PietroParis

This site is also useful, you can identify a kanji starting from the "radicals" it contains: https://jisho.org/

A search in the forum reveals that the seller has a somewhat mixed reputation: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/search/?&q=daimyou54eb

Shipping companies “pre-process” the customs fees, I suspect they apply a blanket 20% VAT rate to simplify their lives. Or maybe they pay the correct rate to the customs and pocket the difference... I am currently in a dispute with DHL: after correctly identifying an object as antique, with a tariff code that in France should result in a 5.5% rate, they charged me 20% nonetheless.

I see it on a desktop computer but not on a tablet. [EDIT: forget about it, I see it also on the tablet]

https://buyee.jp/item/search/query/刀掛け

Another standard scam is when the seller on eBay does not actually own the item that is on sale on Yahoo Japan. They list it on eBay for a much higher price and buy it from YJP only after they have found a sucker, pocketing the difference. If something goes wrong (e.g. the price shoots up on YJP) they find some excuse to cancel the deal. Often you will see multiple sellers on eBay hawking the same item from YJP. When I see that, I sometimes troll the eBay seller asking for additional pictures of the item, of course there's always a reason why they cannot send them... P.S. an extreme example: I bought a pair of Bizen beer tumblers through Buyee for 2400 JPY (about $22), and I noticed that a different seller was hawking the very same tumblers on eBay for $319!

Infuriating. I would pester DHL as well, after all they should take responsibility for the delivery.

I just meant that the two halves of the handle are usually kept together by rice glue. Anyway I know next to nothing about swords, some more-experienced members of the forum will certainly advise you on how to properly preserve yours.

Bringback swords usually come in military mounts, whereas this one is in a storage sheath called shirasaya (to state the obvious, the handle has come apart). Do you know if your grandfather had the shirasaya made at a later time?

Noshi-themed tsuba signed Namitoshi. It just sold quite cheap on Catawiki, but it looks in bad condition and possibly depatinated:

Thanks for your intervention, the reach of the NMB community never fails to impress...

Hi All, These days I am visiting my elderly mother in North-Eastern Italy for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, so I took the opportunity to go to the Asian Art Museum (Museo d'Arte Orientale) in Venice (see also here for a virtual 3D tour). I am sorry to say that the exhibition feels old-fashioned and somewhat disappointing: the artifacts are amassed in dark vitrines with little context and no attribution, and it is left to the viewer to pick the good stuff from the background noise. For what concerns Nihonto, I recall hundreds of undistinguished koshirae, three or four vitrines of sword fittings (including some really nice stuff, unfortunately the reflections on the glass prevented me from taking decent pictures), one vitrine of arrowheads, one vitrine of bare tanto blades with showy horimono, and finally one vitrine with fifteen bare sword blades: The surprise came when I looked closer: many of the blades sported big, fat fingerprints!!! I got hold of two staff members and showed them the problem, they told me that they would report it to the person in charge of the conservation. However, it did not look like they were taking me too seriously: at first they thought I was referring to the hamon, my reaction to that was a bit piqued...

Efu (also read Kofu) means Edo. See e.g. this thread: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/18066-tsuba-translation/

That badly scratched Namitoshi shown a few posts above is on sale again, with a new set of dark pictures trying to conceal the condition (left: old pic; right: new pic)

Tasutoshi tsuba as part of a rather dilapidated package on Yahoo Japan:

To state the obvious, the left column of the label reproduces the characters on the tsuba.

For the record, this link would have been sufficient: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313590069055

While I fully agree that buying modern ivory knockoffs supports crime and the slaughter of elephants, I think that the question referred to antique ivory netsuke. For those the legislation varies a lot depending on the location. For example, pre-1947 ivory artefacts (not raw ivory) can currently be bought and sold freely within the EU, but their import/export to/from the EU requires a certificate identifying them as antiques. In Japan it is legal to sell/buy even modern ivory artefacts, but it is illegal to export them. I presume that within the US the rules vary from state to state.

It always bears repeating that I know nothing about blades, but I notice that in Ray’s example the mark does not look exactly the same on the two sides either.

Since you appear to be quite proud of the price you paid, it must have been a bargain. 50 AUD?

I too see an error page

Also, see this: https://varshavskycollection.com/collection/tsu-0394-2019/

Gourds?

The lacquered decoration depicts Takaramono (treasures), a classic Japanese motif. They are collected on the last page of volume 3 of Hokusai's Manga:

OK then, picture frame it is! To be clear, I was asking just out of curiosity, the thought of bidding on it never crossed my mind.