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Koto sword


Steffieeee

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Steffie, you are making the assumption that the mei is shoshin (real). You can't know that for sure unless you send the blade to shinsa (& maybe not even then, as some of us have found). Honestly, mei should be the very last thing you look at.

 

The sugata can be interpreted several ways, depending on which factors you consider important, & my personal take is that it's early Muromachi. No, there's nothing wrong with that, unless you paid the seller for a mid-Kamakura blade. Muromachi is when most of the large-scale wars took place, so you can assume that your blade was used in battle. Look up Sengoku Jidai. Earlier & later blades have less of a chance to be true battle swords. That may or may not add value for you.

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I guess considering the signature fake opens up another can of worms. Quite honestly I know a fair bit about old metal and to my eyes the chiselling is clearly ancient, but I guess adding Mei to tangs is another artform of long tradition.

Reading isn't helping me really... So I've been reading that the mid later muromachi blades of this one handed size had much shorter nakago, whereas the earlier ones retained longer ones. This has the bottom peghole which also ties into the earlier style hilt fittings. Probably wrong on both of those counts..

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Steff,

I think part of the problem is looking for a definitive black or white answer and in reality mostly they are all shades of grey. the quotation you referred to is correct, as a general rule, but throughout sword making history smiths were making works in earlier styles or customised pieces that had some variation to the norm of the time. As suggested here the shape can give you an indicator of the age, not how old it is but how young. ie. if its got a shape that first appeared in the 17th century it cant be earlier. However if it has a 13th century shape it could still be a later copy.

Once you have learned what you can from the shape you then progress on to the hada and hamon and in the case of your blade the condition doesnt allow for any detailed assessment.

To be honest and as Michael has suggested we appear to be getting bogged down in detail when there really isnt any to see at present. To understand this better it needs to be polished (at least in part) you can then assess the structure and condition issues.

Even then however what you will have is a range of opinions not concrete fact. In the sellers opinion it was 13th century some here think it is a little later but still koto. This isn't a case of fakery or misrepresentation it is just differences of opinion about something that was made a very long time ago and currently not in the best of condition.

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Cant be 100% sure as I am still learning. But, judging by its general shape and period in question and the hamon in the kissaki aka boshi symmetry and spacing to the ha (sharp edge) points towards a reshape. Happens often to older blades, time takes it toll, especially ones with battle scars that were polished out. A few posts ago I asked for a more focused picture of this, as I had concern for reshaping and boshi run off. But it is hard to tell by that photo. A clearer shot of the same could tell us more.

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Thanks Steffie, I would say polished/reshaped a little. No worries given age of the blade. The picture ending 8502 where the rolls are looks very close to boshi. A trained Togishi will be able to tell you better about restoration options if viable. Will see what better eyes and minds can say on my opinion.

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Some schools of smiths during the time period we have been discussing made kissaki with a reduced fukura as this sword has. The point has lost some steel at the very end; to my eyes, the state of polish does not allow gauging the state of the boshi, but reshaping would be needed in a polish. The edge rolling could be tricky to resolve.

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Some schools of smiths during the time period we have been discussing made kissaki with a reduced fukura as this sword has. The point has lost some steel at the very end; to my eyes, the state of polish does not allow gauging the state of the boshi, but reshaping would be needed in a polish. The edge rolling could be tricky to resolve.

Interesting, I was also looking right after the yakote and it seems flat, possibly rolling causing this visual effect.
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This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one, unless your post is really relevant and adds to the topic..

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