Mino Tsuba?

[TheGermanBastard]

I assume it is Mino work?

 

[Curran]

Edo Mino.

[TheGermanBastard]

Thanks Curran!

[Surfson]

Might it also be Nagoyamono?   Often done in the style of Mino Goto

 

http://www.nihonto.us/NAGOYAMONO TSUBA.htm

 

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/14043/lot/6092/

 

[Curran]

4 hours ago, Surfson said:

Might it also be Nagoyamono?

 

Luis:    your tsuba or its twin is on page 39 of Kinko Mino Bori Book.

https://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/books/b1033-kinko-mino-bori-kokubo-kenichi

Our scanner top is busted and waiting replacement. If you don't have the book, maybe Dr. Bob or another NMB member can scan it in for you

 

[Spartancrest]

There are similarities to your guard here -   http://www.johnstuart.biz/new_page_11.htm  

MINO-GOTO TSUBA

  "This tsuba shows the typical Mino-bori autumn flowers theme. What differentiates this tsuba is the Goto style dragons found on the mimi. Four dragons, two that are forward facing and two that are looking behind with their heads looking over their right shoulders. This tsuba has a very fine nanakoji. I believe what we can term the Mino-Goto school developed from the Mino-bori artists which was the school Goto Yujo studied. Upon his retirement Yujo returned to Mino no Kuni and with his Kyokanagushi influenced style had created the mainline Goto Shirobei line of fittings makers. I think his influence on Mino-bori artists outside of his direct line created what can be termed the Mino-Goto school."

 

The book Kinko Mino Bori, as mentioned by Curran has also just been listed on Jauce.com 

https://www.jauce.com/auction/n484286504

 

 

[JohnTo]

Hi Luis

I have seen tsuba similar to this for sale described as both Mino and Nagoya, and are probably offshoots of the main Goto family.  However, it seems hard to get definitive information for us collectors in the west who's Japanese is not too good.  By coincidence, I was about to post a Christmas quiz tsuba for a bit of light relief.  This tsuba appears to have little in common with yours, except for the seppa-dai and nakago.  The seppa-dai is chocolate brown, rather than the blue-black of shakudo.  This effect is interesting me at the moment as it may mean that the metal is nigurome rather than shakudo.  Secondly, the punch marks on my tsuba are virtually the same as yours, especially the open pair at the top.  I believe that these are just a decorative pattern that was used by the workshop in Nagoya, Mino or wherever rather than a signature.

I have also been looking at cast Nagoyamono tsuba and they also have a distinctive (but different) pattern of punch marks.  More research needed, as they say (no doubt it is all written up in some Japanese book).

Best regards, John 

[DirkO]

9 hours ago, Curran said:

 

Luis:    your tsuba or its twin is on page 39 of Kinko Mino Bori Book.

 

[Spartancrest]

The image from Dirk is extraordinarily close to Luis's guard - the tagane-ato are almost exactly the same, but for some hard to spot differences you would think it was the same piece [It is not].  Are any sizes available? Forensic tosogu, you can't beat it!

[vajo]

Dale with all respect for you doing. But this is not the same Tsuba! Its total different. You see overall fakes.

 

Its a nice one Luis. I would be glad to have it.

 

 

 

They produce their tsuba from scratchbooks. You find tons of similar looking pieces in Tosogu but all are different in details. These are not copies. 

[Surfson]

Excellent catch Curran!  Did you pull that out of your mental database?  Impressive.  

[Curran]

2 hours ago, Surfson said:

Excellent catch Curran!  Did you pull that out of your mental database?  Impressive.  

 

I could have explained "Why Mino, not Nagoyamono", but I figured it would just be easier to pull one of the Mino books and point at a page.

Why type all that when a picture is worth at least a few hundred words?

 

I didn't expect that easy of a match. It being late at night and I being weary as an old dog, I didn't bother confirming whether it was the same.

Scanner top really is busted (by me), or I would have scanned it in this morning. Thank you Dirk for doing so.

 

Have a good XMas all.

One more week until 2021. Bring it.

 

[Spartancrest]

Chris

I don't know what you are talking about, I never said Luis's guard was fake, it isn't - all I did was point out it was not the same one as in the Mino book, you could get the microscope out and cover the whole image in circles if you want, but the point is it is a beautiful piece but just not the one in the book. 

PS. if you are going to edit your post multiple times please point this out. [3 and counting]

 

Great work Curran and Dirk, a picture is worth a thousand words - you must have a photographic memory like the one I have sometimes been accused of.

[Curran]

55 minutes ago, Spartancrest said:

Great work Curran and Dirk, a picture is worth a thousand words - you must have a photographic memory like the one I have sometimes been accused of.

 

Spatially a very very strong visual memory, though *not* photographic. Photographic visual memory would be a curse, not a blessing.

To make space for that visual memory, the creator or creators made me near tonedeaf. My idea of hell involves karaoke or listening to myself play any musical instrument.

 

This was probably 60% memory and knowing what is "Mino", and then 40% dumb luck finding it in the first of 3 Mino books I was considering plucking off the shelf.

On to the next one?