Curran

Grey dark metal on the rough wet sand side of things? Nice tekkotsu on the outside and possibly one or two divet fissures? Partially due to hunting porcini and other funghi when I was younger, this remains one of my favorite designs. It almost always gets attributed to Ono, and I have seen 3 or 4 Ono papered examples over the last 20-25 years. Jim Gilbert offered me his 'hammer' water wheel Ono when I was relatively a new collector. Like a dummy, I passed on it. I'd been waiting for another of these "mushroom" or one of the 'hammer' water wheel ones to pop up. I finally bought one of the 'hammer' water wheels last year.

No, not quite. What started out with very good iron outside and a thin core layer of lesser iron would eventually become a thick core of lesser iron and the better outer iron would be very thin. In the earliest use of it, it makes for quite a good robust tsuba in the 3rd and 4th generation. The Nihonto.com tsuba is a very good tsuba, but I think the NBTHK papers to Ono are daft. That is my opinion. To me that tsuba was screaming 3rd or 4th gen Akasaka.

https://nihonto.com/1-4-20/ This one is likely not Ono. I was able to study for a long time. It went to shinsa in that 2014 year of NBTHK tosogu team buggery. I still think Probably 3rd gen Akasaka. Possibly 4th. It is sanmai construction and has Akasaka color/patina and texture outer iron. Generally: Be careful of old green papers for swords circa 1976-1979. Be careful of tosogu Hozon papers from 2014--> (?) . Especially when it comes to Higo fittings. They've gotten better, but sometimes there will be a tosogu shinsa with a lot of huh, what???

As [more fluent in Japanese] Steve said, "The hard "k" sound changes to a hard "g" sound when the word is used as a compound word, and is attached behind another word. " Conservation of pronunciation? Korean has a lot of that too. In Korean, it is more the K<->G in depends on whom you ask and in what dialect. The Korean Surname "Kang" is more "Gang".... but Kang looks better than Gang to most westerners. Same with "Kim", that some would pronounce more like "G(h)im", but Kim sure is easier than trying to hit between the K and G sounds.

That is more like it. D@mn nice example too. Lines between Kanayama and Ono often seem to blur. Another Ono-Kanayama attached.

Somewhat striking. I didn't know him, but impression is that he was too young to pass from illness. Sad to lose another artisan. RIP.

Jah. It has been mounted and could use a little basic TLC. But otherwise it is a CLASSIC Echizen example, and a seemingly nice one. Looking past the orange light that makes the bits of rust look hot and difficult to see the iron, -- it looks very legit and nice to me. I've rarely owned an Echizen, but this would be a nice reference example even to me. Depending on the price and the amount of rust on the mimi, even my jaded self would consider buying it. Good newbie question that makes me glad to help.

You beat me. I think I max out somewhere around Ghost Pepper. My wife has a super high tolerance and enjoyed seeing me sweat and melt on our second date to a place that could bring the heat. My lifelong best friend was a Cajun with a big mouth and he was neither too physically gifted, nor very martially trained. When he mouthed off and someone wanted to get in his face, he offered to duel them in a Scoville Throwdown. One of the highlights of my life was watching him eat the entire highschool football team under the tables with a bunch of open flame cooked habaneros. Brains (and heat tolerance) over brawn.

Ugh. This person called me "my friend". But apparently they do that a lot. Kid- We are not friends. It seems increasingly unlikely that we ever will be. As for Ego, yeah... I had that Ego-Death thing years back. Soul knocked clean out of the body type thing. I'm gonna stop there. Best sword fights are usually the ones where the blades don't touch, and I don't wanna engage further. Fundamentally, I'm not interested. I am thankful to those who keep NMB going. Thank you to those who handle this sort of.... /thing.

