Note that this one wouldn’t roll.
Ko-Nara tsuba, also called old Nara or early Nara tsuba, were a style of decorated iron plate tsuba popular from the Momoyama period through the mid Edo period. This group produced tsuba with kinko (soft metal) Goto style inlay on iron plates, some of which may have been produced by other tsukako - possibly Saotome makers. The first Nara master, Toshiteru, is believed to have studied under the Goto school and applied the Goto kinko techniques to iron plate tsuba. The Ko-Nara group are those makers working before approximately 1700 who preceeded the fourth Nara Master, Toshinaga. While this type of tsuba is called Ko-Nara, they were made by a variety of different makers, some only distantly related to the Nara school. The later or new Nara school (Shin Nara) became one of the most prolific and influential schools of tsuba and kodogu makers producing works into the Meiji Period. It is the later Nara work that most collectors refer to as the Nara school. The Three Great Nara Masters (Nara Sansaku) were Toshinaga (aka Riju) (1667-1737), Sugiura Joi (1700-1761) and Tsuchiya Yasuchika (1669-1744). Works by the great Nara masters are often reproduced, copied or forged (gimei).
Tsuba (sword guards) are used to protect the hand from sliding onto the blade of a Japanese sword. They are art works in their own right and are widely collected. Some koshirae (sword mounts), mostly tanto, were made without tsuba (aikuchi koshirae). Tsuba were mostly made by specialized kodogu and tosogu (sword fittings) artists (see schools of tsuba artists), although some sword makers produced tsuba (tosho tsuba) as did armour makers (katchushi tsuba). Some tsuba artists also made fuchi-kashira and menuki. In some cases the maker used a forged, folded plate; in other cases a homogeneous plate was used. Many tsuba are signed by the maker on the seppa-dai (area around the nakago ana). When mounted, the tsuba seppa-dai is covered by seppa (metal spacers) and the signature (mei) is not visible. Occasionally tsuba will be found with two small holes near the base of the tsuba. These are udenuki-ana which represent the sun and moon and were likely used for threading a leather wrist thong to prevent dropping the sword in battle.
Tsuba are commonly divided into two types; iron (tetsu) and soft metal (kinko). The kinko tsuba may be made of a variety of alloys; most commonly either shaduko (blue-black colored copper-gold alloy), sentoku (brown colored copper-lead-zinc alloy), shibuichi (gray colored copper-silver alloy), brass or copper. Both iron and kinko tsuba may have various carved and/or applied decor and/or cut-out designs (sukashi). Tsuba with extensive cut-out designs are commonly referred to as “sukashi tsuba”. Depending on the style, the sukashi may depict designs in either positive or negative silhouette.
Heianjo Sukashi Tsuba
Hizen Namban Tsuba
Why did you feel the sudden urge to copy and paste from nihontou appreciation sites?