GRC

Dale, you are the master of hunting for comparison examples 

I think either "book end" style or "kake" style would work.

However,  I like your "kake" suggestion more, because it seems to be the most logical reason for this style's existence 

almost done...

22- A fist shaped tsuba with nata knife sukashi and a few gold highlights, signed Nobuiye (later generation I'm sure).

I like how the smith achieved the shape by controlled indentation along the edges of the tsuba. Some very nice blacksmithing there. 

23- A Yamakichibei 3rd gen Sakurayama Yoshi tsuba:

Ok I'm done now

Thanks for sharing everyone!

...and Richard (RKG), as always, I really admire your tsuba choices, and your amazing photography!

and yes, that is a killer Kanayama you picked up 

now for some sukashi...

13-wheel with arrow spokes motif, 14-Akasaka, 15-cross or mon motif, 16-Bushu fret pattern, 17-Owari squared-key pattern, 18-Saotome :

19- A fantastic Nanban karakusa with leaves motif:

20- A nice plum branch design with gold highlights, and lots of surface texture details. I'm assuming Choshu, but I'm not certain...

21- An Aizu-shoami bull (anatomically correct) resting under a pine tree. Nice detailing and simple gold highlights:

OK, I see Grey just posted.

I'd like to say "thank you" to Grey because he's the first person I bought a tsuba from, which started me on this crazy journey of borderline obsession

8- this was my first purchase: a stunning copper tanto-sized tsuba with a beautiful plum branch inlay... go big or go home right?

9- Iron Tsuba with shakudo crows and silver hazy moon motif tsuba, attributed to Nara Toshimasa (Toen Sha papers)

10- a fantastic Nanban phoenix and dragon motif with extensive, finely detailed gold highlights:

11- I know these bamboo motif inlay tsuba were commonly produced in the Edo period, but does anyone know what schools produced them? I haven't seen any yet that have a mei on them...

I know the Heianjo school produced some tsuba with bamboo motifs earlier on.

Regardless of who made it, or when it was made, I really like this one. It looks more like copper inlay rather than the typical brass inlay on these type of tsuba.

I can also see a fine gold highlight along the central vein of some leaves.

12- And to round out the inlays.... here's a Yasuchika Munechika with phoenix and kirin motif:

continuing with the mokume:

5- an amazing Sado island mokume that was first deeply carved to make the raised cherry blossoms, then only the background of the mokume plate was etched. It's all one continuous piece of mokume.

6- Another amazing, deeply etched Sado island mokume tsuba. It has a ridged scallop shell design, and the mokume swirl was done in such a way as to create the natural growth rings that you would see on a shell like this.

And personally, I can't help seeing that the raised ridge lines of the scallop end up forming a Mt. Fuji design  

7- And last but not least, a mumei mokume with a double wheel motif.

I love that the mokume ends up looking like the wood of a wagon wheel, or could maybe even suggest "water" if these are water wheels? I really don't know if these are intended to be wagon wheels  or water wheels... not my area of expertise    

Regardless, I'm amazed that the layers of the mokume didn't split apart during the carving process.

OK, it was my first year of collecting tsuba...

I kind of went deep into the "tsuba diving", even wrote an intro article for the JSSC (Japanese Sword Society of Canada) about the tsuba's historical development and features, with an overview of various tsuba styles. 

I definitely went overboard, but I'll share my favorites:

Mokume first:

1- insane wood grain effect

2- Armorer's wan-gata mokume, similar to Richard's

3- A Kuninaga snowflake mokume (I got help with the mei from NMB members, thanks again!)

4- A deeply etched mokume that has a whirlpool-like swirl pattern with a sukashi of a paddle. It's dense and heavy.

That’s really cool!

It’s almost like the auction tsuba and the Vancouver tsuba  “mated” to make a hybrid folding tsuba 

Wow, never seen anything like either of those tsuba.

The elongated 'crashing wave" nara tsuba makes sense conceptually,

but the 90 bend on the monkey tsuba has some serious "outside the box" thinking, with a dash of audacity from the tsubako who made it.

Dale, I think you're right in assuming the 90 bend on the monkey tsuba has to go towards the blade for two reasons:

1- assuming it's for a katana, the view we're presented with is the omote side, with the kozuka-hitsu-ana on the left of the nakago-ana, so the bent part goes away from the hand of the user.

2- if the bent part actually went towards the hand, there's no way you could fit your hand in there after it has been mounted on a sword, or even if you could, your knuckles would be pretty banged up after using the sword.

It's also interesting that the protruding "bent part" of both tsuba are on opposite ends of the nakago.

Having it extend out toward the cutting edge of the blade might potentially give some additional function, like the "hook" on a jitte maybe?

Or it could be purely an aesthetic thing for both of them lol.

Hi Barry,

feel free to hook me up with that JCCC info 

Thanks

"early Edo" wow...

more like late 1900s, early 2000s maybe

Not as many as I hoped, but so far we have:

Ontario:

Glen (me)

Barry Hennick

Charles K.

North West Territories:

John A Stuart

Phillip K. (from "the old forum")

?

Christian (Chris) Malterre: currently in Germany but I presume is originally from Quebec or somewhere in France? 

Honorary Canucks:

Stephen - for being the first one to respond lol

Dale - for helping us distinguish between the types of Canadian squirrel  The fact that you're on the complete opposite side of the World to us, also gets you the "honorary Canadian" badge.

Hi everyone. I'm just curious to get a sense of how many Canadians collect tsuba (either starting to collect, are actively collecting, or have already built up a collection).

 not my tsuba btw, saw it on YahooJ.

