Soshin

I came across this short video on YouTube discussing the basic identification of Satsuma-yaki. I enjoyed watching it and wanted to share it here, enjoy.

Sorry to hear about the loss of Skip Holbrook. I had his contact information in my iPhone and his business card. I remember getting a wonderful trade from him for heavily damaged tsuba I had one year at the old Tampa show. I remember the trade vividly as he was willing to trade three of this nice condition tsuba for my one heavily damaged tsuba that he wanted to work on and try to improve its condition. That tsuba was later restored completely by him and it was papered Tokubetsu Hozon by the NBTHK at shinsa. I remember talking to him mostly at shows, he was very knowledgeable. He had his master's degree in art where he studied the patination process applied to iron by my premodern Japanese sword fitting artists. It is a sad day.

Thank you for posting this PDF, Dale @Spartancrest. Enjoyed the quick read of the article written by Malcolm Cox and downloaded and saved it as a reference. The article had several examples and a few from my collection or was once in my collection.

I cannot attend the Chicago show this year unfortunately. @Mark Mark Jones and family has put on some wonderful Chicago show that I was fortunate enough to be a part of in the past. Please post as many photos as possible of the show here on NMB. I would love to see the tables and displays. Thank you in advance for taking the time to do it while NMB members are walking around the show floor.

@Toryu2020 Tom, thank you for sharing these great photos of the wonderful displays done by your local Token Kai. This year's Washington, DC cherry blossom festival and my annual demo of traditional Japanese martial arts on Penn. Ave. went very well. My wife took a few photos while my school was demonstrating. I am looking through the photos now.

Looks great to me on my Windows 11 desktop computer using the Edge web browser. I never access NMB on my iPhone 8+. I tried your website using my iPhone 8+ by typing the address into my Safari web browser on my iPhone 8+ and it looks great to me as well. @Scogg Sam, do you want me to try and fill out the contact form? Please let me know.

I was in a bit of a hurry last Friday and didn't have time to resize some better images in Photoshop for upload to NMB. All these things take time, and I was busy doing three or four things at one time on Friday evening. Here are some better photos that I hope you like and find helpful for your study. The iron of the separate applied rim and plate of this tsuba itself feels genuinely nice in hand. Something that cannot be captured in photos very well. The plate (ji 地) of the tsuba has a fine hammered texture (tsuchime-ji 槌目地) and retains some of the original black lacquer (kurourushi 黒漆) that was applied to the surface after the tsuba was made. The first photos of the raised rim nicely and the surface of the tsuba nicely. The second photos show the tsuba in a custom box with a nice but unsigned hakogaki.

Since you might find this helpful, I will share. Attached is a NBTHK Hozon paper of the undecorated tsuba. The paper states: "素文図鐔 (somon no zu tsuba)". The tsuba is plain and lacks any design or decorative pattern.

I have a published and NBTHK paper undecorated tsuba in my collection. @ROKUJURO Jean C., would it be helpful for me to share my photos of it and the NBTHK paper? I like iron and the age of this tsuba and it came from the collection of one of my Japanese art sword teachers and artist who have passed away.

@Okan All original first period Yagu tsuba date no earlier than the time of Yagyû Ren'yasai Yoshikane the 5th master of the Yagyû Shinkage Ryû Heihō school of swordsmanship circa 1625 – 1694 CE of Owari Province. If you disagree with me must duel with me until discomfort with a fukuro-shinai at sunrise at Ichijoji. I think it is someplace near Kyoto...

@Scogg Sam S., sounds like a great idea and I love the name of the group. I would not bother with a Facebook group if I were you. I personally really hate the setup and design of Facebooks discussion groups regardless of the subject. Having an in-person meeting in a hotel meeting room or some such place in the local community near many collectors would be a great idea. I know a few high-end collectors in Washington State. Feel free to PM if you want their names and contact information.

The current show held each year in Maryland, USA is the Baltimore Antique Arms Show (Baltimore Antique Arms Show) at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, MD. The Pikesville Show was I think the predecessor to this current show. All of these are suburbs of the city of Balimore. I had great fun last Saturday at this show.

Less is often more when it comes to restoration of Japanese sword fittings that are many hundreds of years old. This needs to be remembered especially by all collectors, not just the novice collectors. I have read his article a few years ago in the JSSUS Newsletter republished shortly after his death. I was friends with Arnold Frenzel during the last few years of his long life. I remember sitting and talking to him about tsuba at table holders' dinner at the old Tampa show. I remember him later talking about recommending me to Nick to join the KTK. This was on the top floor of the Tampa Airport Marriot Hotel, and the room would rotate while you ate showing a panoramic view of the airfield. I also fondly remember the gourmet food and drinks as well at the dinner.

