Curran

These are "Hazama" tsuba using the exotic sahari inlay (silver, lead, tin, etc mix- possibly using mercury in the process) that is incredibly hard and possibly toxic in the manufacturing process. Ford said he could do it, but I would say it is one of the times where his bravado got ahead of him. His sahari inlay did not convince me at all. It looked very modern to my eyes. Sahari was also used to inlay gun barrels, as it won't suffer from the heat. Sometimes Hazama (and closely related Kunitomo) tsuba are referred to or known as "gun-maker" tsuba and enjoy a little panache in Japan for that reason. The orange lighting from above doesn't help. Having seen at least 100 of these and owned 4 or 5, I can look past the odd lighting and properly imagine what they look like. For Hazama, the designs are on the dramatic side. I'm not saying I'd want to own either, but the inlay and use of sahari on the Taiko drum Hazama is relatively impressive. I doubt the ropes are sahari. They are probably another much softer metal, like silver. Very unique tsuba, but I'd 100x more prefer to have the skull Nobuiye.

Thank you. It is the first time that I have seen those in color.

Some respondents here and on Facebook. Tsuba ON HOLD pending payment. Thanks for looking. This was intended as a holiday gift, sharing out a bit of good fortune recently had with one coming in. I hope the new owner enjoys it.

Yes, that would be nice. I do have some pics. Waking up too early on a cold day, I thought on it in the morning silence of 4:30am. Conclusion: It would be like engaging in one of the political discussions in the Izakaya section. I don't have Darcy's love for Roman Rhetoric forums poking holes in logic constructs. Those days, and Darcy, are past. I simply disagree with Glen and voiced it. I'll leave it at that. Constructing a Darcy'esque rebuttal would take far more time than I currently have, and I probably couldn't do it at Darcy's level. Looking at sukashi openings, especially under magnification, is useful for a lot of reasons- including age dating. No, I don't think it should be a lead indicator. It just should be part of the process. Do it on several hundred thousand tsuba, like Bob Haynes, and you might respect his opinion or that of Torigoye-san. Bye.

As Tom said.

It isn't the degree of rusting. It is more complicated = a mix of several things including the type of rust, how it has evolved, and the iron/patina interplay. While most anything can be faked, the insides of the sukashi walls is something very important to study and can help a lot. As to that second bit about sukashi tsuba as early as the middle of the Muromachi... They are rare and crude, but you find them as far back as mid to late Nambokuchu. I have one from Ito-san+NBTHK that is supposedly late Nambokuchu, but I would date it circa Oei 1394-1420.

Thanks for the words guys. Perhaps a mistake to list it near the Holidays. Likely that I pull this at the end of the week. I thought it would be difficult to price out, but luck has Aoi Arts putting up a kinko Nishigaki by roughly the same artist (+/- 1 generation) 350,000 yen. https://www.aoijapan...ubetsu-hozon-tosogu/ The design is more flashy accessible, but the Higo papers are meeehhh..... With TH to Nishigaki, I probably would have priced the Aoi Arts one at 250,000-300,000. It has been 10 years since I closed my dealer website, but maybe it is time to go back to hanging out a shingle. I'm sorry to see the NMB sales section die out.

Another pic. Kinda testing if NMB is still a venue for sales. I thought this one would pop off fast, as it is deeply underpriced for a kinko Nishigaki . Age is circa 1725-1775 AD. I'll guarantee it for Hozon. Serious parties can PM me about it. Otherwise, I guess I will have to paper it myself and list it on a dealer site for $1500 in a year. Time value is worth a lot to me, so please really look at this one and go price out kinko Nishigaki works on the market.

and another.

More pics.

Dragon motif [Higo] Nishigaki tsuba - [katana sized]. $575 + shipping from USA. 7.7cm x 7cm x 5mm (curvature down to 4.3mm at seppa dai). Kinko- brownish shibuichi or similar, with high luster. Etched to show the scales, body, and face of a dragon. It changes color from brown to black depending upon the light that it is in. Fundraising for a large nihonto/tosogu purchase over the next few months, so am pricing what I would say are Tokubetsu Hozon level pieces to move. Hope to list at least 1 a month. These are all better pieces from my own stash. Please give the pics a look.

That is a very nice koshirae. I know a few people who would covet it. Beautiful tsuka. Great higher grade seppas.

Glad you said it first. He probably meant pre-Momoyama, and I was trying to remember if I had ever seen anything signed pre-Momoyama that wasn't Ko-Goto.

Yes, the one from the 2005 exhibit is mine. Nice write-up by Jim. Much of my introduction to Yagyu was from him. He had a great Norisuke that illustrated the intense filo dough layers seen in the Norisuke copies.

Depending upon what source you read, there is a lot of conjecture as to how they were finished. You read things like that some where put in sand barrels and pounded before finishing. I don't really have an opinion on that. I just like some Yagyu designs. Attached is an image of one of the earlier Yagyu have this sort of filo dough layer to the mimi. Something that strongly says Yagyu when you see it, or possibly a Norisuke copy. Norisuke copies tend to have like 2x the number of layers, so they kinda out themselves as excellent copies.