Curran

Interesting discussion. The topic of Christianity on tsuba in Japan is something I have always left to other collectors in the USA. I never thought about the aspect of the boats before. But why not? The Venetians certainly took their religion along as part of their merchant empire. Why not the Spaniards and Portugeuse?

It is a common enough name. And that isn't a picture of the Danny you are asking about. The last time I googled the name of a friend, the first match was to a sex offender in a nearby state. It totally skipped over my friend, though my friend worked in IT for the government and had his name up all over the place. If the internet can take you to the twisted and muck-raking, it will. I have an extremely uncommon name, but there are at least 4 of us here in the USA. 3 of which ARE NOT me.

Nice tsuba, and nice looking rig. Not all Ohno (or Ono) are great, but Ohno tsuba deserve more respect.

Thank you for the updates on this. Hackman is an example, and checking in on a bachelor uncle was once part of my own life. I am glad you guys could confirm he is okay.

@Deez77 Yours would be a good example of what Steve's write-up refers to a later "blending in" where the symbol loses its original meaning (like the Confederate Flag). Or (joking here) yours it could be philosophically broadcasting, "Don't blame me, I'm just a samurai cog in the shogunate machine". It definitely resembles a gear or cog. Steve's on the other hand.... looks like much of the symbolism found in the few preserved bits of Japan's Christian history.

Yes. I wondered that too. It looked more Late Edo Toppei Koshirae . Not Tensho. But Aoi makes a lot of mistakes in their high volume turnover.

Rivkin's post = my own thoughts. Even studying tsuba for 25+ years, Soten is one of the schools I know less. I've seen maybe >1000 and would say this is one of the nicer ones. Even with my experience, I'd hesitate to offer an opinion on the signatures. Soethebies does only a minimum amount to vet a signature. They do try a bit... but not a lot. Take their opinion very loosely. As to value- probably take what they sold for in 2006 and discount it a small bit. Soten tsuba have not held nor raised (nor dropped) in value as much as some other schools.

PM sent.

Is that an ivory piece around the koiguchi? If so, export/import means the ivory comes off, no?

@KungFooey glad someone else noticed this tsuka. As an aside: In addition to the kashira, the menuki are Goto style Sambaso dancers. Without looking closer, I couldn't say Goto or what generation.

Thank you for posting this, and your thoughts on Niten koshirae. We all come at this from many different angles, and sometimes your posts make me reconsider what little I feel I know. I'd seen the Suaka snails recently. Small steps forward in understanding, with a Eureka! moment every now and then.

Mods- this can be moved to the SOLD section.

--SOLD-- @Deiro NMB has been around a long time. There are 15-20 years of that sort of discussion in the Tosogu section. Query similar tsuba and terms and explore. Even I sometimes forget how much knowledge is buried in there.

Yeah... It is ON HOLD. Probably gone. Two inquires in the first hour.

Last one. These are all deemed large for NMB, so stopping here.

And more pics.

More pics

$595. After an online discussion with a friend last night, I decided to offer up one of my Hayashi Plum Tree tsuba towards paying down the Juyo tsuba previously discussed. Size: 78mm x 75.7mm x 5.6mm (taper to 5 at mimi). --For me, this is a favorite design. If interested, please PM and ask questions. Located in SouthEast USA.

I confess that I misunderstood this theme for the longest time. The gourd and catfish menuki are often associated with Higo koshirae, but I don't remember it on to many tsuba other than the Miyamoto Musashi one. Personally, I love the M. Musashi design of Catfish n Gourd. I think it was on the front of one of the DTI catalogs one year.

Pretty much. Referencing some Christies Auctions, I've seen tsuba go for $80,000+ when I would have hesitated to pay $800 for them. Sometimes just for something that happened to photograph nicely. I once was consulted on a koshirae at Bonhams. I thought it worth $35k-$40k, with opening bid somewhere in the $20k range. The wealthy foreign buyer seeking the consultation went on to pay over $200,000 for it. These are amounts that make us go "whoa", but the billionaires don't care.

Feels right. Nice little menuki. The attached gold Kirin menuki were mine. Note the similar spiral sunburst carved patterns. NBTHK said these were Yanagawa. NBTHK mostly got it right. Near miss.... Darcy and I later established they were identical to a Kikuoka school pair that was in a Juyo set mitsukoromono.

Hamano Noriyuki. Looks more like the father's signature. Haynes 07454.0 Decent looking signature, which I would say >50% chance to pass --but it has got some quirks. --- And, as the Haynes Index says, "there are many forgeries of both generations". Not sure papers would add much value. Kinko works do seem more popular than in the past.

Nowadays, please expect to wait 1 year from the time you mail it to the time it returns. Maybe 6 months if you are very lucky. The new NBTHK reservation system is making many agents pull out their hair. Some might claim otherwise, but the process is a lot long, more expensive, and less educational than it once was. You might do best to show it here to see if it is worth papering.

Counterparty risk. It is surprising that even Japanese seller muck this up a lot. Even my own agent did this one time recently.

Just -wow-. Hell of an acquisition. Glad it is in the States, though on the wrong side of the US.