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1st photo, 伊豫松山住靖献造之 – Iyo Matsuyama ju Yasutake made this. 祈栄髙田本家 – Praying for the main branch of Takada/Takata family’s prosperity. 靖献作 – Yasutake made. 2nd photo, 應髙田元之氏需 – Responding to the order from Mr. Takada/Takata Motoyuki 昭和五十八年十二月吉日 – Showa 58th year (1983), a lucky day in 12th month 應髙田元之氏需– Responding to the order from Mr. Takada/Takata Motoyuki 昭和五十八年五月日 – Showa 58th year, 5th month

Greetings Sword Friends! Now that entry into Japan has become simplified, I hope many of you are considering taking in the Dai Token Ichi for 2022 on November 18, 19, and 20! As in the past, I would like to invite overseas visitors to participate in two additional events that have become traditions! Tokyo DTI Additional Events On Wed. Nov. 16th, there will be a sword study and dinner party again in Ginza at the Italian Restaurant Cinq (same venue as previous years). Location is quite convenient. Sword study is yen 5,000 (for the venue) and the dinner party will be sponsored by Hisashi Saito of Seikodo. Once again, the date will be Wednesday Nov. 16th. Arrival time will be from 5:30 p.m. for the sword study. Discussion of swords at 6:30 and the dinner party will follow the sword study at around 7:00 ... Attendance by advance reservation only. Please notify Robert Hughes (keichodo@yahoo.com) as soon as possible if you will attend! Friday Nov. 18th Yakatabune Tokyo Bay Cruise.....Arrangements: This event is tentatively scheduled for Friday, November 18th, but final determination to proceed will depend on the number of interested participants. As in the past, participants would leave from in front of DTI at 6:30 p.m. Cruise to start from 7:00 p.m. Participation by advance reservation only. Notification to attend is also a commitment to pay if event is held...Cost yen 11,000 per participant (sales tax has gone up to 10%). Please notify Robert Hughes (keichodo@yahoo.com) as soon as possible! Organizer reserves the right to cancel the event if the number of willing participants does not reach 20.... Let's all dine, drink, and sail again mates! Best Robert

Well, it's been over 2 years since all the experts expressed their opinions about this presentation Minatogawa Shrine sword I had found and purchased out in Penn. I was willing to put up 5G's but NO takers as to it's authenticity ! And repeating - I had never intended to offer it for sale nor try to deceive anyone as I knew how I discovered the sword and all the circumstances involving the purchase, etc. NEVER did I think this sword would be put down by the "experts" as questionable. I did sell the sword with guarantee that it would paper. Here is the NBTHK Shinsa result. I sincerely hope those same judgmental folks don't think this Shinsa form is fake !!! The moral of the story if there is one ? DON'T JUDGE A SWORD BY IT'S HABAKI ? and I still stick by the ol vet who said " until you've seen it all ya don't know it all " . None of us have seen it all and none of us will ever know it all !!! We're all students but to a more or less degree. just my opinion ! I believe this is a rare item of history involving the Minatogawa Shrine and is now in the care of a good friend. Too bad Herman Wallinga did not know about this sword when publishing his nice reference book. I turn 80 next month and it was a exciting "hunt" since 1973 but for all practical purposes my "sword days" are pretty much done. It's all I can do to cope with the "madness" going on thru out the world but especially within the US of A. AIN'T THE SAME COUNTRY I GREW UP KNOWING !!! Happy hunting !

I do not believe the Hon'Ami "cooked up" swords, certainly there were generous attributions given for generous patrons but they didn't need to fake things to make a living. If you believe everything is cooked then there is nothing to believe in, time to move on to another hobby. Generally they do not put gimei on poor swords - there is most often an attempt made to match workmanship to the spurious attribution/false signature. Of course there are some really clumsy examples out there. Yes there were blades probably cut down to try and get a better attribution but this is not why there are so many osuriage mumei blades. Not all merchants were criminals. As stated there were annual ceremonies where swords were given as gifts, the list of appropriate makers was pre-set, the ceremony prerequisite so of course the name on the label (saya) was more important than the actual work inside. Tatemae and hone. It was an accepted reality that all participated in. They still do - if you've ever participated in a Japanese wedding and seen the number of envelopes passed around you would understand. If you've lived among the Japanese you would see the sheer honesty and pure integrity of the average Japanese, living someplace uncivilized like America it is easy to think that "everyone is out to screw me", there is no place like Japan to restore one's faith in humanity... -tch

Item No. 271 Tsuba in iron with gold and silver/shibuichi 7.08 cm x 6.45 cm x 0.50 cm Subject of Shoki and Oni unsigned , design after Toshinaga. A determined looking Shoki in pursuit of a realistic, powerfully muscled oni . Good detailing throughout with a micro nanako ground to half of the tsuba - not easy to do on iron. Although without signature , papers or provenance , one of my favourite pieces , acquired nearly twenty years ago off ebay , before the Chinese fakes started to appear . Difficult to assess age , but possibly about 150 years old . Has been mounted at least once.

