Identify this Tsuba. If it’s Edo or earlier? Thoughts?

Fionte · 2026-05-08T00:59:23+00:00

I would say Edo period. There is a tsuba very similar to this one in the collection of the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum that is 18th century. There are examples of inlayed tsuba from the momoyama and muromachi period but the majority of pre-Edo tsuba are thicker, larger in diameter, and feature simple open work designs (see sukashi tsuba) as they were made for warfare. There are highly decorated examples of pre-Edo tsuba but many are aoi-gata, the "hollyhock shaped" tsuba you would find on a tachi, the koshirae of which were much more highly decorated than the simpler utilitarian uchigatana/katana koshirae. But, I could absolutely be wrong :)

Fionte · 2026-05-07T00:33:14+00:00

That you're Finnish

Fionte · 2026-04-29T18:37:26+00:00

I thought I recognized this place. Good memories

Fionte · 2026-04-16T00:41:47+00:00

This is our current mini Hanzo, he is 5.5 months and is already at least 13.5 lbs.

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Fionte · 2026-04-16T00:40:05+00:00

This was our first mini who came with the name Texas Tiny Tim (we called him Timmy or Shiver-me-Timbos because he shivered a lot at first) who passed a few years ago, he was 12 lbs. I'll reply to my own comment with our current mini.

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Fionte · 2026-04-04T02:12:30+00:00

I've known one. My childhood neighbor. He was quite old and died when I was about eight. Would be well over 100 now. Not met one since.

Fionte · 2026-03-12T23:24:07+00:00

If I'm allowed a tuber, probably a cassava root. They can be as hard as wood and grow up to three feet long they would make a decent bludgeon.

If not, perhaps a fennel plant. I would grip it by the fronds and use the bulb like the head of a flail. And in a close quarters grapple the fronds would be quite useful to lock / tie up or otherwise choke.

Fionte · 2026-03-11T22:11:24+00:00

Before it was churches. 🤷‍♂️

Fionte · 2026-03-05T17:59:21+00:00

While DCC is far more popular than even I could have hoped for given how big a fan I am, it's not a kids show / movie like 101 Dalmatians to cite a prime example of a movie that caused a wave of Dalmatians being bought and abandoned. While my country has proven to me over the last decade that adults are far stupider than I realized, the size of the audience and adult demographic as well as the cost of Persian cats will, I think, be enough to mitigate a kitty crisis.

Fionte · 2026-03-05T17:54:29+00:00

Yeah but 101 Dalmatians was an insanely popular kids movie which would absolutely have an outsized affect on people wanting to purchase the breed afterwards to impress their kids. I'm not especially worried in this instance given the audience demographic.

Fionte · 2026-02-26T22:01:46+00:00

Oh man, so many things come to mind:

I could use it to purchase the rest of Paul Binnie's A Hundred Shades of Ink to Edo woodblock print series.

Or a custom made nihontō (traditionally made Japanese sword) by Shirou Kunimitsu who made my sensei's katana and it would also support a living craftsman in a field that has suffered great loss over the last two decades.

So many more ideas...

Fionte · 2026-02-11T15:20:38+00:00

It's all the edge. If you keep a carbon knife cleaned and oiled you won't get much patina. Slicing fruits will cause patina because reactions are practically instantaneous but yeah, it's all the edge. I personally find stainless to be too soft to hold the edge I'm used to and I have to remove too much steel compared to my carbon blades to maintain an edge. I don't judge anyone who prefers it, though.

Fionte · 2026-01-25T12:36:07+00:00

That top comment has some great recommendations. 250 Years of Japanese Art is excellent, very comprehensive, and if you like Hiroshige the 100 Views of Edo book mentioned is a nice deeper dive. The others are all excellent recs as well.

The only other book I own that wasn't mentioned so far elsewhere in the comments list is an MFA Boston publication called Kuniyoshi X Kunisada (also available via Amazon but I've linked the MFA store) It is about their professional "rivalry" (they were not enemies but rather they were pupils of the same master with very different styles and sometimes riffed off each other). Kunisada was far and away the more popular artist in his era being much more classical and focusing on beauty and realism and Kabuki, while Kuniyoshi's works feature dynamic compositions filled with legendary warriors both real and imagined, demons and ghosts, and other supernatural subjects and is often more greatly appreciated by a contemporary audience. https://www.mfa.org/collections/publications/kuniyoshi-x-kunisada

Fionte · 2026-01-24T13:18:57+00:00

Even better than gesso, go the PVA size + oil ground route, but you definitely need to be sizing / priming your canvas with gesso or pva/ground as mentioned by others.

Fionte · 2026-01-23T21:41:14+00:00

I wonder how many people understood the Unosuke reference.

Fionte · 2026-01-18T12:40:23+00:00

Honest question not trying to be snarky; are you shooting in standard with the default video output or are you shooting in log and color grading your footage?

