A question regarding Gunto Tsuba

[Chriso]

G'day all,

I have two Gunto Tsuba, pics below.

The one on the right is solid and fairly well finished off, while the one on the left is a poorer quality, sukashi tsuba that is a tad bigger than the solid one.

 

Any ideas why one is solid while the other is cut out, my thinking is that perhaps the Sukashi Tsuba was produced later in the war and was cut out to either save weight or to save metal which could be used elsewhere ???????

 

Your thoughts would be very much appreciated

 

Regards and best

 

Chris O

[obiwanknabbe]

Hi Chris,

 

The sword was not issued to most officers. It is my understanding that Officers in the Japanese Military were given a certain amount of $, the amount determined by rank, with which they could go buy their sword from on of the hundreds of suppliers. It is likely that the cut-out tsuba was a higher end option that someone with a little more $ opted to purchase.

 

Im sure others will chime in with more detailed information.

 

Best regards,

 

Kurt.k

[Baka Gaijin]

Hi Chris,

 

This may help:

 

http://ohmura-study.net/906.html

 

I do wonder of the origin and age of your pierced example.

 

Cheers

[GregD]

Two to compare,and ill'e agree with Malcolm about a questionable origin.

[nihonto1001]

Chris O:

 

The non-pierced tsuba looks legit; the pierced does seems off.

[Kai-Gunto]

The pierced tsuba is a fake , IMO.

 

When guntos has pierced tsuba the koshirae is of better quality.

Pierced tsubas are the early ones.

[Chriso]

Thanks very much to all for your input. The solid tsuba came mounted to a signed Gunto, and actually looks the part when assembled. The cut out, I agree is very poor quality, slightly larger and was donated to me, not attached to any sword, so I suspect as you do that it is a copy and not a very good one @ that.

 

once again many thanks.

 

Chris O

[mdiddy]

The one on the left with larger sukashi is definitely fake to my eye.