Thoughts-Opinions Of This Tsuba

[MDS5866]

Good Evening,

 

I apologize if this is the wrong portion of the Forum so Mods feel free to move. I am extremley new to this genre and thus my question of the following scans of a tsuba I am looking at. My question(s) are, is this real as it looks somewhat raw in its appearance. What would be the age/period? Also what do the characters mean? Lastly are the character real or graffiti. If real then what? Feel free to comment or add to this conversation and thanks in advance.

 

Mark

[ggil]

Here is one with similar low quality workmanship seen on the numerous Soten school copies. You can see some Japanese characters (kanji) match. This one has been better preserved and may have a little more work done, but still I doubt both our tsubas signatures would be considered genuine. So I'm guessing late 18th or later Soten school copy, which time has been hard on and is now in poor condition.

 

Thanks to Gabriel L. On this board for the following translation of my tsuba...

 

Front:

R: 藻柄子入道 Sōheishi [or "Mogarashi"] Nyūdō… (name of the mainline Sōten masters, often copied)

L: 宗典製 …Sōten sei (…Sōten made [this])

 

Back:

R: 江州 Gō Shū (Omi province)

L: 彦根住 Hikone Jū (Resident of Hikone)

[MDS5866]

Thank you for your response and details.

 

Mark

[Curran]

Looks quite legit, but beaten up a bit.

It reminds me of the first tsuba I purchased back in 1992.

[MDS5866]

Curran thanks for your replies and PM as well.

 

Mark

[ggil]

After reading Curran's remark, I'm re-guessing to say that since yours is so beat up it is hard to say for sure what the quality was originally, so yours has more chance to be genuine. Mine however, I still am calling it done by non-Soten school hands, and therefore gimei. If anyone disagrees, I'll sell my tsuba to you for a great deal to you ($300 + Shipping). Yes, I paid near twice that. Learning can be expensive. In martial arts, learning can really be painful!