HAMA-MONO or HAMA-YUKI
 
There are sword mounts or sword fittings those were made in the days after samurai age end (Meiji era) as souvenir for foreign tourists.
Many craftsmen had lost their customer by Samurai government disappear. Then they had found a new customer, tourists from the West.
We often see such things, and call them "Hama-mono" or "Hama-yuki" in slang. That means "things for Yokohama" or "going to Yokohama". Yokohama was a harbour where many Japanese things were exported to the West.
Hama-mono is made as one of fine Japanese art, but no samurai spirit.
 
 
-Examples-
This kozuka/kogai is very beautiful and made by excellent skill. But the design is strange. It has no theme, and motifs don't accord each other. They look like samples of Japanese craftsmanship.


 
This kashira is made by excellent skill, but a little strange to use on Samurai's sword. It might be used on some kind of special swords.
 

 
A tsuba made of shakudo (black copper) with an excellent work of thin relief. But if you try to put this tsuba on koshirae, the relief on the seppa-dai becomes a trouble to get good fit with seppa. This tsuba is not made for putting on actual sword.
The nanako dots of base is omitted. The craftsman should have excellent skill, but this is not a serious work of him. It is made easily to attract Western people.
 

 

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