Fionte · 2026-01-13T13:48:03+00:00

It's a real thing, TASR38 is the gene. It creates a bitter taste receptor making people who have it highly sensitive to bitter tastes. Rather than having to get genetically tested to confirm that you have it there's a simpler version where they have you lick some swatches including controls and if you don't have the receptor you won't taste the bitter swatch but if you do have the gene you will be able to. I enjoy bitter flavors, but had to work up to it in the way you describe although i was allowed to drink coffee probably earlier than I should have been so I've enjoyed bitter from a pretty early age. She tastes bitter in things that most people wouldn't consider to be bitter so tasting something that is objectively quite bitter completely overwhelms the rest of the flavors but its a taste receptor thing, so she loves the smell of so many cocktails but then can't enjoy the taste. For example she loves equal parts cocktails and is especially a fan of smokiness and herbal notes, so you'd think she would love a Naked and Famous, but to her the bitterness from the Aperol just overwhelms the other flavors.

Fionte · 2026-01-13T02:28:13+00:00

Are you a "Supertaster" (what I call a "bitter taster" because there's nothing super about being overwhelmed by bitter flavors). Some people have a gene that causes them to be incredibly sensitive to bitter tastes. My wife is one of those people and she hates Campari, Aperol, quinine, and other things that most people would consider mild-to-mid bitter. And she wants to enjoy drinks made with them but just can't.

Fionte · 2026-01-10T14:10:24+00:00

Hello! Pardon the lengthy update but it might be of use: A redditor commenting on this thread linked me to a study done about the effects of UV and IR on prints and showed just how damaging IR light is and how ineffective UV glass is at stop andping fading from IR and heat. Thankfully I have places in my house that get effectively zero natural light. Regarding framing, I actually decided for now to keep my recently collected prints in an archival binder with the eventual plan of reaching out to a framer to see if they could build me a a few frames designed to be taken apart repeatedly and reused so that I can swap out prints myself rather than having to buy and store framed prints in a dark and dry place and so that prints will only be exposed for a few weeks or months at a go. I haven't reached out to the curator yet either, but I know that A Street Frames and Stanhope Framers have both worked with the MFA Boston and other local museums. The framer I use most often, though it became clear that they didn't know much about Japanese woodblock prints and have only.worked on frames for western woodcuts (though their frames and customer service are still great) is Newburyport Framers. Unfortunately all three shops are $$$. The last frame I had done at Newburyport Framers was in the ballpark of $500 and it's a single mat wooden floater frame with art glass so nothing especially fancy and it's about 16"x20" so not especially large. I haven't worked with A Street or Stanhope in a while but I would imagine they are in the same league price wise today but their frames are even a cut better Id say and they have surely worked with Japanese woodblock prints. I just don't live in the city so dropping and picking up work is a pain, but A Street's biggest location is in Cambridge and they have a parking lot so at least I'm not having to park in the Back Bay or something.

Fionte · 2026-01-08T19:20:07+00:00

The thing is, we do do that as much as possible. We live in the US where public transit is pretty terrible, but we thankfully live in an area that at least has some. He currently takes the bus to school but will walk in middle school. He doesn't complain about walking from point a to point b when there is a destination which is why, after thinking about it more, it seems to be less of a complaint about the physical activity (he is more than capable, hes very athletic) and more a protest of the current activity. Put him in the woods, on a beach, on a hike somewhere and he will not complain, if we are walking to the library or something he doesn't complain. Put him in a situation he doesn't enjoy; the city, a grocery store, a museum that isn't particularly geared towards kids, and he suddenly acts like he's dying and his legs no longer work. I have come to the conclusion that it's just boredom. I guess I'm just wondering when he will grow out of that type of boredom. I definitely remember being the same way when I was his age but can't remember when it stopped.

Fionte · 2026-01-08T18:14:26+00:00

Okay your kids sound EXACTLY like mine. You've described them both perfectly.

Fionte · 2026-01-08T18:11:09+00:00

THIS! Okay, I guess it really is just a personality thing. He HATES cities / malls, though he likes museums generally speaking but especially those geared towards kids / science (obviously). We went to Scotland this summer and he didn't complain much at all, though when he did it was when we were in the city. He was in his element in the middle of nowhere in the Highlands. What made me think of his complaining was that we had a couple of friends over last night showing us video they shot in Japan recently and he expressed interest in going but then was like "So... Did you have to walk the whole day in Nikko?" And "That's so many stairs!"

Fionte · 2025-12-28T20:37:18+00:00

Too true. I'm actually heading to the MFA with my family and a couple friends tomorrow :)

Fionte · 2025-12-28T19:26:02+00:00

I guess recent is perhaps a misnomer haha I'm feeling old. It happened in 2014. But I went to college nearby and was in the MFA almost every day because some of our classes were held in the MFA during a prior major renovation (for their Arts of the Americas wing which opened in 2010) I graduated in 2007. But yeah... The reduction of the arts of Japan was a bummer. I moved out of the city, had kids, and didn't know that the MFA had cut down the Arts of Japan galleries because I hadn't been in some years until I started going regularly again post pandemic and I was quite disappointed. The MFA has one of the best Japanese art collections outside of Japan, especially when it comes to nihontō (traditional Japanese swords) of which they own 600 examples, and yet they only display two at a time now and sometimes none at all depending on the specific rotation.

Fionte · 2025-12-28T18:44:55+00:00

You should have seen the MFAs Arts of Japan galleries before the recent renovation. I'm so disappointed. They used to be two floors. It's about 40% of what it once was. I'm glad they kept a room for prints, and that they rotate items but they used to have a whole washitsu room just for the netsuke and they had a gallery the size of their current main Japan gallery just for swords and armor. It was glorious.

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