Dependazelle

Thanks all! Much appreciated. I’ve found this group to be very helpful and welcoming.

Hi, all: I got this Tsuba during a recent visit to Japan. Can anyone provide any details about its design or the signature on it? I’d love to learn more about it and to know what resources are available for education. Any help is much appreciated. -Richard S.

Thanks, Ray! I appreciate the help and clarification.

Hi, all: I’m working on translating these papers. They are an older variety, so I’m struggling with them a bit. I know this is Kunitsugu, but I’m struggling to determine which one. It looks like maybe 4th Gen based on other Mei examples I’ve seen. I’m still very new to this, so I could be wrong. Any help would be much appreciated. Pictures below for reference. -Richard S.

Thanks, Mark. That makes sense. Viewing older papers as potentially helpful but requiring further research/verification seems like a good approach.

Piers, thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions and explain things. I’ve learned a great deal!

This thread is really helpful as I’ve seen a few items floating around with green papers. Would the same cautions apply to blue and white papers? I think the answer is ‘yes’, but want to confirm. -Richard S.

Piers, that’s good point! Thinking about this a bit more, if it was Orikaeshi-mei, and the mei were bent back back around to the other side, would that result in the Mei being inverted?

Piers, I can’t imagine how much was inadvertently lost when the mei was removed. I found an interesting article on suriage. It looks like this could be an example of gaku-mei (I think I spelled that right) as the mei seems to be on a plate embedded in the tang.

John: thank you for the link! It’s very helpful. Piers: thank you for explaining the meaning behind the phrase. That is fascinating and answers a question I had about the “framed” signature. I’ve read a little about the practice of shortening the tang. I think it’s interesting that they wanted to preserve the original mei. Would there have been a particular reason for doing that?

Hi, All: I’m new here. I recently fulfilled a long time goal of purchasing an antique sword. I am working my way through translating the certificate that came with the sword. The portion of the forum for commonly used characters has been invaluable. I’ve been able to translate “wakizashi” and what I think is “Bishu Osafune Sukemitsu” (basically just confirming what was on the sales label) but I can’t quite figure out what is in the parenthesis between the two words. Any help on this specific question, and on interpreting certificates in general, would be much appreciated. Pictures included for reference. I studied history in undergrad and I love digging into the details of things like this, so any guidance on additional background historical references would be very welcome. I’ve had tremendous fun already. Kind regards, Richard S.