Curran

? not sure what you mean. Yes, the tariff will have some impact- but this is one purchase where I would just eat the cost. However... that said: I did try and buy the book today, but found that I could not complete the purchase. Shipping to the USA was not an option. Probably tariff related issue. My two main interest have been Higo (especially kinko) and Owari (iron). It has been a long time since I so anticipated a book. If I have to beg someone going the DTI to send me back a copy, I probably will.

One way of looking at it: Top level guys doing fittings for the govt Tokugawa types go to = Goto, individually hand tooled stuff Higher officials needing work appropriate gear go to = Yoshioka shop, good formal. Some minor time saving shortcuts ex: https://www.aoijapan.com/kozuka-kogatana-yoshioka-inabasuke/ Other bureaucrats needing a rig, but a bit more cost go to = Yasuda shop, also pretty good- but maybe more gold plated or lacking in specifics of design. Example: https://www.aoijapan.com/kozuka-mumeiyasuda/ Or ... Fifth Avenue NYC, vs Off Fifth Avenue, vs Filene's Basement / Century 21. All decent, but how bespoke is it? You have Tokugawa mon on the kozuka and kogai. They look very clean yet not too ostentatious in execution. If you look at the nanako, probably it is very uniform and consistently the same size. Yoshioka work is often very clean and strongly uniform elements in the execution. Put another way, they had High quality control. Often unsigned. When they wanted to, they could kick it up a notch or two- so not all Yoshioka work is the same level. Tokugawa mon+ fairly formal with no signs of gold loss + very precise nanako => first guess is Yoshioka.

I thought Yoshioka or Yasuda (cousins) for the kozuka and kogai. I get @Bazza call for that with the tsuba, though gut instinct is towards something else. Not sure exactly what. Yoshioka isn't a bad stab at it. Just generally looks like a very good package. Even the seppa are better than most. Full choji and visible utsuri on the blade too. Why don't things like this ever pop up in my area? --Last sword to pop up near me had 4 hagire. 4. It was a wonder the blade hadn't snapped yet.

Yep. Memory says that aquamarine shot up in value in the late 1990s to early 2000s. Since 2004, I've been out of the community. Blue Topaz is something that definitely invaded the markets in the 21st century. In my past, I never saw it. Upon looking at the golden Tokugawa tachi-koshirae with magnification, it looks like a use of ruby, blue sapphire, a lighter jewel tone that I guessed to be aquamarine... but might be something else. While we see coral, jade, etc on some of the tsuba from the 1800s, rarer gemstones seem to have seldomly been used.

Link 1: https://romanceofmen.com/blogs/katana-info/what-is-koshirae?srsltid=AfmBOopl-20hAXeUlQXTVpH0pOyXCWeGtfwsPg0zq5oYBjDGU7QAE1bU I also pulled the Tokugawa book and found the gold tachi koshirae on page 100. I was not able to find the image online and expand it, but I can say from the book that it looks like it has been set with some small rubies or very red carnelians. Possibly some aquamarine too, or light blue spectrum stone. Given period of manufacture, the aquamarine is more likely than the blue topaz we see a lot of these days. Curran www.irontsuba.com

That was my thought. A pretty material that was once common, and now hard or expensive to come by.

Some Tokugawa tachi koshirae have a variety of stones. I'd have to pull the Tokugawa book to remind myself what stones. Background: had family and a friend who were bench jewelers. 20 years of hanging with them, and you learn a bit about stones by osmosis. I'm not a expert, but know a lot more than many.

Good responses. It looks like an interesting design. Very interesting design, above that you will see on most Hizen tsuba. and Yes, it looks overcleaned too. Still, $130 on something like is far better than stumbling on a f'ugly repro or such. This one can teach you a fair bit as a newbie. You bought some knowledge, being able to study the layout of the Hizen design and nunome. Not that bad a first step. My first one was worse.

Ugh. As I cycle through 4 pairs of glasses, why do I feel I am next? Having been eagle eyed most of my life, I get exceptionally self angry when I miss things- yet hate wearing glasses a second longer than I must. Some of you have a much sharper sense than I do for parsing digital images.

"seller states in the description that it is 20th century" That is probably accurate. Personally, I doubt it is pre WWII.

