Spartancrest

Sri Lankan hair pins https://www.metmuseu...lection/search/90207

https://nihonto.com/8-8-19-2/ Very deep pockets !

It is a rabbit! They really like the long ears

Disconcertingly familiar:

Far better example than this ebay one : Not near the same quality though as this Meiji?: https://www.sellinga...ted-chinese-scholar/ I think you paid top end price, was it a "Buy it Now" or an open auction? Sometimes an open auction can relist at a lower price second time through - just depends how seriously you want to take the risk of a late minute bid by someone else. It will look much better if you can clean some tarnish off the face but probably not worth the risk. I don't mind it at all. If it is 'modern' it is very well done and has not come out of China! JMHO

The only true test would be to put it up for auction - Then withdraw the auction - Dealers do this all the time, however it is not to their credit IMHO What is "true value" anyway? https://www.jauce.com/auction/u1147253154 or the full set of fakes? https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/315138979734 or get it direct from the manufacturer https://teraasekesku...aijin-tsuba/?lang=en True "Worth" much less than the postage. [Yes I know these are fakes, it is only an example] Value like beauty is all in the eye of the beholder I think - Dealers will have a different slant I am sure.

132,001 yen and pulled at the last minute!

I am trying to taper off - trying to specialise only on Kawari-gata now - I can't go completely cold turkey! PS. A.H. Church was a liar, he had over 1,286 that he left to the Ashmolean Museum alone!

So in my understanding does it mean that a sword can be mounted even without sekigane - assuming the size is right and if the nakao ana is punched so it sits tight? Sorry for stupid questions :-) Best wishes, Lukas A tsuba can be mounted without sekigane and without tagane-ato if it was made for a specific sword. Tsuba could also be purchased with ready made nakago-ana and then adjusted to fit a blade either with sekigane or punched if the hole was too large, to stop any movement of the guard. There is also a group of makers who cut the top and bottom of the nakago-ana and put in what are called kuchibeni ["lipstick" or more accurately "Red mouth opening"] Suruga school for example. These were designed to hold sekigane in a horseshoe shape top and bottom. Sometimes these can be found with just the cut holes and the sekigane either removed or never put in. This [Suruga school] has kuchibeni and an added sekigane at the bottom Then there are others where a filler has been made that covers the whole nakago-ana if for instance too much metal has been removed. Sekigane could be a research project just on their own!

I will stick my neck out and say they are too good for 'fakes' - they look very pristine so they haven't been out of their box very much and likely Kenjō presentation tsuba.

Guilty of having around 300 - please make me stop! Not so many when you spread it over forty years! Nothing compared to some early collectors like A.H. Church

One very similar in the Bristol Museums collection. https://collections....731/?s%3DN6852&pos=1 They have some confusion between "Butterfly wings" and "Abalone shells" [I have taken the liberty of lightening the images]

I guess that where the word "boner" came from

The tagane-ato [punch marks] has moved metal into the open space of the nakago-ana. The blue line shows how the metal has been pushed out from roughly the red line. This is only done to give a firm grip of the nakago [tang] of the sword it was mounted on. You are correct to question this, as many "fakes" can have the punch marks cast into the design but they won't show that the metal has "moved". So yes yours has been mounted.

What Jean said. This one is twice the size of the fisherman's head! [Delicious with black bean sauce JMHO] I like your tsuba very much. [size wise they would still be "Abalini" 3 cm long? But I don't think they are to scale ]

See you should never believe the advertising! Makes a lot more sense with the oval profile.

That is like the Japanese description "unicorn whale" - Magical animal, maybe some of the magic rubs off on the owner?? [Not so lucky for the whale!] Yes pretty rough work, I see similar on some deer antler ones as the core is often very spongy and I presume soft [shouldn't that make it easier to cut straight?] You might notice my 'avatar' is a reinforced antler guard - what is under the silver plate I don't know. I will add this new find to the ones I already have - an odd bunch, I think they are more likely found on country folk weapons or for village elder's rather than samurai? Just had a thought could it be Ainu work?

I have seen antler, bone, horn and ivory tsuba but this is the first Narwhal tusk tsuba I have ever seen. 64 mm x 40 mm x 6.3 mm it isn't a very large guard taken as a cross section. All Narwal tusks are rather slim. https://www.jauce.com/auction/n1148353109 I suppose you could get a lot cut from the one tusk but where will you ever see one again? Has anyone ever seen another?

I swear I was breast fed Chili milk as a baby!

So it is all YOUR fault then!

Pollock or Da Vinci? same same whatever floats your boat. [we can move on to "Minimalism" vs "Surrealism" in the next lesson ]

But we hear it none the less from all sides. Totally off topic but what happens when a $20 tsuba turns out to be a lost treasure? What basic economics should have taught you all, is that what something costs is not in anyway related to what it is actually worth! [Hey, but lets just dismiss anything under what . . . $1,000 ? - total BS].

Jake, I like the odd ones. Keeps us all guessing I wonder if some of these "off centre" ones are designed to act as a katana-kake, that is, a way for the sword to lay on a flat surface, when you don't have access to a stand, without rolling?

I look at it and the more I look the nakago-ana twists my brain. [in a good way] It looks off centre with the outside shape but then perfectly in-line with the hitsu Then if you try changing the nakago-ana to fit the outside design there is not enough of a hole to fit the tang? So what came first, the shape then the nakago-ana was deliberately put in out of alignment? Could the outside shape have been altered? This is a mystery piece to me - my brain hurts!

Not very good at spelling yourself "aint" you!