Jesta

I find the second one easier to see the problems with (sperm-shaped nanako FTW, and terrible paint on the mimi). What did you see in the first one that raised the red flags?

I recently bought what I shall call the “NMB Tsuba”. If anyone has any thoughts on the origins of it I would appreciate them. It is a weighty thing, with autumn leaves, and seems to have been flecked with gold at some point (there are minute traces on one side). What I am really interested in is why one of the ana cuts right through the design. My current theory is that it was made without the ana, they were then cut into it, and then later one of them was plugged. If this is the case, then it seems to have been used for a long time with the owner’s needs (fashion?) changing, but the tsuba itself soldiering on. Any thoughts as to why this might have been the case? Any similar examples?

The tsuba has arrived, safe and sound. Thank you Marius for packing it so well. I will be giving it some thought and posting to the main forum for some help on its style and origins.

Quick update: I have been in touch with the auction house. They have agreed to reassess the tsuba and said that they will refund me if they agree with the notes I gave them. I am going to send it back to them today. Fingers crossed. Quite impressed with the willingness to reconsider.

I think that Dale has nailed this one. The painting looks almost identical.

The root part looks very like ginseng, but the leaves are wrong. There is always a good chance that the artist wasn’t that good at depicting plants, and just went with the space available.

It’s all good, I’d rather know, and thanks for your offer.

Hi all. Thanks for the notes. To put this to rest… Matsunoki is right, or so I believe. I have run a couple of simple tests to see if it is silver or polished iron. I can’t find any evidence that it is silver, and when I rub the darker areas with a tissue they come away with iron rust colour, so I am going to assume that it is indeed iron. I have written to the auction house to complain that their description was inaccurate and asking for some action, no idea if they will respond with any except a form email, but we will see… I am sad, because it was a piece that I was quite excited about. It is not a cheap mistake, but I am somewhat sanguine about it. It’s still a piece that I like looking at, and learning is always valuable in the end.

Thanks for this. I can’t see the first one clearly, but I will check out the book.

Thanks. I was the bidder…

Interesting point, but I think that it is more likely that the artist wanted to leave the cross-hatching to keep the material-like texture, which I understand to be one of the ways to use this technique, much like nanako resembles silk (and something that I like). (see here for another example: https://japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/tsuba-kodogu/q784-higo-tsuba-hozon-to-kumagai/) The fact that the pattern covers the whole surface would indicate that the this wasn’t put there just to hold the the design in place. In your example, the technique has been used for exactly that, and only for the design, rather than for a material aesthetic.

This one has just arrived, and I am sharing my excitement… It is iron, and has some good nunome-zogan, using two different shades of gold, with the ground in what I think is silver. This one in the Ashmolean looks like similar work (https://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/collection/921/per_page/50/offset/200/sort_by/date/category/other/start/1799/end/1895/object/21029), but doesn’t note a possible origin. Does anyone have any ideas where it might have come from?

I think that it is largely going to depend on your budget… I did see this one: https://www.aoijapan.com/tsuba-mumeiunsignedkaga-kinko-nbthk-hozon-tosogu/ Or this one: https://www.zacke.at/auction/lot/58-a-fine-silvered-iron-tsuba-with-autumnal-flowers/?lot=75950&sd=1# (I bought this one, waiting for it to arrive)

Very pretty. Are you looking for theme, or to match the crafting type, or both?

More information on the battle of Uji here https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/51989-race-across-the-uji-river-1180-tsuba-and-fuchi-kashira/