Feel free to just say "hi" and what province you're in.

If you're an ex-pat, feel free to mention where you're at now.

Hi, I collect tsuba and I'm in Ontario

...why does that suddenly sound like some sort of AA meeting intro?

Although, tsuba collecting could easily be classified as an addiction.

SEPPADAI AFTER (sharper image perhaps):

A while back, I tried using the flat edges of some throw-away bamboo chopsticks to get some rust off of iron, and it really didn't do much.

Save yourself the time and effort, and get yourself some bone or antler...  

I ordered some antler tips from amazon so I could give them a try. Apparently they are cheaper than getting them from the pet store.

The antler tips have little to no marrow in them so they are a harder structure overall.

I used some fine files to shape the tip into a sort of sharp wedge shape (flat on one side, ,angled on the other) to make a fine scraping edge.

I also flattened some sides on the thick end to make a broader scraping edge.

It takes a lot of time and you need to put a fair degree of muscle behind it for iron tsuba.

DO NOT USE THIS ON SOFT METAL! You'll ruin it for sure...

BEFORE (had difficulty seeing the mei clearly because of rust on the seppadai):

DURING:

HAD LOTS OF RUST DUST EVERYWHERE SO DECIDED TO SAOK IT IN MINERAL OIL AND LOSING THINGS UP. JUST WIPED IT WITH PAPER TOWEL AFTERWARDS: 

SEPPADAI AFTER:

Now I just have to spend many hours working away at the surfaces of each of the linear fret surfaces...

It's going to take a long time, but I'm really looking forward to having this one all cleaned up  

Regarding the tsuba with the thick tree trunk and plum blossoms like #165, they sure come up often...

These must have been a really popular design at some point in the middle and late Edo periods. None of them ever look to be terribly old or rusted much at all, suggesting a more recent production period.

I have yet to see one that is signed, and if there's ever an attribution from the seller, which is very rare in my experience, it has always been stated as Aizu Shoami.

But who knows who made the "original" that then essentially became a tsuba meme to be made individually by so many nameless tsubako.

Don't get me wrong though, most of them are really well done 

Here's a thread form July with a bunch of examples (some unusual one too):

Here are two more YahooJ examples. I didn't put links this time so I don't throw anyone under the bus...

but one's got a sizeable starting price along with a buyout price, while the other already has a bunch of bids and watchers, so could fetch a pretty high price.

This one is a 100% casting (there is no doubt on this one):

 The mei is not chiseled and the tagane-ato are not punched: both are too smooth and have the same surface finish as the rest of the tsuba.

Also, if this was mounted (as suggested by the presence of tagane-ato), then where are the signs of edge-wear from the brass seppa washers that would have rubbed against the seppa dai? 

There's also casting seems running along the midline of the sukashi areas.

Here's a mass produced cast Nio guardian tsuba (although looks great for a repro), for sure produced in the 1900s but not exactly sure when. Although it does have the same kinds of colours as the one Dale posted... maybe these ones are current productions?

A much more detailed kinko one (possibly the original?) is in the Met gallery and was made in the Meiji period.

Here's an identical one without the colour finishes:

I was leaning towards a "period casting" as well. It's the only way I could kind of reconcile the presence of the papers... 

I guess I was just "shocked" to see papers for something that looks cast. Does NBTHK give papers for period castings?

Richard, you're totally right that the surface texture could be because of corrosion that got cleaned up, so the texture alone isn't a 100% lock for it being cast or not.

And, just to be clear, I wasn't trying to suggest the seller was being purposefully deceitful. I can't know what he knows and what his intentions are. But ya, I didn't think through the implications of posting, and that the seller would probably be judged...

I just find this situation to be a real head-scratcher  because it just doesn't look right...to me anyway 

I have to admit, the steel plate of the one Dale posted had me fooled when I first saw the image of the whole tsuba, even though the coloring of the painted "inlays" is very wrong (too bright and bold).

But the high-res images show that same dimply, pocked surface over the whole plate, including the litlle "oni" demon.

Also, if you look at the mimi (rim), there's a clear casting "seem" that runs along its edge:

and then there's the overall grey, uniform colour.

as well as the fact that the surface of the flowers, leaves and seppadai all have this sort of "pocked", dimply surface that wasn't done by a hammer or punches. It looks kind of "sand blasted".   

Here's some places where the mimi "spills" into the area where there should have been a chiseled groove.

And some general casting flaws, like "voids" that are missing from the surface.

And...WTF? What happened here at the hitsu-ana that has a whole canyon-sized divot missing from its edge, and the divot has smooth rounded edges all over it. That suggests it was poured as molten metal, and not the result of some sort of chipping damage from a chisel.

For starters, you can see brush strokes on the sekigane, and the color doesn't even carry through the middle of the tsuba, its just on the surfaces.

Dale, I think this one is a new low... comes complete with NBTHK papers!!!!

A "lovely" 100% CAST tsuba with sekigane that was painted on!

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/s1021396810 

and i've seen a few of these tsuba-shaped "water dripping devices" now:

TSUBA Vintage Katana Japanese Sword Guard 78x78x20mm 65x65x20mm 2 set TE102 | eBay

I have no ide how they used in real-life but i'm curious... does anyone know?

An interesting use of a Nanban tsuba to create a mandala around a jade Buddha placed in the nakago-ana.

Complete with a nice wood display stand.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/265411679393?

oops... it's been a while, so I lost sight of the fact that it was for sukashi crabs... 

thanks for the reminder Dale.

I also like the tsuba-dome-ana on the Boston one because they look like the target of the crab itself. Very cleverly done