mecox

Congratulations, an impressive compilation.

I have found this John Slough book both interesting and very useful and am aware of how much background checking and cross-checking is required. But I did find a very minor error that I had to check to save confusion. Results of 1941 6th shinsakuto exhibition for Shinoda Ujifusa and Niwa Kanehisa (pages 218, 219, 227, 233) they are listed as from "Aichi" when it should be "Gifu".

Interesting.... is this your #2......blue hard cover, 1000 copies, 2001 Slough?

Fully agree with Jean-Pierre. That is a very nice sword and typical of the Kimura Akamatsu Taro group and by the leader of the family.

maybe KUNI UJI SAKU......useful to see the whole nakago. Older sword? with a creeping tateware?

Looks like menuki also is replacement and also the kabuto gane looks like a gunto saya kojiri?

Bruce that mei cutting on the winter blade looks pretty rough......more like a copy?

Date is Showa Mizuno-e Uma Haru Spring (March-April) year of Horse (1942) Below date: Taka Nobu Yaku Kore (Takanobu Yaki-iye Kore) "Takanobu did the yaki-ire"

Great to see......it was mine and I sold it 2 years ago. What an excellent description !!

Kogatana by Kimura Kanemitsu of Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Pref

Why not the large Fijian war club called a "wau"

Ron, here's some tanto koshirae with similar concept.

Yes I am referring to registered at prefecture level for a Torokusho. We seem to see some WW2 swords now with stamps, which I dont think was the case 3-5 years ago.

I am interested to see recently (last 6 months) gunto on some Japan based auctions that have Torokusho and have stamps. There were two with Sho/sakura stamp and also this Amahide on Yahoo Japan. The sword is shingunto with leather/wood saya, has a long mei plus the "Ama" kokuin, but at the top of the nakago are 2 small stamped squares. They look like top half of a "Seki" stamp. It has a torokusho dated Reiwa 2 July (that is 2020). The paper lists the mei and in brackets "kokuin" but does not mention the stamp/s. The mei includes "kitau kore". Was this a "recently found" sword? Does this mean Japanese regulations are now more flexible?

The Kanezane is typical mei (old form of "zane") and his kokuin. The Kanehisa looks to be O-Sawa Kanichi Kanehisa who was a co-student of Kojima Kanemichi with Kanezane, but the kokuin would be unrelated to this. This kokuin clearly has the 2 kanji of his swordsmith name. Not clear: Kanehisa was a student with Kanezane in the Kanemichi Mon