Curran

Price at the time was sub $700. I initially thought this was legit, but had a few concerns. The more I have studied it, the more I have doubts. I checked with someone smarter than me, and they also have serious doubts. It may be legit and a nice Gassan tanto is on my wish list of things I'd like to own, but I will leave this to the gamblers out there. As I've joked before- my day job is as a professional gambler of sorts. When my hobbies feel too much like work, I'm not interested. Some people have had great finds on eBay, including at least one or two that have supposedly gone Juyo. I'll keep to my nice fittings collection. If someone wants to trade a nice papered Sadakazu or Sadakatsu tanto for a fittings+cash- I'm open to negotiation. Curran

On consignment and with No Papers. There is something about the cutting of the signature that bothers me, and also an issue with the stamp being close but different to few references I have. Still, the smith had a long career. Needs further study. I've dealt with the seller twice before. Both times item was nice but with some damage. Still, price was fair both times. Both had a return policy, though this tanto seems to only have a return policy if not Japanese. As Mark said, at the current price it is worth it even if gimei. Beyond that it is a gamble. Curran

Thank you. I haven't learned much about Mon to date. Work has been seriously cutting into Nihonto time, so not sure this will be the Christmas season I put a Mon book into my own stocking. Many of the late Edo kinko seem to have multiple mon mixed and matched on them.

Dear John, Thanks for the post of the Mon book. Should pick it up. You posted the one page with Mon similar to Johannes. I cannot see the kanji of the specific mon. Attached is an image of a mon tsuba by Isso (NBTHK Hozon, student of Ichijo). Can you identify the one mon that is similar to Johannes? I've tried web search before, but did not get a good answer for that mon. Best regards,

I noticed a friend in the UK with a good collection has posted a nice tsuba signed "Yasuchika" to eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/Japanese-Sword-Shib ... dZViewItem Interesting topic of a monkey trainer. I'd heard this is an anti-shogunal sub-reference. Anyone able to share more info on that topic? Curran

Been away for awhile. Now finally back at home, after a few months. Tsuba D- Peter is right (he usually is, I just get to nod in agreement). Similar tsuba on Aoi Arts, right down to the mon. Tsuba E- Not having the wisdom of others to admit they don't know, I'll open my mouth and guess that this is some sort of Umetada 'inspired' later work. I have seen this sort of design before, usually as base work for someone claiming to be student of the Umetada school or such. Tsuba F- Ok... I don't know. I'd swear I'd seen this tsuba before in an old auction catalog or elsewhere. Interesting female monkey and gourd. Need to think and research this one, as I get my little library of books out of storage soon. C.C.C.

Waves happen... I had not seen many of these for a while, then seen 3 signed ones in the past 3 months. It happens.

Doctor, *VERY* Quick impressions- (A) Shoami Subschool- One of the better ones. (B) Shoami © Shoami or Hayashi- I've always liked the © tsuba design. I've seen two that I would call Hayashi. The others I would say mostly lean towards Higo work, but they sometimes come out of the NBTHK with Shoami papers. I've seen a few where I agree with more of a Shoami call, but seen one where I think the NBTHK made a wrong call. Aoi arts had one of these tsuba up recently. I own one w/ old lacquer on it. Yours has got some interesting mon in it. Attached should be an image from one of my books.

Having reached far and wide across the world for information on this one: One scholar says, "paper notation is Mitsuyoshi Ji ( temple). I believe it is the main decoration, or theme on the inlaid. I understand it is a shakudo ground tsuba. The NBTHK cannot be sure of the maker, or school in this case". A gentleman from Japan says, "I can't say exactly it is Kozenji or not. But I think that from the photo is like Kozenji. But I need to see it.". I'd rather believe it is "Kozenji" than that the NBTHK said "We don't know, here is Toku Hozon papers". This was also Moriyama-san and Rich Turner's recommended reading. I am hoping the Japanese gentleman will explain further. I have the highest respect for his knowledge, but communication with him can be very sporadic. Anyone know what or who is "Kozenji"? Open those books. Help the kid!

