PietroParis

In the EMS/Chronopost case I had even asked the sender to write "TVA reduite" in the description, but Chronopost – which took over the shipping from EMS at CDG and dealt with the customs – couldn't care less. OTOH, for an earlier shipping with the same carriers the 5.5% rate for antiques was correctly applied. I guess it just depends on how lucky you are with the employee that deals with your package...

Ha, you wish! AFAIK, in France antiques older than 100 years should be subject to a reduced VAT rate of 5.5% instead of 20%. However, in order to get the proper rate, it is vital that the description for the customs mention explicitly that the item is a >100yo antique, and include the appropriate tariff code 9706.000000 (see this link). And even when the description is correct, the carrier might "pre-process" your customs payment and apply the full VAT rate just to avoid complications. I had this problem in the past with both DHL and EMS/Chronopost. The former eventually reimbursed the difference (as their own invoice for the VAT payment contained the code that they had obviously disregarded) but the latter told me that they would only reimburse the sender, even though it was me who paid the tax to unblock the shipment. Since the sum involved was tiny I just let go, but in your case you want to make sure that you don't pay a 14.5% extra...

I am sure that hemp was well known in Japan – all those ships needed rigging after all – but do you think that the leaves depicted on this tsuba (see link) are really cannabis? BTW judging by the centering of the nakago-ana, the maker of the tsuba must have been a heavy user of the stuff... P.S. note once again how, in typical Catawiki fashion, the material is proudly described as "Cast iron"

P.P.P.S. yet again, Hakutaku is also used for a different beast which has the body of an ox, a human face and three additional eyes on each flank: https://www.rosemarybandini.com/articles/kudan-versus-hakutaku/

The "Kirin" entry of Joly's "Legend in Japanese Art" (see this link) includes a list of mythical horned beasts. I would say that the Hakutaku is the one whose attributes most closely match those on Bob's beast: P.S. here is the description of the netsuke above from the catalogue of a 2017 auction at Van Ham (it fetched 24510 EUR including buyer fee): P.P.S. here is a painting where a similar beast is indeed tagged 白澤 (Bai Ze or Hakutaku):

There are many varieties of unicorns in Japanese/Chinese mythology. The flames from the sides (circled in red in the picture below) and the "moustache" (circled in green) on the animal in Bob's tsuba don't seem to match the depictions of the Komainu that you posted: In fact, the sacred flames are a classical attribute of the Kirin, and the moustache also happens (pictures from the Wiki article linked above): You can also see that the pronged horn is not unusual. OTOH, as I wrote above, a Kirin is supposed to have hooved feet. Perhaps the maker of Bob's tsuba combined the attributes of different mythical beasts.

A nue would have a snake for tail, while this animal's tail is definitely un-snake-like: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nue Judging by the horn on top of the head and the flames coming out of the sides, my guess would have been a Kirin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qilin (OTOH, the lack of hooves plays against this interpretation)

Interestingly, a bronze Daruma with a dark patina which looks superficially similar to the one shown above is currently on sale on Catawiki with an estimate of 800-1000 EUR (link here) : The close-up pictures, however, show quite a few casting bubbles, and some of the "dermatitis" mentioned by Mark...

FWIW, the two kanji between 無銘 (mumei) and what you read as 埋忠 (Umetada) are 後代 (kodai), i.e. "later generation".

I think it's just the maker's signature in cursive script. The second character looks like 山 san/zan/yama, but the first one eludes me.

indeed he didn't mention either tobacco or alcohol

It says “Shipping to the UK £8.50 and £150 outside the UK”, I assume it’s a typo.

I never bought antiques through Buyee thus I cannot comment on their customs declarations. OTOH, in Catawiki purchases I had problems with both DHL and EMS+Chronopost, where they did not apply the reduced VAT rate even though their own invoice for the customs payment had correctly identified the tariff code for antiques. DHL eventually refunded me, whereas Chronopost (a parcel service of the French Post) told me that I should bring the issue to the seller, who would bring it to EMS, who would bring it to Chronopost, who would refund EMS, who would refund the seller, who would eventually pass on the refund to me. Since the sum was not worth the effort I gave up, but I must confess that I was not very nice to the person on the other end of the phone line...

It's not just Buyee, it is the whole process. Their compulsory fees are 300 JPY "service fee" and 200 JPY "payment fee", adding up to 500 JPY. Additional packaging services (which I usually avoid) can cost up to 500 JPY for a single package. Consolidating packages when you buy multiple items can help reduce the shipping costs, but comes with an additional fee (a multiple of 500 JPY) that depends on the number of packages. Then you need to pay the shipping from the seller to the Buyee warehouse, generally around 1000 JPY for small parcels. Then you need to pay the shipping from the Buyee warehouse to your country (assuming you don't live in Japan, otherwise there is no point in buying through Buyee what you can get directly from Yahoo! Japan). For France this amounts to 2500-3500 JPY, depending on the carrier, for a small package. Then you need to pay VAT and possibly customs fees, to which the carrier (e.g. DHL or FedEx) will add a handling fee of their own. To give you an example, a guinomi that I had bought for a nominal price of about 28 EUR ended up costing me about 71 EUR, and that only after I got a reimbursement of an excessive handling fee applied by FedEx (they had made me pay to "unblock" the package from the customs more than they eventually billed in the invoice).

They regularly write cast iron for tsuba, I have no clue why.

From Yahoo! Japan, a tanto-sized tsuba signed Tatsutoshi:

Last week I bought this book on eBay for 11 EUR including shipping, I received it today. Based on the quality of the pictures and on the amount of information it contains, I'd say the price was about right... [P.S. besides, this book must have been stored in a damp basement for decades, it smells really bad]

If you scroll down the Yahoo ad there are higher-def pictures, can you point to obvious signs of casting there? To my untrained eye the sekigane does not seem painted.

Can you think of a non-dodgy reason for buying them? https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/p1021236875

Namitoshi on Yahoo Japan, with rust issues:

So far I only bought 20th/21st-century stuff, but I have indeed been wondering how to get them to declare the correct tariff code in case of antiques.

I bought a few items of pottery through buyee this year and I have no major complaints. At the price level I'm considering, however, fees+shipping+taxes can easily double the total price.

The inlaid brass loops in John's tsuba look better to me (I mean, much more regular) than in the example above.

[Comment removed to "cut some slack", will elaborate on request]

I would cancel, and if you really like the item try to buy it for a lower price at the other auction. I have tried a few times to report obvious frauds to eBay and never received any feedback.