Curran

Earlier than that. I have a ko kat and ko tosho that are late Nambokuchu to earliest Oei, which is the time period of blades I prefer. The earliest kinko tsuba I have are a mid muromachi tachi tsuba and a mid muromachi kogatana tsuba with one of the earlier shaped kozuka ana (tall thin domed one) without a corresponding kogai ana.

I don't know how many kinko Ko-Shoami papers you can see unless someone with a database chimes in. I may go looking later. It isn't easy to define Ko-Shoami kinko. Most of the ones I have seen that were NBTHK papered were sort of [mountain-copper] base with a shakudo fukurin. Various shapes. Some had textured surface, and most had the use of inlay of either gold or shakudo in a way that looked somewhat Kaga or Umetada. The one RKG owned could have easily been mistaken for a very early (Higo) Hirata school example.

While similar to Kaga and to Umetada work, my feeling was: kinko Ko-Shoami Kinko Ko-shoami are much much more rare than iron works. RKG has or had one I really fancy. I've never actually owned one myself. Not many paper that way. Usually NBTHK can just be lazy and say 'Ko-kinko'.

Hi Morita-san, For me, it was just a "Study Challenge", but I could not figure out who made it or who it was to imitate. It was For Sale on Yahoo!Japan. The seller could not read it and seemed to know little about tosogu. The design was not for me, but the materials and workmanship were very good. The theme was ducks [or water fowl] by a stream. The design was not typical Ishiguro. It was "minimalist", but very good shibuichi, gold, and other metals. A strange puzzle that I could not solve. I did not save an image of it, and I cannot find the former link to it.

Is the kozuka unsigned? I've seen many snake tsuba, but I do not think I have ever seen a kozuka with a lady-bug on it. To me, that is the most interesting part. What design are the menuki?

SOLD. NMB contribution once I get it mailed.

Just a 1950s light-switch cover with aspirations of being a tsuba.

That pretty much sums up my experience with DHL. Some people swear by them, but they are rather Gestapo about duty fees and hit me hard on a special sake flask that was mislabeled by the sender. At that time, they also charged some ridiculous processing fee to make a claim against the duties that I had to pay them. It was like $75, which was a significant chunk of the $95-100 or so in bogus duties I had to pay on a duty free piece of artwork.

Elegant one. I like it. Yes, the manji has been around a long long time and got culturally appropriated. I forget which western American Indian tribe also used it as a symbol long ago.

Thank you gents. I thought it was "Sada", but I really wasn't sure from the eccentric strokes. Glad I at least got that right, but I totally didn't get "Sadayoshi". I was way way off base with that second character.

On HOLD {pretty sure it is sold} This one was a partial gift. :-) NMB contribution after payment.

And no idea why the pictures are rotating. I will try and fix that tonight. Last one.

Up for sale is this large honking Myochin or Haruta armor maker style tsuba. [that is my best guess] Sunlight style texturing to the plate. 8.49cm high. 170 grams. About 5.5mm to 6mm depending where you measure it. Armor maker style, so obviously thickest at the mimi. I saw a very similar one attributed to Myochin in Chicago. This one is up for $250 + shipping to your country. It is a perfectly find big tsuba that came +1 as part of a two tsuba package where I wanted the other tsuba. ---The one in Chicago was $600. Nothing at all wrong with this wee beastie. It just isn't in my Higo and Owari interest areas. Otherwise, I believe it a perfectly good tsuba. Donation to NMB if it sells via NMB. Feel free to ask questions. Patience if I am slow to reply to PMs. It seems my mailbox fills up sometimes. Curran

I don't own the kozuka, but I do enjoy studying such pieces. What is the correct reading of the signature? This one isn't easy for me. I've come up with some weird sounding readings.

As someone who has been in this for 25-30 years, finding pre muromachi kinko is going to be hell of a longshot. I've owned one silver+tin+bronze+???? tachi tsuba of that age, and really shouldn't have sold it. I own two iron tsuba of that age, and kick around the idea of selling the ubu one of simple design. I keep putting it off. Maybe next year, maybe next year, maybe next year. Many years have passed. Good luck on finding kinko tsuba of that age. Most of the very old Ko-kinko tsuba of that age that I have seen are Juyo.

@rkgHeavens to Betsy.... that is a huge Shingen in you Facebook post. Pretty sure that is the King of Shingen tsuba.

To my eyes, both appear to be the same tsuba. Different locations and photos during its 150-175 years of existing. Pinning down a specific Yoshioka generation might be as difficult as pinning down a specific Hoan attribution. Maybe there is a text or two out there that has done it, but I either (a) have not seen it or (b) do not recall it. I believe I have seen the various generations of the Yoshioka laid out before, but I am not sure if anyone has built an answer key to which one is which generation.

Wow! Size? Like how thick?

Nambokuchu or earlier tachi tsuba at about 350-400g?

COmmon tachi tsuba design. Especially for Efu no Tachi, as Colin said. Arnold Frenzel would call them hair-pin tsuba

@OceanoNox These little exercises often teach me something too. Thanks for sharing that.

Steve nailed it fairly fast, and Peter posted a writeup that I didn't even know existed. Top marks to both of you. This little session went down a lot faster than I thought. If work allows, I will post another one tomorrow.

Peter: Good detective work. I didn't know that write-up by Jim Gilbert was online.

Pics attached. Identify: (1) School (2) Period and bonus (3) meaning of the theme Curran

Ono is one of the hardest, because different scholars have sliced and diced in different ways over the years. Even Torigoye+Haynes said there were "two different types of Ono" with the subtext of Really Good Ones, and not so good ones that got put there because scholars didn't know where else to place them in the Owari area pantheon. I also had a well recognized Temple Bell 'Kanayama' (Nihon to Koza) that was both thin, small, yakite, etc., but the NBTHK went Hozon to Ono. Not sure why?? In my particular case: I simply exclude the underwhelming "Ono" (placed there by NBTHK) and focus on the Owari To Mikawa book type examples. I know this is unscientific, but I cannot be bothered by the boring ones the NBTHK wants to call Ono. A little arrogance has its time and place in the Art world, though perhaps less in the medical world.