Help with Nishigaki style tsuba please

Jorgensen · March 16

Dear friends and fellow collectors,

I am having this Nishigaki style tsuba that is troubling me to determine and curius to find more info about it. Any info will be much appreciated. Thank you.

Measures: 8.50 cm x 8.10 cm x 0.30 cm

Curran · March 17

Hi Jimi-san,

Do you have a specific question?

The tsuba is very Nishigaki in style, but very thin and possibly abused.

The added gold feels late and clumsy.

Geraint · March 18

Dear Jimi san.

This is I think the first time I have seen sukashi inside the nakago ana!

All the best.

Spartancrest · March 18

30 minutes ago, Geraint said:

This is I think the first time I have seen sukashi inside the nakago ana!

We have seen nakago-ana with a set design cut into it - certain Higo tsuru patterns.

Soshin · March 18

I read @Jorgensen Jimi-san post a few times and I still not sure what he is asking about specifically. I only have one tsuba and fuchi-gashira set that I can attribute to the Nishigaki School of Higo Provience in my collection. I am far from an expert. I agree with @Curran observations as he was one of my early teachers of Higo tsuba via this message board.

Jorgensen · March 18

Thanks for your replies...

I am asking because my knowledge about Nishiaki tsuba isnt exactly great. I have been wondering in first hand, if this tsuba belongs to Nishigaki... or perhaps Akasake or something else… However, I found that I decided towards Nishigaki (Kanshiro?) as I noticed/discovered it seems to be a trait on Nishigaki tsuba to be carved into the nakago-ana/seppa-dai area (as marked on picture attached). I do not find this trait on any other tsuba I can find... This I found interesting in studying this tsuba... I also from my own study feeling this is a late generation Nishigaki... There were 9 generations, if I am right...

@Curran Thanks for giving me your opinion. I agree in full with you that tsuba is worn and gold looks like something that is added later and not very well-done. The thickness however have not been striking me as unusual. Question

Questions are:

Do you see tsuba from other schools than Nishigaki with this trait?
Possible to say which generation?
... And now, from info above, could this be an earlier/middle generation that is some abused and with gold added later - or just a later generation?

Any info/opinions are of course welcome.

Spartancrest · March 18

https://varshavskyco...collection/tsu-0315/

https://bushidojapan...Kiri_leaf_Motif.html

https://iidakoendo.com/9315/

This last one has the same cut out in the nakago-ana and is described as by Nishigaki Kanshiro

Jorgensen · March 20

@Spartancrest Thank you. I also have found several examples, including these below... Very interesting that the one from Bushido Japan is classified as Tosa Myochin... I have searched both books and seen the others on links you wrote, but not this one... I am quite stuck on this one to narrow it down further and this is the reason that I reach out here to see if one of our many knowledgeable migt be able to come up with more information...

https://blog.goo.ne....0a692bf724625ef222bd

Curran · March 20

2 hours ago, Jorgensen said:

@Spartancrest Thank you. I also have found several examples, including these below... Very interesting that the one from Bushido Japan is classified as Tosa Myochin... I have searched both books and seen the others on links you wrote, but not this one... I am quite stuck on this one to narrow it down further and this is the reason that I reach out here to see if one of our many knowledgeable migt be able to come up with more information...

The Akasaka borrowed from Higo. The Higo sometimes borrowed from the Akasaka. Later, the Tosa Myochin would often borrow from both of them and mishmash up a bit.

Most of the ones you see with sukashi into the nakago ana are going to be Nishigaki, but there are some Akasaka and Tosa Myochin (and some early Hayashi, but those tend to be a very different beast).

There were really a LOT of smiths in the Akasaka school, especially later on.

Yours is probably a later Nishigaki later generation.

That is my best guess, going off the internal spatial ratios of its design.

Spartancrest · March 20

Just a note on the Varshavsky image from Tuesday - have people noted the cut-out on the nakago-ana seems to have been filled? [Or is this only a surface treatment? - difficult to see and no side view into the nakago-ana]