Shugyosha

I thought the tsuba has a bit of an Owari look which I quite like. As Alex says, it can be repatinated with some fussing or will repatinate over time and the lighting might be making it look a little worse than it is as there seems to be some reflection. The saya with the shell inclusions in the lacquer is a step up from basic urushi though my main concern would be with the blade as there's a lot of it not shown in the pictures and the clean up has blurred the crispness of the lines around the yokote, but at the most basic level it could make an interesting tsunagi. At something under £300 all in (including fees and taxes according to the OP) I feel that it is worth more than the sum of its individual components - even low grade period F&K, menuki, tsuba, saya bought individually would normally add up to more than that so I feel it would be a hard package to lose money on but by the same token a little waiting and saving could get something better.

Hi Jacob, As Michael says, it's hard to be definitive based on the pictures but at $400 price wise, I would suggest that it's reasonably low risk in that the price is about as bottom dollar as you get in this field and you would struggle to get a basic set of fittings for that. The scabbard has nice lacquer work and the tsuba might have some potential, but at this price point you should be prepared for the fittings to be put together from various sources rather than made for the blade. For me the two character signature and colour of the patina on the tang aren't out of keeping with the seller's blurb putting it at late 16th century but again it isn't in perfect polish and the picture of the point suggests that it has had a fairly agressive "clean". That said, you might be able to see enough detail to get some enjoyment from it and that might be improved with some work with an uchiko ball. Your call really, at worst it's a wall hanger and you might prefer to save for something better but I bought something similar for my first sword and paid rather more than that.

There was the Kiyomaro too...

On the right Edo Kanda ju…I think, the signature on the left is too vague for me.

One could guess that it had a functional purpose in terms of balancing a long or heavy blade? Is there any suggestion that tsuba were used in fighting to deliver a blow like the knuckle guard on a western blade? Other than functional reasons it has to be purely aesthetic?

I've read that tsuba from Sado island tended towards the upper end of the scale thickness wise but I've no figures to back it up. I once had a wakizashi tsuba with a fukurin 9-10mm thick IIRC but the body of the tsuba itself was more slender.

Hi Jens, As Jean has said above, the shape is similar to that seen around Kanbun - during the 1660s but, for me, other things suggest it may be older (or has just had a hard life): that the blade has probably been shortened (which may give a false impression of the shape but I think the middle peg hole is likely to be the original, perhaps with the one added at the end of the tang for a second peg), the patina on the tang is quite a deep colour, that it has been polished down with little left of the hamachi and also the two character mei is less usual in the Edo period and it is quite worn. These factors might point to it being an older blade but again it could just be what it looks like but in not so good condition. The length of the blade might give an additional clue - if you were to measure that and add on the distance between the top and middle peg holes (which would indicate roughly by how much it has been shortened) then that might give a pointer but overall I think it is going to be difficult to be very precise.

Hi Steve, That’s a nice looking tsuba. The school is Umetada ( top two characters on the left) the next two characters, the artist’s name, look like Ieshige. The next but is a bit more vague (to me) but it finishes with shichi ju sai - at the age of 70 years. I think the whole thing reads Umetada Ieshige no saku de shichi ju sai. “Umetada Ieshige made this at the age of 70 years”. You’ll probably get confirmation of the inscription or a better reading shortly and it should be possible to date it fairly precisely if we know the work period of the artist. Hopefully someone with Haynes or Wakayama can help there.

Hi Lewis, Sometimes the mune got shaved on swords of all sizes so that kissaki could be saved. If you have “Facts and Fundamentals” there’s the suggestion in there that the straighter mono uchi in kamakura era blades results from that. It’s hard to tell in this case as the hadori is heavy but maybe that’s what happened? Satsuma age is an extreme way to achieve the same result.

It's so it could be returned if he lost it on a battlefield. He had the same thing sewn into his kimono.

Nope, glad they’re all gone.

