And now for something completely different - how about showing us your top 10 (or however many) acquistions from 2021

[rkg]

Since its (almost) the end of the year, let's see what treasures you've acquired this year - I seemed to have gotten entirely too many pieces this year, but here are some of the top ones, in no particular order:

 

1. Killer kanayma:

 

2. Monkey/moon themed ko-shouami:

 

3. and just to make your skin crawl, here's a millipede themed tsuba attributed to Myouchin:

 

4.Kodai Jingo

 

5."ume" tada:

Enjoy,

rkg

(Richard George)

 

[rkg]

continuing....

 

6. Really Nice Kyou sukashi:

 

7. Mokume and made by a swordsmith:

 

8.sadahiro

 

9. old kagamishi

 

10. I don't know what it is (probably myouchin I'd guess), but I like it:

 

rkg

(Richard George)

 

 

[rkg]

and just for grins two more that seem to be crowd pleasers:

 

11. pretty generic mei, but...

 

12 and last but not least, an oh-no:

 

 

Happy Holidays,

rkg

(Richard George)

[sabi]

Great stuff Rich!  Just love that otafuku mukade guard.

 

It was a busy year (for me) with three acquisitions - a ko-katchushi ish piece that shows some fine subtleties, a strong and dynamic Kanayama, and a serene Yamakichibei. 👺🙏

 

[roger dundas]

Wonderful collecting. It has been a good year for Richard particularly and Evan too. Great o see.

Roger j

[DRDave]

Nice ones Richard.  The mum petals trick my eyes.  They sometimes appear convex and other times concave.

[Vermithrax16]

Not many this year, but ones I will remember. 

Hamano mumei kozuka:

[Vermithrax16]

Hamano Naoyuki. Just a masterwork:

[mas4t0]

Great picks all around, thanks for sharing.

[Curran]

It was a busy year with not much time for Tosogu, but I came away with 3 or 4 things that I will enjoy for a while.

I do not currently have photos of the ko-goto kogai, but it came from a friend... as most of my pieces seem to do these days.

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

I was about to say “Tsuba callifragilistic expialidocious!”

But it’s Tōsōgu in general! 

[yogoro]

Akasaka Tadasiga , Akasaka Tadamasa II , Katchushi .

[Soshin]

Didn't really get much in 2021 generally speaking it has been a hard year. Here is my only memorable purchase from 2021 per Richard's request. A middle Edo Period Yagyū Tsuba. More information can be found on my website about this tsuba: Tsuba Gallery #4 | Tsuba Otaku. It is the second tsuba from the top on the webpage. 

 

 

[Bob M.]

A couple of pieces amongst this years acquisitions , due to be posted on the long running thread ' A Series of fittings ' towards the end of next year - 

 

I should add that 2021 has been a very busy year ,  purchase wise , by my standards . Seem to have got hold of a number of reasonable quality fittings , but more by luck than judgement.

 

First Tsuba Iron sukashi - Akasaka 5th generation NBTHK papered - subject Hikiryo Mon & Kiri

 

 

[Bob M.]

Second Tsuba - in Shakudo , Ishiyama Mototada  , NBTHK papered , subject of Male and Female tigers

[Kurikata]

TANAKA - OMORI - HAMANO & CO are my 2021 favorite. 

[Curran]

Most excellent tiger tsuba for 2022.

Personally I love the rendering of the pine tree and rain above.

 

[JohnTo]

Here are two of the tsuba added to my collection this year, both depict shishi and peonies.  The two tsuba were probably made about 200 years apart and show differing aspects of the subject.  Shishi are mythical guardian animals in both China and Japan and the peony is regarded in Japan as the king of flowers and symbolises bravery, honour and good fortune.  Consequently the two are often depicted on tsuba together.

The first is a shakudo tsuba, signed Masanaga, plus kao, with a pair of shishi on the omote and a peony on the ura.    The tsuba was catalogued as Haynes Index no. H 04250, which identifies the artist as Chosuke Masanaga (d. ca 1700), who was a student of Nara Toshinaga (Markus Sesko) or Ito Masatsugu (Haynes).  However, there were two generations of Masanaga in the Nara School and both used the same kanji for their signatures.  The first generation, Seiroku, was a student of Toshinaga (either the 3^rd generation master of the Nara School or a student of the same name).  His (adopted?) son was Gihachi Masachika, who signed Masanaga for a while after his father’s death and was from the Kawakatsu family and a nephew of Sugiura Joi.  The Nara tsuba artist Gohachi Masachika may have been an alternative name used by either of the other two Masanaga (see gen chart).    Consequently, there is some uncertainty as to the identity of the artist who made this tsuba (assuming, as always, the signature is genuine).

Specification: Height: 7.6 cm, Width: 7.4 cm, Thickness (rim): 0.4 cm, Weight: 216 g

This tsuba was purchased by Edward Wrangham from the Roland Hartman Collection of Japanese Metalwork (Christies, 30 June 1976, Lot 130).  I was told by the late collector and friend, Sidney Divers, in about 1976 ‘Start collecting tsuba.  They will soar in price.’  In 45 years this one barely doubled.  

The second, a copper tsuba, is a radically different interpretation of the same theme and was made by a modern artist, Yanagawa Morihira (1899-1971).  Apparently Ichiyushi/Shinryuseki/Shinryoso) Morihira was a Tokyo artist. From the age of 14 he studied with Yoshioka Mitsushige (who died 14 September, 1923, in the Great Kanto Earthquake).  He then studied with Toyokawa Mitsunaga (second generation) and took the name Mitsuo until he established himself.

