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Touched back down home in Montreal after having spent some time in Europe and wanted to take a moment to recap the show after having exhibited. Just want to give a shout out to Eddy and Henk for organizing such an event. It ran very smoothly from my point of view, we had amazing dealers there, several from Japan and Europe, as well as the Samurai Museum in Berlin with a nice setup. I was the only one to attend from North America. Great attendance and lectures and most of all thank you to those who popped in to say hello! The last time I was there was at the very first event pre-covid so was nice to see so many familiar faces. Was unfortunate to not be able to see a few faces (Jussi, Francesco and a few others). My wife was there to help out and a big thank you to her for helping with my setup and entertaining some of the guests questions. And thanks to her sister who kept our children at bay for the weekend. A very important event for Europe I think, already successful but it also has the potential to be even bigger with everyones support so hopefully we see you there next year!

The more I look the more I wonder if that round bronze base is original? The way his anvil overhangs the edge is somewhat awkward. It would look really much better (imo) on a wooden stand as used by Gyokko/Miyao Does it look as,if the rivets would come out? I’m guessing the anvil and the figure are separate castings? Is the signature on the figure or stand? This is what it reminds me of …..I think it’s aesthetics could be hugely enhanced…. but just my opinion. The wood stands do sometimes crop up even on eBay!

Yoshihara Kuniie was born in 1894 in Ibaraki prefecture. He was the seventh son of a toolmaker. Grandfather and teacher of Mukansa swordsmith's Yoshihara Yoshido and Yoshihara Kuniie 2nd Shoji. He became a teacher at Kyushu University Kingakubu Nihonto Kenkyujo in 1937. In 1938, he opened his own forge at his home in Setagaya, Tokyo. He was a contract smith for the Japanese Imperial army. He became an instructor at the forge of Toyama Mitsuru's estate, Tokiwamatsu Tenren Kenkyu Jo in Tokyo after Shigetsugu moved to a different area. In 1941, Kuniie became the chief instructor of the Japanese Sword Institute (Nihonto Gakuin) in Sagamihara-cho, Zama Kangawa Prefecture. This sword was commissioned by his great-grandmother Kinko, to celebrate an achievement, not sure which one. It is dated Mid Autumn Day, Showa 17 (1942). The same year he was listed as top swordsmith of Eastern Japan. The sword is in shirasaya. The hamon is choji with a maru boshi, hada is a tight itame. Nakago is signed on the omote 吉原國家作　昭和十七年仲秋日 and on the ura 為水書功二　曽祖母きん子贈之. This sword has a NBTHK hozon certificate. There is a small area with superficial rust. This sword is currently in Japan. Nagasa is 62.8 cm Sori is 1.6 cm Motohaba is 33 mm Sakihaba is 23 mm Motokasane is 7 mm Price $6000

Botan Shishi Fuchikashira Omori Eishu/Teruhide kao The text is background information about Eishu from my brief squizz

Michael: I'll probably be corrected on this, however I believe the flower design on the back strap is plum flower, which would also indicate Chinese origin. John C.

I was just going through my book covers - not all are included. The things you can waste your time on in retirement!

I just sent off a "new" book to the global distributors - Titled "Additional Early Articles for Tsuba Study II" It follows on "Early Articles for Tsuba Study 1880-1923 Enlarged Edition" & "Additional Early Articles for Tsuba Study" with more articles and catalogues/catalogs, this time mainly dealing with auction catalogues of some of the well known collections and many of the more obscure ones. I concentrated only on auctions with images available, nothing more frustrating than to have to imagine what the tsuba looked like in my opinion. The book is 322 pages with several hundred tsuba illustrated. With any luck the book should be listed within a month. The first book in the series [compact version] I just found listed on Catawiki, it is almost the same as the Enlarged Edition so you can check out the images https://www.catawiki...-period-1989-present [I don't recall giving anyone permission to show the pages, but that obviously doesn't stop Catawiki !! ]

Hi Aaron, I believe this is a Chinese sword by Paul Chen, a modern reproduction of sorts. Grey

I enjoy talking to others on the forum who share passion of collecting swords. So much history I don’t know people who can share this with so I try to explain to my family which isn’t the same I thought my son law and daughter would inherit my collection but he wasn’t even listening to me when I tried explain !! I don’t go to shows or know anyone So it’s difficult for me to talk with others Any way thanks to all for your support and opinions So what do I do with my swords when I bite the dust Steve

Here's another from the always interesting History of Katana YT channel with his usual informative historical context and backstory. A little shocked his real voice was so different to the narration though I really wish channels like this would stop perpetuating certain dogma such as Norishige being one of the Masamune juttetsu, when he was more probably a contemporary of Masamune and perhaps senior under their Master Shintogo Kunimitsu.

