ZH1980

Like others have said, the soul of my nihonto collection has little to do with intrinsic value and more to do with sentimentality. As such, some of the most meaningful pieces aren’t necessarily the rarest or most valuable—they’re the ones tied to memories. The tsuba I was given by my daughter as a birthday present, the wakizashi that sparked a long conversation with a fellow collector who became a friend, or the unexpected Mercari find that sent me down a research rabbit hole. These memories give the collection a kind of living thread, binding together styles and schools that might otherwise seem disparate.

True that counterfeiting has always been illegal on paper, but, in practice, Japan lacked meaningful enforcement mechanisms against counterfeit goods until legal reforms that were passed in the 1970s. Laws on paper are great, but without enforcement mechanisms, laws often meaningless. Post War Japan is a good example of this, particularly vis-a-vis counterfeit products.

For that price, one would think it would be papered, but, sadly it doesn’t appear to be.

A similar one currently for sale on Mercari in Japan (¥179,200). Same signature too.

A similar one currently for sale on Mercari in Japan (¥179,200).

On the topic of tsuba with same/similar design, here is one motif that I see a lot - the so-called “daikon” (radish) tsuba. This specific design appears to have been quite popular.

Beautiful!

Thank you for this detailed response! Very helpful.

I’ve been working with Paul on a proxy tsuba shinsa and have found him very professional and responsive thus far.

It would be most helpful to me (and perhaps others) if you could expand on this comment a bit. What are the obvious signs that this blade is a Chinese knock off? It's obviously in very bad condition, but any additional information on why the blade appears fake would be appreciated. Thank you.

Sharing a papered daisho tsuba set from my collection. I suspect later Edo daisho tsuba are more common than the daisho blades you are discussing, but wanted to share nonetheless.

Just adding another contribution or two to this thread - one sukashi kiku tsuba and one later Edo 32 petal kiku tsuba.

A mid-Edo papered Akasaka tsuba; recently purchased.

The Mercari listing is showing as “Sold” now. Did you buy it?

Great point, John!

The price on Mercari is ¥35,100 ($225).

What concerns me ever-so-slightly about this tsuba is that the original seller/owner (on Mercari) has many tsubas for sale with modern hozon origami - many of which were issued on the same day by NBTHK. I could be wrong, but this has led me to believe that the seller himself submits his tsuba for evaluation with NBTHK. As this tsuba has the (far less desirable) old origami, it begs the question - at least in my mind - why the seller didn’t get updated Hozon origami for this tsuba. Could it be because he thought the tsuba wouldn’t pass Hozon evaluation? Maybe he did submit it for Hozon and the tsuba ultimately didn’t pass evaluation? Maybe I’m overthinking it …

I’m a little late to the party, but wanted to share this (fairly beaten up) example from my collection. I’ve always enjoyed its simplicity.

Reading old posts and came across this thread. Here is a fairly typical 16-petal chrysanthemum style tsuba from my collection. Happy New Year!

A beautiful piece indeed! I don’t have many in my collection, but I did recently buy this one - papered and attributed to Waki Goto.

Thanks Dale! Mine was courtesy of Aoi-Art. They have a collection of such beautiful pieces.

A Heian-jo Style tsuba from my collection.

Here is a photo of a tsuba that looks to have had religious (Christian) imagery added to the tsuba at some point well after being made. I’m assuming that the imagery was not original to the tsuba because of the placement of the images immediately around the nakago-ana, which would have resulted in the images being partially covered, though not fully, so as to intentionally obstruct the nature of the imagery. I’ve also not seen other Edo era Christian imagery made in this style. In any case, adding this here as a potentially-good case study of tsuba that had religious imagery added well post production.

Good point regarding oral tradition, though the Edo Period was notable for the transition away from oral traditions, with the Tokogawa Shogunate being known for its highly bureaucratic nature and reliance on written rulemaking for purposes of social order, etc. Additionally, adult literacy rates spiked to 40-50% in Japan (with, of course, higher rates being seen in urban areas) during this period, which is a clear indicator pointing to the importance of the written word. I don’t think you should discount what appears to be nearly an absolute absence of literary evidence supporting your thesis. Japan during the Edo Period was significantly more culturally advanced than prior and other societies that relied on highly mailable oral tradition.

Dan - as a new member to this forum, I have greatly appreciated your detailed guidance on spotting “fake tsuba,” as well as your general orientation to more accessible collecting, which promotes and expands this hobby; all great IMHO! With this said, your continued argument for your thesis seems unreasonably dismissive of your colleagues’ thoughtful points. I’ll add an additional perspective, which, admittedly, has been stated in other ways in this thread. From a social science perspective, if cast iron tsuba were made with any degree of prevalence during the Edo Period, we would certainly expect to see clear and regular reference to cast iron tsuba in period specific text, directives, and even law. There seems to be a striking lack of that literary and documentary evidence. Others have pointed out the dangers of confirmation bias in these types of examinations, but I think it’s important to restate how much such bias hinders the pursuit of truth.