Jesta

Thank you. Arrived safely, and I am very happy…

That is beautiful. Really a worthwhile restoration. Congratulations to you for seeing its potential and to Manuel for the outstanding work.

Impressive piece… This is the sort of thing that I refer to as an “anti-tank” tsuba. It seems to be pretty solid and weighty, definitely something that is built to last.

Thank you both. Dale, you continue to amaze me…

My brother was given this tsuba by some friends. It has NBTHK papers… Any info on the origins or comparisons would be appreciated. Thanks.

I can’t comment on the mei, but the rest of the tsuba doesn’t look like Goto work. The nanako look cast rather than punched - take that with the appropriate amount of salt given that I can only look at the photo… This is an example of Goto school work with figures: https://www.bonhams....arly-18th-century-3/

Thanks for the clarification. The golden look was unexpected

What material is it made of? The gold sheen is not something that I have seen very often…

The halo seems to come from ancient Roman and Greek depictions of the gods, particularly the sun gods (with a sun behind their heads). See for example: https://www.research...hrist_fig3_319605856 The same seems to be true of the depictions of angels, where they are depicted as very similar to Greek gods and goddesses with wings. The Biblical descriptions of angels are wild… great balls of eyes and stuff, not the human forms we are used to.

I have no idea how they get to “Christian” from either of those… I suppose that they could be Christian, but the representations do not seem to be explicitly Christian.

I find this one interesting since it also bears a strong resemblance to the halo of the Buddha. I am not sure how you would be able to immediately attribute it to Buddhism or Catholicism, although that may have been the point… There seem to be a lot of cultural similarities in how the divine is represented, with the Christian halo coming from depictions of Greek deities, and halos also appearing in art from the East, and being depicted in very similar ways.

Just received my tsuba from Grev (@kissakai). Very happy, they are beautiful. He was very responsive and helpful when the Royal Mail messed things up. Can recommend him as a seller.

Nice nanako background, and I like the rope work. Very nice find.

I was given two when I was around 15. I lost one, but still have the other. I have always loved Japanese art, and the connection with my past led me to look at tsuba again. I fell in love with the way that artists take a very mundane item (a sword guard) and turn it into a thing of such beauty and style that it becomes a thing on its own. I love the way that the artists use the constraints of all the different tosogu pieces to make their stories and art visually appealing.

Off topic, but I went to East Malaysia to photograph and write about proboscis monkeys…