NAMBAN TSUBA how made?

[Grey Doffin]

Hi guys,

I've been watching a tsuba on ebay that's set to end in a few minutes.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330560891479&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Got me thinking. This tsuba shows obvious evidence of having been cast, especially in the 3rd picture. I don't doubt the authenticity of the piece; I think it was made that way and is real (correct me if I'm wrong). How many Namban tsuba were cast?

Not all, I know. One of the Holbrook tsuba I'm currently selling is Namban and it has lamination lines visible on the edge; obviously forged, folded, and carved.

Enlightenment will be appreciated.

Grey

[historian2]

I think its a cast reproduction, there is another one like it on ebay and the seller

states its a reproduction tsuba.

Erich

[Soshin]

Hi Grey,

 

I think some of the later poorer Nanban tsuba were made of cast iron circa the Meiji Period. Here is an example I once owned and I later sold as a Meiji Period Nanban style cast iron tsuba. It had a similar casting seam along the mimi as in photo number three of the tsuba listed on eBay. My tsuba was mounted on a wakazashi as I had a matching seppa and habaki along with the tsuba. The wakazashi that it was mounted on likely had rusted apart as it had come out of Japan. I even include the collectors tag he was thinking it was late Edo Period but I dated it even younger.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David S.