Curran

It seems Michael and I both commented at the same moment, from the 2 sides of the Atlantic.

It looks like a nice modern made tsuba to me. Not cast, but some of the working makes it look more like a modern utsushi to me. Fine for what it is, depending upon your pricepoint to satisfaction ratio. That is just my opinion. I have been fooled once or twice before and given the item to Goodwill thereafter.

This is a Hayashi Shigemitsu I own. 2nd gen of the school. Ex-Ito-san. I've been told it is a Camellia design, but I have not translated the description of the papers.

I thought the same. Both of these might have been his back in the day. He has specialized more in one school and sold off the other Higo schools. A few of those reside with now. Some got away. That wave form one might have escaped my tractor beam.

It looks like someone also brought a very nice wave form Kanshiro tsuba. Unless my wife rug-pulls the move, life looks like we will be joining you next Fall.

Oh, to hope, to hope! This Tariff schtuff chaos has been a severe butt cramp the last few months. The US Customs site updated in late November 2025 and claims that antiques are tariff free. https://hts.usitc.gov/reststop/file?release=currentRelease&filename=Chapter 97 I've been very cautious, as some people are still getting slammed. The one tsuba I had sent to me from Japan was +23.5% or so with Tariff and Taxes.

Wow, that is a pretty butterfly cabinet example of lacquerware. Wife would probably permit that in our house. I'm glad I clicked on the link. As you guys debate this, I have no real knowledge to share. I'm familiar with the Korean furniture versions of this, and have watched videos on how they make it. I've never much delved into the Japanese versions.

Yes, my thoughts exactly. On my katana kake: I too have a Higo koshirae up with a shirasaya'd mumei Shinto Echizen blade that doesn't really go in it. The (very) few blades I own are stored elsewhere. On my Higo koshirae, the parts (f/k) are worth about as much as the entire koshirae would bring. Darcy went through a period where he insisted on telling me that every sword shop in Tokyo was stripping down old koshirae for their parts. I happened to walk into a shop near Aoi Arts where they were doing this. Obviously they didn't expect the foreigner to pop in on some random winter holiday. If the day comes that I want to rip fine artwork apart so that it can fit into little wooden boxes and be sold off, then I might as well climb into my own box and close the lid on the casket.

As per Alex, about 4k not including the price of the parts. I did it for a special blade, but it is a total money sink. Hence why Aoi Arts is always retrofitting koshirae to blades. Much easier to do that.

Here are code references: https://www.unisco.com/hts/97061000 and https://hts.usitc.gov/search?query=9706.10.00.40 I thought that antiques were now subject to such tariffs, but the one site claims to be updated as of Nov 25th, 2025. Is that accurate, or stale information. @cluckdaddy76 do let us know if you get a tariff bill after the fact. Otherwise, I guess I am using Harmonized Tariff Codes again.

This is new to me. It dares give me hope.

Higo-lite? It resembles the earlier works of this design, but has a crudeness that makes me think later or much later. A member here has one, but I cannot share the photo without his permission. I believe this design is also documented and published in Ito-san's texts. Probably in Shimizu-Jingo volume, though it might be in Hayashi as well.

It looks that way. Very different from the tsuba signatures.

Eh, magari. You have no idea how much my Italian has declined in the last 35 years. Even then, if my Italian or Japanese were ever as good as your English??? Non ci credo.

Man.... some serious collectors came at me fast on that one. Me'thinks I underpriced it. Thanks all. Maybe a Kanayama up in a few days. Curran cur@irontsuba.com