Curran

It is not exactly an exact science. I bought a Japanese red oak 3 sword kake that I guestimated at 1825-1860. I was off by near 1 century. The bottom is dated June 1754.

Please see the pictures. I broke the camera on my phone, so these old-school Canon macro ones are the best I can do for now. Signature is hard for me to discern. It looks like (?) (?) ju Masa (kuni?) From the basketweave iron pattern and cloissone workmanship, I think it is an Edo area maker. I question the kuni reading, because inside the box of the kanji all the strikes are little atari strikes pointing at each other like a bursting firecracker (bang!) . See the last picture for best image of that kanji. Is this just an easy way of doing the Kuni character, or can anyone else suggest an alternate reading? If I can figure out the place name, I can at least narrow down the # of possible [Masa______] readings. Thank you for any help.

I concur with John and others. It looks legit, but probably shinshinto.

I stumbled across that one somehow while looking at tosogu. The gassan style hada on a large ken did catch my attention. I liked the blade, habaki, and shirasaya, - but what is up with the nakago? Repatinated? Attempt to make it look older? Signature removed? No idea. Nakago looks off. Tosogu is more my thing. This was a curiosity. I wanted to ask someone about the nakago, but figured it didn't matter that much since there was only a 0.1% chance I would bid on it.

Yes, as Tom said. Hakogaki and the tsuba do not match.

There have been a few for sale in Japan recently. They are popping up more. Tokugawa Dealer in Nagoya has two, and several have been up on Yahoo!Japan. ~I'd considered finally owning one, but it is outside my main interests.

Wow. Time to get out the glencairn and raise a special glass to Dr. Stein. Lots of thoughts and feeling the mortality, with almost 25 years under the bridge since I first corresponded with him.

The only book I know that deals with various Shimoka signatures is one of the Kanzan Token Koza set. While it helps sometimes, most of the Echizen ju Shimosaka signatures are just a group signature and difficult to attribute to a specific smith.

We've talked about this one a few times before. NOT Nobuiye, but it was included in a famous Nobuiye book long ago in a galaxy far away.... NBTHK decided to dodge the bullet by giving it Den Nobuiye papers. Then it sold off a dealers site for $7k or $8k, or something like that. Since then, it pops up on Yahoo!Japan at regular intervals. ***Careful there***

A lot of rust on that one. Ginza-Choshuya has a shakudo and gold papered one up on page 2 or 3 of its tsuba selection.

I am so happy to see this tread up and live again. Archery theme too! Just a great balance of exhibition. As an archery aside: A favorite of my small collection are Goto Tokujo father and Goto Kenjo son pair of goto kozuka of arrow design. Poem is Taira no Tadanori's death waka.

Ah, yes. Well done Dale. I forgot to mention that this design is often associated with the Yagyu school as one of its designs. Of course, it would go on to be copied by other schools. Yours is not Yagyu. I don't claim to know what it is.

This theme has been debated as long as I can remember. From one rendering to another: ricecakes, dried persimmons, etc.

I resemble that remark. Incredible kozuka. As G. said, that is a GOAT.

Nihonto.com, Nihonto.us, Nihontocraft.com, and see Dealer section.

It was just a mention. I'm not 100% certain I will list it, but it will probably go up at the end of the month. ...if I can take decent pictures.

My one example. Had this for near 20 years now.

It is nice to see others appreciate Futagoya / Norisuke tsuba. Next year I plan to visit family south of Nagoya. I will make a sidetrip to visit the area - graves shown in the Nagoya NBTHK Futagoya book. I haven't gotten around to listing it, but some time this month I will be selling this very large Yamakichibei style Futagoya ippa tsuba. Just letting it go at my purchase price, as I raise funds. At 9cm, it is by far the largest one I have owned.

Repatinated or questionable tsuba. Theme: axe-lightening or chopping of matsukawa (pine bark?)

[SOLD] Tsuba sold on another venue, shortly after listing it. For educational purposes, this listing can stay up- but probably should be moved to the SOLD section.

And the founder of the school Ichijosai Hirotoshi (Hozon) ref tsuba. [sold back in 2013 or 2014]

More pics in strong sunlight, and some background info on the school.

See pics. Ask questions. I strongly believe this one is from the Uchikoshi school of later Edo. I had a signed Uchikoshi (Ichijosai Hirotoshi) that I sold in Bonhams many years ago. $500

Nice one. I hadn't seen this auction.

Ko-Nara tends to be finely worked iron sukashi. Mito would be a better bet.