Curran

Pic added

Toppei style = late Edo. Ie. Influenced by western military things coming into the country. In your case, with Namban type Hirado style fittings. I have one of these locking mechanisms and really like them. They are fairly rare. Very cool. Thank you for posting that. I will save down the pictures for my own files.

I enjoyed this thread. I can do without the tsuba, but do miss playing video games at the arcades.

You guys are making me feel uncomfortable. From my point of view: nice fat duck-tail type nakago, good broad geometry, clear nice Yamato jigane. I didn't think Hosho, but nice clearly in the Yamato camp to my eyes. Reasonable cost for such an example. The papers are nice, but the blade speaks well enough for itself. I've never owned a Yamato school tanto or ken before, and this would have been a good visual primer to own for a few years.

Good. This ken was tempting me too much. I try to stick to tosogu, but sometimes I tell myself some tanto and o-tanto aren't that much larger than a ko-goto kogai. My cerebrum trying to rationalize the temptation.

Tom, It was an interesting question. A ko-Tosho I have was mountet tachi style and has a lot of obvious wear on the tsuka side in the appropriate place for a tachi mounted iron tsuba that has been used a lot. Flipping it over, it does have some noticeable degree of wear in the area you are talking about, but not nearly as much as the tsuka side.

Sold, pending payment? Hard to tell if this is an active listing or now sold.

Not to steal the purpose of the thread, but last night I decided to sell my Hizen Taikan. Anyone reading this thread and interested should PM me. Because of the size of the Tome of all things Hizen, it would be best if the buyer were in the USA. Still, quite willing to ship abroad. I live 500 ft from the central post office. Not a hassle for me. Curran

Oh c'mon Mr. Helm. Not even a little resemblance?

Finally oh finally, a tsuba that reminds me of the Arcade & Atari of my youth. https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/t1058204004 SPACE INVADERS! Have we seen any tsuba that remind us of the great Atari! . Perhaps a Missile Command tsuba amongst the Bushu or Choshu schools? -- Who hasn't seen a Tron tsuba at some point? A Video Pinball tsuba?

Yeah, the Sue-Koto books from the JSS are worth every penny. I am far and away more of a fittings collector at this point, but the Sue-Koto books are an excellent read and cover some schools in much more detail than you can get from any of the large volume sets.

Tough one, at least for me. It could fall into Hamano area or into one of the Mito sub schools from the later half of Edo period. I look at the flowers, water, and tree execution and think somewhere in the later Mito schools. One of my favorite tsuba was from the Uchikoshi (Mito sub school) Then I look at the horse's head and how it is executed, and I bounce right over to Hamano school. If someone has a more rock solid opinion, I'd love to learn what they see.

Ah yes. I showed this one to my wife this morning. Very pretty, but the price and older papers give one pause. I have a fuchi-kashira by this fellow.

Thank you Ford. As I said to a collector here long ago and became a mantra, "Look at the workmanship, look at the signature, look at the workmanship again". I started to reply yesterday about how the kata-kiri workmanship was lacking, but decided not to get into it. I'm glad that you replied. It has more weight coming from you. For anyone interested, the Soyo-Somin book has a little section on paying attention to the katakiri work comparing 2 kozuka of identical design but very different execution.

The geometry in general is Higo proportions, especially the rendering of the left n right ana. Usually that screams Higo.

Good job via Mr. Hughes. Nice diamonds to the tsuka. Choose a good sageo.

Fair to say that at least 75% of the wan shaped tsuba are going into Higo or Hizen? Maybe 85-90% of wan tsuba are covered if you say tsuba from Kyushu associated schools. Wan shape => think Kyushu. No surprise, given the origins of the idea for wan tsuba. During the 2 years I operated as a small shop dealer helping to clear some estates, a nice Hizen wan tsuba was sold by me. For reasons of objectivity, I wasn't suppose to buy anything directly. When that tsuba came up again, I tried to buy it. Someone else got to it first. Hizen tsuba are generally not highly regarded, but there are some very nice ones now and then.

I agree with Richard and others. Consigned or Attributed are better word choice than Binned. Wan shape, dragon, namban feel, sort of wood worker type carving, fair bit of nunome work => Hizen work.

@Chishiki Don't I know it. The NBTHK wait kills me. It gets worse each year, though at least the opinions are getting more knowledgeable after whatever super transition drop off happened in 2014. Still, you have to pay for TH to get more than a relatively Captain Obvious opinion. Hozon "Higo" papers? Phhhhssh. Even my wife could have said Higo at a glance. I thought they'd at least put the school on it, but obviously hoped for too much to get to venture which generation at the Hozon level. Also, "Den" at the TH level is becoming more common and is rather gutless. "TH Den Hirata" = we know it is Hirata, and it might be 1st gen Hikozo => but we have no balls, so we will say Den Hirata. With the new rules the NBTHK is putting up about submitting items, it is an even higher hurdle for foreigners and their agents. I like your menuki and think TH to Umetada is a good attribution. Best would have been TH to Ezo, but I think TH to Umetada is a close second. To me, it beats a TH to Ezo (Edo) type attribution. The backs are nice, and I too think them somewhere in the early 1600s workmanship.

@Chishiki Careful with the nomenclature there. While we know Nara and Umetada works a certain way, the names "Ko-Nara" and "Ko-Umetada" imply not so much => OLD as they do the very different school or workmanship that was produced in that area before a certain time. Thus.... Ko-Nara works are some interesting mostly iron works (we think of most Nara stuff as very kinko), and Ko-Umetada works are mostly very simple iron tsuba that border on crude... but have different proportions than Ko-shoami. Thus... TH to Umetada is nicer to have than TH to Ko-Umetada. I don't think I have ever seen anything Ko-Umetada get TH papers. I think what you would wish for is TH Umetada that had (Momoyama or early Edo) written in parenthesis.

School of tsuba is Playskool. Of the Hasbro region.

@Okan I'm just a tourist lost in a sword thread, but I have to say that was some impressive sleuthing.

This is at least the 2nd time Mr. Broderick has been recognized, yet I have never seen an image of his work. Anyone able to share an image either here or PM?

No opinion from me. I was just stumbled into this thread in an interesting way. When it comes to the NBTHK, I admit I have lost my religion. I am not the biggest fan of their opinions, and last shinsa I had to submit evidence with tsuba to get the correct attributions. On the two where I didn't bother, I simply got "Higo". Sort of Captain Obvious for which they take your money and 8 months of shinsa time.

https://www.samuraishokai.jp/sword/22613.html Western steel? This was an interesting thread. I'd think it a bit cheeky to make a tanto for the birth of the Crown Prince and use western steel. I'm here entirely to learn. As most know, I'm 97.5% fittings centric. This all came to my nose while researching a special tsuba made around the same time. Tantou [Ikkansai_Kunimori](Yasukuni Sword Maker)(The sword by which His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince is born commemoration)