Dear Don. If you feel that then start having a look at horimono to compare with this one. Enjoy the journey. All the best.

Looks like SADATSUGU (second KANJI with a doubt), made in Juli 1944. Photos of the NAKAGO and blade should always be shown tip-upwards. Taken on a dark background, directly from above, light from the side, presented as cut-out, so not much of the background is seen.

This looks very much like one of the low quality tourist pieces made during the Meiji/Taisho/Showa periods.

重幸 - Shigeyuki

im going the complete opposite direction it appears cheap, nasty machine rolled backstrap thats been then shaped. the rest is just poor. blade has no threaded pommel or peg holding to togeather and the blade " if you call it that, just a flat piece of bar " isnt evan fitting to the handle correctly so most likely just glued in. its modern rubbish in my opinion. theres sooooo much of this crap comming out in the last 15 years its not funny. dont wast your money

I believe I did some research on a similar sword a few months back. I believe that the the flag belongs to the Wuhan army, associated with national China (opposed to the communists). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chinese-army_Wuhan_flag_(1911-1928)_18_dots.svg

Michael, It’s a Nationalist Chinese sword. I don’t have Jan Culbertson’s book handy to post the specific page at the moment. Conway

i read Shigeyuki

I bought a bayonet from the UK, sent by UPS and they handled everything, I just have a bill to pay of about £50 to them, but the bayonet was delivered to me about three weeks back, and the UPS bill followed. They dealt with all the customs etc. I also bought a guitar from Spain a couple of years back, again it was sent by UPS, and again it was delivered to me and a bill sent to me afterwards. UPS handled all the customs etc.

Yup, or if the attack is coming from multiple sources its a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. Most attacks like this these days are DDoS in the form of botnets (huge groups of infected computers, appliances, anything with an internet connection and weak security) that are offered for sale as a service to use for X hours for $X/hr. It seems like NihontoClub is hosted on AWS based on a nslookup, and they typically have pretty good preventions you can put in place for attacks so who knows what's up.

Well as I mentioned bit earlier this year in a thread in here I have been working on a index of Jūyō items. It has been ongoing for a few years now but now I have the 1st version finished. It took some time as I originally planned to just have old swords (Kotō) in a document (as they are my own personal interest), but then I didn't want to do a partial job, so I took on all of the swords, and finally I forced myself to tackle all the fittings, attachments and kinzōgan, kiritsuke etc. As I typed probably few hundred thousand kanji characters in by hand the project took a while. Now this should have all of the Japanese characters that appear in the index pages, and I have written smith / school etc. into Western characters, followed by Japanese characters. However I am not yet comfortable enough trying to translate the style of fittings, kiritsuke-mei, kinzōgan-mei etc. as I would make too many errors so for those you have the Japanese text that I typed in. The format in this should be very simple to follow. It is the same as in my last index (Kokuhō, Bunkazai, Bijutsuhin). 691 pages, 66. Jūyō sessions and 14792 items (if I added them up correctly). Hopefully the PDF will be easily readable (it should be searchable too). Now as this has been a solo project spanning over a long time period, there must be some errors in there that I have made (there are definately some in rare fittings makers as fittings are not really my thing and sometimes I found 0 results with Google on some of the mei). If you spot some errors, send me a message and I will fix them for next release. I plan to make a yearly updates after NBTHK releases the session results. Might be bit boring stuff as it is just lots of pages with plain text. I hope some will find this enjoyable and can find some help in personal research etc. Juyo Index.pdf

I just got informed that the tsuba I sent for this year's NBTHK contest got awarded Nyusen 1st! This is a great result for me as I ranked 6 positions higher than last year. I will keep practicing to improve my skills and hopefully get an higher rank next year.

