Translation help/confirmation of speculation, please

[Lukas P]

Hi all,

 

I am a novice in collecting tsuba and it is great to be able to be in company of people who are "veterans" in this field. I was wondering whether someone could help me with insciption on one of the first tsuba I bougt about 2 years ago but never tried to actually decipher what the signature says. Please see the tsuba image below:

 

 

So I had a go and after having a look I figured the right hand side is a date - if I got it right then it says BUN KA ROKU NEN NI GATSU which is second month of eigth year of Bunka era = February 1811. That was the easy part. Much harder is the right hand side. I figured this would be either two kanji of province and two kanji for name or 4 kanjo for name. The problem is the kanji is in sort of sosho style and even a friend who is a very capable calligrapher could not help me in identifying those characters. I didn't want to give up and I tried to find what it could be based on radicals in the kanji and in the end I found what could potentially "work". So my speculation is that the left hand side is a signature OSAKI YOSHIAKI, please see the Haynes spanshot below: 

 

 

What are your views on this speculation? Is it possible or is it completely off? I will be grateful for any comments or inputs.

 

Thanks everyone, have a nice weekend!

 

Lukas

 

 

 

 

[SteveM]

Hello Lukas,

Yes, the name on your tsuba is Ōsaki Yoshiaki (大崎善明). 

 

 

 

[Nobody]

Bunka roku nen (=1809) is not 8^th but 6^th of Bunka.

 

[Lukas P]

Oh, of course. Silly me, beginner's mistake. Thank you for this Koichi. Best, Lukas

[Lukas P]

Thank you Steve for your comment confirming my theory. Much appreciated! Thanks so much. Have a nice Sunday. Lukas