Nobuiye Styled Tsuba

[lotus]

This one was recently sold on ebay and wanted to know your thoughts. Oh, and congrats to the winner if it was a board member.

 

Now a Tsuba with almost the same design was talked about in a previous thread here :

 

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/5539-nobuiye-with-questionable-manufacture-method/?hl=%2Bnobuie+%2Bturtle&do=findComment&comment=51757

 

Which school do we think? The large kozuka ana is quite different then the one in the linked thread. Thoughts?

 

Dimensions Length 63mm, Width 60mm Thickness 3mm, most thick 5.5mm

[Shirogitsune]

Hi All,

 

I was the winning bidder here. It’s actually quite a nice little piece. My sense is Kaga Nobuiye.

If you follow Ford Hallam’s argument that the “yakite shitate” process is one of effect and

absolutely NOT done through heating (sensible because iron does not have a molecular

composition like wax and doesn’t behave like wax as it nears a phase transition (any of you

ever observe wax sparks?), then my best guess is that the “molten” look is the process of

some kind of complex acid etching process. I feel that this is Kaga work, based on what remains

of the mei and on the size, density and substantial presence of silver residue which appears to be

left over after (you guessed it) an acid etching process. Here’s the link toAndy Quirt’s Kaga example:

http://www.nihonto.us/NOBUIYE%20TSUBA.htm

Attached are some additional photos. It’s not easy to catch the faint silver residue.

 

Cheers,

 

Phil

[Vermithrax16]

I like that one Phil! And good to see another fellow New Englander on here!

[ROKUJURO]

Phil,

nice TSUBA but I don't see the 'silver residue' you are mentioning. In any case, most acids won't attack silver. The glossy surface is not the effect of an etching process; there is some hand work involved, I think. 

[Shirogitsune]

So far I haven’t been able to get a good photo of the silver residue. Finding this is a trick I learned from Skip Holbrook and Steve Strauch. Sometimes you need a jeweler’s loupe or a magnifying glass. In this case it is very visible on the plate all around the kozuka ana of you hold the tsuba at a 20-30 degree angle. It’s just a very thin film which makes me think it was just some part of the finishing process and not an actual decoration ever meant to be seen. The silver on Andy’s Kaga Nobuiye is a solid thick coating.