Lukas P

Hi Grey, Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic. It also seems to me it was never mounted - so what you a I was initially thinking, also given the size - it could be one of those 'shrine gift' tsubas. But what you are saying makes sense as well. Ah well :-) Thanks, have a nice weekend. Lukas

Dear all, I recently got a tsuba that I aesthetically really loved with what I believe is quite clearly a Daruma motif. It is rather larger in size (at approx. 90 mm dia) and is made of iron with hon-zogan depicting the head and what seems to be gold leaf hammered into the iron base depicting the body silhouette. For its size it does not feel too heavy although it is made of iron (tried it with magnet). No signature. Please see the image below. My question, with which I wanted to dig into the wealth of knowledge among the many wonderful people within this forum, is: would anyone have any idea about origin (what school) and potential age of this tsuba? Basically I have not really seen anything similar to this before (in real life or in literature) so I was wondering if someone has seen anything like this and would have any suggestions or opinions. Wishing you all a very lovely weekend! Lukas

Hi Damon @Deez77, nice example and thanks for your helpful comments! And noted, gambatte ;-)

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing.

Thanks so much for your explanation @Spartancrest! Really appreciate you took your time :-) Best, Lukas

Thank you Dale @Spartancrest for answering my question. I always thought the punch marks (tagane-ato) were used for 'holding' sekigane soft metal inserts in place (which is used as shock absorber from what I read, not only to reduce the size). So in my understanding does it mean that a sword can be mounted even without sekigane - assuming the size is right and if the nakao ana is punched so it sits tight? Sorry for stupid questions :-) Best wishes, Lukas

Hi Dale, yes, I remember when we were with my friend in New Zealand backpacking we saw these around quite a lot. Not as big as this one though, LOL... I remember I thought they were such a beautiful nature's creation - I totally understand why it is quite a common motif...

Dear all, Thank you all so much for your opinions, replies and images. I am so glad I found this community of people sharing the same passion :-) @Curran and @Brian, you both mention it has been mounted. Can I ask what do you base this on? Is it the linear punch next to nakago ana? Sorry, just want to learn to see things. @Brian what kind of cleaning would you recommend? Is there some useful literature you could point me to potentially (can be for iron and even soft metal tsuba - very happy to study how to do things right)? Have a nice evening all and thanks once again! Lukas

Hello guys, I just came across this tsuba and was wondering about your opinion on the work. I am asking because I know there is a wealth of knowledge across the members and I am 'green' in this so trying to learn more about what to look for and 'how' to look (to distinguish the quiality of metal itself and metal work details, etc.). For this piece I quite like aesthetically the shell motif. I would say that it has not been mounted on the sword and the punches on the seppa dai somehow do not seem 'convincing'. It is signed as Echizen Kinai and I did read a thread on this forum (about 1 year old) about another Echizen Kinai tsuba in which the member well explained that they did a lot of 'mass' production. I would say this is a typical representation of this mass production (just a mediocre tsuba), but other than that I would be curious about other observations by people who are more experienced than me. I will be very grateful for any insights and observations you guys have! Best wishes Lukas

Thank you Steve for your comment confirming my theory. Much appreciated! Thanks so much. Have a nice Sunday. Lukas

Oh, of course. Silly me, beginner's mistake. Thank you for this Koichi. Best, Lukas

Hi all, I am a novice in collecting tsuba and it is great to be able to be in company of people who are "veterans" in this field. I was wondering whether someone could help me with insciption on one of the first tsuba I bougt about 2 years ago but never tried to actually decipher what the signature says. Please see the tsuba image below: So I had a go and after having a look I figured the right hand side is a date - if I got it right then it says BUN KA ROKU NEN NI GATSU which is second month of eigth year of Bunka era = February 1811. That was the easy part. Much harder is the right hand side. I figured this would be either two kanji of province and two kanji for name or 4 kanjo for name. The problem is the kanji is in sort of sosho style and even a friend who is a very capable calligrapher could not help me in identifying those characters. I didn't want to give up and I tried to find what it could be based on radicals in the kanji and in the end I found what could potentially "work". So my speculation is that the left hand side is a signature OSAKI YOSHIAKI, please see the Haynes spanshot below: What are your views on this speculation? Is it possible or is it completely off? I will be grateful for any comments or inputs. Thanks everyone, have a nice weekend! Lukas