parfaitelumiere

this is fake, I give 10$ for the set, address in private!

the same type of cast stuff as I described, the second exemple is similar to what I saw, I remember a thread here with a rooster tsuba, people thought about real work, but it was a cast piece, I spotted it as I saw a similar one on yahoo.

I saw several cast Soten tsuba, actually well cast and having electronic gold or silver plating, on iron or bronze base, but same as you are pointing, cast massive sekigane, added to weaker design and more blurry finish, it's a good way to recognize things which are becoming more and more common... It would be interesting to see other pictures of that tsuba, here all seems made from same material, are there copper silver or gold color accents?

Hard to tell for now, wait to get in hand and share a better picture, then you will get replies.

Here is another, almost identical design, also on ebay. You can see the nunome ground is also coarse and badly finished, and both birds have a bit different inlays, gold and silver.

the visible detail on ura side, and some other details visible on other pictures makes me think about soldering blister or rust inside weaker, creating delamination. On link second picture is showing similar detail on side, and on third picture it seems there is a bit of delamination in nakago ana visisible.

Yes, sorry, I used wrong name! I was thinking "shishi-botan" was with chrysanthemus, but just to get sure, I checked, and the right name was actually kiku, so I edited the title! Thanks for pointing the mistake!

Hello, I saw that set, which I really like and would like to purchase, but I wish to know more about it. I asked additional pictures and all relied carvings seem to be zogan, as inside both parts, it's flat. I am thinking about maybe collecting fuchi and kashira sets, as things I want to keep now are two sets of fuchi and kashira. I was also asking myself how people used ot do the goild foil plating on such cmplex shapes, I saw the process on several fittings I own, and many gold zogan are foil on copper, I am really curious to know the process. I watched the Ford Hallam utsushi tiger tsuba and he used gold butter, but it seems some used gold foil, so the process was probably very difficult! I hope someone would be able to provide more informations!

I suggest people here to watch videos showing the processes, and if they can, experience it by themselves, it's very interesting to try it, as I did. It can be useful to evaluate some works, know more about technic and appreciate the level, but also to possibly imagine the possibility of repair, or utsushi if required. Here, the technic is wire gold nunome zogan, one quite coarse weave pattern, not the highest level indeed.

That's just average Nunome zogan,with typical cross pattern on iron. There also are silver zogan on top and bottom, which has sulphurized and colonized the iron, it means that tsuba is probablu late edo. But I don't understand why it should be a cast tsuba?! On side picture you can see there are slight wear inside nakago ana, it has been mounted, but I think the owner has cleaned a bit to raise the gold color and also cleaned seppa dai. That is part of large collection, I missed another tsuba with a dragon from same seller, some are fake, but some are good stuff, that one with dragon was a very good one.

Thanks, I think original menuki have been lost, also original tsuba and seppa, that will be hard to know exact menuki design, maybe some dragons?!

I found back the other exemple I was thinking about, made with same process. I have a very old iron mold, to shape case lid, by stamping I use it as a anvil. The process is the same, negative engraving for serial stamping or casting, both technics could be possible, wax cast in metal or stamping.

This may be late edo work, it would be interesting to see other pictures, including menuki and all the fittings, sadly I saw only 3 or 4 pictures in your album. I purchased a silver handachi koshirae some years ago, late edo koshirae with muromachi era blade. I made some searches about it and found several result, as my tsukamaki was bad, and tsuba was missing. I found high end work from silver or shibuichi. I remember also about jabara maki and mokko shaped tsuba on all exemples. They all had fuchi, kashira, tsuba, koi guchi, habaki and complex parts on saya, all with same theme. In my case, all the mount is made from silver with ishimeiji finish, seppa are ginkise, and same as yours the lacquer is aventurine lacquer, using fine abalone shell dust inside dark glossy lacquer. The menuki are goto school, "crows and waves" the most probable attribution should be Goto Eijo. This has been decided after studying similar attributed mekuki and talks with several people. The feather, waves, gilding and zogan are identical, same as finish on the backside. No, the eye is not some paint, as some member told once here. Same as you, my original tsuba was missing, replaced for a non matching tsuba, made from shakudo, that's the reason why I made some searches, to know what exact tsuba was supposed to be there. The original seppa (ginkise) were present on my koshirae. I went for standart maki, as jabara was really too high in price. Sadly original tsuba are almost always missing, as blades were stored in a place, koshirae in another place, and tsuba innother different place. I have been lucky to find the blade with matching koshirae, shirasaya, tsunagi and seppa, but not original tsuba. I also found a daisho with matching koshirae and shirasaya, but that time, tsuba were not original, nor the seppa, the kogatana was also missing. In your case, if base metal is shibuichi, it means the tsuba is also made from shibuichi, with silver and gilded copper on kind of ishimeiji finish, that will be impossible to find. I have no idea about the seppa. It would also be possible the tsuba and seppa to be different, but from what I saw until now, I have serious doubts about it.

Please don't call this pattern "nanako", it's not. This is designed by engraving on a mold, then the plate is stamped.

It won't be shakudo, high gold shakudo won't have such a color when not patinated, it lools like copper, just not as red, but won't look that yellow. Following some comments here, the more logical choice will be brass, the patina with warm tones is really nice, exactly what I was thinking about! I am looking forward to move to new appartment and get workshop, so I can try rokusho patination, I never tried yet, but I have a set of fuchi-kashira and tsuba to finish.