Aichi Prefecture ☆　三州住筒井清兼作　１１５ = ☆ Sanshū jū Tsutsui Kiyokane saku 115 ☆　昭和十九年二月日 = ☆ A day in February 1944 Star stamped on both sides, sideways serial number the same as used by Aichi swordsmith Kanemitsu 兼光. Star Stamped Tsutsui Kiyokane Blade, Post #26 @Ganko Kōchi Prefecture, Shikoku ☆　建依別山村善貞　kao = ☆ Tateyoriwake Yamamura Yoshisada plus koa. 昭和十九年四月日 = A day in April 1944. Nakago mune: 38. Help translating, hopefully not a gimei or at least a good one @mecox

Same pattern on a tsuba from my collection: I did research this pattern a little bit and I was not able to fit it into the patterns from the Genji monogatari as per the table reported previously by Bruno. Regards Luca

Colin, I don't think anyone here would have claimed to have "cracked it" Next year it will be 40 years since I bought my first Nihon-To and I have studied the subject more or less continuously since then. I have taken part in the NBTHK Shijo kantei every month for the past 20 or so. I would love to think I have cracked it, but the reality is I remain a complete beginner. Unfortunately, we (i) just do not have sufficient opportunity to look at really good, authenticated swords in the volume and frequency necessary to build a level of expertise. However, that doesn't stop the journey from being incredibly exciting and rewarding. I think all that happens is that you accept you can't learn it all and appreciate what you have picked up enroute.

There is a notion that kengyo of Masamune/Go on ubu swords is not original and well, one might say "cooked up". The exact purpose is disputed. Soshu tanto without signature might not have been born this way. Otherwise, in shinto Nanki Shigekuni did very believable Yukimitsu and Dewa Daijo Fujiwara Kunimichi did a believable Masamune. They are good, quite unlike their "regular" jobs, and can be easily misjudged. Literally they are a bit too shiny for an old sword. Cutdown satsuma blades do pass for koto even today, daito can get papers to Hasebe. Generally there are fewer successful shoto imitations (except Shimada can pass for Nobukuni or even Hasebe), but daito Soshu can be misattributed.

Hey Tom well done. I'm new here and I like when things like this happen. I went back and read your old post from 2020. And most members on this site seem to have had promising thoughts of this sword. I've driven 6 hours for a sword lol. Regards Paz

Annual gift-giving for the Shogun... -t

Thanks guys, I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. Cheers, Bryce

羽　　前　　関

Indeed Terumasa -t

If you want to know about them just google them! Also, on this website, go to Nihonto info > Links and check out the Commercial tabs...

I have been really happy to see your Gassan posts Bryce, it is interesting to see research on them, as they fall way out of my personal scope. I have interest in old Gassan works but not for "modern" Gassan. I do think people will specialize in this hobby too. Personally I put my time in researching pre-1500's stuff with still having interest in few schools during 1500-1600. I do not have really time to spend Edo and later stuff at all. Of course you will learn some "basics" about famous Edo smiths over time and can check books on those. The subject Japanese swords is so large field in general I think over time you could (perhaps even should) narrow it down to items that interest you personally. For example as I browse the Japanese dealer sites & Yahoo JP weekly and seek all new items, I only open up the very few items that interest me personally, mostly pre-1450's stuff. There are thousands of swords listed online in Japan and stock is ever changing, only by ignoring the vast majority of them I will have time to look into those that interest me. You might even want to focus on extremely narrow field (for example one Bizen off-brach etc.) but the more narrow you go the less even Japanese source material there is available. I have not found info on who is currently in NBTHK shinsa panel, I am not sure if the info is open to the public? I believe those with connections in Japan will maybe know some people. However back in the old days when branch shinsa were applied, I found the list of all NBTHK shinsa team members in HQ & every branch in old Tōken Bijutsu. It was several pages of names 100+ and their position was also featured. Now this was back when branch shinsa were a thing... NBTHK gets massive submission numbers to each Hozon & Tokubetsu Hozon shinsa, I don't think they can spend much time on a single item (I remember doing a thread about submission numbers). I think when you get to Jūyō level they can spend more time per item, and of course in that level items are historically important or/and good quality items.

