Thoughts on Tsuka. Age?

[Tensho]

Picked this up a while ago. I thought in place of samegawa it was just carved wood. Turns out its copper sheets that is blackened with gold accents. The menuki appear to be dragons with 4 toes. Black lacquered ito which is evidently worn from use and holding. 

 

Someone has attempted to "pin" the kabutogane on, but "inside" is also a detailed piece of hammer sheet. Fuchi is unfortunately missing, and I'm not sure what would have been in its place as the bare wood is a height of 20mm. 

 

Tsuka is 30.6cm long.

[Tensho]

[Ian B3HR2UH]

I doubt that this is Japanese

Ian Brooks

[Matsunoki]

Tsuka maki does look Japanese and seems to have some age. Meiji Tachi “fantasy piece” for eager gaijin at that time?

[ROKUJURO]

To me, it looks older (early EDO ?) and authentic, but it may appear different in hand.

[EdWolf]

I also doubt Japanese origin. No mekugi-ana?

[Matsunoki]

Some Meiji stuff was glued together but??

[Matsunoki]

55 minutes ago, EdWolf said:

also doubt Japanese origin. No mekugi-ana?

????

[EdWolf]

A mekugi-ana only on one side of the tsuka? Never seen that before. How could the mekugi be removed? 

 

 

[Grey Doffin]

I once had a real Nihonto katana on which the tsuka had a mekugi-ana on one side only and the katana had no mekugi-ana. Best guess was that the katana was a gift to a shrine and thus no ana. As for the tsuka: no idea why an ana one side only but it can happen. The only rule is that there are no rules.

The tsuka in question, to me, looks to be real Nihonto.

Grey

[Brian]

I agree with Grey.
Have recently seen an entire tsuka that was made of metal....wrap and all, all in one. They played with many different styles, you can't discount it because it's odd.
 

[Tensho]

My pictures aren't very good. I'll try to take some better ones later today. It looks much nicer and aged in hand. 

 

Yes, I agree it is strange and there is only one mekugi-ana. I could've sworn I have seen another tsuka with metal panels that only had one as well. 

 

I can't see it as being a tourist piece only because the ito is worn from the palms by the menuki and the fingers on reverse. To me it definitely seems to have been mounted for some time. 

 

[Matsunoki]

Is the mekugi ana on the other side hidden under the wrap? If it was a heavily tapered mekugi the ana could very very small and not obvious?

[Scogg]

I’d like to see the ana for the nakago too.
 

interesting! 

[Tensho]

[Tensho]

To clarify a few things. There is only one mekugi-ana, and nothing on the other side. No hole inside etc.

 

The nakago-ana has been butchered to be mounted on a stand that came with it(a piece of it).

 

But the inside of the nakago resembles this shape:

 

There's a noticeable "belly" and then tapers down like the above and goes down down 19.5cm

[Rivkin]

Its a good one.

Yes, shrine sword is a possibility. They tend to have this style of mounts and can be quite unusual.