Yanagawa school tsuba

[brentlewiis]

Hello friends,

 

I acquired a tsuba a while back and am interested in what others might think.  I believe the mei is that of Yanagawa Naoharu.  The examples of that school/artist’s work that I’ve seen have mostly been in soft metals with amazingly fine nanako.  This one seemed atypical in having a plain iron ground.

[ROKUJURO]

The photo is out of focus, but I think it reads indeed NAOHARU.

[Ed]

You should take the time to get photos that are in focus when you want help. Additionally orienting them correctly would be a courtesy.

 

You tsuba is signed Yanagawa Naoharu. The legitimacy of the mei is questionable.

[brentlewiis]

My apologies for the discourtesy of my poor photography, and the mis-orientation of the products thereof.

These failures notwithstanding, perhaps one could share one’s reasoning for finding the legitimacy of the mei questionable?

[Spartancrest]

6 hours ago, brentlewiis said:

perhaps one could share one’s reasoning for finding the legitimacy of the mei questionable?

Great question Lucian, evidence is always better than speculation! 

[brentlewiis]

The software rotated all the images 90 deg. clockwise.  Don’t known why.

[brentlewiis]

Seems to me that rather a large issue has been raised by questioning the legitimacy of the mei.  Perhaps one could be prevailed upon to share one’s reasoning?  I would much prefer an informed discussion.

[brentlewiis]

The research I’ve done indicates that the mei compares favorably with those found on known good examples.  I didn’t see any of the usual indicators of gimei.  
I bought it for a pittance, because I liked it and thought it had merit.  Not because I necessarily believed it to be Yanagawa school work.  Is the school of such standing that applying a false signature would result in a return on investment greater than the effort required to effect the deception?  
 

 

[rkg]

Hi,

I did a quick check on Haynes, and there was only one yanagawa guy that signed this way, so I think its this one:

 

 

your mei pic is kind of blurry, but it doesn't look particularly close to the reference ones to me - but That observation is probably worth what you paid for it - you can compare it to the piece in hand and see what you think.

 

There are several mid-late Edo kinko that seemed to attract Really Good forgers - an example of this would be (ichinomiya) Nagatsune.  There are a tremendous number of pieces that his gimei on them, and a lot of those mei are really really close to "known good" ones.  I have no idea if it was a financial/fraud thing or if it was one of those objects every important family "had" to have an example of, but...

 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)