I think I have voiced my unhappiness with these big auction houses several times in the past. Of course I am way below their customers with my wallet but I think they should include much more crucial information in their descriptions & pictures. Granted I think I will never deal with them personally. Here are the zufu entries for 4 interesting items. By far the Masazane is way way above any other sword in this auction. I do not understand the evaluation of these 4 swords, as I only see the Masazane being so far above any others, I think the 3 others are decent swords but I wouldn't think them as too special items. I think the Masazane should be the one with highest valuation, and I would see Yukimitsu and Sanekage as very very optimistic, and Masazane way too low in the estimates. Just to be noted, so far I have been able to uncover only 2 signed tachi by this Ko-Bizen Masazane smith (there is another one who used different kanji) upon all my years of researching old swords. For comparison in the same data there are 80+ katana with Yukimitsu attribution, 160+ katana with Taima attribution, 30+ katana with Sanekage attribution that I have found so far. Masazane: https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27616/lot/132/bizen-masazane-circa-1017-1065-a-ko-bizen-tachiheian-period-794-1185/ Yukimitsu: https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27616/lot/143/tsabur-yukimitsu-active-circa-1303-an-important-jy-ranked-ssh-katana-kamakura-period-1185-1333-circa-1303/ Taima: https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27616/lot/150/a-jy-ranked-yamato-taima-katana-kamakura-period-1185-1333-13th14th-century/ Sanekage: https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27616/lot/158/kash-sanekage-active-circa-1340-1380-a-jy-ranked-katana-with-mounts-nanbokuch-era-1336-1392-mid-14th-century/

David, another with the same pattern [crude]. https://www.jauce.com/auction/k1067110802

Hi Damon, a lot of Heianjo tsuba as yours show such inlays around the plate . An other exemple herewith.

I'm not an expert but... Probably hira-zōgan, searching "inlay" in Markus Sesko's Encyclopedia of Japanese Swords returns the following definition.

I think Bruno has it covered - Chapter headings from the "Tale of Genji" https://tsubakansho.com/tag/genji/ David the image Alamy is trying to sell in that clip is in the public domain for free from the Rijksmuseum in Amstedam Number- AK-MAK-1112 - I know because I did a book on the whole collection. How far from the Museum do you live? You can probably get a closeup view!

Why not some kanji for Tale of Genji chapters ?

Skull tsuba: I actually ended up modifying the image for "art": https://smile.amazon.com/rkgphotos-skull-theme-Premium-T-Shirt/dp/B0923Z5XT2/ref=sr_1_50?qid=1665331788&refinements=p_4%3Arkgphotos&s=apparel&sr=1-50&customId=B07536XX75&th=1 Yuurei (apparation) themed tsuba - kinda abstract, but... Best, rkg (Richard George)

Wow Okan that is one cross, crosseyed Vampire with a Beatle hair cut! My Mr Pumpkin head!

Do you have clear image of the folding pattern (hada)? Or can it be seen in the current condition? I think the signature as plausible, depends on if the work fits for it, old Gassan work often had quite specific traits.

Signed Gassan, It would have to go to Shinsa for verification. Probably mid to late Muromachi. Alex, definitely not Bizen.

I bought once from them, indeed their communication is a bit blunt probably because they're not very comfortable with english. I paid them via PayPal, everything went fine, they even declared the sword as an antique one for the customs even though I never asked them to do it.

Well. After reviewing several nakago of Type 95s and Zoheito, I'd have to lean toward John's zoheito idea too. While the blades and blade tips are almost identical, the T95 nakago are longer, narrower, and lack a fully discernable yakote. This one has the same shape and look of other zoheito nakago I have on file. Steve, if this were an officer sword made with a Type 95 NCO blade, it would be a rare one to have in hand, as actual ones are very rare to come by. If it's a zoheito, then it's not all that rare. Less common than standard Type 94/98 gunto, but there are plenty of them around the collecting world. Zoheito were an attempt to mass produce blades for officers during the sword shortage years after switching from the western styled kyugunto over to the samurai styled Japanese swords. Single piece of steel, not made the traditional way. The look and feel is almost identical to the Type 95 blade. On a side note: Do any of our zoheito experts know if the factories churning out zoheito were completely separate from the Type 95 ones? Seems to me the only difference is the shape of the nakago. Could they have been from the same specs, or from the same factories?

A fine sword by Hayama Enshin dated Taisho 15, in excellent Type 94 Koshirae.

And that means it was stamped prior to fitting. If the fitting shop put those numbers there it would be illogical that they would put a hole right through they’re own fitting numbers. I think these are army numbers. Or contract numbers.

Everything you have described and done, including 'hand sharpening', 'edging' and unnecessarily cleaning the nakago to remove patina on an already readable mei is a 'don't'. You cannot make the decision whether a sword is 'past its prime' on your own. Judgements about restorability need to come from a professionally trained togishi. http://www.nbthk-ab.org/swordcare.pdf

建依別山囗善貞（花押） Tateyoriwake Yama(?) Yoshisada + kaō Tateyoriwake is an unusual name, originating in Japanese mythology, and appearing on at least one other sword posted to this site http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/30320-help-translating-gendaito/ making me think it is a name used by a specific group or school of smiths. Yama-something Yoshisada would be the specific name of the swordsmith (or his art name). I can't make out the kanji after Yama.

Had three of four blades with torokusho definitely issued to another sword. Probably 20% had signatures misspelled or other big issues. Did not pose the issue until they needed to be exported. Lets hope Japanese police's special kantei unit does not read the board.

Thank you Thomas, not just me going slightly crazy here then!!!

Interesting! It is probably an Aztec TSUBA......