If it matters, I would describe that as a Korean pepper.Cheong-gochu aka. 청고추 Koreans eat them in stews, soups, and straight up with some fermented gochuchang or doenjang paste on them. I don't know when they came to Japan. Presumably 1600s, but maybe later during the Japanese occupation of Korea circa 1910-1945. That would postdate tosogu, so probably 1600s after the Korea campaigns. I think they are called Shishito in Japanese? Same biological name as the Korean. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shishito

Yeah, that thread could have used some Stephen. I'm sorry he retired from NMB. Generally I think Brian handled it well and am sorry he has to step in as much as he does. What is this, kindergarten for violent toddlers? I also agreed with Alex on the point that a lot of us have spent decades helping others just to nurture the hobby. It definitely gets taken for granted. So I don't respond to posts anymore where a $25 book would educate them. C'mon piker... buy at least one book and open it. Read a few pages. ----When someone comes in, pisses on your leg and starts throwing lit firecrackers behind the bar, maybe they deserve the response of getting their head shoved in the Scottish toilet for a swirly and a few kicks to the arse. Not my bar, so I won't do it. I wouldn't have punched him in the nose like Alex did, but https://dictionary.c...ish/had-it-coming-to

What Brian said. The Customs People don't have either time or ability to think. If labeled "XYZ" and the system says "XYZ is bad", you're out and there is very little chance human face to face logic will change it these days. In conclusion: control how it is labelled when sent. When tsuba mailing to shinsa in Japan.... don't call them sword guards. Do as Brian said. ...and apparently Belgium is the same way. I love that Sweden is fine with swords and you can say most anything with it sailing through. Even the USA isn't that relaxed. Mention of 'sword' with declared value, and your chances of it disappearing in LAX or Chicago customs gets much higher.

That is certainly different. I've been around tosogu for a few decades, and don't remember a similar one. I don't know that I can shed much info on this one. My subconscious tells me Kyushu and possibly Satsuma, though I sure as heck cannot articulately explain why. Take that as a semi-educated opinion, but still kinda a shot in the dark.

Older? Yes. And they've multiplied... https://page.auction.../auction/x1106696844 If you are going for a certain minimalist look, that also can function as trivet for your hotplate.

Wow. Here I was thinking that tsuba looked familiar.... Now I know why. $175 purchase price also pops my brain a wee bit.

I was pretty far off with this one. I would not have guessed Hamano derivative. Sorry that I cannot be of much help along this line. Dale and Jay have been much more useful.

Off hand, I cannot read the artist's signature. Both supposedly done when the artist was 71. To me, it looks like late Edo work derived from one of the Ichijo's students. Possibly student of a student of Ichijo? Thus, it doesn't strike me as likely to be gimei. If someone translates the name, I will look it up with my texts.

D'oh! That one is worthy of bagpipes. Absolute groaner. I love it.

I tend to use mine as shurikens, though I believe they are colloquially called noggenklunkins.

Nice. The Kiri stamps remind me of the Goto Ichijo kinko ones we'd see a few centuries later. Interesting to see "an original" Tempo iron one.

I have these two in my small collection.

While I have seen kozuka and kogai with such themes on one side, I don't remember having seen menuki before. Early in my collecting, I had a set of menuki depicting drunk foreigners under street lamps. I had no idea how unique they were, and I ended up selling them less than 1 year into owning them.

In the midst of many other things, I somehow missed this. It is a shame, as this was a good Owari tsuba.

Nice tsuba. Knowing the school, the period, and having owned a work by a similar artist- I recommend taking photos in different light. I know what you say is true: it is definitely more blackish brown and deep than is evident in the high orange light photos you have taken.

That is probably all the information you will be able to divine. Yet, I've attached a scan of Markus Sesko's fine work on the school. The fuchi-kashira looks like Nara work and is signed. The sort of design for which the school is often known. Ko-Nara tends to be closer to the temple fittings and metalwork that they initially made before they evolved into the larger school of Nara fittings for which they are known. I have one example, image attached. It can be very difficult to attribute to specific person.