Bugyotsuji

Ron, these are simply two individuals who pop into the NMB and enjoy heated discussions. Many others are reading and learning from every post, while they suspend judgement. Some posts do have little barbs or triggers in them but the majority of participants really do try to avoid posting or getting caught on those. Colin and Pietro will challenge others, as you will challenge them, but you are all three of you quite strong characters who definitely add colour to the world! I have learned much from all of you. As to the NMB itself, it’s a little like a kaleidoscope, never the same from one year to the next.

Going back in time. Some natural, and some adapted netsuke from over the centuries. One o’clock is a flattish Corazon seed with two holes drilled for use as a netsuke. (They were also turned into powder flasks for matchlocks.) Three and four o’clock show stones from rivers or sea shore with natural openings in them, found in antiques markets with disintegrating strings attached. At five o’clock is an old, well-used sea shell with drilled hole and string, found at Tenjin San antiques market in Kyoto. Functional netsuke. Down the middle from 12 to 6 is a root (?) with a natural channel throughout. Decorative object. At seven o’clock is an inro set hanging from a section of umoregi semi-fossilized peatbog wood. Hole was probably drilled through. This netsuke at least likely fits the Edo Period remit. Inro is wood, the sections carved to look like bamboo. To the left of the root is a wooden hook formed from a branch(?) with original piece of rice straw twine. At nine o’clock is a fishing-net weight, fired clay, cylindrical. A perfect practical netsuke for a fisherman wearing only a fundōshi loincloth. Top left is a clay object with two holes sold to me as Chinese from 700 AD(?). But we do find 2000-year-old flat oval scrapers in Japanese archaeology museums, said to have been for agriculture, with similar two-hole layout. Netsuke origins?

Remember that a blade can be fitted with almost any tsuba, having no intrinsic relationship, so they need to be researched independently. In your case the owner may or may not have deliberately chosen a tsuba with the simple katabami mon, but that choice would most likely be independent of a Kotetsu (or otherwise) blade.

Not sure what this is, but here’s a somewhat similar complete one I found at auction Decorative cow saddle…(?)

Signed and sealed in 安永十年 is 1781, (An-ei 10)

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&hs=eITV&sca_esv=e5b3c94426f10df7&hl=en-gb&q=鞍武具+骨董+鞍+江戸&uds=AJ5uw1_a2D0D09lxm8gpKKOTUn4rcgPmLRKzg4TWlqFm7k5JhzpahfW9rOkRqXXsE1CL_61Rl2hYdOpYLw3o5DpWx-gOtzmFxnlaQolSl6UDsEzzdPUNlGffd3BKhUpSJhhZXlrNVv5he1WEvWU3x_RZlaO7vMxauuOnqFayc9R0XjaKzWhXvB2PGwzrjph0GOX67EilS9MO&udm=2&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjj4pam9aCVAxXEe_UHHYuwCBsQxKsJKAR6BAgPEAE&ictx=0&biw=390&bih=699&dpr=3 Look up words like Edo, Bugu, Kura, Kotto, etc., to see some other examples for comparison.

Might need some gentle TLC, but nice tsuba.

Euronetsuké membership which included Rosemary Bandini’s gorgeous quarterlies was around £20 a year which I found more affordable. I thought the INS was $175, but maybe I am mistaken. Since their website went wobbly a few years back I have generally lost touch and given up. Regrettably I was never able to fly to attend one of their magnificent international conventions. i find it a struggle to pay for yearly membership of the NBTHK, and the NKBKHK (JAS armour society) on top. Luckily the UK Token Society’s yearly fee is more reasonable. John C was asking what a genuine netsuke might be, and I was suggesting going along to a meeting where good pieces are passed around for hands-on appreciation. That way one can develop an ‘eye’. Having said that, there are still many pristine netsuke out there that look like they were made yesterday. Could they really be 200 +/- years old? Unable to make a definitive judgement in such cases, I will quietly avoid (commenting upon or buying) those. Don’t want to offend any owners!

Many katana-bako examples posted in the above thread. Wakizashi size box? Any rests inside, or marks where they once might have been? It seems unlikely that naked blades were stored in there. Surely they would have been in some kind of shirasaya or abura-saya. Speaking of which, preserving (camellia?) oil could be the origins of the stains. The formal Koshiraé could have been stored in there too, slightly longer overall, accounting for the dent?

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.

Favored by some, this style of writing is based on ancient Chinese scripts, such as oracle bone script, etc.