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Dear All. In this post Christmas lull I thought some of you might appreciate this. In 1905 The Japan Society in London organised an exhibition of Japanese arms and armour. Contributors include both Siegfried Bing and Lasenby Liberty, both key figures in the Art Nouveau movement, as well as some of the great names in early collecting; Behrens, Dobree, Huish, Garbutt and Church to name but a few. The collection is a snapshot of what was considered at the time to be the best, we might wish to see a different emphasis. There are quite a few blades with horimono and the plates are really too small to make progress with these. A lot of the koshirae are very late and flashy but tsuba fair better both in terms of the plates and the quality. Scholarship was in its infancy and some of the captions to the plates raise an eyebrow here and there. In short it is probably not on everyone's wish list. Just as well, copies are hard to come by. So when one turned up in an unexpected place and for a very reasonable sum I was very happy to get it. Even more so as of the limited number produced, 250 copies, this one is no. 24 and bears a book plate which shows that it came form the library of H Seymour Trower, another early collector and a significant contributor to the exhibition. As I have interests in fin de siècle art and design and the history of collecting this one really ticks a lot of boxes. All the best.

I wanted to share these photos. So many collect Gunto swords and so few have them properly polished. Once polished the skill of the smith, at least the better ones, is revealed. So many have hastily done "war time" polishes which along with decades of neglect or abuse, hides their beauty.

Jim, agree! My polished NOBUFUSA is a also go-to sword for enjoyment.

Many years ago I was in a sword shop returning a sword after my first venture into Japanese blades. It was a wakizashi, and after a week it had taught me that my life is short in comparison, that one can never really 'own' the soul of a blade, and the responsibility of taking good care of a blade for future generations was too onerous for me. In other words, my motivation for 'ownership' was Gollum-like greedy, not deep, and too frivolous. Now, if the thing were of a little better quality, I might be persuaded to take on the life of a sword for a period of time, I told myself. I asked the Banto, a Mr Ono, very sadly no longer with us, if he might not have something a little better, something not too expensive. Well, said he opening a drawer, I can offer you this Tanto, and oh, here is another one. The price wasn't bad, perhaps a little steep, and I can still kind of see in my mind's eye the green musty binding and patinated brasswork on one of them. Hmmm... I said, not really clicking. Just a minute, he said, jumping up and walking into the back room. Out he came with a carefully wrapped bundle of blade in Shirasaya and black lacquer Koshirae with gold Mon. The moment he drew the long slim blade, I was smitten. It was suguha, but creamy smooth throughout, and it seemed to light up the room. Suddenly my budget lost its cap. What he was asking for it was no longer important. This now is a blade that I can treasure, I felt. In time I discovered that the Mei was that of a Daimyo, a direct descendant of Date Masamune, and when I sent it off it was papered by the NBTHK. Once during a regional NBTHK sword meeting, we were given the opportunity to show and tell. Although ashamedly I could not really describe what hataraki I saw in there, this was the blade that I chose to show them, and somehow I managed to say a few words about it. I know, sure, I blew my chance to study a blade thoroughly and work out all the correct vocabulary. Story of my life!

Geraint During one of the small-circle visits we organised for our members at the ToKen Society, 10-12 of us had the opportunity to study that Masamune at length. Below are description and oshigata by Clive Sinclaire and photos by me. Nagasa: 72.0 cm Moto-haba: 3.1 cm Saki-haba: 2.0 cm Sugata: Hon-zukuri, a graceful tori-zori, chu-kissaki, mitsu-mune. Jihada: A prominent and flowing itame-hada with mokume and abundant ji-nie forming chikei. Hamon: Fine nie-deki, notare-midare with some gunome like inclusions, profuse sunagaeshi which spills over into the ji in places and kinsuji. The boshi is slightly midare-komi with very little kaeri. Horimono: A bo-hi on both sides that finishes in the nakago between the two mekugi-ana. Nakago: Suriage by probably 3 or 4 cm and machi-okuri, 2 mekugi-ana. Kiri-jiri, faint kiri yasurime are just visible and the bo-hi finishes in a pointed end. There is kin-zogan mei on the sashi-omote MASAMUNE and on the sashi-ura HON-A with kao.

And a few more.

