Shugyosha

It’s not necessarily a product of limb length: for any bow to perform optimally, you need for both limbs to finish the power stroke at the same instant. That can be done by tillering (balancing the strength of the top and bottom limbs). Also you need an arrow of appropriate weight so that the power is applied to the arrow rather than remaining in the bow. The Japanese did do shorter more practical bows and must have been aware of the styles of bows used in China and Korea so it’s surprising that the Yumi was never superseded.

Me too - really envy Piers “living the life”.

Hi Negroni san, The kinzogan mei and paper says he was 66 not 61 but there is a discrepancy between the paper which says the test was done in Kanbun 3 and the blade which says Kanbun 2. Maybe a “typo”?

Except that you do need the arrow shaft to have enough flex that it doesn't clatter into the bow itself and head off in an undesired direction. Whether you shoot off the fingers western style or off the thumb with a glove or thumb ring you still impart a sideways action to the arrow and so the arrow spine needs to match the amount of sideways action put on the arrow: typically more advanced archers can get away with less stiff arrows are their release is cleaner. Archers' paradox simply refers to the fact that, in traditional archery, the tip of the arrow points somewhere other than directly at the mark and not to the flex of the arrow. In modern compound archery where the bow is shot with a mechanical release (poor technique aside) there is to all intents and purposes zero sideways flex on the arrow and the flex tends to come in an up-down direction and so plays much less of a part in arrow choice. Providing the arrow is of sufficient weight not to create a "dry fire" situation a number of spines can work adequately. In modern recurve archery where the bow has a cut-out and the arrow sits on the centre line of the bow, having the arrow pointing away from the mark to compensate for the release is far less common as the cut-out and pressure button compensate for to an extent for the archer's release. Arrows can be shot without fletchings and a modern method of tuning bows to the arrow is to shoot the arrows without fletchings in order to eliminate the effect of the vanes in compensating for the sideways action put on the arrow and so that arrow spine choice is based on shaft plus point and nock weight alone with perhaps some tape added to the back of the arrow shaft to replicate the weight of the fletchings. Michele Frangilli the Italian international archer selects arrow shafts for consistency and tunes his bow with bareshafts at 70m, the Olympic distance. An unfletched shaft will spin only a small amount without fletchings which, at least in traditional styles of archery, are mounted angled or fletched helically to impart spin to the arrow. The rate of spin is very low and because of this it does not stabilise the arrow in the way that spin stabilises a bullet fired from a rifled barrel. Instead, it helps to compensate for any flaws in the arrow shaft as the rotation means that the flaw is not on one side of the arrow shaft alone during its flight which is very important where arrow shaft is a natural shaft made from wood or reed where there is not the consistency of man-made materials. I'm sure you're bored by now so I'll leave it there and join Piers in wishing Jeremy well in his quest.

Looks like a sukashi yanone with a piece of wood on the shank, perhaps one of the outsize heads that were temple offerings. Are you looking for the head or the whole arrow? That one isn’t capable of being shot from a bow like that as the shaft of the arrow must flex around the bow on release.

Hi John, Congratulations on being the owner of a Japanese sword. I think you'll get some better information if you are able to post photographs of the actual blade and provide its dimensions but, on the face of it, it does look like an old blade and the kanji used for "Kane" is the one normally used by smiths in Mino province.

Hi John, it’s actually a significant observation. I didn’t want to labour the point but fairly wide hamon tend to be a trait of shinto swords and they rarely dip close to the ha.

David, You can submit to shinsa and have the most definitive answer you can hope for. After a while you get a feeling about these things; for me no old patina on the tang of a 17th century blade, clear yasurimei, no evident jihada and what looks like bo utsuri on a blade by this smith are all red flags. I hope I’m wrong but for me the blade has significant issues for it to be authenticated as either a genuine Japanese sword or by this smith. I’m sorry and I hope you didn’t spend much on it.

As regards the tsuba, on the right: Yamashiro kuni Fushimi ju and the left is Kaneie. One with a similar signature here: https://www.aoijapan.net/tsuba-yamashiro-koku-fushimi-jyu-kaneie/ From what I can see of the sword, the signature looks more like a date starting with Tensho: 天正 Unfortunately I’m struggling with the rest. You could try messing around with the lighting to see if that helps make things clearer or maybe sprinkle with talcum powder to see if that picks out the kanji.

Hi Adam, Unfortunately there's not an awful lot that can be said about an unsigned shinto wakizashi. For me the overall shape points towards it being made around Kanbun (1661 - 1673) but I can't hazard a guess at where it was made or the school. The shape of the nakago jiri might yield a clue though also looks like there's some nice activity in the hamon and if you were to play around with the lighting and post some better photos showing the activity there and in the boshi you might get some other pointers. If you have an uchiko ball you can use that as it might bring up some of the detail. I agree with your reading of the tsuba signature. The menuki are Shishi dogs/ Foo dogs - they usually come in a pair and one is male and the other female and it looks like the handle has had a recent re-wrap as the thread looks new. The fittings overall don't look like wartime issue so my guess is that it was a civilian blade taken to war. The kashira (at the butt of the tsuka) looks in far better condition than the fuchi and tsuba though that is perhaps due to an uneven exposure to moisture whilst in storage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_guardian_lions There's some active red rust on the tang and I would try to neutralise that by wrapping it in an oil soaked cloth or paper and leaving it for a week or so. Remove the habaki as it looks like there's more rust under that. The large flakes of red rust should either come away with the cloth or paper or settle down into a colour similar to the rest of the tang. You can do this several times until the rust turns from red to dark brown or black. Don't rub the tang or use anything on it other than mineral oil however, as you don't want to remove the overall patina - just dab it dry with clean tissue when the rust has settled down. You can try this trick with the fuchi and tsuba too, but again be gentle and dab dry so as not to damage the good bits. The rust on the boshi is old and inactive (at least on the side in the photo you posted and you shouldn't do anything with this. I hope that helps get you started and I'm sure you'll get some other views soon.

