Bugyotsuji

There are millions of NLO (Netsuké-like objects) out there to catch the novice. One of the challenges for any budding collector is to swim through the field, avoiding the tricks and traps, and to train the eye to recognize those rare gems. In the same way perhaps we need an expression like TLO to designate such ‘tsuba-like objects’ as the one you spotted. Of course, if you have the time you can study, and if you have the money you can go to a reputable dealer, hear their story, pay top dollar, and buy more safely.

Now at this end I may need to qualify once more. For some reason I was thinking this was a yari nakago even though you clearly stated yajiri! It was the kerakubi that finally caught my eye. Whereas yari Mei follow the conventions of sword and gun Mei, yajiri seem to be more free, perhaps because the narrowness of the nakago makes inserting an inscription problematical. Often they are unsigned, but when signed you are more likely in my (admittedly limited) experience to find a Mei inscribed somewhere on the blade of the arrowhead itself.

C'mon Rob, no need to be coy!

All’s well that ends well! Just reading this whole thread for the first time. What a saga! And what a result! Great to see all the advice and cooperation here leading to a happy ending. Vive le/la NMB. (Is a message board masculine or feminine?)

Apologies, tip of the blade upwards is correct. Just shows how much I cannot ‘see’ what is written there, like a doctor or bank manager’s signature. I was expecting it to say 下坂　Shimosaka, but even that does not seem to fit happily!

The first three photos are upside down and almost equally blurred. The latest shot, while the correct way up, is also of quite poor quality for an attempted reading. It would need serious editing with contract, sharpness etc., to bring up the Mei to visual recognition standard. Better shots would be a better start.

Can be checked with a magnet.

Is the blade signed? They can be worth a lot, but usual ground rules apply. Is it a genuine Chigo-to, or a toy?

One extra comment. The quality and tight consistency of the material of the initial tsuba in this thread has the same feeling to me as the Shinchu lockwork on many Tanegashima matchlocks. Such shinchu was highly valued at the time.

Wow, that’s just nuts! (The working process on your thimble container looks very similar, but I’ve worked with tagua in the past and it’s not giving me the same material vibe as in John’s photos.)

Concerning the difference between Ōdō 黄銅 and Shinchū 真鍮, an artisan friend in Osafune commented that my tsuba was Ōdō. (Posted once before, but pic follows) The difference lies in the metals forming the alloy with copper. https://study-z.net/100190152

Colin, I have a tagua pomander at home, (and a couple of tagua Netsuke) but the colour looks wrong. Tagua (vegetable ivory) starts white but gradually turns cloudy to dark orange. And the finished size and shape is limited by the size of the nut, unless you can find a giant one.

US dollars? Wakizashi, Echizen, from Seki, C. 延宝 1673-81, with NTHK papers, you didn't pay too much.

Very punny, Mauro! The Japanese seem to love this kind of double-entendre. The cry 勝負 Shobu, "victory or death!" is also conjured up by 菖蒲 shobu, iris leaves.

Hi John. Thanks for posing a good question. I have seen these before but never really stopped to think too deeply about them. The way they are constructed reminds me of lathe and drill work of Victorian times, especially pomanders and some chess pieces. The shape is a hyotan (gourd), and the way the string is attached round the waist of the hourglass shape is one of the exceptions we find in Netsuke which more often than not attach through himotoshi holes. These hyotan Netsuke were made of various materials. I still have one in ivory, one in Edo 'bidoro' glass and another made of pine wood, though a rather attractive brass version managed to escape. From the sharp edging of the screw, my feeling is that it is a pomander that has been brought into service as a Netsuke, but I would not like to try and pin down where it was made. I have an ojime somewhere created in the same way. The material is another question. The base looks to be a separate piece that has been screwed or glued in place to cap off the bottom hole. Is there a corresponding piece at the top? Could it be whale bone?

By the way, 三角 'Sankaku' means three facets, (triangle cross-section). You can find this kind of yari blade with equilateral facets, or isosceles, i.e. one larger flat side.

Just one possibility, Roman, even if others laugh hysterically, so here goes. Many smiths moved to northwest Kyūshū in the 1590s to make spears for the military units gathering there for the Korean invasions. Since Christian symbolism was outlawed, one way of adding talismanic power plus ‘deniability’ was by incorporating a 十 cross into what looks like a production number with 十 ten in it. I have a Kumamoto Castle Hosokawa gun for example, covered in numbers, but each series seems to contain at least one 10, …and we know the Hosokawa were Christians, even if not openly. Just a romantic theory for the pot, Roman, but we love the romance of these things!

What I honestly think is that even where it is ‘wrong’ in some detail, it gives you a hell of a lot of background information, plus a warm fuzzy feeling, as if that world is close and familiar. It also encourages further study in a positive way.

Nice tsuba ! (There seem to be other, older dings and scratches from before, so maybe things can be toned down somewhat.)

Been there, done that, and it’s the worst feeling. (At least you are not blaming yourself though.) Feel for you! Lesson to us all to request careful packaging, in advance of shipment.

Yes, but not yet all of it perfectly. (Most unusual to have the story down the mimi sides.)

Good job! No-one would spot that, I bet. Nice invisible rivets too! We only know your secret because you have told us!

Well Jean, now you have poised two or three very good questions. A couple of years back I translated some research done on Japanese armo(u)r. A line in a written record from about 1570 caught my eye, where the writer mentions visiting an armor workshop where the overwhelming impression was workers drilling holes in metal. As I recall, it specifically mentioned them working with 錐 ‘Kiri’, which is not a punch. If anyone knows more detail about this, I too would be interested to learn. So… Q.1. Were the holes in armor plates drilled or punched?

Drilling in iron went back, way back to the beginnings of Japan time, for kabuto ‘hoshi’ rivets. Some armorers, as we know, produced tsuba too, and some went on to specialize in them. I am imagining a time when hand- or foot-driven drilling technique moved for whatever reason over into the tsuba world. And Nakago were of even thicker iron, closer to tsuba thickness. ‘Random’ may be overstating it, but playful it certainly must have been, from the imagination through the planning into the execution. Some of the examples above allow your brain to flip-flop flash between positive and negative sukashi, in a “Now you see it, now you don’t” cameo.

Not wishing to prove controversial, with added apologies for the side-stepping, but here is an example of a Netsuke demonstrating (in my opinion) the use of a drill to create a pattern or design. Was there a period when this kind of work was fashionable, I wonder, in which the actual meaning of the design was incidental or even secondary?