It's a bit of a mixed bag but here are a few. A selection of the items was made for the photographs in the catalogue so someone picked what they thought were interesting. It includes armours, swords, fittings and just for the sake of completeness a contemporary Japanese Army uniform! Here are some of the plates.

I am in the same camp as my US namesake Katsujinken: I gently oil the blade, store it in its shirasaya which is inserted in shirasaya bag, which in its turn goes in a ZCorr rifle protection bag (VCI coated) with two 1-kg desiccant gel bags placed on top of the ZCorr bag, all of this in a gun safe, with a dehumidifier constantly running on (maintaining a humidity of 45%-50%) in the sword room. Might sound like an overkill but the value and age of the swords I am dealing with makes the above a no brainer.

越前守藤原康綱 It's hard to read clearly so you might need someone with better eyes than me but I think Echizen Kami Fujiwara Yasutsuna. For me the "zen", "kami" and "Yasu" kanji are fairly clear and by process of elimination, running down Markus Sesko's list of titles awarded to swordsmiths, this is the only one with this three kanji combination. I'm not convinced by the last character fitting this and whilst I don't think I've overlooked any, that's all I can boil it down to. Hopefully you'll get some other views to either knock this over or confirm it.

Found the best example of the emergency produced, late-war officer gunto that I've ever seen. Posting all the photos here as a study on the item. Without the "Emergency" stamp, I would have been tempted to write this off as a bad Chinese copy. In a sense, it was. At the end of the war, Allied bombing had ruined a great deal of sword production capacity in mainland Japan. Production was shipped out to Manchuria/China/Korea, and orders were sent out reducing the stringent mil specs on weapons in general. As Nick Komiya loosely translated "If it shoots or stabs, make it" became the Quality Control standards! The seller, hennadiy2006, in his sale on fleabay, HERE, said the gunto was made by the "Chinese Mukden Arsenal." My memory is sketchy on that, but I THINK I remember that Mukden was taken over my the Nanman Army Arsenal, and became a private manufacturer of swords (and maybe other weapons) for Nanman. Here's the gunto, enjoy:

Bruce, there is absolutely no confusion here. What some, the more cautious of us, are saying is: do not display the blade for an extended period of time in a cabinet. Instead, store it in its shirasaya with the other precautions mentioned and take it out only occasionally to study. So, very clearly some of us are saying not to display in cabinet but store properly. Not unless the cabinet is watertight and dehumidified as in museums or high-end dealers. Now, of course if you live in the Sahara, you have no issues. But with high humidity or even vacillating humidity, one has an issue when storing.

Here is a period Japanese print from the Sino-Japanese war with a few naval swords.

法眼常信之国 水府之住安光 according to the shop that is selling it.

Thank you Brian. I have a different perspective. Despite the recent rise in the yen's rate against foreign currencies, it is probably the overseas commission broker who are making a successful bid. So I'm a little worried that it might ruin someone's Happy holidays shopping.

Not ethical imho. The NBTHK would bounce that. To "paper" a tsuba and then say the decoration was added later is like passing a sword but noting the mei was a later addition.

I think it's "Kanenao" see this:

One more. jim

I am reawakening this thread since my best sword in the TH shinsa papered to Uda Kunifusa, who is thought to have trained with Norishige and, as discussed above, is one of the two de facto founders of the Uda school. As Jussi posted, these early Uda go juyo. Jussi, can you please tell me how many Uda Kunifusa there are that are juyo and above? I will be submitting this one for the next shinsa. I don't recall exactly, but believe that it is about 70 cm or so and is osuriage. It has a very nice bonji horimono and the nakago is very appealing with several ana, including one near the jiri.

That’s it, thanks! 濃州住栗木兼正勤作　Nōshū-jū Kuriki Kanemasa kinsaku.

Just FYI, there's no such thing as a "wakizashi katana." If the hacho is less than 2 shaku (24 inches or 60 cm), it's a wakizashi.

This sword in my collection is also attributed to the same smith. http://swordsofjapan.com/project/uda-kunifusa-tachi/ Ubu tachi measuring 2 shaku 6 sun 2 bu.

As IJASwords already hinted at, I think this could be a 1945 made Mantetsu. Does the blade have any markings on the top of the tang by the habaki?

Hit me but i belive not that this is a legit Japanese sword.

