Mino tanto tsuba

[kuromido]

Hello All,

Here is a tanto tsuba that I got a few months back.

I believe that it is considered Mino goto but am not sure. I am also interested in is age and any other thoughts you all might have.

 

It is :

55mm wide

60mm high

5mm thick , and heavy for its size.

It has a very deep blue black to black color that is hard to get in pictures.

 

 

Thanks for your help,

Peter D

[Curran]

Nice. I would say it is straight up Edo Mino work, but leave it to Peter or Ford to know better whether to call it Mino Goto or not.

 

Attached is an image of a tsuba that was in Hawaii for a while and then eventually Fred Weissberg sold it via Nihonto.com. I think the image was from his site. It was papered Toku Hozon to Mino and the undercutting on it was deep. I enjoyed it and would have liked to own it at some point.

[docliss]

Peter’s mokkō-gata tsuba is certainly an example of Mino kinkō work, but is unusual in its apparent lack of any gold decoration. Examination of the images suggests that there may be traces of this remaining on the shakudō plate; or is this one of those unusual examples that are devoid of any such decoration?

 

Regards, John L

[ottou812]

I think you can see faint remnants of gold on the flowers.

[kuromido]

Hi curren, That is a nice tsuba. Thanks for defining the age, I was not sure if it was ko-mino or later. Do you remember if freds was carved on the edges as well?

John, I looked it over with a loupe and there are no gold remnants anywhere,

I see what you and James saw in the pictures but it is actually rub-off of the patina in some of the high spots. This is also carved very deep and sharp with highly raised areas in places. Does anyone think this one is worthy of being papered like freds?

 

Thanks, Peter D

[Curran]

The Mini tsuba I posted had similar work on the sides. I believe it was all the actual design work on the sides was covered in gold, though not 100% sure. You can see the edges of the gold on the mimi in the photo. I feel it was early Edo work (1600s), hence the Mino vs. Ko-Mino attribution.

 

I'll like these tsuba very much, though some friends disagree with me in their appeal.

 

Papering: opinions will vary. I think yours is a nicer tsuba maybe worth the expense of papering (documenting), but not sure if it adds monetary value. When something is clearly what it is and unsigned- such as Hazama or Kamakura tsuba I have with old green papers, I don't see much sense in new papers. But some people like the comfort of a confirmation on it if/when it comes time to sell it.

[Pete Klein]

Dollars to doughnuts the paper comes back 'Mino'... $300 please :lol:

[kuromido]

Curren, I too like this type of tsuba, but can see how it might be viewed as somewhat generic in style. I see what you mean about papering this piece. It doesn’t really make much sense to spend the time and money to be told again what is pretty much clear. Thanks again for your input!

 

Pete, would you like mastercard or visa??

 

 

Cheers, Peter D

[Mantis dude]

I have seen plenty of mino work without gold inlay. In fact, Fred had a great shakudo piece on his site that had no gold decoration a while back. I am always curious about mino work since it can be so standardized, although there can be a lot of very similar pieces with subtle differences. Some however are exact copies. I wondered were there just outfits of samurai all having the same fittings. Certainly the fuchi/kashira of mantis/bell insect and autumn flowers are very common. Mino obviously had good taste with their use of the mantis in so many of their designs :D

[Curran]

Ken- Good to hear from you / see you post.

 

Peter D- I don't think it generic. I rather like Mino work, sometimes more so than the ko-mino which is often given higher financial value.

To me: much of the appeal of any Mino piece is in the quality of the workmanship and materials than the design. In particular, I enjoy some of the very deeply angled undercut pieces.

I don't collect kogai and they don't often turn my head, but there was a ko-mino one a while back that had age, depth, and high grade material. All shakudo... it certainly made me stop and stare a bit like a love wrought teenager.

 

My opinion is that this is a much much nicer tsuba than the usual "What is it?" tsuba posted to this forum on a regular basis.