Brian, Milt, Robert, etc.- I remember the Benson article in Bushido article. Good photos. Yes, done in layers and then removed. The real stuff does command higher prices. Someone had a nice set at the Tampa show a year or two ago. The tsuba looks as Milt said- lower end dock work. Doesn't make sense. Someone mis-match a set of fittings? A sword coming out of a Christies NYC auction a few years ago had a fuchi / kashira like this, but none of the other fittings matched. Had a Goto kogai shoved in a slot too small for it. Kogai anf f/k were worth a fair bit more than the sword. Brian's little blurb contained more information than I know off the top of my head. Like Trickie, I prefer the old iron though occassionally seduced by kinko now and then. Robert- congrats.

Dear Peter, I have often revisited the logic of my choice of a hobby where I am at a great disadvantage by my western mindset and lack of avenues to learn the language better. Chalk it up to artistic passion over logic. Wish I had lived in Japan for more than a few months, or been able to visit the girlfriend (now wife) more when she was working in Tokyo. I am not sure about the Ft. Lauderdale side of FL, but on our coast there are simply no people resources for Japanese language. Back to the tsuba: No one has any ideas? I'm still inclined to think that it is simply my lack of Japanese and reference materials at the moment, but the sloppiness of the NBTHK in the past few years continues to be concerning. I Toku Hozoned another signed tsuba that I intended for Juyo shinsa. It came back after 7 months, having missed Juyo shinsa due to NBTHK backlog. There is a fair sized bit of silvery tin foil or other mystery shiny something photographed on top of the black shakudo tsuba in the photo of the tsuba.

Dear Peter, I think you to be very correct in this. Given that it is unsigned, I would expect a school attribution. But still I have no clue. As you can well imagine, I am thinking of a certain Owari book or two in my little nihonto library. I suspect the answer is there or nearby. I was hoping Mr. Moriyama or another collector would rescue me from my poor Japanese reading skills. This summer I looked into further Japanese classes (it has been a long time), only to find the local Japanese school has closed. _________________________________________________________ It is driving me a bit crazy that I cannot figure this one out!

Moriyama-san, I only have the Haynes Index and Wakayama with me. I confess I also tried Kozenji earlier. If this is a correct reading, then it is an omission from Haynes Index. The workmanship on this tsuba is very good, so I find it difficult to believe it is unrecognized by Haynes Index or Wakayama. I wonder if 'kozenji' is NBTHK code for "mystery tsuba".

Dear Rich, Still away from home, but I do have access to a copy of Haynes Index. Thank you for the pointer clues. I gave those a try and then put together other various readings. I cycled through the following variations: koyoshi, kozen, kotaru, kosa, mitsuyoshi, mitsuzen, mitsutaru, mitsusa, teruyoshi, teruzen, terutaru, terusa, hiroyoshi, hirozen, hirotaru, hirosa, akiyoshi, akizen, akitaru, akisa, ariyoshi, arizen, aritaru, arisa, kaneyoshi, kanezen, kanetaru, kanesa, yoshiji, yoshitera, zenji, zentera, taruji, tarutera, saji, satera. No real hits in Haynes that make sense. It must be something simple. My Japanese needs to be better. If anyone has a clue on this, I would appreciate the help.

List- I have been trying to make sense of some NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon papers I have seen recently. Please see photo- At first glance it would seem to be Mitsu Yoshi ? *** It is unsigned ***. It does not seem to be a match for the relatively unknown Mitsuyoshi listed in Haynes and not the correct 'Yoshi' for the alternative reading of 'Shinjo' (15th Generation Goto Master). So I am scratching my head a bit. It is also quite likely I'm being dense and just missing the obvious. All help much appreciated.

Milt, The boat design has popped up before as Yagyu, I guess largely because of the construction. This design is mostly a standard Namban design. It pops up in Shoami too. I think yours is a Shoami example.

Henry, It works to different degrees on iron tsuba. Yes, do not do with tsuba with shakudo plugs, etc. The sekigane will rub to some degree, and most will repatinate. It does work very well, but be very selective which tsubas this helps. Then it takes weeks to months in Levi 501 and being careful never to put anything else in the pocket. But sometimes it works wonders. Just remind the wife to not pat your iron derriere with her rings on. Clunk clunk.

