Murtha, Gary D. — Japanese Swordguard Artists

Book Good No Jacket R&M Enterprises, Kansas City, Missouri English text.; Paperback (stapled).; 21.5 x 28 cm.; 0.3 kg.; 80 pages with a few black and white illustrations.; Used with signs of wear on the exterior and interior. The exterior shows edge wear and some wear marks on the front and back cover. Interior with minor signs of wear. Very good condition overall.; "One often sees massive Japanese books overflowing with pictures and signatures of tsuba. Beneath the tsuba is usually a large caption, in Japanese, leading one to wish he could read it and discover all of the knowledge the Japanese have about these artists. Unfortunately, that abundant amount of information usually just states the artist and school before going into a detailed account of that particular objects physical makeup. This is not to say that all books are this way, but the majority rarely go into any detailed information about the schools and artists lives. Fortunately, this is not the case with the few books that have been printed in English. These books have made every attempt to pass along a wealth of information about the artists. The Naunton Collection by Joly, opened up a wealth of information at the turn of the century. Later books by Robinson, Sasano and Torigoe have further expanded eager and grateful collectors knowledge. One would have to spend a great deal of money to purchase all of the books currently on the market. Then becomes the tedious task of making the material fall together, as most only have pieces of information. I have a considerable library of these books. The only real difficulty in using them is in finding something I am looking for because of the massive amount of pages as well as my terrible memory. It is with these thoughts in mind that I decided to compile whatever information I could find into a useful quick reference source. This volume is not the definitive answer to all collectors woes and needs. It does not dwell into the total historical outlook of the tsuba nor does it contain the many thousands of tsuba artists. That information has and will to an extent be brought out by more knowledge-able collectors than myself. However, this volume should prove to be both useful by itself and most assuredly so when used in conjunction with the many other fine books available. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed putting it together for you." introduction.