Ko-Tosho Or Tenpo?

[svarsh]

I think it's Tosho with no Ko. Good enough. Mid Muromachi, ok. Anyway, it's a real tsuba for a real weapon, not an Edo period show off. I think that everyone agree with that.

Thanks for a good discussion. 

Serge

[Henry Wilson]

I think it's Tosho with no Ko. Good enough. Mid Muromachi, ok. Anyway, it's a real tsuba for a real weapon, not an Edo period show off.

I think that KO usually denotes pre Edo production.  They could be modern reproductions of Ko Tosho in my honest opinion.

[Alex A]

One thing that crossed my mind there Henry, again just a thought.

 

If someone went to the trouble of creating a modern tsuba to pass as a Ko Tosho, and took so much effort into making the patina look old, size and thickness, patina and remnant lacquer.

 

Just wondering why they would not choose a textbook simple sukashi?, like you would see in Sasano,s, and in the case of the dragonfly tsuba, make the sukashi lines look older.

 

Maybe I look too much into this.

[ROKUJURO]

Alex,

a good SUKASHI TSUBA is a lot of work, while forging a TÔSHÔ plate is relatively easy, even when you forge it down to plausible dimensions. A SUKASHI TSUBA presents a lot of possibilities for the identificatioin of the tools and work used for its manufacture, so a copy is more easily detected.. Think also of TEKKOTSU which is still a secret not only to most forgers, but also to collectors.

Patination is more a question of knowledge and patience than of hard work. 

[Alex A]

Hi Jean,

 

When I say "so much effort", I could have worded that better.

 

What I should have said is, if someone wanted to create a reproduction or fake (to fool others) of a Ko-Tosho, I think maybe there would be better choices for the sukashi design.

 

Just thoughts.

 

Some helpful hints in this thread, cheers