A lovely Silver Type 98 with quite a few features not too often seen. Well made Mumei Gendaito blade in good condition, only faults are a bend and some light scratches in the Monouichi. Silver wash Habaki. Fittings are the uncommon silvered type, with Aluminium Saya. All small fittings are numbered "1516". There is a very similar sword for sale here: https://nihontou.jp/choice03/toukenkobugu/katana/1604/00.html What makes this sword even more interesting, is the writing translated by SteveM on the Tsuka, Saya liner, and Kabutogane. At a guess, this is a gift/prize from a Mr Toyoshima to Mr Ishiwatari. Saya: "豊島様 - For Toyoshima Sama" #1516. Red ink stamps: "一 等 - first class" & 店 - shop". Fuchi: "豊島様 - For Toyoshima Sama" & #1516 Name in silver: "石渡 - Ishiwatari" 26.5" nagasa 3.2cm Hamachi OAL: 39.5" SOLD

This one's got a lot of interesting stuff to look at. -Nakago has mune stamp, similar to "Seki Toku" from p.53 of Stamp Guide Mar 2024 -Mei/writing on both sides of nakago; unidentified stamp (to my eyes) towards top on traditional mei-side -Hamon looks to be suguha pattern -Ito has been re-wrapped, with a hilariously bad plastic cover. With this & the mismatched numbering, wouldn't be surprised if this guy assembled "Frankenswords" from surplus. Numerals: -Tsuba and spacers are all marked "17" in arabic numerals. Fuchi is marked "17" on the inside rim, in Japanese Roman numerals. -Tsuka stamped "17" with some other unknown symbols in red ink -Inside of Scabbard seems marked "13" or "17"? -Scabbard release button marked "12" I believe? Translations & opinions appreciated! Will have more pics of furniture & overall geometry of the blade in next post. Edit: I also see evidence of roman numerals on the inner-side of the habaki. Just scared to remove it & kick up all that rust. Just wondering would there be any benefit to knowing the number inside the habaki?

It was great to finally meet you Nick, at the Expo. Henk and his colleagues did a wonderful job at the venue, which was their first at the Karel V. They are hoping to book the same place for next years event, which has the potential for further expansion should other dealers wish to attend. I think it will be more international with both Australian and North American dealers seriously considering a stand. I hope they and others will see it as a great opportunity to tap into the European market which is certainly under served when it comes to high quality Nihonto, Tosogu and Katchu. Utrecht is a wonderful city in its own right and the Expo is in a perfect location to enjoy. Hope to see you in 2025.

Yes, this only the second time I have seen this stamp combination. Looks like Nagoya Arsenal was using the 特 stamp then. Brandon's stamping is a little clearer than the previous one and thus the third stamp looks like an 一 [1]. 関 特 一 Brandon, thanks for sharing and below is a link to the other sword. Show Us Your High Class Gunto carbon copy: @IJASWORDS

For only 50$ it in my opinion is still an interesting piece from a historical standpoint of when the Japanese Empire joined the western nations

Yes, 貞継 Takai Sadatsugu 高井 貞次郎 "SADATSUGU (貞次), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Sadatsugu” (貞次), family name Takai (高井), rikugun-jumei-tōshō, ryōkō no jōi (Akihide), Fifth Seat at the 6th Shinsaku Nihontō Denrankai (新作日本刀展覧会, 1941)" An RJT qualified smith. No chance there's a faint star near the top of the mei side? The only other blade I have of his is a Tan stamped blade from 1942. Also, can you tell if the blade is gendaito or oil tempered? Close-ups of the hamon would be nice.

What bill Russ?, maybe you missed it

Here is the previous thread where I had seen a similar flag on a sword on buyee. Obviously it is much better quality than the one shown above, however I do remember seeing several like one Micheal has posted. A year or so ago, maybe 2. Sword memory is all a blur, I remember quite a few Chinese swords went to auction and were similar crap quality. I believe a few Dirks are still in eBay.

I was going to say the marks on the liner were random, too, but they do fit the marks on the tsuba. Can't comment on the seppa kanji. And the mark on the nakago looks to be pitting. I know - never say never with gunto - but I've never seen a stamp of any kind on an Emura blade.

