Souljah

Here is one im waiting for to arrive.

Thx, I've already seen both, but isn't the bat tsuba also Gimei if it says 19th century and kenzui died 1776? Also it's not very detailed. The very opposite of it is the second one.

Does anyone have a picture of a tsuba made by Kenzui? Really hard to find something. Does anybody have a recommendation for a book about the Hamano school?

That's an interesting point, that they sell Gimei. Didn't think about that.

Already studying the Bonhams and Zacke websites since days and there are some amazing pieces.

Thx for your kind words. It cought my eyes, because it was totally different than all the other tsuba I've seen. That's what I liked.

Yeah, I got a little too excited... Hopefully lesson learned.

I guess that the only way is to educate myself. Hopefully I'm gonna learn from my mistake. I still like the tsuba and am exited for it to arrive, but I admit being a little disappointed about it.

Hello Dale, thx for your help. I lack of knowledge and experience in comparing Mei, but If I try to, it looks like same characters, but a little difference in the strokes and their direction. So I assume it's gimei. Am I right? Are there any other hints where my tsuba came from? Any opinion on it? Thx so much.

Thx, every opinion is welcome and appreciated. Edit: Actually we have a cloudy evening, it's already dark and I've taken a photo of the moon. I think it depends on the clouds, as you can see, that the moon is fully visible through the clouds. Everything is dark and the clouds are not that thick, so the moon shines through and makes the clouds in front of it "invisible". But that's only one of your concerns... Any opinion on the Mei?

Any opinion if this is genuine hamano kenzui (2nd generation hamano) or gimei? It's too late anyway, but I would like to know.

Thx to all. Interesting to see other examples of this motif on different tsuba and the thing with his nickname. Haven't found that.

That makes more sense, because of the child being in front of Hotei. I've found this picture of hotai carrying a child through a river. And an other picture with the writing "The eye that regards the innocent child / is a friendly soul outside this soiled world"

I just won an auction of my first tsuba today and would like to know if my guessing is right. I did some research and I think that its Hotei guiding a child through darkness, but as I am totally uneducated on this kind of stuff, I would like to know if there's some other story behind it. The writing on the right says "Child with opened eyes" or "open your eyes", at least that's what Google translate says. Thx.

Here is a funny one I've found during my search.