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Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/19/2020 in all areas

  1. 3 points
  2. This thread has wandered a bit, but there seems to be some interested in very early swords, so please let me show a blade that may fit in that category. This blade was discovered in the US as a bare blade and was a Post-War bring back -- apparently from Japan, but the history is uncertain. A previous owner sent it to the NBTHK where it spent a couple of years. When asked what was going on, they said it needed to be brought down to Nara for assessment, but that seems not to have happened and it was returned later on without papers - but with some hard feelings (I hate it when that happens). A previous owner had it polished (oh, and there were some hard feelings about that, too). I had it dropped into a shirasaya. This looks like a very old blade. It is laminated and edge tempered.It has iori-mune now, but I never saw it before polish so this may have been enhanced... The nakago looks to me like it was attached with peining. Peter
    3 points
  3. Sword production ranged from small very traditional producers to big factories in Seki using modern methods, to in a couple of known cases hobbyist art and craft societies. There was no set production format. Trawl these pages for a general idea of the variations, and research your particular smith' history. The information is out there, and more is discovered all the time. You might also have a look here, a site specialising in WW2 militaria with a lot of information about Shin Gunto. Japanese Militaria
    2 points
  4. Your question may have some merit as to why katana, in warring times, may have not had any accessories and the tanto would hold those.
    2 points
  5. I think that these two are Ono. The upper one has bamboo-like frame, The lower one looks like a belt buckle... upper 6.5 cm lower 6.6 cm
    1 point
  6. Perhaps Fujiwara Kiyotoshi
    1 point
  7. Hi Bob, Nice guard. Due to its size alone I would tend to doubt Ohno. I rarely see Ohno work larger than 7.5cm, and in fact, 7cm is more in keeping with what I usually see in tsuba attributed to Ohno. This piece reminds me of the very first tsuba I ever bought, roughly a million years ago now (in tsuba collecting years), pictured below (photos taken from Jinsoo Kim's site), and attributed to Shoami. There are differences, of course, in sugata and hitsuana shape, and the shape of the seppa-dai is markedly different, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were from the same "school." The size of this one is 8.8cm x 5mm. I think guards of this size are rather rare in the Edo Period, so I would place both of these in the pre-Edo years (16th century). My best guess, anyway. Cheers, Steve
    1 point
  8. The blade is not very good but suitable for a novice collector)). Looks better in life. When compressing photos, the quality drops. Sincerely, Alexander
    1 point
  9. Hi Mark sorry for my delay in answering you! I just do see you wrote back.... ( it is a bit stressy here....) Thank you for those additional pictures! Yes! definitely! it seems me to be a very interesting Tsuba indeed! it looks very healthy, too.... You wrote it is not your´s own one ( yet ?)- so i just recomment you so to hurry about it! ( if it´s price is acceptable of course....????) I do like this design a very lot i just can confess you! do you know the exact measurements of this Tsuba ? it seemingly least "looks old" ( with old i do speak from Tsuba dating pre Edo ) indeed! it is very interesting! and certainly range out of this generally common to seen stuff.... heartly! Christian
    1 point
  10. Hi Alex, German trench knives are an interesting field of collecting and quite expensive back in the days I started to collect bayonets. Decades ago...only some copied books remained.
    1 point
  11. Nikki, I've attached an origami for you: Sorry! Couldn't resist that one! Ha! If you mean that it could receive papers from Shinsa, we do know that Mantetsu blades are starting to get papered. It's at the "historical value" rating. As to fixing up your gunto, you aren't being specific. Do you mean a blade polish? I had mine polished by David Hofhine. It costs over $2,000, so you'll need a good hobby-fund account, but it's worth it. Oh, and the wait-list is about 2 years. For the tsuka (handle) re-wrap, there are a number of guys, and someone might have a good recommendation. I've never dealt with it. I believe Fred Lohman does it, but there are others too. If you try Lohman, use the phone number. I never get an answer to email from them.
    1 point
  12. Little Generals - once had a photo of a little Admiral, little General and a little nurse all together in a shot from Yasukuni I believe it was. Would love to find that photo again...