George: I think the marks are most likely just errand file or chisel marks. The ones I have seen, albeit that's a very limited sample, have been kanji or western numbers written fairly plainly in pencil. And the number would match the stamped or written numbers on the tang or other parts. Below is one from one of my swords that matches the stamped numbers on the fittings. John C.

You realize you could just post any first name, doesn’t really have to be yours. No one would know the difference.

The handle is the nakago. This is a kenuki-gata style of blade.

I hope these photos show well, it's all black. It's 13 inches tall by 8 inches at the circular base. Comments?

Definitely what I'm leaning towards. I appreciate the info. The overall craftsmanship of the tsuka is very unimpressive compared to the others. Have reason to believe the guy had some of his ito re-wrapped, but the rest of this tsuka is poor enough for that to be negligible, IMO. Ah well, island sword or no, as far as my interests go, I'll just chalk this one up as "nowhere close to nihonto", and I'm satisfied with that assessment. Appreciate the help, guys!

Been seeing a lot of this style lately. You've got a 50/50 shot at either island sword or fake. The quality of both are pretty much the same. They do tend to have stamps, but no one knows what they are, or if they point us toward one side or the other of the issue. The late Nick Komiya swore he knew a guy on one of the Japanese islands that was making these fakes. It's certainly possible. Best person to say is you, as you have it in hand. Look it over for real signs of wear & tear, or age. Fakers can artificially 'age' a sword, but there are often telltale signs of that. For what it's worth, from the photos, the ito on yours looks pretty new. If so, it could support the "fake" side of the issue.

Sorry guys, been a busy day, didn't get around to getting pics of the saya. Will update asap. Even if the blade is a stinker, I have a sneaking suspicion that this guy could have Frankenstein'd some of his gunto, so who knows, saya may have some authenticity so I'll upload more pics when I can. I'll start a thread on one we should have some more fun with soon enough, though. Gonna need a signature translation on the next one!

Thank you Piers. I will look into that.

Here is the worksheet result of the NTHK shinsa and the sword passed. This is the unofficial attribution a later generation of Kanemoto of Mino Provience (後代兼元　美濃) circa Tenshō (天正) Era from July 1573 through December 1592. This would mean the sword was likely the work of the 3rd Kanemoto also known as the 2rd Magoroku master. What is official is what will be written on the final Kanteisho. He would have been the student of this swordsmith artist: Kanemoto - KAN1570 | Nihonto Club. I talked to @Ray Singer before and after the shinsa and he was accurate on his call that it would pass and the details of the attribution.

Hey! I have a strong background on the sword already, circa 1680, indicates ties to a Major to Colonel ranking officer & ties to a samurai family emblem/clan (as seen in the images - silver emblem on the top mount) the swordsmith was translated to be Fujiwara Tsonayuki, as well as an element of the translation saying Kanji. Just after anymore information or conflicting opinions if you have any! As well as any further translation & valuation. Thank you in advance

I've shown this one before. It is one of Manuel's tsuba to my specification As always it's better in hand

Myles, the reading should be 藤原綱行 - Fujiwara Tsunayuki. This is a Bungo Takada (Fujiwara Takada) blade, and is a suriage (shortened) blade from Shinto times (early part of the Edo period). Unsure what is mean by this: "an element of the translation saying Kanji"

It should be $85.23. So Blurb [the printer] tells me. The new book is available through me now. It will take maybe a few more weeks to become listed on the book networks. [I will cringe when I see the markup the distributors charge - as others who sell their books can attest the author gets very very little for each book sold for me it is $2. So with a limited number of sales it is not something to make any money!] [I don't know why there is a "select shipping method" when in Australia you only get the one choice - for Americans they have a choice of four options!] I only use my hand size as a guide to bras - Funny how your hands shrink as you get older.

Dale How much in OZ pesos for all three paperback copies plus the combined postage to Sydney ? e.g. when the 3rd book is published thx ps: your retirement display didn't have anything on bras and what the different sizes mean in posture, weight and handling efforts................

You guys have the fancy stuff, mine comes with a bit of tekkotsu...