I thought you might be interested I the Kanesada/Kanemoto exhibition at the Gifu City Museum of History. There were two rooms of about 20 swords each,one room for Kanesada and the other Kanemoto, of course. While looking at the Kanesada swords it was evident that the jigane was a blue/black colour very reminiscent of the Ichimonji jigane, but, what surprised me was the very evident utsuri. Bo-utsuri. The hada was itame with mokume fairly tight and masame above the shinogi, in almost all cases. Early Kanemoto were similar, but I found that the jigane whitened appreciably and would be a kantei point if this is found true among other examples. Utsuri had disappeared as well in Kanemoto swords. Hamon ran the usual types from suguba to irregular types. It was a very nice collection of swords. John

Sounds good, is there at a catalogue for this exhibition?

Yes, I picked up three. I'm running heavy now. The spare two are spoken for I think. They have a section that describes these smiths points of reference and special notes, as well as good pics. john

Hey John,

Thanks for the update. I wish I could have gotten over there to see it while I was there. I did get to see a lovely NoSada tanto that was a copy of a Rai. Lovely little piece with nice fine jigane, thick utsuri, and suguha hamon. At first glance, it looks like a Rai, but the steel is a bit courser, and the utsuri is nioi based instead of nie based. It'd be one confusing kantei piece though!

Hope you're having lots of fun!

Cheers,

Any Japanese dealers offering the catalogue? I've checked on ebay but nothing.

This all sounds very interesting.

I have recently acquired a lovely katana that I think may be a Nosada Rai copy. However this is a new area for me. I have heard that there are some specific characteristics of this style done by Nosada, namely the boshi being a little awkward and a smallish 'pea' shape somewhere in the hamon. I have never seen good examples of either of these.

Would anyone be willing to share info on this or better yet, a few JPEGs of these points.

In anticipation... and very excited

JHG

Hi John, I have been researching this for you. At the exhibition I didn't notice the boshi being particularly weak. They seemed well defined to me being mostly ko-maru and a medium kaeri turnback. As to Rai copies, I have difficulty differentiating Rai from Soshu and what I would say showed Soshu influence may indeed be Rai. I'm not educated in this aspect enough to make that call. Some had yakidashi and some koshiba. No swords show that pea-like thing you mention, but, one had a small protuberance that may be what you mean, that came directly nfrom the hamon. I assume you mean the knobs that Nagayama (or his translators) calls 'fushi'. Actually I think this may be a typo and should be called 'hushi' or 'notto'. I include a pic of some of the typical hamon of Nosada. Also a pic of your sword that shows what looks like quite open grain where-as Nosada had a quite tight ko-mokume or ko-itame (I always have trouble wih these two terms). Ko-nie very apparent there, good. John

Hi JHG,

Its not a katana, but here's an example of a Rai style Nosada Tanto

http://www.touken-katsu.com/goods/tanto ... osada.html

Regards,

Daniel

Here are some pics of the blade i have... there is some indications that it could be Nosada Rai, or perhap Sue Tegai... any help/ comments appreciated.

Please note the boshi... is this similar to the Nosada rai boshi, or has this been reshaped?

Nice tanto and what a price!!! Good one Daniel. It must be late in his career as it shows the weak mei he had in later age. It illustrates what I mean by a very tight mokume. John

Hi John,

Tanobe sensei mentioned that in Kanesada's Rai copies the boshi is not as strong and leans slightly to one side. Rai blades have a rather symmetrical boshi.

Regards,

Daniel

Hi Daniel, Interesting. Certainly above my level of competance. thank you. John