Curran

Thank Jim Gilbert. I wish he were still updating the blog. Many many good articles there.

Jim is quite the authority and knows much more about these than I ever will. It was just better to cite him. The other times I have seen them, they have been in Japanese text only and my ability to read is Elementary school level.

https://tsubakansho.com/

Seiyudo.... If you can get a fair deal from them, then you are skilled. In 20+ years, I think they are one of the few dealers with whom I have never had a single transaction. Lovely example of a very healthy Omiya Morikage, but price is probably more than the new car I buy in 2022 or 2023.

I suspect he was bidding against you. I broke my "don't bother with Yahoo!Japan" rule this morning and bid on an unsigned Hazama of a design I like. Thought I had it, and then someone outbid me. I think I raised my bid about 15 times and there were no other bids or bidders than mine, but I never got above the Nuke Bid. All I did was drive it up several hundred $$$ on the winner, who also seemed to be using a proxy service. Westerner vs other non Japanese bidder. If it was you... sorry about driving up the price. Congrats. Kirill probably feels the same. Lots of NMB people bidding on Yahoo!Japan these days.

For the last 15 years, I've only owned two blades. One of them is a partially signed Omiya. I had it out last night and was appreciating it. Beautiful balance. Opinion: Omiya + 1

Generally this is a Saotome design, though yours doesn't feel Saotome. Tosho - Katchushi is probably the right ballpark. It might get a Myochin, Haruta, or Saotome attribution from the NBTHK depending on their mood that month.

In my experiences, BUYEE did a particularly crappy job declaring for Customs. I quickly came to realize I'd be paying an extra +10% to +18% on items. Any attempt to file against it was met by a DHL service charge almost always equal the amount I was fighting. Lose-lose, so avoid Buyee.

I like this one very much. We've had a number of these threads over the years. Mine has been up a few times before, and I might was well post it again. -Signed and dated 1754 on the bottom.- Spartan, which is more my aesthetic.

One is a liar. Many [not all] of the eBay seller listings from Japan are jerks arbitraging items that can be found for less in Japan. I managed to avoid them for years, but got caught by one earlier this year. I hit his Buy It Now. Yet then I discovered the item listed in Japan with 7 days to go on the item. The Faux Seller kept putting me off as he tried to bid on the other item. Ultimately, if they can arbitrage it- they will and screw you. If not, they cancel and say "Item no longer available". IN my case, I began copying messages to eBay while catpawing with the faux seller to please send the item. The seller ultimately claimed that I asked to cancel the transaction [I did not]. --I ended up winning the item in Japan for about 55% of the price I had hit on eBay. Despite being caught, eBay still lets the Arbitrage scammer list items. It is unclear how they justify it, but they basically take the attitude that you must be mistaken...even if you send them an image of the item in your hand held over a physical hardcopy of today's local newspaper. The short version: other than maybe Matsukaze and one or two others, avoid sellers out of Japan. The majority are Arbitrage scammers that eBay continues to permit. Curran

Yes.... Make sure the headline of the thread says exactly what you want to focus on. I rarely read all the thread these days, but a dedicated thread can generates some interesting discussion. I do wish I had studied the theme of that tsuba a bit more before selling it.

For future reference, careful with the angle of lighting on that "salt bucket" Nishigaki. To others, in that odd angle photo -they will mistakenly see patina loss. In addition to the similar Kanshiro one in the Sasano Silver book, I also recently came across this Kamiyoshi one: https://www.aoijapan.com/tsuba-mumeiunsignedkamiyoshi/ Sasano said it referenced a famous Noh play of the 1600s. Have you been able to find out more about it? Possibly this one? https://www.the-noh.com/en/plays/data/program_043.html George on this list is quite good with such themes.

Great Kote and great information on books.

Brian, Hughes-san, Thank you for the news. Guido, " To fight with tempests anywhere, And in the grinding shipwreck stand and not despair" Please get better soon. Later you can make fun of me quoting Goethe's Faust to you.

Bathing Crows is almost always a Goto design. I have no idea why it wasn't knocked off or copied by other schools.

My pleasure. It going back to a story from China might explain the Dragon Cart kanji. Yes, Waki-Goto would show up as an attribution on papers in the past. In recent years they seem hesitant to say Waki-Goto unless signed by some specific person from the sideline school. I was looking at a f/k earlier that was signed by one of the waki-goto guys. Like all 6 or 7 generations used the same name, but the signature confirmation books only have the mei for the shodai. As you can imagine, that causes trouble for us westerners. It takes a serious library to track down which generation along one of the waki goto lines.

Waki goto. Aka. One of the other branches of the Goto family. Sometimes the waki Goto stuff is simplified versions of mainline themes, and other times it can be somewhat creative in a way that minimally breaks the rules of the mainline Goto school. I've owned two waki Goto sets over the years because of interesting designs- a set of interesting shi-shi and a kozuka that was a high grade workmanship variation on a classic Goto theme. Some of the waki Goto stuff seems to have a bit more a sense of humor than the mainline Goto stuff. 龍車 Is literally Dragon Cart, though equivalent to Imperial Cart, though I believe the Japanese use 竜車. Not knowing the mythology or fable well, I am guessing the story is old enough that they use 龍車 instead of 竜車 as more appropriate in this particular story? Interesting to me. I wish my Japanese were better, but I am starting to work on that.

Keep it simple: The tanto that started this thread was initially sold at auction. The tanto is now -consigned- at a much higher price. I could consign it for $1 Million. It doesn't mean anything until it sells anywhere near that price.

I don't think Timur has been back since before the Pandemic. I had a general email from him in the last few months, but no follow up when I replied to his questions.

Christian S. in with the win. Thank you.

Intentional texturing and snowflakes. Very frequent Ichijo ippa design. The topic of snowflakes and how the Japanese perceived them in art prior to a certain Japanese scholar studying them under a microscope is quite a more extensive discussion. I forget the man's name, but maybe someone else here will remember it. After many years in a tropical climate, I hope to actually see snow this year. Happy Holidays!

Intentional texturing.

I sold this tsuba to Jean long ago. When it came back on the market, I tried to buy it. Someone got to it quicker. Nice Hizen example of etching. *Hint* current owner, if you are on NMB--- PM me.

Cool tsuba.

Part of why I quite using them. They kept screwing up the Customs. None of the other deputy services I worked with would screw it up like Buyee.