cluckdaddy76

And a real bargain at $450 Jason

Dale, the website you just pasted links too appear to have some of the exact tsuba I was mentioning on Live Auctioneers. However, your website lists the location as Houston and the one I was referring to was located in California. Totally agree with you too Justyn, the need to describe as "authentic/genuine" is amusing to me. Would not a modern made tsuba still be a "genuine" tsuba no matter what? They definitely do not claim to even be "vintage" or "antique" just authentic which makes me laugh. I am surprised how this website with quite a bit of inventory collected so many undesirable pieces and are asking decent money for them... Jason

Live Auctioneer's has a large tosogu lot posted from some sort of auction house in California. First, it looks like they posted everything twice and the pics are not great quality, half the menuki are just a single shot of them from the back. Only one item has a storage box which is a big flag. Next, the tsuba appear to be very low quality and I see a ton of kozuka that appear to be replicas from what I can see in the pics. Just curious if anyone else saw this strange collection without any storage at all. They also have some pieces from an upcoming Bonham's auction, I really did not see anything too exciting here considering Bonham's does have great pieces sometimes. I use these sites to keep up on studying and keeping my eye trained. Check out the expected prices they think they are going to get from the CA auction, it is laughable. They have a few katana as well; these may be the most ridiculous of them all. Here is one they expect a range from $,1875-$2,750. If I am wrong, please let me know as I am simply trying to learn more every day. Jason

I have used EVOO with a Q-Tip as someone suggested this to me and it worked perfectly on my kinko tsuba to get rid of the verdigris. Jason

I just want to say thank you for a great read. Although I have other fittings and a small collection of swords, I have become primarily a tsuba collector. This has provided me with references for more literature to own, which is one of my current focuses. Jason

In agreement with everyone so far, it looks to me that it is a replica of a Choshu school tsuba. Jason

I am much better with fittings but am studying swords too. This is a pic of a wakazashi boshi, other side is same basic pattern. It runs close to cutting edge, comes back down from top of kissak and makes a small "V" before heading back up. Is there a name for this specific style of boshi? I was not confident in a match from the drawn examples I could find. I have a handful of blades in the collection I inherited, and instead of just posting them, I want to try to identify small items as I study so when I am more confident, I will ask all the right questions after taking a guess myself at the school/smith/era etc. All help is greatly appreciated. Jason

I believe Hotei are another legend, I have this mostly iron base example in my collection with this subject.

I have seen a couple iron catfish tsuba, bit only soft metal with the entire theme.

Put a little bit of white on the bottom modern pair and it would look more like an orca than a catfish, some reproductions are just awful

I would suggest not getting a cheap one off a site like Amazon, my experience is that they are very unreliable. You don't need to break the bank either unless you are looking for precise weights on menuki. My suggestion is a decent Ohaus that meets your needs. I have an Ohaus that was maybe $50 and it is going strong at 10+ years old. Jason

I have been keeping an eye out for a tsuba with the same theme but have not seen one that I felt was good enough quality. I came into the majority of my collection all at once and now that I have studied a bit, I am ready to make purchases. One of my goals is to make themed sets from pieces I really like, and this is one I would love to complete. I have seen kozuka with this theme but have not seen a fuchi/kashira set with it, but I am sure some must exist. Jason

I have a very similar pair that must be from the same school. I have always liked this set. Sorry my lighting isn't the best. Only differences I see are that my gourds are a different color and your catfish have a slightly red tone while mine are very close to black. Jason

This is a smaller wakazashi sized tsuba that seems a little bit different than many openwork crane tsuba that I have seen. It looks as though the crane is dipping his beak into the water. There is sekigane visible on the other side, so it appears as if was set at least once. I find these are some of the harder tsuba to attribute to a school, and I have been happily surprised with the results of some other sukashi tsuba in the collection I inherited. Just looking on opinions from anyone who may have the knowledge. Jason

Geraint, thanks for the feedback. I was leaning that way myself. I have seen a couple listed as Higi/Jingo school that looked similar, but none had the square Hitsu-Ana. Jason

I have one example in my collection of this tsuba with a plugged rectangle hitsu-ana, I have not identified the school but perhaps somone else can. Jason

Too bad auction sites don't have a commentary section while bidding occurs, we could help people from buying these items. There is no way any auction site will add that feature in my opinion, they are there to make money and let the buyer beware!!!

With taxes, fees, and shipping, winner paid close to $700 USD for this gem.

Sorry for the pic quality, best i can do in this case

Part of how I study is to follow questionable pieces at auctions and see the outcome. This one stood out to me because of the same color sekigane. Sorry for the poor circling in the pic, but people with knowledge clearly do not need me to point this out. Am I missing something or is this a reproduction piece as I am guessing? I have noticed recently when it comes to auctions that there seem to be newer collectors with some money possibly making very bad choices. Thought this might be an interesting discussion, I would love to hear feedback from a few of the tsuba collectors with much more knowledge than me. Jason

The tsuka wrap looks not well done to my eyes but sometimes pics are hard to judge. I feel I see warning signs with this one with more than one concern, but there are far more knowledgeable people here who can help you out more. Jason

Just went through this entire thread. Thank you so much and everyone else who commented. This is an amazing collection, and you helped me track down some attributions to a tsuba in my collection which I now realize is a bit better of a piece than what I thought. I think you should change the name of the thread to "How to build a collection" as yours is pretty darn special. Jason

I thought this one was a steal at $122, this was unsigned , if anyone has a thought on school I am curious. There were a couple others too that went for $150 or so that also looked of decent quality.

This one went for $290, guessing Bushu or Choshu

I am going to post a few more from this same auction that were no where near the quality of the one first posted, but still seemed to be decent tsuba. Believe this was a Choshu that ended up at $270