Here is an orphan fuchi I have in my collection made by Tsuneshige (常重) who belonged to the Nara School during the late Edo Period. I have seen similar fuchi-gashira sets by him. All with similar signatures. I don't think he ever used (Nara 奈良) as part of his signature like the example provided by @Mantis dude, but I could be wrong.

Yes, the (光山) "Kozan" mark you have in your photo does looks exactly like the mark at the bottom of my bowl. Thank you, this is really helpful, and it does also confirm the time period of production of the antique bowl.

Hi @John C, I will look at it, thank you for reminding me about Daruma Magazine. I remember when that magazine closed a few years ago. I have a few issues on my bookshelf as well to check.

This month I have been researching this antique Satsuma-yaki style decorative bowl for listing on my website that I had added to my collection back in late 2022. I did find some helpful information here: Japanese Satsuma Pottery. It has a hand painted kiln mark on the bottom of the bowl 'Senzan (先山)’ which is the name of the workshop that made the bowl. I am thinking it was made after about 1880 CE, likely during the late Meiji or Taisho Period. The decorative bowl measures 15.5 cm (6.1 inches) diameter and 7.0 cm (2.8 inches) high. Any additional information or online resources would be helpful. A respectful and polite discussion of the Japanese art item is also welcome. Thank you.

I had just a few interactions with Paul Davidson, but all were great over the years all at the NBTHK-AB presentations and lectures they had different Japanese sword shows across the USA. I consider myself lucky to have a genuinely nice hardbound book (112 pages) detailing his collection ART OF THE SAMURAI THE PAUL L. DAVIDSON COLLECTION provided by Mike Yamasaki and Darin S. Furukawa, as well as the board of directors of the NBTHK-AB.

Hi @Al_KRK Rafal, There are some good books about Japanese sword making and polishing (traditional conservation). Check out this online bookstore specializing in Japanese sword books: Sword Books Archives - Japanese sword books and tsuba. He will ship internationally to Poland. I think you also need to do a series of extensive interviews and make detail notes and recordings of all your interviews with a professionally training Japanese sword polisher (someone who has also won polishing awards in Japan) willing to spend time to talk to you. This would take him/her time away from polishing Japanese swords therefore I would expect you would need to pay him/her for their time so having a research budget is necessary (also to purchase topical books). You then can wirte your own specific documents that you can then use as a reference after citing professionally trained Japanese sword polisher and any books you have used as references. I hope this is helpful.

I am a bit late replying to this topic. Yes, Danny is a great guy! I would recommend him and his website and services at Nihontocrafts.

I checked my references, and you are correct. I had the wrong Kanji on the Koshirae Gallery webpage but the correct ones on the write-up of another standalone Jakushi tsuba. Thank you for the correction.

Hi @Jack Zacao, I wanted to share some thoughts about your statement. In my opinion, it isn't entirely accurate. I have a wakizashi fittings set in my collection that features a Chinese style landscape motif. These intricate designs were created in very limited spaces on the smaller sword fittings used in wakizashi mounts. They're not as uncommon as you might think. Feel free to check out the fittings set (koshirae 拵え) on my website for more details (link in my signature). Based on my study, your menuki set was likely made during the late Edo Period to early Meiji Period, before the public wearing of Japanese swords was banned. The design reminds me of the Chinese style landscapes done by the Jakushi (杓子) School in Nagasaki (長崎). I hope you find this information helpful and encouraging for your future study. Note: Checked my website and the fitting set are listed as being for katana but the sunagi (wooden blade) "cutting edge" size would technically make it a wakizashi and not a katana.

Hi @Jack Zacao, Nice menuki set! I've seen other menuki sets with similar two-character signatures before. However, I'm not very familiar with Hamano School menuki works in general, so I can't judge your example or identify the specific artist. Relying solely on Bonhams Auction and one website as references provides too small a sample size to draw identifiable characteristics for Kanei. You would need a more rigorous study of the prolific Hamano School of the Edo Period. If I were you, I would keep looking and seek more educated opinions. I am still studying and trying to learn more about non-tsuba Japanese sword fittings in general myself.

@Steve Waszak I have transitioned from collecting Yamakichibei tsuba to exploring other groups and schools, specifically in the Owari, Yamashiro, and Higo Provinces. My interests have also expanded to include a variety of Japanese arts beyond the sword.

@GRC I submitted two tsuba that @Steve Waszak sold and they both came back as gimei. I purchased them both from @Steve Waszak circa 2017. I don't think I ever posted them on NMB but they were listed as having failed NBTHK shinsa because of gimei on my website. I sold them in larger group of other tsuba a couple of years ago when I was reducing my collection after closing my Japanese art and antiques business. What you might be referring to be another Yamakichibei tsuba I had that I picked up from Bob Benson. The @kissakai Grev UK., This one was once my tsuba. I remember buying it from Grey Doffin back in the day. Funny how it makes it way to the UK from the USA. I never got around to submitting it to any shinsa when I had it. Here is my photo from when I had it in my collection.