Identify this tsuba please

[jamesd50bmg]

Hi folks, I'm new to this board and writing to ask for some help in identifying a tsuba I acquired recently. I've always wanted a good one and bought this on appearance but with no knowledge of precisely what I was getting. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks, james (not sure if I'm getting the sizing right for the post but I can email the JPEG at any resolution if more detail is needed)

[John A Stuart]

A mino-bori tsuba, I'd say, in pretty good nick. Signed 美濃住, 光仁 Mino ju Mitsuhito or Kojin or Koji. I tend to Koji, although I find no reference to this specific artist. John

[jamesd50bmg]

Hello John, thanks very much for the reply. Arctic coast of Canada sounds about as remote as you can get. What do you do there if I might be so nosy? Based on your reply I did more research and am assuming this tsuba is made with the san-mai technique? I lived in Japan for many years and was always fascinated by katana but never really knew what I was looking at although I took every opportunity to view this fascinating weapon in museums and shops. I'm amazed at the depth and breadth of knowledge on this board about what is doubtless considered a hopelessly arcane subject by the majority of hominids on this rock. Now that I actually have a piece of this history I'll do more research. best, james

[Pete Klein]

I found a very similar example in the Japanese book on Mino Tsuba. It is from mid/late Edo Jidai:

 

 

 

[John A Stuart]

That helped Pete. The signature on your tsuba close-up is by 光伸 Mitsunobu, 天吉 Tenkichi, died around 1650. He may be the same artist as 光仲 Mitsunaka. Maybe this is what I've misread the posted tsuba should be read as. The last kanji was hard to see a little. It is nice to see a signed mino-bori tsuba in any event. John

[W K Clifford]

hi John, it is 光仲 for sure.

 

May I ask you (any of you!) to enlighten me on this tsuba

 

 

 

 

I only know this is the typical Mino-bori autumn flowers theme. (mediocre quality?)

 

I will post the dimensions later (perhaps in a new post).

[John A Stuart]

No, I think it is pretty good quality although the shakudo is not so very dark, which I prefer, but, a lot of mino-bori was dark brownish/black rather than deep black. There is a definite connection with these Mino artists and the ko-Kinko artists that lead to the Goto family patriarch and their subsequent work in Kyoto. There used to be an appellation to Mino-Goto that has been superceded somewhat, but, I feel is still a legitimate grouping. As well, I think the mino-bori autumn flowers and insects theme can be seen as directly attributable to the themes used by the tanagushi artists. John

[Rich T]

The original tsuba in this thread is signed 美濃住光仲 Mino Ju Mitsunaka. There are many tsuba of varying quality from the early to mid Edo period signed this way, by Mitsunobu, Mitsunaka and others. This one looks rather tired don't you think ?

 

The other tsuba may be designated as Ko Kinko, but I tend to think it is later and probably Kyo Kanagu Shi.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

cheers

 

Rich

[jamesd50bmg]

A little investigation revealed the original tsuba in this post to be heavily soiled with wax and dirt. After many trials with different chemicals i finally found something that removes wax without damaging the substrate. This is the same tsuba after cleaning.

[jamesd50bmg]

here's a better scan. still learning how to post images without going over the size limitation

[jason_mazzy]

you can generally boil the fittings in distilled water for 20 minutes and not harm the patina, while removing wax and laquer.