Hi Chansen, to get an opinion you need to post all the information including price, size and whether it has papers and fittings or not. Better photos would help too as the mei isn’t legible (to me) and there are a ton of Kanemoto. https://nihontoclub.com/view/smiths/list?id_op=%3D&id=&name_op=starts&name=Kanemoto&kanji_op=%3D&kanji=&province=All&start_era=All&school_nid=All It’s perhaps a Mino wakizashi from the Muromachi period but it’s just a guess without more.

Dave, Time is your friend. You don’t have to rush this: your sword money will still be in the bank when you know enough to make a more informed decision.

Hi Alec, Have a look in the dealer section on here. https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/forum/88-dealer-showcase/ This is where individual members sell their stuff: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/forum/130-swords-and-edged-weapons/ Also, if you click the Nihonto Info menu at the top of the page, then "links" there are four sections of commercial listings, some in the USA but you'll have to sift through. I've dealt with board members Ray Singer and Grey Doffin both of whom are in the USA: https://swordsofjapan.com/ https://japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/ I hope that gets you started.

Alec, I’m on a guitar forum. There’s repeated complaints about bad experiences with items sold in Facebook. I don’t know what it’s like for swords and I can’t see this blade but you could take your money to a reputable dealer or buy from the sales section on here.

😳

Missed what? 😳

Just trying to find a way to express my envy. Maybe double .

Hi Victoria, Sorry to be blunt, but it means that what your partner purchased isn't an antique but a modern copy so, if he/she paid for an antique tsuba and/ or would prefer to own one, you may wish to try to return it and get your money back. The characters on the right of the blade groove say "Mogarishi" or "Soheishi" which is another way of reading the same characters. If you look at the tsuba at the top of this thread the signature is similar, Soten is the reading of the top two kanji on the left of yours I think, though because of the characters not being carved, they aren't very clear.

Cheers Steve! Enjoy the show.

Hi Lance, Not much to add from Geraint other than I've taken a stab at translating the mei on the signed fuchi - I'm not very confident in it as I can't find a similar name elsewhere on the internet so I may have misread a kanji or two, but it may get things moving and give the better linguists a prod to correct me. @SteveM I have: 古河住千氏冶作 - Koga ju Chishiya saku. Made at Koga by Chishiya. Koga city is in modern Ibaraki prefecture so that could be the place of manufacture, ju = residing at, followed by the artists name and then "saku" meaning "made". The part which I think is the artist's name, 千氏冶, I have down as Chishiya but again, it can be read in more than one way so wait and see.

Hi Davo, Have a look in the dealer showcase section - there are a number of USA based dealers there. Also, at the top of the forum there's a "Nihonto Info" tab, then look at "links," then "Commercial" and there's a quantity of links to dealers worldwide including the USA and Japan.

Hi Nicholas, On the tsuka: numbers on the right (I guess for assembling various parts) - [ ] 六五二 - 652 though there might be one above these, slightly obscured, perhaps a western zero? On the left, in katakana: カケス - Kaketsu which I think means "approved" - at least that's the only sensible thing that came up on a dictionary search, but others might know better.

My suggestion would be to forget learning all you can about Japanese swords, I'd focus on learning as much as you can about as narrow an area of the market as possible. Go through the process that Piers has suggested - work out your budget and from there age of blade, type of blade, school or province, signed/ unsigned etc. Do this as quickly as possible then learn all you can about the market for blades in that category by reviewing the Japanese dealer sites. I think having an appreciation of quality in relation to price will probably be of more use to you in the short time available. By way of homework, you can always post a selection of ghost purchases on the board for critique so you are better informed and, erm, we get to play at spending your money.

Hi Iryna, Welcome to the forum. To add to Jean’s post, the date on the other side of the tang refers to the 2600th year since the founding of the Japanese empire. It’s a fairly common way of dating Japanese swords made in WW2 and is 1940 in the Western calendar.