New Tsuba for my wakizashi

[Robert C. Walker]

Here is the new tsuba for the wakizashi that I just got back from the polisher. Does anybody have any thoughts or information on it?

[Henry Wilson]

I don't think it is of very good qulaity. The condition is not very good too. Is there a special reason why you selected it?

[Robert C. Walker]

The only reasons were that it fit better than the original one and it looked better too. Someone described that one as a Yokohama dock special when I posted a photo.

[Henry Wilson]

I personally don't think it is a good idea to be changing fittings on a koshirae. The koshirae as you got it is a collection of parts and could have some sort of historical meaning that we do not completing understand. You could be unitentionally deleting or mixing up a little piece of Japanese history.

 

I would be inclined to leave the original one on the koshirae esepcially if the one you are going to replace it with is not much better.

[Robert C. Walker]

Fair enough. The rest of the fittings are quite nice so I expect that the tsuba was changed at some point. Of course, we can never know why it was changed. Here is a link to photos of the fittings, including the original tsuba, that I still have.

 

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2164&p=14831#p14831

[Lorenzo]

My very personal opinion.

Guri bori F/K in my view are very nice and should go with a matching tsuba. The wakizashi original tsuba seems very low quality to me, so it is possible that the original guri-bori tsuba has been sold in the past too and replaced with that one. You can think to replace it too but only with a matching one.

 

Other option, keep the koshirae as it is and make a whole new one as a spare. You can have many koshirae for one blade if you wish.

[Henry Wilson]

Nice fititngs. If you do decide to change the tsuba, I would go for something a bit more classy than the one you are pondering, IMHO. However the the one you bought on the koshirae might not be that bad so keep it, if only to preverse the koshirae's history as much as possible.

[Stephen]

i think if restored id would be a great tsuba, seen a fellow from up in the twin cities do wonders with rust. i dont think eather of the tsuba match the F/K but like the not so busy new one the best if brought back to its glory.

[reinhard]

This koshirae doesn't exactly represent the pinnacle of sword fittings and Robert, I think, is free to compile the parts the way he likes them. Nevertheless it should be kept in mind, that old koshirae were originally a mirror of the taste of their former owner. I fully agree with Henry here and even if the parts don't seem to match for a westerner: Sometimes they were chosen just for their individual merits and reflect their former owner's taste. - I'm aware of the fact, that many koshirae have been changed senselessly from late Edo days onwards; tastefully in Japan, often crudely outside. I remember seeing in Europe a complete Hamano-koshirae of the finest kind for a katana, signed and dated on some parts, but with a poor iron sukashi tsuba from Meiji-times flapping around nakago.

Changing parts of koshirae has been done and will be done for good reasons, but it should be done with a sense for Japanese aesthetics, a basic knowledge of Japanese history and its myths and a basic respect for history itself, just in case you don't know what you're doing.

 

As far as these two tsuba are concerned: Does the original one fit tightly to the blade? If yes, I would keep it.

 

reinhard

[remzy]

The butterfly and poenies tsuba "would" look better than the original one after some (very) long and (Very) careful rubbing, but it would never be a masterpiece. I doubt theres a aesthetical link between the F/k and original tsuba.

 

Regards

[Robert C. Walker]

How would I go about "restoring" the peony tsuba? Is there some information on the web on how to do that carefully?

 

I would love to find a guribori tsuba to match the fuchi kashira but the only guribori pieces that I can find are sitting in museums. They appear to be pretty rare.

[Stephen]

id ask Ford

[Mantis dude]

While looking through some of my stuff, I found this in a set of catalogs... exactly like yours. I had trouble getting the scan to be clear but tell me if you want me to try again - this was my 2nd attempt.

 

 

I don't know what it says though. I cropped the matching fuchi/kashira to make it a bit more readable. Hope this helps.

[Stephen]

I have seen that tsuba before and if yours was restored it would be heads above the other poor soten style that came with the blade.

[Robert C. Walker]

Wow, Mantis Dude, good find! What catalogue is the image from? Certainly a very close rendition of the theme.

 

I will try to find some guidance for how to clean up the rust and then see what it looks like. Either way, I have both tsuba.

[Mantis dude]

I have 4 sets (12 catalogs per set) that are bound (well tied together with a cover). I purchased them about 5-8 years ago from Japan. I need to go through and catalog the blades in them along with the fittings. actually there might be an index in them. They have some great photos of swords and mei and fittings. I have actually found several items that are similar in my collection. In fact, last night I translated a daisho set of fittings that had a similar sword guard to one I have in my collection. It was the first time I really translated a bunch of text and I must admit it was most satisfying. The kanji section here (thanks Rich T among others) really was helpful. However, I am fairly certain they got the tsuba school wrong, saying it was akasaka when one similar guard I have is papered to Hagi (choshu). Still, I went to bed satisfied that I really was able to make sense of something and I did it on my own without asking the translation section. Here is a copy of the issue it came from, if you really want a better scan, I can untie the cover so I can lay the book flat and get a better scan for you.

 

Anyone know Who did these? If Rich T is out there, I got them from that nice women that was living in Japan but moved back to chicago- I cant remember her name.

[Guido]

Ken, that's the magazine / monthly sales catalog "Rei" from Tôken Shibata at Ginza.

[Mantis dude]

Thanks Guido!

[Robert C. Walker]

I had someone recommend that I use some light oil on the tsuba to help with the rust. Is this an acceptable and useful thing to do to stop the active rust?

[Mantis dude]

You could just buy this one it comes with papers http://page13.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/r56002076

 

active rust is bad (red rust). you have to be careful especially on sukashi tsuba. You might need some ivory (or deer horn? not sure about that) that will scrape away the rust but isn't as hard as the iron so it won't scratch the tsuba. I think Jim G website or is it Rich Stein's has a section on cleaning tsuba?! Your tsuba I am sure will have patination issues which will be hard to address.