Curran

Omiya. Definitely. Sometimes you will get a remarkable kozori work, but up close more of the Omiya are remarkable. This is not to say that you wont see some weak Omiya pieces like this one: http://www.tsuruginoya.com/mn1_3/a00280.html More often, you will see Omiya that are stunners and yet affordable. Two or three years ago there was a nice Omiya Bizen Juyo offered up on this board. The kozori are largely the 'also ran', with a few exceptions.

Didn't see the Akihiro. I spoke to one of the other attendees today and guess I agree with him that the show was the most fun one either of us had been to in a while. Why? Hard to say why. I guess it was a confluence of events. Quite a number of people showed up without being snowed out as happened the former year. I am sorry to those like Prof. Bleed who were snowed out. Perhaps it was recovery from the Great Recession, but the mood was lighter, the conversations many, and cash changing hands at fair prices for fair items. Lots of people brought and shared good items for display. The social time was rampant. Had a few meals with people I often correspond with, but rarely see. Hung out a bit after hours with one member that I still owe a few drinks or otherwise treat him. The atmosphere was relaxed. The ko-kinko lecture had a perfect cross-section of examples, including a few stunners. Most everyone sold, traded, and bought something of interest for themselves. Being more of a fittings collector, I was surprised by the volume of swords changing hands. While Ando-san was there doing business, it was other individuals doing a volume business. Two fellows having bought over 100 swords together and another having bought 19. In conversation, they expressed that the USA remains the best bargain place to buy swords and sell them to international clients. When a newbie, I didn't like the idea that everyone hid the good stuff behind the tables. Unfortunately, this is still true and I am guilty of it to a degree. But people like Mr. Clark were willing to put quite a number of nice pieces out in the open. Also, from another collector, how often do you see a Sadamune openly on display complete with daimyo plaything koshirae? Both commercially and socially, the show had a lot more velocity than in prior years. Kudos to the collector that picked up the really interesting 'Enju' with koshirae. Elegant sword and I don't think any of us would be surprised if further papers gave a different opinion. Quite the kantei challenge.

It happens. Different generations of the same school would make the same design from their books, or another school might copy a design. Sometimes someone special ordered a tsuba and more than one was made at the time. Theoretically, the best one went to the owner and the other(s) destroyed, but more likely sold later. I have a complicated gold inlaid Kozenji tsuba purchased from a privately owned Philadelphia museum and doubted I'd ever see another like it. Then one day I was flipping through the Boston Museum collection, and there was its twin or mate sitting unidentified in their collection.

After 30 years, Benson's Bushido magazine article still remains the best illustration of this little school's works.

Looking forward to what Captain Jack shares. I've seen some of the other pieces to be there. A few people are turning out some fine pieces from their safes. I didn't know we had this caliber of examples in the USA.

I was logging on to thank Lance for posting the link. It was good to see the NBTHK papers for the set to Hizen. The similarity to Jean's is considerable. The Tenold one needs some rust control / preservation, but the iron on these can be a devil to work carefully. Probably best to just give it the horse hair brushing now and then. Seeing it with matching f/k also supports my gut instinct belief that these might have been ordered sets to do personal en-quite koshirae. I suspect there is a matching f/k for Jean's out there in the world, possibly in its own box. Hopefully in the same state of preservation. Jean's is remarkable because the state of preservation is extremely high. It is so clean and well cared for that, that you could eat off it. One of the recent changes with NBTHK seems to be stricter standards on condition. From 2013: in addition to making Tokubetsu Hozon mandatory for Juyo submissions and raising fees a bit, they also seem to be saying now that they will not paper unsigned fittings unless state of preservation is at least "X". Ie. things that could have gotten Tokubetsu Hozon in the 1990s now won't make Hozon if not preserved to some arbitrary standard. I saw an example of this over the weekend that stunned me a bit.

I've always been curious to see their (famed?) running attack for which they somehow draw the saya out of belt. Heard it described, but not seen. Always hoped Tanobe-sensei might give us an example one day, if encouraged with a little sake. If I were to own a Shin-shinto, it would probably seen a Motohira. I've seen two that stole my breath for a second or two.

If I may:

It was a double edged question. I logged on to remove it, since I didn't think it fair to you. You replied before I could pull it. I showed it to you before papering, but you said that we were wrong. I gave you the answer a while back, but you seem to not remember. You did get Nishigaki this time. Closer. It proves your point though, that it is tough to do kantei over the web. I bought it via the web thinking it as you originally did. 50/50% between two possibilities, though there is a design element that makes this a slam dunk. I just didn't know enough at the time. Ito-san and one of our Brit members got it from photos, and I only made up my mind 100% when it came out of the box. The one you gave Steve is sort of a loaded one. Easy to be one thing, but also sort of generic that it can be several things. I threw out something much easier, but would just as soon strike it and leave this between you and Steve. Other people are invited to give a guess too.

Quid pro quo. For Mike. Those who know, please refrain.

Generally respected. They do a lot of volume. Lower margins. You get part of the savings, though sometimes he totally misprices things on the high side. Sometimes he slips you a surprise or a dead fish, but mostly it is the sort of thing that is simply a mistake or oversight of him doing high volume. By the same token, once in a while you will get a screaming bargain. FYI. He's posted to this board before and sometimes gives NMB members a 10% discount on non consigned non auction things.

That was unexpected. Pricey too.

Curious to hear the conclusion on this one.

