Araki Tomei??

[John A Stuart]

I just purchased this kodzuka and pair of menuki attributed to Araki Tomei. No certification. They are superb whether by him or not and of the quality I expect. Anyhow I share the videos. John

[Bob M.]

Well done John , I was lucky enough to purchase a few bits and pieces from the same source , but never really gave the millet pieces the consideration they obviously deserve - I wish you great pleasure with them...

[ROKUJURO]

If I remember correctly, Ford Hallam once wrote in a post about the famous millet depiction by TOMEI and showed an example by his own hand. 
I am absolutely not an expert on this, but I think I remember that the TOMEI original was much finer than the items above.

[John A Stuart]

Did you magnify the millet? One telltale for me was each seed was individually worked with carving. I think it is equivalent workmanship. John

[1kinko]

The Tomei millet seed heads I’ve seen are composed of 7 individual seeds within each seed and they are deeply carved, much deeper than nanako. I don’t see that here, but that may be a function of the photo quality. I was also surprised by the relative lack of solder around the neashi on the back of the quail, but that was pretty common on Tomei work. I’m sure Ford will chime in soon, seeing as he has produced millet in gold himself.

[Brian]

I think the ones I would expect would be more "3D" in their carving. Yours are lovely, but the pics in this thread show what I mean by deeper and more 3 dimensional.
https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/6983-images-needed-araki-tomei-milet/

Also these:

[John A Stuart]

Yes, there is that extra level of brilliance by the master of millet. John

[Kurikata]

Same topic on one of my tsuba... Not as nice as your kozuka and menuki....