Hi Miura, Thank you! Sorry for being slow.

Hi Miura, I’m reading this thread with interest but I’m missing the point that you’re making with regard to this tsuba and wondered if you could please elaborate? Thanks in advance.

Thanks to all the contributors to this very interesting thread. A thought popped into my head and, if there is an answer, I’ll happily defer to those with metallurgical expertise: was Nanban tetsu used to make tsuba? If so and it arrived in Japan as cast billets, would the tsuba made from it retain the appearance of the original steel if not heated sufficiently to eliminate that structure? Please shoot this idea down in flames as I’ve no support for it but potentially you could have tsuba that look cast in terms of structure of the steel but have no casting sprew as the end product wasn’t cast, only the source material. I’m going to duck now and wait for the Triple A.

You are JacquesD and I claim my $5!

Hi Jeff, To answer your question, it’s not unusual for all fittings to share similar designs. Some were popular themes offered for sale “off the peg”, often referred to as shiiremono (shop stock) or hamamono (things sold at the harbour). It doesn’t help that there were design books circulating with common themes so the same themes can crop up in different schools and with different methods of execution. To echo what Jean said, these don’t look like Goto quality work and I’d recommend having a Google of work by this school and artist to get a view on the type of quality you should look for.

Hi Soren, Thanks for the kind words but I’m an enthusiastic amateur who likes to try his luck. Others on here are way more competent.

Hi Khalid, Don’t speculate on swords that are for sale in Japan. The dealers there are best placed to promote swords up the rankings and if one is offered for sale without a particular paper, there’s a good chance it won’t get that paper, ever, even with a different polish. The Nio school isn’t a mainline school and so, unless this is a particularly good example, that will weigh heavily against it going Juyo. Try to find some Juyo examples to compare this one to and see how the quality compares.

Hi Nic, This guy has a shop in Cairns. You could drop him a line to see if he has or will look out for anything suitable. https://nihonto.com.au As regards the sword you’re looking at, you probably won’t make a loss should you sell it as it is bottom dollar. Not that that makes it a bad sword but there are many like it and there’s no need to rush to get this one before you know more about the subject and can make a more informed choice.

Nice shooting!

Hi CG, Welcome to NMB and to Japanese swords. Unfortunately it's hard to tell very much from the pictures - I'd agree that the sword is Edo period, it might be early Edo period around the Keicho period (1596 - 1615) as, what looks like, a larger tip would point in that direction (these blades were modelled on the shape seen in the Nambokucho period) though this is also a trait seen in shinshinto blades (1764 and later) when there was a second revivalist movement that favoured the same shape. The patina on the tang is quite a dark colour and that might indicate early Edo period but wouldn't be conclusive as environmental factors can prematurely age the tang. If you can try to get some detail shots of any activity in the tip, near the hardened edge and any activity of the folded steel then you might get a better pointer towards its age and where it was manufactured but I think it might be hard to be more exact given the spider rust and that it looks as though someone as taken an abrasive to it. Anyway, congratulations on owning your first Japanese sword and I hope that it's the first of many.

Hi Simon, the part regarding the date is from the Chinese sexagenary calendar. The kanji around it might give you something more specific but otherwise pick the most probable year from: kinoe-ne (甲子): 964, 1024, 1084, 1144, 1204, 1264, 1324, 1384, 1444, 1504, 1564, 1624, 1684, 1744, 1804, 1864, 1924, 1984

Hi Axel, I'd say that it was either a fukure (air pocket) that wasn't evident before the polish and was exposed by the polishing process or from the look of it, it might have been a flaw that was previously filled and some of the umegane has been dislodged during the polish - there's an area of slightly different coloured metal around the kizu. It's possible that this blade got papered before its last polish and that flaw wasn't evident or, because it isn't a "fatal flaw," it passed Hozon on the basis that most swords are "worthy of preservation" and will pass Hozon if they are geniune Japanese swords and, if signed, they aren't gimei.

Hi Caleb, WD40 or 3 in 1 oil will work or if they aren't available in the US, whatever mineral oils you have available for domestic use. Take the fittings off the blade, oil it liberally and then wrap in newspaper and leave it alone for a couple of weeks. That should kill any active rust and some of it will come off when you take the paper off. If there's still any red rust, repeat as necessary until what remains is black in colour. Don't do this with the tang though as that patina is an indicator of the blade's age and should be left there. As has been said above, resist the urge to take any modern abrasive to the blade as that will kill whatever value it has. If you have patience, buy a couple of good quality uchiko balls and use those on it a couple of times a week once the rust has settled down. Over time that will remove a bit more of the rust and bring out some of the detail in the blade that you can enjoy.

Thanks Jean!

Nice Seax! Sorry Jean, but how does the Viking seax differ from the Saxon version? 👍👍