Hot Stamp Indicating Sword Is Hand Forged?

[jamesr]

Hello,

looking at a current auction of a shin-gunto that is deemed gendaito I see the nakago is hot stamped.

The seller states the stamp indicates that the sword is hand forged.

I believed that any hot stamped sword was non-traditionally made, could the stamp indicate hand forged but non-traditional in some other way?

Thanks for any information.   James R.

[Stephen]

http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/showato.htm

 

A kokuin (hot stamp ) does not a sword make, you'll find one on a Amahide showato and on a Gassan Sadakazu Gendaito.

 

The blade tells you, do your homework.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[jamesr]

Thanks, I appreciate your taking the time to reply. Yes, I have started collecting some reference materials and hope to learn enough to minimize the cost of my ignorance and hopefully, only fall back on the collective wisdom of this sites members for truly difficult questions.

Thank you again. James R.

[seattle1]

Hello:

 The doubtless well intentioned posted referenced by Stephen seems to group the Minatogawa Jinga Kiku-sui mon, along with the star stamp, as a stamped device. That error has been replicated many times and seems bullet proof to correction. The mon, of long historical use, as seen on Minatogawa swords are engraved and while very closely following each other, each is unique. Some years ago when Herman Wallinga was writing his justly original monograph on Minatogawa's blades the issue came up in discussion with him, and Herman, not willing to take my comments without confirmation, took a number of such blades then in his possession during his writing, to a high tech machining shop in Rochester, NY, and sure enough after study they were all declared as engraved.

 Arnold F.

[Stephen]

The link provided was for Doc's info on showato vs gendaito.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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