an iron tsuba of mine, age / style /etc.?

[W K Clifford]

I have had this for a while. It came with a crappy sword. Not sure about the age / quality of this tsuba though. Any comment on it is appreciated.

 

[ububob]

A nicely designed jisukashi tsuba. What are the dimensions? Which river didja pull that out of the Allegheny or the Monongahela? :D

[Mark Green]

Hi Yumi,

 

That looks pretty nice.

 

When you post tsuba for people to look at, it is good to add the size. It could help the people that know, be able to figure it out.

 

You should take some better pics of this. From some angles as well, and closer, much closer.

 

Mark G

 

oops, Bob beat me to it. :D

[watsonmil]

I am far from a fittings expert but I would venture OWARI mid Edo period. To me at least the quality looks quite good. Now I await the firing squad . ... Ron Watson

[W K Clifford]

Thank you for the wonderful comments, Bob, mark, and Ron. Even in its heydays I don't think Pittsburgh steel was good enough for nihonto, let alone now!

 

The tsuba is not with me at the moment. I will post closeup pictures of it as soon as I get it back. The only other picture I have is attached. The blade it came with is also pictured, which is about two feet long and, perhaps you cannot see it here, is in poor condition.

 

[Soshin]

The first photo is out of focus and not at the best angle. The second one is much better. There is what looks to be active red rust on the tsuba which isn't a good thing. The design reminds be of the following Ko-Shoami piece. Overall it looks like a nice tsuba even with what looks to be a really bad photograph. The design is called Matsukawabishi in Japanese. Here is a similar tsuba with the same design.

 

The tsuba in question is likely a high quality Edo period copy that would look wonderful in my collection. It might belong to the Edo period Shoami group as designs of the Ko-Shoami were copied by it and many other schools in the Edo period. Just my thoughts I am sure someone more knowledgeable will chime in on the discussion. Thanks for sharing.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[watsonmil]

Dear Yim,

I would not necessarily call that sword crap. It may well have potential. Is it signed ? A closeup photo of the boshi would be good as well. Compared to many of the swords pictured here for comment, ... I would think yours is certainly worth a second look. Is there, ... was their any koshira with this wakizashi ?? Do you see any visible kizu ( flaws ). If I were you, I would not at this stage write this one off.

Regards, ... Ron Watson

[Mark Green]

I'm with Ron, that's looks to be a very interesting sword.

I would like to see more of that as well, and measurements, whatever.

[W K Clifford]

Thank you for the kind words, Ron and Mark. I myself am not knowledgeable to be so definite. That is not my verdict, that is master Bob Benson's. I sent it along with a good sword of mine (初代法城寺正弘, sorry, cannot help bragging about it) to master Bob and he did not think it was worth his time. Here are his own words:

 

  Quote

The other piece looks like it was a Bizen but seems to be in very poor condition. The temper is very strange in yaki otoshi with a thick nie floating above and has a lot of loose hada areas. The nakago looks like maybe Oei period but the blade really is too poor to put money into.

 

A few more pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

[jason_mazzy]

Was this on Ebay a lil while back? I was looking at one almost identical to this, with the same tsuba. I am just not a big fan of that shape of wak. but I remember finding this one very interesting.

[W K Clifford]

  jason_mazzy said:

Was this on Ebay a lil while back?

 

I did not get it from ebay. I got it from a local auction. But of course it is possible that someone got it from ebay then sold it at that auction. That someone is perhaps also a member of this forum...

[jason_mazzy]

I seen a tsuba very close to that one recently and many swords that shape. perhaps they were 2 different auctions. I did not remember the tsuba looking as good as yours either. Maybe just a coincidence.

 

the blade does look in those pictures like it would shine with a polish. what have you been able to learn from that one?

[cspage]

Here's another of similar design/motif. http://yakiba.com/tsuba_owari2.htm

 

Colin

[W K Clifford]

Thank you all for the comments. Very helpful. This little thing turns out to be much better than I expected. Will post more pictures later.

 

Guess it is hard to determine its age without better pictures, right? The blade, though poor, is pre-Edo.

[Marius]

  yimu said:

I have had this for a while. It came with a crappy sword. Not sure about the age / quality of this tsuba though. Any comment on it is appreciated.

 

Yimu,

 

First of all, if the sword is so crappy, may I have it for $200, please? I have always needed something to get rid of the weeds in my garden

 

I have an identical tsuba, well actually... two suksashi tsuba with the same motif. The first one has pronounced tekkotsu in the rim andf it is solid and heavy. I have bought this as an Owari early Edo piece. The second one is very delicate and light, no tekkotsu. I think it might be a Kyo-sukashi. You might want to have a look at them:

 

http://gomabashi.blogspot.com/2010/03/t ... tsuba.html

 

Despite the obvious fact that I do not know enough to make any attributions here is a word of caution about attributions in general (read the last comment by Steve):

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8712

Many Forum members share Steve's cautiousness.