Not a formal kantei …

[Guido]

… but I’d like to hear opinions about this tsuba. Wakizashi size, unsigned, showing the top view of a coiled dragon in clouds.

 

Living in the heartland of nihontō, so to speak, I usually don’t need any feedback from the NMB to identify tsuba, but I have a reason to put this one up for discussion. I wonder if people will be as surprised as I was when I present the answer in a few days …

 

[Ken-Hawaii]

Are the designs similar on both sides?

[Guido]

Are the designs similar on both sides?

 

 

I didn‘t take a photo, but it‘s just the underside of the dragon.

[RobertM]

Initialy I would have said Kinai.

[Gunome]

Hello,

Is it cast ?

[Guido]

Is it cast ?

 

 

What do you think?

[Gunome]

My gut feeling is that it is cast.

But I could be wrong

[Lee Bray]

I'd also say cast reproduction of Echizen Kinai so likely the answer will be entirely different.

[vajo]

Gudio want to joke us 

Fake cast Tsuba.

[ROKUJURO]

It looks definitely like a cast iron TSUBA to me.

[Bazza]

CocaCola Company souvenir bottle opener????

 

BaZZa.

[lonely panet]

UGLY !!!!

[Brian]

I would have said cast repro of a Kinai-style too.
I'm guessing that because that seems so obvious, the answer is going to be surprising. Await it with anticipation.
 

[Brian Ayres]

There is remnants of flashing all around the inside. Cast.

[SAS]

Cast, made on a Tuesday at 4 pm end of shift

[vajo]

I would not wonder when Guido is presenting this as a tokobetsu hozon tsuba 

Its all possible these days of wonder..   

 

Cheers

Chris

[16k]

Looks cast and not so old to me. But I don’t know much about Tsuba. I think I’ve seen better looking ones on wall hangers!

[lotus]

Authentic handmade tsuba made to look like it has been cast. Solved it!

[Lance]

My initial impression is Kinai or cast version, but if there's a surprise  twist as Guido suggests I'll  play along and be really wacky and say Goto school maker due to the way the clouds are carved on it.

Feel free to throw rotten tomatoes.

 

 

Regards,

Lance

[Curran]

[lonely panet]

yagyu hahhahahahahah

[Ken-Hawaii]

Echizen Kinai cast repro

[Guido]

Quite frankly, I’m impressed and very pleasantly surprised – yes, it is indeed a cast tsuba, although the way I worded my initial post was (rightfully) met with the suspicion that it might be something else.

 

The story behind it: I recently visited a sword dealer, and this tsuba was in the middle of his desk. I was surprised, because I found it rather ugly and of low quality, but the convincing patina fooled me at first glance. Curious as I am, I picked it up. I guess you all know the adrenalin rush when you think you totally f*cked up, and broke something, although logic dictates otherwise. Well, I experienced that when I all of a sudden held half of a tsuba in my hand!

 

After my pulse went back to normal, the dealer explained that it was mounted on a wakizashi he bought, and suspecting that it was cast, he took it off – and accidentally dropped it on the floor, where it broke with a loud ‘pling’.

 

I admit that I did the slightest of photoshopping to hide the two thin lines on the seppadai where it broke, but it more or less fits back together perfectly.

 

Sooo, no lecture on how to identify cast tsuba, you guys are way ahead of that. I’m a little proud how far this forum has come in this regard. Kudos to all who answered (and to those who didn’t, but thought “who is this moron trying to fool?”   )

 

[Martin]

A very entertaining Kantei indeed, thanks Guido!

[kissakai]

Nice to have such a positive example

Well done for hiding the break - a lot of smug people now (and quite rightly)

[Brian]

Nice one Guido! Thanks for the bit of fun, and also impressed how progress has been made.

[Steves87]

Good job on the photoshop, even now knowing where the break lines are, its still hard to see them