Delighted it was of some interest. JP the spider tsuba is in sentoku with an Umetada mei. I did a trawl and there are no less than 6 Masamune blades, one with Honami kinzogan mei, as well as quite a few Kunihiro, Muramasa, Umetada Myoju, Kunimitsu etc, etc. None of the illustrations are anywhere near good enough to even guess about the authenticity of these. It would be lovely to know where some of the items are now but a so few are illustrated it would be a long shot. Guess we will just have to keep collecting! All the best.

Outside there is 青銅　seidou, bronze, and 書鎮 Shochin or paperweight Inside it says 十字鍔　写 　信家作　Juji Tsuba, Utsusu, Nobuie Saku Interesting object!

I confess I included the matchlocks with you in mind, Piers. And just a last one, a page from the catalogue with some of Seymour Trower's annotations of his own tsuba. As Michael points out some of the attributions are to be taken with a large pinch of salt, indeed some of the translations leave a lot to be desired. I get the impression that the subject of forgery was little considered, if it says Masamune on the tang then it's a Masamune. Indeed there is this entry in Case J, "Complete sword. Tachi. Gold clouds on black lacquered ground, silver guard (s. SHUGUIKEN Goto Kizoaki). s. Masamune. 14c." Nevertheless some of the descriptions are mouth watering and if these were indeed the cream of the crop in London at the time then there must have been some beauties. Ah well.

I guess you have it already Tony. If not, here my first try... Right side: “㳒眼常信之図“ (first two possibly 法眼 = Hōgen) Left side: “水市住安光” ? But have still my doubts!

Tony, there are many different techniques for surface treatment, so we may be fooled just by the looks. I think I can see remains of YASU on the left side of the NAKAGO-ANA, but I don't see MITSU.

Yas Thank you for that huge amount of work. I think I am going to have to pin this topic as it is becoming so vitally important. The depth of this deceit is staggering. And they are targeting native Japanese buyers mainly there...so what chance to Westerners have to remain safe? Hmmm

To be fair, the papers describe the tsuba itself and the maker Kunihiro, but they do add regarding the inlay, 象嵌は後代別人の作である一鍔 or 'the zogan on this tsuba is the work of someone of a later age/generation'. Personally speaking, I like some of the Christian tsuba, of all sects, both overt and hidden. Plenty of food for thought as to what went on in Japan over the centuries before the beginning of Meiji. There was a time when they were openly displayed, and a time when the imagery in them was perforce subtly and of necessity 'deniably' hidden. As a returnee Christian from the US, Jo Niijima came back and built a church in Takahashi in 1882, after he founded Doshisha University in 1875 in Kyoto.

Great swords, still hunting for an example by Nobufusa done in Yamato-Den.

Yeah, there’s not much else I can do but cry! I could win the lottery, but... wait! I don’t play. I guess that you need to rob banks, marry a rich widow, become a hired killer or sell bth kidneys, three even if you can find a donor to collect nice swords. So I’m left with crying rivers...

It could be that the sword was originally made in 1935 and sold to an officer or a private citizen as usual. However, at some point much later in the war the owner, or his surviving family, sold or donated it to the the Imperial Government for the war effort. The sword was then refitted at the Kokura arsenal in the late war mounts. The arsenal would almost certainly have marked the blade there for inventory / processing purposes.

Not sure of your timing but don't worry too much. One of two things may happen: 1. Things will settle down and as people become familiar with the new situation it will be easier. 2. Nicola and her team of independence enthusiasts will leave the UK and apply to become part of the EU again Not saying which would be best but either way it should not prevent you from fulfilling your dream

Dear All. The tsuba in the original post was brought up in an earlier discussion when an identical one was for sale on Ebay. One might wish to assume that a major auction house, offering specialist sales might have access to sufficient expertise to be able to spot these things, however a lot do slip through the net and of course it is in the auctioneers interest to sell items for as much as possible so the natural tendency will be to believe the object. Smaller and provincial auction houses are in my experience even worse though sometimes when you have built a client relationship with them a porter might tip you the wink at a viewing. That is not an option online. As regards stirring up a hornet's nest, the auction conditions of sale make it well nigh impossible to pin anything down, to quote from one small section of Bonham's conditions as an example, though all are very similar. "It is for you to satisfy yourself as to each and every aspect of a Lot, including its authorship, attribution, condition, provenance, history, background, authenticity, style, period, age, suitability, quality, roadworthiness (if relevant), origin, value and Estimated selling price (including the Hammer Price)" Returning an item is hedged around with difficulties as well so I think what the paragraph and our experience tells us is caveat emptor. I would love to say that I have never fallen for anything false but that wouldn't be true. I read somewhere a long time ago that you always pay for knowledge, you can pay cash, you can pay in time studying, you can pay in travel to see things in hand. I can certainty look back to things I bought and should have left alone, and the ones that really hurt, the things I should have bought like a shot and didn't. Part of why this hobby is so compelling is that you never get to the end of it, there is always more to learn. Enough of this, I must pay for my Ebay lots which I probably shouldn't have bought. All the best.

