New tsuba, new questions

[Soten_Fan]

Hi guys,

I bought a wakizashi a couple months ago (there's a thread somewhere) with all copper fittings except for the tsuba. I had in mind to replace the iron tsuba with a copper one so the koshirae would be more matching.

 

I did so today, and this is the new tsuba:

 

 

 

I would like your opinions, and if possible any info or suggestions regarding its history. I think it is fair to say that it is late Edo, but apart from that I have no clue regarding school or possible maker. I wonder if anyone has any suggestions.

 

Here is the tsuba applied on the wakizashi:

 

 

 

It was about 1 mm thicker than the previous tsuba, so I had to trim the bamboo peg a tiny bit...

 

It kind of exceeded the budget that I had in mind. I have a couple of friends visisting from abroad this weekend and I had in mind to take em to fancy restaurants and afternoon tea and all that jazz, but I think they will have to settle for the local kebab shop instead!

 

Sorry for the crap photos, they are all shiny because I oiled a bit the tsuba to clean it before I photographed it.

[Jean]

Dimitri,

 

Nice try, congrats

[John A Stuart]

Hi Dimitrri, I understand your reasoning in what you did, but, do you see what I have highlighted about your tsuba? John

[Soten_Fan]

I am not quite sure what you mean John.. Can you please be more specific? I am a newbie after all! :D

 

Bear in mind that the photos turned out real bad and that the piece looks much better in real life. I don't think it is a cast if this is what you are worried about. The dragon and gold highlights are clear inlays from what I could tell.

[John A Stuart]

Yes, that is what I was leading to. Casting bubbles and the design method of manufacture, colouring agents. Hey, but, I could be wrong, I have lots to learn too. John

[Soten_Fan]

I am not sure if they are bubbles or not, as the tsuba was quite smooth in close inspection. This effect in the photos is the result of excess oil in a overused cotton bud and flash photography. There is plenty of inlaying in the tsuba, so at least some manual work took place. If it indeed fake, then it is a nicely done fake.

 

Any ideas of the possible school?

[John A Stuart]

The gold is uttori not kin-iroe. It is shinshokuzozentaru 新古色蒼然たる , a newish looking antique. John

[Geraint]

Hi Dimitri.

 

Can I suggest that whatever you do you hang on to the tsuba that came with your sword when you bought it. (I haven't checked back to see what it looked like). I appreciate your desire to find a "matching" tsuba and the one you have found does look good. However after a little more time you may come to prefer the one that came with the sword. Sometimes tsuba have been swopped before we ever get to see a sword and sometimes the tsuba is the choice of the person who owned or mounted the sword. My advice for what it is worth is to keep your options open with both tsuba at lest for a time.

 

By the by, koshirae with fittings that are all of the same material are sometimes called issaku koshirae.

 

Have fun.

[Brian]

The whole tsuba just doesn't give me a Japanese aesthetic feeling, and the shape of that seppadai looks like it was cut by a drunk person...

Dunno..this one doesn't give me the warm fuzzies.

Ford....you there?

 

Brian

[Soten_Fan]

Overall not the kind of reactions I was hoping for when I posted this tsuba.. :?

 

I do hope it is the photo quality that is causing this.. I bought the tsuba from a well known and reputable London dealer. He said that he bought it from a private collector and he paid a few hundred bob for it. If it is non-Japanese then this little piece of metal has managed to fool a few people so far. By the way, it has a real sekigane so it has been mounted and somebody went to the trouble creating this filling to do so.

 

Well, when I entered this hobby I was well prepared for the event of making a costly bad choice, but it still leaves a bitter taste to the mouth. If anything, my initial enthusiasm for this tsuba has been curbed to say the least..

[raven2]

Hi Dimitri

 

You say that the tsuba has a sekigane. I don't see it. Did you remove it?

[Geraint]

Hi Dimitri.

 

I think I see the sekigane across the bottom of the nakago ana, correct? (And perhaps also at the very top?) Don't be discouraged, you bought a kinko tsuba to mount on your sword and from the images it certainly looks good on it. The fact that it is perhaps not a masterpiece means that you can afford to buy it and mount it without fear of damaging it, if I had seen it I would have been tempted too.

 

Don't even think of it as a mistake, everyone here will always suggest learning before you buy anything but most of us are giving that advice somewhat ruefully as we wish we had heard it. For myself my interest started, and first purchases were all made, well before I had a chance to study anything. Hard to believe but pre internet even meeting someone who knew anything about Japanese swords was hard and there were only two books that I could find, Sword and Same and The Arts of The Japanese Sword by Robinson. Both books show the signs of hard use but there was a limit to what I could learn from them and so I learned a lot more by buying the odd piece when I could and studying it. From the looks of it you have done well from the images you have posted here.

 

Have a good look at the surface of the tsuba with a hand lens, it should be clear whether any marks are worked rather than casting flaws. Above all else enjoy.

 

Cheers.

[Soten_Fan]

Hi, you are right, the sekigane is a thin strip of metal at the bottom.

 

I don't really regret the purchase as the tsuba looks quite good in real life. It is a wakizashi size tsuba and in real life is much smaller than in the photo, so the details look .. more detailed and it certainly has some manual work in it.

 

I will invest in a magnifying glass to aid me in future purchases, but at the same time I won't become very picky. After all masterpieces don't come cheap and I can't afford them as yet.

[Brian]

It was mentioned to me that this looks like it was done in Japan, but by a hobbyist type artisan...someone who wasn't a dedicated tsuba maker.

So not a fake, but not fully traditional either. There are/were many people dabbling in the art of metalwork in Japan...many without formal training and lacking the full artist's aesthetic.

 

Brian