petere76 Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 Gents, Came across this old hand forged and highly decorated hilt. The detail of the piece is amazing considering its size. both sides of the piece are engraved and dressed out with gold highlights. i'm not a sword guy but I can tell this piece has a history. This may be a war souvenier, I'm not sure of its lineage. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks, Peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 You're right most likely a war souvenir. MacArthur dictated that most of the swords be destroyed but some of the families hide them or saved the furniture for heirlooms and some they sold to GI's for food. My father-in-law brought back a sword and my mother-in-law bought a pair of ear rings made out of the menukis, I think that's what they are called. I have an old plain iron tsuba while yours is very ornate. Did you buy yours or inherit it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 Very beautiful, thanks for sharing. Frosty the Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petere76 Posted September 22, 2010 Author Share Posted September 22, 2010 Bentiron, The piece belongs to a good friend. He knows I pound iron and thought I would be able to tell him something of its origin and age. I'm at a loss as to estimating it's age but it does have script that could be attributed to either an individual smith or at least a time period. I have other photos of the back and the back is also engraved and dressed out with gold. The intricate detail of something this small combined with the dimensional effect of the raised mass of iron is visually very impressive. After studying the width and thickness of the blade stock opening, its easy to see how the claims made of the Samauri weapon are suistaniable. Thanks for your information. Peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Furrer Posted September 25, 2010 Share Posted September 25, 2010 Gents, Came across this old hand forged and highly decorated hilt. The detail of the piece is amazing considering its size. both sides of the piece are engraved and dressed out with gold highlights. i'm not a sword guy but I can tell this piece has a history. This may be a war souvenier, I'm not sure of its lineage. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks, Peter Peter, Patrick Hastings of http://taganearts.com/ is a specialist on Japanese sword fittings. I suggest contacting him. I have an all iron tsuba with raised figures, but no copper figures like that one. I rather like it. Ric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petere76 Posted September 25, 2010 Author Share Posted September 25, 2010 Ric, Thanks for the point of contact. Peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted September 26, 2010 Share Posted September 26, 2010 Ric F., Thanks for that link. I cut out a copy of a crane tsuba once for a fellow out of brass and then made a mold and cast him a dozen of so roughs. I sent a reject to Sam S. for his use in a future blade. Thanks again for the link. :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Furrer Posted October 11, 2010 Share Posted October 11, 2010 No problem Gentleman...Patrick Hastings is a good friend...he will be coming out to my shop in 2011 to teach a class on that type of work. It is not everyone's "bag", but if you just focus on the hot work you can miss the other wonderful techniques of metalworking which are out there. So much to see so little time..... Ric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bella10388 Posted September 7, 2011 Share Posted September 7, 2011 You're right most likely a war souvenir. MacArthur dictated that most of the swords be destroyed but some of the families hide them or saved the furniture for heirlooms and some they sold to GI's for food. My father-in-law brought back a sword and my mother-in-law bought a pair of ear rings made out of the menukis, I think that's what they are called. I have an old plain iron tsuba while yours is very ornate. Did you buy yours or inherit it? I also think so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted September 7, 2011 Share Posted September 7, 2011 May I commend to your attention www.swordforum.com Home => Forum => Communities => Antique Arms & Armour Community => Nihon-to Forum. If they can't address the issue directly they can refer you to specialists who can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Shimanek Posted September 7, 2011 Share Posted September 7, 2011 the Nihonto Message Board is also frequented by knowledgeable collectors who can probably help identify the tsuba. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sceptis Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 That is arguably the most beautiful tsuba I've ever seen. Notice the scratches parallel the blade slot? It is likely that is from steel-on-steel practice (albeit a short lived practice, as there are very few marks); I see that fairly frequently on blunted practice swords, though the cuts are not as defined. I could be wrong; maybe it's just from fitting the tsuba to the blade with a rough tool... or something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Green Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 The scratches would have been under the seppa, and handle of the sword. Peter, I would get some more, better pics of this tsuba over to the Nihonto MB. It looks very nice. But would need some very close pics of the inlay to be sure of the work. It does not look that old. Multi alloy inlay work. Very pretty. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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