Bishū Osafune Kagemitsu Tanto

[phonebooth]

hey guys i gotnthis tanto from a friend. i had the signature translated from a translation forum  and a guy said it reads Bishū Osafune Kagemitsu and from the research i did on this smith i guess je's pretty popular. can anyone tell me more about this blade as to when it was made, maker and about any of the little pieces it came with? one of the pieces has a lil two character signature too. i just wanna know as much about this blade as possible. any input is greatly appreciated

[paulb]

Dear Christopher

Welcome to the board. Can you supply some dimensions of your sword/ it will help try to identify it.

Lets start by saying what it isn't.

It is not a tanto, at least not in the purest sense of the word. The shape is wrong and it looks to be too long. A Tanto, especially one made at the time of Kagemitsu is most usually hirazukuri (flat sided) and measures under 30cm (I foot) long from the start of the edge to the tip.

Kagemitsu is an extremely famous and highly valued smith of the Osafune school working in the Kamakura period. Your sword's shape suggests it is much later. equally what can be seen of the  the detail from it is not what one would expect from this smith.

None of the above means you have a bad sword but first impression is that it is a fairly late (18th century) small Wakazashi with a false signature.

As said above if you can supply details of length width thickness etc. we might be a be to offer more.

good luck with your research.

[Jean]

Chris,

 

Please add the measurements: nagasa ... because it looks more a wakizashi than a tanto...

 

I'll say it could be an Azuchi Momoyama wakizashi, not the "Kagemitsu" of late Kamakura. Rather a Tensho smith around 1573. But difficult to say without seeing it, could be later with a false signature.

[ROKUJURO]

Christopher,

the KOZUKA shows items of the tea ceremony, and the FUCHI is signed HARUAKI. The MENUKI look as if they were not original to the TSUKA. We would need more good close-up photos to see details. 

Have a good look into this forum and get some information of what is important on a Japanese sword and how to photograph it.

[phonebooth]

sorry called it a tanto im super new to this lol. and man that sux some one would put a fake signature. soooo does that depreciate the value? how much you think its worth? see attached is a measurement and sorry guys for all the questions but i definitly just learned a lot from this first post 

[ROKUJURO]

Christopher,

please sign all posts with your real first name plus an initial as requested by the forum administrator.

There is one way to leave the newbie status behind: Read a lot, especially here in the forum about sword etiquette and care! Look at pictures of high quality Japanese swords and TOSOGU! And never touch the blade with your bare hands!

Not much can be said about value unless an expert can evaluate the whole package in hand. Wrong signatures unfortunately don't add to the value, but you may have a nice sword nonetheless.  

[Jean]

Did it for you Chris, so please don't touch anymore to your name

 

 

PillarBox

[Guido]

..., so please don't touch anymore to your Name

 

Because he could go blind, or hair would grow on his palms?

[Jean]

Nosy Guido, just because I don't want to waste my time changing his name as I did twice this morning in his profile

[Brian]

Chris,

Top right of the forum is a FAQ link.
There are some good articles in there about gimei etc, which will assist you with your questions.

 

Brian

[phonebooth]

oh ok sorry for name change. and thanx for all the feed back guys

[Ken-Hawaii]

Don't worry - there's a lot to learn, & you've dipped your toe into a very deep pool.

 

The term for a fake signature is gimei, & there are many thousands of them out there, just waiting for the trusting newbie to plunk down some hard-earned cash. Before you spend another penny, I suggest you do a quick search on this forum to find a list of books you should invest $100 in so you will have a better idea of what you should be looking for. It will be money well-spent, believe me!

 

Ken

 

[phonebooth]

what book would you recomend?

[Brian]

http://www.nihontomessageboard.com/faq.html