Lorenzo

Well done my friend That set really deserved it's own box Lorenzo

Fellows, the correct link is http://www.to-ken.com

This was ages ago on yahoo auction, I saved the pictures because at the time I felt it was cute to me.

It's a Tengu. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengu

this is what I mean:

akasaka to me.

In the top part of the first picture of your last post Mariusz, I see layered(laminated) steel

Merry Christmas!!! A beautiful tsuba, seems kagamishi to me.

The book in the link, was published I think not more than 2 years ago and written by an Italian nihonto scholar. I'm not sure why he choose that title, but I guess it was just to have a title different than usual. The book on the picture is unknown to me. I had some talk about the use of nippon-tou instead of nihon as well; to me, as the nomenclature nihonto already include "nihon" making very clear the topic, calling them "nipponto" is an unnecessary forcing.

ehehehe never say never For the moment is intended to be mounted on my friend's sword koshirae, but for the future.. who knows

Thank you Christian. The measurement are diameter 78 mm (perfect circle) and thickness is 8 mm. It isn't very heavy as it is "quite sukashi-ed" Seppa-dai measures 43x28 mm, and can host a nakago 28 mm wide and 8 mm thick.

Moriyama san, that makes a lot of sense. I think your intuition is spot on. Thank you, Lorenzo

Martin, that cut out you posted taken away the red circles makes a good banner for a website

Told you I wanted to tease you :D Anyway with you my friends is too hard, so yes, you are correct. The strange thing of this tsuba is that it is very thick at 8 mm, and pierced all around. I had no time to go out my office so here are some pictures taken with my iphone. This tsuba was acquired by my friend years ago in a street market in Japan, from an antique dealer not specialized in swords, so he had no clue of what it was and bought it only for the appeal. I think it's lovely, I like this tsuba very much as it is quite unique in its own. I have no doubt there could be many others same as this, but statistically speaking it's rare as I have no other examples on all my books. What school/inspiration you think it could be?

Dear Christian, I'll post a picture of the mimi in few hours, no digital camera available here :? Lorenzo

It's a common disease I fear

Take it easy Ford

I'll tease you a bit so be patient :D I have in my hands a tsuba of a friend of mine, as I will be back in Japan in two weeks and I want to take it for a shinsa. The craftsmanship is very tidy, looks a quite late work. No sign of steel features such as lamination or tekkotsu, but the patina looks very good and appropriate, a lovely dark chocolate colour difficult to reproduce with a scanner, at least mine.. Shakudo liners on the hitsu. Design seems to me a wheel and a family mon. Here it is, omote in colour: As I said in the title, this tsuba has something very unusual, at least to me. Something I have never seen before, but I am going to tease you a bit a hint is on all the pictures BTW, good eyes will see it. Let's see if some of you knows this design/school at first sight before. It's signed, in omote, masa.. something　正..恒 but I am not sure of the second kanji, I need to catch a good shot to show you. It's signed in katakiribori. Here are a coulpe of "bookesque" BW pictures. Diameter 78 mm. Lorenzo

Cheers to my friend Giuseppe who made his way to here

Kevin, for a cheap price you get a great value buying the two rokusho volumes on the fittings subject. Full of beautiful works of late artists. Works of ichijo are also shown. The volumes are the number 28 and 34. An iron tsuba signed ichijo is also shown; so I don't get why he didn't sign iron with ichijo.. I'll scan the picture.

Yes that's silly. It is an unforgettable mistake to me, and it is not the first I have seen in the last few months. Another Italian auction house was selling a tanto few weeks ago with a presumed NBTHK Italian branch certification; pity is that it doesn't exist, and the certification was a simple attribution done by a togishi. Once contacted, they fixed the description on the website. Usually Italian auctions have very low end Japanese pieces and quite over priced as well (that Chinese repro is the top example of course). Times to times something interesting pops out, maybe consignment items; but as far as I know this is the average level, I wouldn't bother.

Believe me, we don't believe it as well

correct

Curran, I had a bad reaction back then mistaking intention in another thread, and taking my ego out in this one. I later realized my mistake and apologized to Guido in private. He was very kind to me and now times to times we exchange some naughty PM I also hope to meet him in the near future for a good drink.

He is Italian