kissakai Posted June 19, 2023 Report Posted June 19, 2023 I recently bought this from Higo-san (Chris) He bought it because of the style/wrapping as did I. I'd like to find out a bit more about if anyone can help The wrapping is unusual and very well done and something I've not seen before The 'sharks skin' is also unusual as instead of the normal nodes this has scales that look like sharks teeth Fuchi is nice nanako and the kashira is plain Any idea what would be suitable menuki to use if I decide to add them 1 1 Quote
Matsunoki Posted June 21, 2023 Report Posted June 21, 2023 Hello Grev I’m no tsukamaki expert but here’s what I think. This is not “normal” ito. I believe the style is called Jabara string wrap and you can see the wrap does look like a type string. The individual strands are thinner and allow for very intricate decorative patterns….twists, overlaps etc as we see here. This difficult and expensive style is very often encountered on lavishly mounted Tanto but obviously gets used on katana etc. However it’s very decorative nature sometimes makes it more prone to damage and when it starts to unravel it’s a nightmare and difficult to repair. It’s just a bit more fragile. The wrap on this tsuka looks reasonably recent buy very nicely done. You can see that removal of the menuki has loosened it in those areas. Great care will be needed to slide new menuki in. Shakudo and gilt menuki would look good bearing in mind the fuchi kashira. They will need to be long enough to enable the wrap to secure them but not so thick as to break the binding. Handle with great care! All the best Colin Quote
Matsunoki Posted June 21, 2023 Report Posted June 21, 2023 Meant to say the same looks more like snakeskin. Quote
Bazza Posted June 21, 2023 Report Posted June 21, 2023 Sharkskin??? It has denticles rather than scales... https://ocean.si.edu...icry-shark-denticles BaZZa. 1 Quote
kissakai Posted June 21, 2023 Author Report Posted June 21, 2023 I thought I had some images of differing wrap styles but maybe just in my imagination or an obscure book With Colins reply I don't think I'd be able to find a more definite answer I worked out the scale from the link supplied but I assume my maths (yes it should have an 's') makes the denticles minute but they are a great match Are we looking at circa 1850 or much later? Quote
Matsunoki Posted June 21, 2023 Report Posted June 21, 2023 On 6/21/2023 at 8:12 AM, kissakai said: Are we looking at circa 1850 or much later? Expand Grev, to me it looks much much later. It shows hardly any wear or handling grime. Can never be sure….it may have been simply very well looked after but my bet is late 20thC. I’ll try and find an interesting link for you…..I’ve seen someone either on the web or maybe even on this forum capable of doing this impressive type of work. 1 Quote
Matsunoki Posted June 21, 2023 Report Posted June 21, 2023 Grev, this is the forum member that I was thinking of. His tsuka wrapping is superb and he does Jabara. He may even have done yours. @Artur DrogaMiecza 1 Quote
1kinko Posted June 21, 2023 Report Posted June 21, 2023 I may well be wrong but I believe Artur injured his hands doing tsuka maki and now just sells tosogu. He has a Facebook page (his name). For a pretty good coverage of styles of wrap, Thomas Buck’s Facebook page Tsukamaki.net is a good resource. Quote
Steves87 Posted June 21, 2023 Report Posted June 21, 2023 Yep, Artur is reliable and good to deal with... has a high standard of Tsuka too (I didn't know about the injury). His Flickr account https://www.flickr.c..._drogamiecza/albums/ is best to see his stock Quote
kissakai Posted June 21, 2023 Author Report Posted June 21, 2023 Thanks for the links and I'll check them out Quote
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