful !!!!] https://www.ethnoart..._Kinai_School.html#/ https://www.penn.mus...ctions/object/278050 https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1919.510 AND https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1919.244 Plenty about, some good some not so good.

The Iron guard is not military and is OLD a genuine piece - someone can probably give you a translation if you drop the image over onto the translation forum. The other is what your friend says is a Gunzoku Tsuba and is likely some sort of civil service sword. [I have even heard they may have been 'civil defence' like the home guard but I would have expected many many more examples to have been evident] Bruce Pennington says he has not seen this pattern before in the above thread but I have seen maybe a dozen and owned one myself [which I regret I exchanged for something else]

Thanks very much Clive. I noticed the book is now listed on some other sites - but not very impressed. https://booksdirect....ok_9798331168889.htm RRP $131.00 https://booksdirect....ok_9798331169169.htm RRP $205.11 What a joke with the prices! I will be lucky to sell any at those prices! https://www.magersan...RTICLES-FOR/26872288 more reasonable but who can find them? Really there is no incentive to do books, the middlemen make money from it but that is all. I am not bitching about book sales [I could care less] but about how others are really ripping off the general public.

https://www.aoijapan...hu-hagi-ju-tomohisa/ https://varshavskyco...collection/tsu-0104/ https://sword-auction.com/en/product/19299/af23451-鍔-長州萩住友久作/ https://www.zacke.at...&sd=1&pp=96&pn=2&g=1 https://japaneseswor...oshu-tomohisa-tsuba/ https://www.aoijapan...gi-ju-tomoyosi-saku/ https://japaneseswor...145-choshu-tomohisa/ https://www.aoijapan...aku/#google_vignette https://www.ebay.com/itm/326170894996 https://collections.mfa.org/objects/11328 https://tsubashi.com...tomohisa-daisho-set/ Daisho https://onlineonly.c...9th-century-82/20579 One in a lot of four guards. There doesn't seem to be a shortage of them, There are few more pages of examples on Google. There may be some mistranslations in there, some sites say Tomihisa others say Tomoyoshi [?]

Choshu Hagi Ju Tomohisa Sakunoshin Tomohisa

One on ebay, described as "Tsuba Samurai Sword Guard Leaf Pattern Rectangle" I think the last word has become scrambled it should read "Wrecked-Angle"

https://funbid.com.h....php?aID=c1131547542 Which style of guard are you looking for there are several Mitsutoshi. https://collections.mfa.org/objects/9979 https://ameblo.jp/ha...422-10589586611.html Sorry I must be having a Biden moment - I didn't read the title to this thread but you might find something here

I recently acquired this small Kanji designed guard which the seller describes as meaning "Kotobuki" = longevity. 62 mm x 52 mm x 5 mm slightly dish shaped [Wan-gata] 寿 However if I look up the word Kotobuki I get this image of a Chimera made up of all the animals in the Chinese zodiac and a translation of 寿, "congratulations" is it both or neither? [I hope it is both as in "Congratulations on a long life" ] Could it have been a present to a elderly gentleman? Or was he a Rat-faced old goat with a long scaly neck?

Just found the new book is listed - https://www.barnesan...53?ean=9798331168889 https://www.amazon.c...2C286&sr=1-1-catcorr Other book sites will probably come in within a few days. Check the retail price, who gets the profit? NOT ME!

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/364996942314 Dishonest description https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/364996942580 Fake but they admit it Both are examples from Hachette "buy one each month" that went down hill after the forth example was released. From a set of four selling for 8,000 yen [close to $50 USD] Wow they have gone way up in price - and they don't have the original cardboard box or the booklet.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/364996942533 You could just click the link, but this is what passes for a "tsuba" on an ebay listing. It must really look good on a sword! https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/364996942483 this one? https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/364996942476 These are a bit of a stretch - nothing whatsoever to do with tsuba - talk about truth in advertising!!! The dealer selling these has a lot more "tsuba" - well tsuba in the description title at least!!

OK I give up - what was this made for? Not authentic tsuba but modelled on the gourd/catfish pattern Tuning fork, place card holder, menu holder? Strange - and I do like strange

https://www.jauce.com/auction/m1143410685 nice looking pair.

Maybe the design is a bag for Hashi rather than bamboo poles - the modern equivalent

I don't believe in Heaven - just the Hell we all live in - and besides this is the wrong thread for books! Look at these guys - half have the flu the other half think they can avoid it by wearing a bit of paper on their face or are they just trying to look Kool?

Embroidered fabric tsuba patches. https://bladeandbeam.com/search?q=tsuba&options[prefix]=last

Enamel tray with tsuba motifs https://www.catawiki...adorned-with-flowers

That is what had me confused to start with, the tagane has moved the metal as you would expect from a genuine guard, The lack of a seppa shadow helps but otherwise they are very well made modern 'utushi'. Most are from well known patterns and some have "age appropriate" faint kebori. In isolation they might well pass as genuine, clumped together in a group they stand out more. Even so the prices are not outrageous considering they are hand finished, I couldn't make one for the time and labor cost. Well he must be skilled and has certainly got the look right - he is a quick study, what would his work be like if he had studied it all his life

http://tsubaryuken.com/sinsaku.html - call me naive but when I was looking through this site I thought all the sukashi tsuba were genuine - until the very last section where they show them being made! I found the 'translate to English' and it does state they are "NEW" from 2014 and that they have several hundred of them. But then I got to thinking, once these "tsuba" were out in circulation how would you know they weren't the real thing? They have been out now ten years so how many have found their way into collectors hands and the time span is long enough to change hands several times - these are not some clumsy Chinese rip offs or laser cut paperweights which are easy to spot - these are going to make serious collecting very hard especially for the novice.

This image has both with weird hair - but what freaks me out is the fingernails! As Stephen already knows the little Tanto guards are very rare [well each is slightly different at least ] I think the early Beatles got their hairstyle from them?

Have a look at this thread - Princess Leia, if I ever saw her! Jittoku and Kanzan the two brothers.

I passed on this little gem the other day- darn it went really cheap too. https://www.jauce.com/auction/t1141730743 Katamenuki