Bugyotsuji

Hi Chen, it looks as if someone has used a wire brush there to remove rust.

Ron, good to see you commenting here, and you touch on some excellent points. I have a few of those Chinese toggles too, interesting in their own right. I have never been able to compete with those millionaire collectors, but by biding my time I have managed nevertheless to find many intriguing, perhaps exceptions to mainline 'Western collector' rules, i.e. 'genuine' (made and used for purpose within the generally accepted time frame) netsuke. Also I have some examples of those 'sticks' that you mention, plus earthen fishing weights and holed stones, fangs and bones that also must have seen early or rudimentary use.

John, check out one of the meetings of the International Netsuke Society, California branch, handle a few there, and shoot the bull with them. They will be welcoming, friendly and helpful. Also, visiting museums and leafing through netsuke collection books will really help. (Absolutely no need to buy right away!)

As do we all, each of us having parts of the giant jigsaw puzzle but never all of it…

Very nice Dirk. Apologies, and thanks! Funny that Sasano did not mention that it's 5-3 Kiri! 五三（の）桐

As always, without a photo of the tsuba itself, it is never possible to be absolutely sure about what someone is attempting to describe in a hakogaki. Tate-goshi? Guesses and probabilities in the meantime...

Ō-Dachi? Great photo either way!

Apparently the King banished him in a rage but he was ever faithful, spending his years brush-writing tear-filled filial poems on chrysanthemum leaves and floating them down the stream.

In for a penny, in for a pound. I am liking Blueduck’s unusual find. Here is another tsuba for reference.

Sadly he may have left now, something I could have said in anger? Did I banish him, to go and weep by the side of the creek? Fond memories indeed! But he lives on forever in one’s memories…

龍 Ryū. Ancient dragon motifs. Sweet!

Thanks for that, Calabrese! Interesting how many different ways the story was expanded. The Kikusui (chrysanthemum + waters) crest certainly took on a life of its own in Bushi circles, becoming one of the most famous Kamon, especially for the Lord Kusunoki who is revered in Kobe’s Minatogawa Jinja. Here is a netsuke of the kikujido. And

Chrysanthemum and flowing water is the Classical Chinese (Kiki Jido in Japanese) story, treated reverentially in Japan as the epitome of loyalty. How could they hammer the metal inwards towards the Nakago ana without spreading it out and warp the delicate sukashi?

Talking of sōrō, and ways of writing it, I saw this panel in our local museum last week. See example in line 3 on right. (Ignore the circled numbers!)

Best of both worlds fused in one? Hard to pin this down as the Japanese concept of Shokunin is a stand-alone concept, with no exact equivalent in English, professional craftsman yes, artist yes, artisan yes. Hayashibara once made a video about the Tatara in Shimane and how the spirit of the gods is strongly invoked into the creation of the tamahagane. Since humans can become Kami in Japan, or are born in the image of God in the West, surely there is or should be a spark of universal genius in a blade which can appeal, indeed touch the soul of others.