I think, to some degree, I had that coming. I was ranting about the NBTHK too much, given my own disappointments. I'd previously considered the sukashi and questioned it, but reserved judgement until seeing it in hand. I've seen wider cuts in a lot of old pieces. The nakago ana, I felt was more recent filework from the inside. I see it a bit differently. One point against me is the kozuka ana and how wide it is spaced. I would have to consider if it were added later or original. If original, then I would have to reconsider if I was being a git trying to see it as a ko-tosho. I should put my NBTHK opinions away and try on focus on explaining what I see.

There is a difference between the shinsa team changing every few years, and the Extinction Level event shift somewhere around 2014. After all these years, I still don't know why or how it happened. In a given year, there will be a shinsa or two with some half intelligent results where I think "oh Wow, maybe there is some hope they will return to their Golden Age level". Then the next shinsa or two prove me wrong. It is like the one knowledgeable shinsa NBTHK emeritus judge below Juyo level came in, does a shinsa to keep his "retired but working" NBTHK status, and then leaves the rest of the year to the rubes. It has been over a decade now.

Not that unusual, but it is a particularly nice example.

Not sure why this tsuba is 'Tosho' instead of 'Ko-Tosho'. (a) Maybe the NBTHK sees something I don't. (b) Papers are from 2017. It might be a paradigm shift where 'Ko-Tosho' is now considered pre 1500? (c) Maybe the current NBTHK is just being gutless. Since about 2014, I've been less confident in NBTHK papers. To me, earlier papers mean (a). Since then, I seem to find a fair number of NBTHK papers are more (b) or (c). I finally got around to doing another shinsa after a few years pause. About 50% of the items [without previous papers] came back 'Horyu'... One of the mumei ones is a well known tsuba posted in a NBTHK publication.... Do I have to remind them what they wrote 20 years ago? so I think (c) is on the rise. What is the value of non-opinions? I really miss the (a) years. -Curran

Everyone: To keep it simple... There is the Higo Hirata school and then there is the Hirata Donin school. Higo Hirata (Hikozo and his line) = no cloissone Hirata Donin (and those after him) = extremely skilled goldwork and cloissone, Don't confuse the two.

Trust yourself more. Even if the signature on the fuchi proves to be false, -that is not uncommon. Overall, it looks like a nice koshirae that has probably been stored a little too long. Extremely nice looking wrap.

@JohnTo Thank you. This is why I cross=post things that I initially posted elsewhere. Places like here and the National Gardening Forum sometimes dig up things (pun) that surprise me when I thought I knew most of what there was to know about a topic. 'So... Tadanori became a term like John Doe, Dine-n-Dasher, or Honkie Love that one. Is it in modern parlance at all? I'm curious if my host family would recognize it. They helped a lot in researching the two Taira Tadanori poems on the Goto kozuka in the photo, and sent me information from the Prefecture museum.

...

Oh wow. Nice looking Owari rig. Very nice to see someone do up a koshirae that way. 13 or 14 years ago, I had a nice antique Owari rig with a kodai Yagyu on it. Sold the koshirae on to a NMB member, and I sometimes regret it. They were never commonplace, but you just don't see many Owari rigs anymore. Only among the more dedicated Iaido practicioners, (including John and Sachiko Prough: the friends, neighbors, and Iaido/naginata teachers that helped me really get into this nihonto hobby)

One of the Yagyu I showed didn't have modern NBTHK papers. I finally got around to sending it to shinsa, and got word that it papered to Hozon directly to Yagyu.

Afraid I agree with @ROKUJURO and @Dan tsuba on this one. I'm cautious to call a tsuba as cast, but that one is not at the same level as the one you shared to start this thread. I remember owning a partially burned tsuba in my second year collecting tsuba. I wasted a lot of time trying to improve that partially burned tsuba. Some things are just 'dead' and you should let them go as soon as possible.

Wow. Tsuba or a gong?

I went from not liking Hoan tsuba that much, to truly loving some of the early ones. The Hoan Juyo of the long eared rabbit has become a favorite. I'd probably have to sell off 10 tsuba to own it, but would do so.

background poem and depiction

I posted this elsewhere and think NMB would enjoy it too. Attached are 3 kozuka of same design -Taira Tadanori death waka on an arrow (under cherry tree)-. First to the right is Goto Tokujo. Middle one is his son Kenjo. The last one on the left in its own box is either later Goto main line or Goto sideline (my opinion). ----- Purpose of this is to see second photo where you can observe the design went from thinner but more intricate to progressively deeper larger relief and design. Some of the complexity lost…