Shugyosha

Hi Henry, Congratulations on your new blade. There’s a smith signing with a two character mei mid-1500s. See here: https://www.nihontoclub.com/smiths/KAN1086 For me it is certainly a koto blade as it’s quite slender with little if any machi left due to having had a few polishes and is maybe machi okuri too. The patina on the tang is quite a deep colour too which points towards a koto blade but you can see a band of lighter patina before the habaki hence me saying machi okuri. Whilst you can never say 100%, I suspect that the signature is genuine as this isn’t a big name smith and so not likely to be of interest to forgers. I hope you enjoy it!

Hi Tom, with a business head on, it makes no sense financially. I don’t know how long the blade is but let’s guess at $3k to $3.5k for a polish and shirasaya plus the blade itself, habaki and shinsa for a blade that would nett you around $1.5k tops if you can find a buyer as people will be put off by it being polished down so much. You can get a very nice blade, in polish and with papers for, finger in the air, $5k all in so use that money on something that you’ll truly appreciate, can learn from and will give you ongoing pleasure. Your knowledge and appreciation will develop quickly and in a couple of months you’ll look back on this and wonder what you were thinking. Sorry, I don’t mean to be patronising but as much as we’d like to, it’s not possible to save all of the blades from bad luck and, occasionally, idiots. It is, however, occasionally possible to save newbies’ wallets from a hard knock. My fingers are crossed.

Hi Piers, I'd like to say yes, but I think I just got it wrong. Adam, here's the link to Kanetsuji: https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/KAN2730

Hi Tom, I'm sorry but you need to call the undertaker as that blade is dead. It might have some appeal as an artifact if it can be bought cheaply but it's past the point of restoration as it will lose a huge chunk of the blade in removing the crevasse and then there's the overall rusting which will need to be dealt with. Best leave well alone IMHO.

Hi Adam, It's certainly worth something. Ubu koto Mino blade in good condition with two generations (from a google) signing 濃州関住兼近 - Noshu Seki ju Kanechika, one around Oei (1394 - 1428) and the other around Meio (1492 to 1501) both get a respactable 20 points from Hawleys. From this link and the following page on the Nihonto Club index: https://nihontoclub....ture_value&sort=desc @Rivkin and @Bugyotsuji - I'd not heard that about shirasaya with wooden habaki, it has cheered me up as I have a blade with this. Also as regards @ysake 's original post, conversely shirasaya with a horn insert around round the hole for the mekugi are also suggestive of a better blade due to the extra care required to make them. On a purely feel basis, I think I prefer the second blade based on its overall form and as it appears less tired to me, some loose grain above the shinogi and little kaeri on the boshi, being suggestive of a greater number of polishes in respect of the first blade. Any pictures of the tangs or any appraisal documents with these blades?

You got there first Stephen, sorry MDWS but I think this is a fake - have a look at the link that has been posted with the verified signatures. The kesho yasurimei (lines on the tang) are also really badly done and I can’t imagine one of the best smiths of his era letting that out of the door. I hope I’m wrong and maybe some of the army sword guys will chip in. Apologies again, I hope you didn’t pay a lot for it or the restoration. By all means post some pictures, hopefully you’ll get more positive views.

Bottom of the left hand column, perhaps the owner's name: ?泉景原 - ?sen or ?izumi Kagehara (but not 100% sure).

Perhaps if we all chip in a little we can get it done. I'll pick the low hanging fruit to start off with - I think I can see Shitahara in the middle line: 下原

Hi Gunner, the surrender tag is a hard read because the photos have uploaded upside-down. Any chance you can rotate them and repost them? You might want to snag a photo of the tang and signature with any stamps too so that you know exactly what you’re looking at.

Duh, sorry overlooked that.

Hi Mark, You have your wife on display? It's a perfectly healthy blade in terms of not being shortened or overly polished, it's in good condition and has higher papers and the only detractors that I can see are some slight scuff marks. I'd ask Aoi if it comes with a shirasaya as that information is absent from the blurb - it almost certainly will but you need something to keep it in so I'd ask the question. The only thing I would think about is whether, for a display piece, a sword with koshirae might suit you better but that's for you to decide. You could do a heck of a lot worse (and many of us have).

理 合 - that's a new word! Thanks Malcolm.

Hi Erik, I think that the issue is that the papers list it as Uda rather than Ko Uda. A quick search on the internet suggests that blades from the Nambokucho period or earlier are papered to Ko Uda school and from the Muromachi period as just Uda so, reading between the lines, the NBTHK think that this blade isn't a Nambokucho period blade and that Aoi are spinning a yarn to get the blade sold. Some discussion here: That aside, I'd be put off by the loose grain and that the blade doesn't have the classic Nambokucho sugata because that's what I'd be paying a large chunk of the asking price for. Also, if I had a really suspicious mind I'd be concerned that the deep sori in a what looks more like a Muromachi period blade might have occurred due to fire damage (there might be a hint of damage to the tang due to firescale??) and that it had been re-tempered at some point. You can get some decent blades for $6k so please be patient...

Is there no technique to defend against a falling sheep in the Welsh Kyokushin syllabus?

I think you may have something here.

Actually it looks like he might have added a date but no signature to one of the "katana". Also the blades are pretty much all buffed to a bright finish so whoever had them is/ was a complete arse. Wait for them to turn up at the Lanes Armoury with a load of fanciful descriptions.

Hi Colin, I'd agree with you that the tangs have been messed with, perhaps by means of some chemical to add colour to them - they're too consistent in colour for natural rust to my mind. One blade has had an acid etched hamon added so this seems a plausible explanation. If you have the patience it might be worth trying to pick out those blades with mei as they might be worth a punt and, from the signatures on a couple, I'd say that they were earlier than the descriptions suggest so there may be a few diamonds in the rough. That assumes that the owner didn't get creative with his chisel too.

The one factor that is usually referred to is the length of the kerakubi - the part between the blade proper and the tang. A long kerakubi indicates a koto blade, a short one shinto or later. I’d guess that the top two pictured here are koto blades whilst the third one is likely shinto: https://commons.m.wi...tegory:Yari_kerakubi

Hope it’s genuine!

The ? in ?masa looks a bit like the right hand side of 伊. I really struggle to track down older/ obscure kanji but it might give one of you better researchers a lead?

Hi Chris, The inscription on the Chawan box reads "Oribe" - 織部

Looks like a gunto - a WW2 army sword but it’s hard (for me) to tell if it’s genuine. I wouldn’t waste my time and money on it as the attractive bit for me would be the blade and it’s machine made and so has no artistic value which is what I’d want from saving it, but feel free to disagree. Less than $100 outlay and a couple of months soaking in oily rags or newspaper and it might look a little better in terms of killing any active rust (don’t soak the tsuka) but your call really.

Hi Mark, 平三角大 身 槍 Hira sankaku omi yari [by] 初代重高也 Shodai Shigetaka [nari] 地刃山々耒 宜 … Jiba yamayama[ ][ ][ ][ ] Well done?? Wide?? Jiba… It is a hira sankaku omi yari by shodai Shigetaka. Well executed wide jiba…maybe. Sorry, ran out of knowledge on the last line.

No - I think that you’re hearing hooves and thinking zebras rather than ponies. If it’s signed katana mei, it’s a katana. Why would someone add a katana gimei to a kamakura era tachi and devalue it? It’s probably a later blade that has been messed with or polished down and now has a similar sugata, but without it being in polish it’s not possible to know much more.

Could it not be a younger blade that is polished down and lost its original sugata? Is there a ha machi left?