There are few points that start my alerts... First, the papers doesn't match with the tsuba, second, doesn't seem Heianjō work, third, there is many Christian tsuba, but never saw one so explicit like this. Even the confessed Christians tried to hide his condition, even before the banishment, I was at the kakure kirishitan Shimabara castle museum and never saw something like this. When they try to represent the Virgin Mary they did it with the image of Kanon. But the maybe the most important thing. At least in Spain, since some years, some people are buying old tsuba sometimes mei, sometimes mumei, without decoration, or with less decoration. Edo tsuba that you can find in a basket in Japan for less 10.000¥, and they bring it to Spain and with the help of silver worker and goldsmith's, they put Christian images and sell it like rare museum works for more than 800€. Also some of this people are taking blades forged in China and even Spain, mounted with this kind of old cheap Edo koshirae, use chemistry for imitate urushi, and finally sell it like original nihontō museum work, for more than 3000€ Even sometimes they buy tons of NTKK and NBHTK and sell it with the works even if don't match at all. For example, a paper of wakizashi for a Nihontō. I know that this is also working in Germany, where some people are posting Chinese blades with cheap Edo koshirae like a Nihontō. In this case they make false papers with nakago pictures of other swords. The piracy is going more "clever" and we need to stay alert.

The increasing threat of fakes to our field of art is something that has occupied my thoughts a lot in recent months. Where I can I will continue to offer my own technical observations, as a craftsman, to provide ammunition to our community with which to protect our wallets and pride But it seems to me that the most reliable defence against fakers is to develop a finer eye. I'm still not absolutely sure as to how this 'education' might be best achieved though. The development of a reliable critical aesthetic eye has been a long standing philosophical conundrum but perhaps we might at least begin to more carefully define the issue and thereby find our way to a semblance of reliable connoisseurship.

The arrowhead is known as a Karimata ("Rope Cutter" / Two Pointed) They were used not only for battle but for hunting large game. They are sometimes referred to as 'rope cutters' but were most likely not used to cut ropes, as it is impossible to hit the rope at the correct angle every time it is launched. You would need a + shaped or Y shape arrowhead, as seen head on, to be sure of a cut.

1. What interests me is a matter of perspective, and since I initially view blades as a whole (e.g. from a distance, relatively speaking) sugata comes first. I'm either attracted by the overall shape or I'm not. It's when I zoom in closer that I'm looking at hada, hataraki, utsuri, etc. 2. Everything is difficult for me. Foreign language, reading kanji, the schools, the schools within schools, the blends of schools, the history, genealogies, time periods... you name it. When I first got into nihonto, I was interested in Showa/Gendaito, because that's a time period I can relate to. Five uncles fought in WWII. I know the battles, etc.. And because much of it was recorded on film, I even know what it looked like. It's not as easy to relate when we're talking 3 or 5 or 7 times that long ago. 3. If I were to sit down with a smith, I probably wouldn't ask questions about sword making because I know I'll never have a chance to do it myself, much less make a career of it. I'd probably ask them who their hero's were. Who did they consider the best, and why.

Delightful reading! Interesting , almost captive as all the responders show personality and character of themselves and their swords....

Late war.....using complex pierced tsuba. Even if real this looks like absolute sh*t!

It’s a miracle, JP, you have any tears left considering you are crying at your empty pockets at almost every sale😂🤣

No - I didn't even like the fact that the auction house had the blade sitting on an uncovered, sliced up, plastic table! Although, I apparently need to find a new background for natural light photos, as that concern seems to be proposed every time I post a photo. 🙂