  The front (omote) of the tsuba shows both a shishi and peonies, whereas the reverse (ura) only shows the shishi.  Interestingly, the shishi on the omote has a silver body and a golden mane and tail, whereas the combination of silver and gold is reversed on the ura.  The heads on both animals is copper. Shishi are often represented as playful creatures, but these two are muscular with a fearsome pose and the silver shishi has a head which looks rather like Hannya, the Japanese female demon.  The engraved peonies on the omote are coloured with silver and gold gilding and the petals are in a darker shade of silver.  The gold and silver seem to be painted on, i.e. amalgam.  The outlines are defined in katakiribori (half cut carving) and kebori (hair carving) and, particularly the silver, darkened to add extra tonality to the design.  The nagako ana has four 32(?)-petalled chrysanthemum punch marks on each side, purely for decoration. There is also a single kozuka hitsu ana, filled with a gilt cat scratched plug.

Shishi is also the name given to a group of political activists (Ishin Shishi 維新志士) in the late Edo period who opposed the westernisation of Japan. I think that it is likely that this tsuba was made in the 1930’s when Japanese militarism was at its peak, which is probably why I got it below estimate.

Specification: Height: 8.75 cm, Width: 8.4 cm, Thickness (rim): 0.7 cm; Nakago: 0.4 cm, Weight: 254 g

A very similar tsuba to this, in terms of technique, by Morihira is currently for sale by Aoi-Art (https://www.aoijapan.com/tsuba-morihira-sinryuseki/).

I bought this tsuba in memory of my nephew, Gary, who died a few weeks before this tsuba originally came up for sale in 2020.  It was unsold and came up again at the next auction (2021) when I decided to buy it.  I would not normally have purchased this tsuba but Gary was an extrovert party guy whose group of girlfriends gave him the nickname Simba.  This over the top depiction of shishi will always remind me of Gary.

 

All the best for 2022, John

[Surfson]

Here are a few I picked up (all from Yahoo.jp), in no particular order.   These three are Higo, Satsuma koshirae and Umetada.

[Surfson]

These two are Tosa Myochin and Tachikanagushi

[Surfson]

Kimura Yasutoshi F/K Daisho

[Bugyotsuji]

Sadly, "Computer says No!"

Hit my daily number of likes once more, so may I just say how much I am enjoying the quality in this thread. 

 

Out of ammo...................

[Ed]

Wow! There are some really great tsuba in this thread. Scrolled up and down, up and down trying to pick a favorite. Can't settle on just one.

 

I only picked up a few this year, a nice Soten, an Akasaka Tadashige made at age 73 and a Tokuho Kanayama.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Looking back through my notebook I discover that over the nebulous year of 2021 I have bought fewer Tōsōgu overall, but many more Tsuba.
Does this point to something, I wonder? 

Chōshū, thick, over 8.0 cm. NBTHK Hozon

 

Good example of a Shingen Tsuba. Over 8.0 cm

 

 

Wangata Myōchin Katchūshi NBTHK 7.8 x 7.5 x 0.5

 

 

Chōshū ‘Ran’ orchids (?) sukashi Tomonobu 友信　7.0 x 6.5

Long leaf carving continues over mimi

 

 

 

Nata ‘chopper’ in various metals

8.5 x 7.8 cm, twisted rope mimi

 

 

[Infinite_Wisdumb]

All insect themed tosogu for me!  Thanks to friends on the board for the great discussions and sharing of some of these

[Chishiki]

Muromachi period Ezo menuki.  Note the human heads.  Mark

[GRC]

OK, it was my first year of collecting tsuba...

I kind of went deep into the "tsuba diving", even wrote an intro article for the JSSC (Japanese Sword Society of Canada) about the tsuba's historical development and features, with an overview of various tsuba styles. 

I definitely went overboard, but I'll share my favorites:

Mokume first:

1- insane wood grain effect

 

2- Armorer's wan-gata mokume, similar to Richard's

3- A Kuninaga snowflake mokume (I got help with the mei from NMB members, thanks again!)

4- A deeply etched mokume that has a whirlpool-like swirl pattern with a sukashi of a paddle. It's dense and heavy.

  

 

 

 

 

 

[Grey Doffin]

Tadashige Saku (Akasaka)

tsuba made from horse tack

Cheers, Grey

[GRC]

continuing with the mokume:

5- an amazing Sado island mokume that was first deeply carved to make the raised cherry blossoms, then only the background of the mokume plate was etched. It's all one continuous piece of mokume.

 

6- Another amazing, deeply etched Sado island mokume tsuba. It has a ridged scallop shell design, and the mokume swirl was done in such a way as to create the natural growth rings that you would see on a shell like this.

And personally, I can't help seeing that the raised ridge lines of the scallop end up forming a Mt. Fuji design  

 

7- And last but not least, a mumei mokume with a double wheel motif.

I love that the mokume ends up looking like the wood of a wagon wheel, or could maybe even suggest "water" if these are water wheels? I really don't know if these are intended to be wagon wheels  or water wheels... not my area of expertise    

Regardless, I'm amazed that the layers of the mokume didn't split apart during the carving process.

[roger dundas]

Really love those examples Glen. Very well done,

Roger j