Rich, Glad to have you back. We lost Uchiko Jim this decade. No one else is allowed to leave the building any time soon. Stay healthy and warm. Curran

Dear Henry, I thought that one was the best deal of the super sale. I pointed a friend at it that asked I recommend a good deal. I then saw it on hold and wondered if he or someone else had gotten to it. It looks like you got it. Congrats. I like it.

Wow. I've been feeling a bit the nihonto pauper recently, with a long standing bill soon coming due. Looking at the Tadamitsu and the Umetada, hmmm. Only moths in the wallet. Humbling. Rich- please take nice photos. Travel well. Curran

Ford- Nothing profound to share- (1) look for seams, joints, or shortfall/loss of the wire? (2) if you can get a good magnifier and angle, look to see if the gold comes off the shakudo at all. In my limited experience the wire is always polished flat, whereas sometimes the painted gold seems to stand up. I guess it must be gold lacquer. I confess I didn't even really think about it. I was more the student in the discussion. I have a tsuba with intricate wire inlay about 99.99% complete where I could only tell it was inlay due to an almost microscopic loss in a spot on the mimi. It was all a day's lesson and I haven't much thought on it since except when looking at someone's Kaga kinko menuki 2 months ago. I look at Ed's nice little tsuba and believe I see right angle joints of the gold wire. It may be just fooling my eyes, but I don't see anything so far that says anything other than wire inlay. Pretty-pretty.

Ford, At the Tampa show this past year I went around with a knowledgable collector and looked at quite a number of pieces with shakudo & gold like this. We looked at both those for sale and those in collection brought for show-n-tell. About 9 out of 10 were painted on the shakudo. Especially the fuchi/kashira keyfret designs. Sometimes the level of workmanship was amazing. I could only distinquish painted vs inlaid with a loupe or lighted magnifier. It was a learning experience for me. In many instances I couldn't tell with the naked eye. i don't have an explanation other than to wonder how hard it is to work with the shakudo? You know considerably more than me about that. Ed's tsuba looks very nice to me. As if the nanako wasn't amazing enough, the gold does look inlaid from what I can tell. It is a little gem of a tsuba. I wish it were signed. Though I profess to be an 'old iron tsuba' collector, my appreciation for some of 19th century kinko makers grows more and more every year. Curran

Ed, My wife said "Ooh, pretty!". Show me a side profile and confirm with a loupe that the gold is inlaid (not painted on). The nanako is well done. Ever tried doing it yourself? - Difficult! It could be several things. I too would probably think Kaga kinko, but there were other highly skilled centers like Owari kinko working at that skill level. this is a good one to study. Curran

Dear Ed, Thank you for the link. I looked over the results vs. my own notes. Many of the high results were on tsuba that my wife found visually appealing with no regard to their schools of origin. Suddenly some Shoami tsuba seem worth $30,000. That is the pattern I percieve in the results. Some people seem to have money to burn and have found an interest in fittings. Perhaps Peter said it better. The Tokubetsu Hozon Ko-Akasaka went for about what I was prepared to bid on it, and some other items went for about right to slighthly higher values, but others like the Octopus tsuba, a Saotome, etc.- that is just a bit surprising. Maybe Christies has gotten into the money laundering business? But the 25% commission is one heck of a drawback. Curran (finance professional / reluctant professional gambler)

Uhmm... What the hell? You sure it went for $75k? I was there on Saturday. I went over the items. I was thinking of bidding on a ko-akasaka w/ Toku Hozon papers, but did not. Another favorite was the Octopus tsuba. I looked up the maker and thought the estimate was a bit high. My wife and I saw it in hand. The copper had been discolored on the back. A little on the shiny side. I showed several of the Higo tsuba to my wife and let her get a good whiff. They'd obviously been repatinated. You sure about it going for $75k ? I've seen stranger things happen. An $8000 NBTHK Hozon papered in mint condition not going for $2000, and then the opposite- a kodogu set I could buy privately for $3500 ends up selling for $21,000. But $3k to $75k is a bit of a jump that I don't understand. Maybe Peter can explain it. Curran