    1 point
  13. Here is my Type 19 Kyu-gunto miniature - 22.5 inches long with a 16.5 inch blade that appears to have been plated in the past. The handle is translucent tortoise shell or maybe bakelite? wrapped with silver (colored) wire. The guard is pierced exactly as the full-sized model. The backstop is plain and the cap appears separate, making me believe I could probably unscrew it like the larger model. There are traces of gold-paint on the guard. The saya has two hangers and is painted black - I believe this is the original color it does not appear that it was ever chromed. -t
    1 point
  14. Dear Tony. Koshirae is the term that refers to the mounts of a sword, or in this case a naginata. Because Japanese swords are essentially held together by a simple bamboo peg it is relatively easy to remove the blade from it's mounts. For most collectors the ideal is th have the blade mounted in shirasaya, plain wood mounts to protect it, and the koshirae mounted on a tsunagi, plain wood replica of the blade. In this case koshirae refers to the pole for your naginata. As Jean suggests most functional naginata have a tang as long as the blade to secure them in the shaft. The short nakago and the fact that it fits well in the koshirae is what lead me to suggest a parade piece. It may also have been made at the end of the 19th century specifically for export to European collectors. All the best.
    1 point
  15. Thanks for the input. It's going to see daylight a couple times a week for iaido class and will occasionally travel, so I'm fine with what it is. Greg
    1 point
  16. Thomas This is not for the Chinese Type 65. Not only becauseT65 has two rings of the leather piece on the scabbard, the one I showed has one ring on the leather piece, and it has an open space that allows the ring on the scabbard to go through. Also, the leather parts are too big for T65 and T32. Here is the photo of T65's.PLA might have copied the design of Type 95's hanger though.
    1 point
  17. Your sword in an early Mantetsu, serial number H14, that was made in the second year of production. Production is thought to have started in late 1937. It is fitted out as an army Type 98 Guntō. It looks to have the thick crossguard (tsuba) that BangBangSan has pointed out recently. Your handle is missing a few items but I will let Bruce handle this aspect of the sword. Thank you for sharing information about your sword and here is a link to taking care of it. Japanese SWORD CARE AND ETIQUETTE Links to additional photographs of Mantetsu H14. Read forums, need more, on Manchurian.... I have no idea and need help please in Translation Nakago Mune H14 Nakago Reverse SMR logo Nakago (tang) Obverse 昭和戊寅秋 = 1938 Autumn
    1 point
  18. UPS is shipping, per the folks at Geiheya. Also, I had a sword from e-sword.jp sent to me via FedEx last week. Arrived at my home in NY, 2 days. There may have been some creative description....
    1 point
  19. There is some kind of answer for that. "Here .is the South German sax from 600 AD - 750 AD before and after Japanese polishing from Stefan Maeder's Ph.D. thesis. See also this module. There is a clear hamon and since it is not parallel to the blade there might have been a clay coating. On the other hand, the wavyness of the hamon may just be due to thickness variations of the blade." https://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/iss/kap_b/illustr/ib_6_2.html#_6a
    1 point
  20. Mon seems to be “加藤氏” (Katō) or “目黒氏” (Meguro) family.
    1 point
  21. National treasure sitenoji
    1 point
  22. Thanks Ray.👍 I posted it on Facebook « Nihonto Group » and got within 12 hours 5 positive answers, all willing to buy it at once 😃
    1 point
  23. Firstly, gold is no indicator of genuine. It has zero to do with genuine or not. Neither is weight. The quality is crap. The fittings are crap. Genuine Japanese swords do not look like Damascus. That tang is terrible. The tsuba doesn't look anything like a real one unless you are a novice. The characters on the blade are a sure indicator of a fake. Everything is bad. There is ZERO chance it is real. Tell your buddy to deal with it.
    1 point
  24. Another old blade, this one in KAI GUNTO Navy mounts, at 52 cm some would call this (wrongly) a submarine crew sword, due to its shorter length. The large ray skin "eyes" on the SAYA are quite unique. I think it is made by KANETSUNA in the 1500's, but I am open to more knowledgeable translators.
    1 point
  25. 100% this. I did end up finding a shinsakuto in the end. It’s in iai koshirae with a batto polish. Totally setup for martial arts use, from the beginning. Guess some of us will just have to agree to disagree. That’s okay.
    1 point
  26. Toku means 'special' as in tokubetsu 'especially important'.
    1 point
  27. Hi John, Kanji character "ko" means inspection mark of Kokura army arsenal. Katakana character "Ho" means #1 factory in Kokura army arsenal. Morita
    1 point
  28. And neither of you ended up with one of the items?
    0 points
  29. Did this not pass? This is just my humble opinion, but I think it took a long time to wait because I measured the take an X-ray and C14 dating. It can be made with a very small amount of sample that can hardly be understood. It depends on how you look at it. If it turned out to belong to ancient times, it might not have been returned.
    0 points
  30. I dont have a problem with a sword used by a Japanese martial artist thats made for them in Japan as much as I do a westerner trying to feel mord like a Samurai by using Nihonto when they can get the same results practicing with a repro. I spoke with my Sensei about this who is Japanese and when I asked him if he thinks its ok for westerners to use Nihonto for training he laughed and shook his head.
    -1 points
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