Nihontô & Japanese coins

Captioned photos



Very old plain iron hand guard (tsuba) - only decoration is Wisteria foliage and flower carved along periphery of guard.


Handle of utility knife (kozuka) carried in scabbard (saya) - depicting Japanese deer (siki) resting in marsh grass with full moon to left.


Edo period elaborately carved iron tsuba depicting cherry tree (Sakura) foliage, flowers and buds - decorated with gold dots.


Edo period auxiliary sword (wakizashi) in complete, high quality, mounting (koshirae).


Depicting utility knife (kozuka/kogitana) which fits in slot on left side (ura) of the scabbard (saya).


Fully assembled sword handle (tsuka) koshirae: under-lay is honika wood covered in ray fish skin (samegawa) and wrapped with black silk cord (ito).


Medium length sword (Wakizashi) in full koshirae - very high quality scabbard (saya) hand finished in vermilion lacquer (urushi).

 

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Beautiful... I've wanted to get into weapon collecting but I'm still too young

 

^^^do you have any weapons?

 

No... I probably won't be able to own any lethal ones in the future anyways

 

purdy kool jamesicus! ..i've got a couple of ancient Chinese bronze swords located at my fathers house....i still need to get those here...someday

 

Beautiful! Which have you been collecting longer -- these, or coins?

 

Way cool, @jamesicus !

 

@jamesicus you never cease to impress with your collection. Thank you for sharing.

 

Those are fantastic @jamesicus .

I love learning about Japanese history and seeing these types of artifacts. Some of the artistry on the fittings you show is so interesting that it would have made for beautiful coins.

This post reminds me of a small museum that I visited when I was in Kanazawa, Japan. I hope you don’t mind if I share some photos!

The museum was originally a house of a Samurai in the Edo period and it displayed items that the Samurai family owned (including a short sword!)


The interior of the house.


Another view of the house going from the inside toward the garden.


Staircase to the upper level where the tea room was located. My wife and I got to enjoy a really fun and surprisingly tranquil tea ceremony while there.


The short sword of the Samurai.


The Samurai’s armor.


Several displays were set up to show the coins of the period. I remember wishing at the time that I knew more about Japanese coinage in order to better appreciate the experience.


Another shot of coins from the display.


I thought this was the most fascinating thing in the museum. It is a letter from the Samurai’s lord written on October 9, 1566 praising him for his performance in the Yokokitaguchi Battle and thanking him for bringing him (the lord) the head of a high ranking officer that the Samurai had apparently killed in single combat! Wow.

I’m still on the lookout for a coin related to Tokogawa Ieyasu or his immediate predecessors but so far no luck. The search continues

Thanks for the thread James!

 

@jamesicus Excellent thread, like you I have been a Nihonto collector for a lot longer that I have been collecting coins. In fact, the two hobbies are intertwined as I got into coins the day I visited the coin shops outside the British Museum after going there to view some Japanese blades.

As I mentioned in another thread, I haven't photographed my blades properly, all I have is that:



Both wakizashis are 'mumei' (unsigned). The one with the red 'saya' (scabbard) is the most interesting as it is a nagamaki-naoshi (shaped like a pole-arm blade) with a 'hitatsura' hamon.

This is a very interesting video, featuring one of my favorite modern smiths, whose blades I could not possibly afford.

 

Looks like excellent quality urushi work on the saya, thanks for sharing a very cool post!

 

I like the glass of water in case the spirit of the samurai comes back to inhabit his armour!


Why would I want a modern blade when you can buy a genuine 1000 year old action piece?
It's been nowhere made for show and is not history.

 

Very nice swords, Gentlemen!

I only have a foot-long knife of sami design (the native people of Northern Norway) plus my ice axe to hold off attackers with here, if they are coming for my collection of Japanese woodblock prints:

 

Coins - very informally, mostly “pocket change” British etc. in 1939 - Roman Imperial, purchased from coin shops and shows, in 1950.
Japanese Samurai swords and accessories - since 1960.

 

@jamesicus , your coin is a 100 yen 1957-58

The date is on the reverse. I like Japanese coins too.
50 sen 1934:


One yen Meiji, period:

 

Thanks, @jamesicus, for a brilliant start to a brilliant thread! Fantastic stuff here, from, well, Everybody.
But. (Sic; full stop.) @svessien, those prints are Astounding. I don't know a fraction of what I wish I did, but they're looking like The Real Deal. Just as a guess about the chronology, vaguely all the way back to Hokusai and Hiroshige, maybe further into the 19th century CE. --But seamlessly so, to my untrained eye. Could you give us some more detail about them?

 

Of course, buddy
They are all woodblock prints, around 35x25 cm. They are all original, and from the pre-Meiji period.

From the top they are:

1. Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865), «Bijin with a sword»
From the triptych "Mutsuki" - Japan, 1847-1848

2. Utagawa Kunisada- Samurai Scene «Katakiuchi Sanjo»

3. Kunisada, Utagawa/Toyokuni III (1786 - 1864) «Ghost of Okiku», 1857

4. Kuniyoshi, 1797 - 1861. «Geisha and Samurai», 1849-53

5. Kuniyoshi, 1797 - 1861. Yoshiwara: «Waterbirds at the battle of Fuji River»
From the series "The Fifty-three Pairs for the Tokaido Road"

Read more about Japanese woodblock prints here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodblock_printing_in_Japan

 

@svessien, I have a couple of books, on Hokusai and Hiroshige, along with an overview of Ukiyo-e. ...Part of it was that I was having trouble believing my eyes! Those are as classically pre-Meiji as they get. Brilliant.
...If memory serves, @DonnaML has some of these.
One thing I like about them is the urban myth that these showed up in Paris as wrapping paper, in time to influence the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. I can't imagine Toulouse-Lautric without the influence of Ukiyo-e.

 

«Under the wave off Kanagawa» is in fact one of my favorite pieces of art.



The fishermen are so small. Even the Holy Mountain itself becomes little when compared to the great wave. I think many people can relate to that feeling.

I think we need some more coins. And swords, guys.

 

Interesting thread!

Here's a koban that came to me by way of World-wide Coins of California.

Koban, Bunsei Era, Edo (Tokyo) Mint, 1819-1828.

13.1 grams