Increasingly, papering of fittings is financial folly. Add to that Agent and shipping fees. If the cost of papers, Agent, shipping, etc are >= 50% of the value before shinsa or >=33% of the value after shinsa; then probably a waste.

No- that one is squarely in the Namban classification.

There is both Dr. L's work and the small paperback Namban book in Japanese. Both apply a taxonomy to the various namban tsuba out there. Non iron seems to be much more rare. I foolishly sold a nice shakudo one I had, only to see it float through 2004 NTHK shinsa with high papers. I also owned a close cousin to one you shared and seen a similar in both the Japanese book and the Birmingham museum. I think mine passed via a dealer to Dr. Bleed here on the list?

I guess I am going to do a shout out here. Since we are discussing 3rd gen Hayashi [Tohachi] a bit, here is another one. Hayashi tsuba aren't my first pick among the Higo schools, but this one belonged to an older friend before he sold it to Fred W. a while back. I regret not buying it first. Then Fred put it up on his website at a fair price and someone grabbed it before I knew it was available. I'd be interested in tracking it down, if the owner is on this list or anyone knows him (or her).

David's write-up was pretty darn good. David: if you want to sell me that ubu Mushroom katchushi tsuba off the back of a truck in NJ, I would have quite the quandry. With most tsuba it is fine to see it in person and own a good image of it for memory, but you know I've wanted to own one like that or one of the Sasano ones for a while. Pete says 5th, and Pete has sharper forensic eyes than me. I couldn't decide between 3rd and 5th. Assuming it was Yoshinogawa theme, something felt more 3rd gen [Tohachi]. My experience has been that his tsuba are more finished, more often axis oriented in the design, and tend to be simpler like this papered one: http://www.shoubudou.co.jp/tuba-483.html The seppa dai and some of the other details, from experience point me at 5th gen, but black iron seems to be more 3rd gen. As Mike chides us a bit, hard for us to do kantei to a generation on the web. Still, some kinda speak boldly. Forgive our upstart kantei. When Pete makes a call, in the end I usually find I agree with him once I have time to be more scientific than my initial hocus-pocus instincts. He is surgically precise, as a surgeon should be. He doesn't waste words, like I do. For the non Higo collectors.... the 4th Gen died 'Real Fast' like a guy wearing a Red Jersey on the original Star Trek: so _few_ tsuba are attributed to him. Mike also mentioned Fukanobu (Kamiyoshi). Here is a papered one I was looking at this morning: http://www.touken-sakata.com/%E5%88%80% ... %E5%BE%8C/

Peter: ? Grev has been pro bono helping a museum correctly catalog its good sized collection, working through the reading of the names. Though property of the museum for possible publication or display at a future date, he is kind enough to share some with us.

Why it is so nice to see old collections... Coming from an archery background, I'm always appreciative of arrowhead designs. Yet that Tombo tsuba is a little different than the ones we normally see. Enjoy it and wonder why we don't see more rendered that way.

Yes. It is a point I didn't want to get into, because it is a big one and I'm still filling my mental binder on it. With a lot of Muromachi and Momoyama pieces, that lacquer (a)what it does (b) where it does it© where it came off and didn't (d) when it was lacquered AND relacquered can yield extremely differential changes in appearance. I had a lacquered Kamakura tsuba that was extremely educational to study before it went off to France. David had ko-katchushi or momoyoma piece that he showed me in Tampa and I thought it very interesting because the tsuba showed good age yet was lacquered some time 10 to 100(? I can only guess) years after it was made in use. It showed age from the outside as something that was in use for a very long time, but also age from under the lacquer as the lacquer was worn and diminished to expose the old metal and its original issues. To put it another way: lacquer is a real ball breaker wild card of a topic I have not seen its use much on 3rd gen Hayashi --> Kamiyoshi, but that is more the limits of my experience than anything book learned.

Thank you again Morita-san. I failed to read that at "Cho-han". I only saw a "Choshu" tsuba. It is still a "Choshu" tsuba, but I lost gaijin points for that.

I understand what you are saying, and have heard it before from you on a tsuba I previously owned. On the one I previously owned, I see your logic. However I was certain you came to the wrong conclusion, and that causation of condition had a different culprit. There have been and will be times when you are right and I am wrong. On Mike's: I don't see it as you do, but I find Hayashi tsuba to sometimes be the d*mndest iron. Of the Higo schools, I struggle the most with Hayashi and some of the Kamiyoshi inheritance of their works. Then there are those Hayashi that have iron this blackish. Seen many of them, and wondered more if it is some sort of particular Hayashi patina finish. I don't think Mike's is Dipped or Done, but would check inside the sukashi and then under decent magnification like Stereo Microscope Ken or someone else here on NMB recently talked me into buying. After that, a few things more to check before I call it Dipped or Done.

I'm not 100% sure what Grev was asking in the opening. I certainly miss a lot on NMB and don't remember seeing these tsuba before. The Tanaka "Iyetsugu" is correct, though that seems a rare name or alternate name for somebody in the school. Work is good. The Choshu tsuba is Tomo___(?)____ To guess Tomotsugu isn't a bad guess, since this design was common to a small subset of people in the school. I had an one unsigned once. (Photo attached) and see them from time to time. The third one looks correct, though should double check or get someone more fluent to confirm the 'Nobu' character.

John: Repatination???? If so, someone does good work. All I do is hang them in empty garage I have. A winter or two there seems to help.