Frank B
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Posts
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Days Won
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Everything posted by Frank B
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Like I said earlier, it is not worth looking at this tsuba. I would recommend you look at better examples. This thread has some great examples(http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/18592-show-us-your-high-class-tosogu/)
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I would not be surprised if the tsuba was a modern cast <50 years old Furthermore, the menuki look cast as well. In my opinion you will learn much more from genuine high quality items than junk.
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Dwain, I see nothing of quality in those fittings. I truly implore you to look at the reference I posted and compare them. The difference is night and day.
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Yuhindo
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Glad you're learning
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Dwain, an easy reference is Darcy's site. Look at his fittings page, there is loads of information to learn. In addition to great pictures. I promise you won't be tempted by works like these boars after.
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I'd personally stay away, the work is very rough. Furthermore, the backs are filled indicating a very thin plate to support them.
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Dwain, another possibility is that the original menuki were taken out and a solid gold casting was made of them. This aligns well with the poor job on the tsuka-ito wrapping. I know AOI deals in large quantities, but I find it hard to believe that nobody would have looked twice at the menuki. Its not a very good business model to sell your items for less than what they are worth. I hope I am wrong, but I have seen multiple examples of new cast menuki(even in gold). I have even seen this on AOI.
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Could you post clearer images?
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Dwain, how did you test the menuki?
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Night and day
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Yes Dwain, the menuki are solid gold.
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I agree, that matches my thoughts above.
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From memory, there is a very nice Myochin tsuba with Hirata shippo inlays for the exact same price on Grey's site. Which is better in my eyes.
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In my opinion, money can be spent in better places.
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Luis, I dont think it's a mass produced tsuba. However, it's by no means a masterpiece. It looks like a remedial take on a classic Ishiguro theme.
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I'd disagree that the nicest tsuba come from late edo/meiji.
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Thank you
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As a reference could I see one or two of the "clean out marks"?
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Not very deep
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Interesting thought, but I dont think so. By that logic, someone tested the set multiple times. Usually gold testing is done by rubbing on a surface and seeing if it reacts with certain acids.
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As they are ordered and do not seem like random scratches I'd lean towards them having some sort of meaning. In theory these could be old dealer marking similar to the lacquer, but I wouldnt see a point to it as there are clearly already lacquer on the back of both sets of menuki.
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Sorry if it was vague, yes those 4 notches on the back. I don't think its incidental as the other set I referenced also has similar marks.
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The cluster of three mon has a similar mon to this set.
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One aspect that has puzzled me are the "notches" on the back(can be seen on the last photo for the menuki on the right https://yuhindo.com/goto-teijo-dragon-menuki/#shield).An older Momoyama period set of Goto dragons also has these similar http://www.ncjsc.org/item_momoyama_goto_menuki1.htm If anyone knows what these are please let me know, and if anyone would be willing to share photos I'd appreciate it very much. Thank you
