runagmc

Here's a discussion on Sa Yukihide if you haven't seen it already...

http://www.nihontomessageboard.com/niho ... sc&start=0

I'd say chu-kissaki and.... mabey sue-koto... mabey sue-bizen. Just a guess...

Polishing depends on what your friends goal is... sell for profit or keep. If he plans to sell I doubt he would recoup the expenses for the restoration... although because he got it for free it might be possible.

Thanks Jacques, that clears up some of my questions about this lineage.

I don't know if this will help, but here's a website that has some stuff...

http://www.learn-hiragana-katakana.com/ ... -hiragana/

It would be interesting to see how tempering affects levels of nie, brightness of nioi-guchi, and other activities. You'd have to polish the blade before tempering and then again after. I wonder if this has ever been done.

It does look well finished. Has anyone seen the cross-hatch in the middle circle of the kiku mon before?

(Or at least thats what it looks like...)

The shape of the nakago looks similar, and it's kind of an uncommon shape...

If thats the belly then why are the flames going over what would be the shoulder just like on the back leg and just like it normally would. As I said, to me it looks like the engraver made a mistake and then tried to cover it up.

Hey Alan,

If I am not mistaken, this is what I said.

 

Cheers,

Martin, I think Alan was pointing out that yaki-ire would be considered hardening rather than tempering and yaki-modoshi would be considered tempering.

It's very easy to get the terms mixed up. Even knowledgable people do it all the time.

#3 was probably suppose to be the back foot but look again. It appears to have 2 front arms coming out of the same spot. It looks to me like the engraver made a mistake.

Am I the only one who sees this?

.JPG]

Are my eyes playing tricks on me or does the dragon on omote have 3 front legs? Horimono looks kind of amaturish to me... chippy and unfinished looking.

I've never heard of polishing around a horimono either. Would be nearly impossible.

There's an Osafune Norimitsu wakizashi on this page from Kansho period about 60 years after yours. It's nicer than yours w/ tokubetsu hozon papers and listed for 1,800,000 yen. Like everything on this site, it's over priced in my opinion.

Here's the link: click on the word swords for the pics...

http://www.choshuya.co.jp/1/0806/index.htm

I believe shodai Sengo Muramasa had a son that signed Masazane.

Any more pics?

Shinae? Kinda weird looking... looks like there's a little corrosion in the cracks making them look deep.

I would think they would see lots of blades in bad polish... not at shinsa, but just in their everyday life, being sword experts. I guess you would know better than me though...

It might have been nice at one point, but unfortunatly it looks like someone has been using it as a garden tool. It also looks like it has had some bad polish jobs were the polisher didn't keep the proper shape. I don't mean to be a bring down for you...

Hey, at least it's not a Chinese fake...

It would probably cost $1000-$2000 to have it properly restored...

It's hard to say what it is in its current condition...

They may not see Showato often, but I bet they see plenty of Nihonto in bad polish. I can't imagine the polish being the reason here.

First off, nagamaki naoshi and naginata naoshi are not actually forms of suguta. It's just an often misused label. Read this post for a discussion on the subject:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10208

For U-no-kubi and Kanmuri Otoshi zukuri differences read here:

http://meiboku.info/guide/form/zukuri/index.htm

I don't see any hadori work, I just see the habuchi/nioiguchi...

Just to be clear Stuart, the blade IS a traditionally made Japanese sword. I don't think looking at it as a repro is really the right idea. The quality of everything and validity of the signature are questionable. I see some good signs and some bad signs from the pics. Like Grey said your best bet is to find somebody to view the sword in person. If you can't do that and you don't feel comfortable taking the risk mabey you should return it. At the end of the day it's your decision. Sorry we couldn't give you a more definitive answer.

Shinsa teams should give a more thorough explaination about their judgement. Or any explaination at all would be great

Looks sue-bizen (late koto bizen)

It looks to me from the limited pictures and info that you got a fair deal even if it didn't belong to the Admiral and even if the blade is gimei (gimei means bearing a false mei or signature).

If you decide you don't want it, I think you would be able to sell it for as much as you paid. Thats assuming the blade has no 'fatal flaws'. It could even be worth more. It's just impossible to say for sure from pictures.

BTW__ the mei (signature) does look like KANEMOTO. Jean was just pointing out that it doesn't look like a signature from one of the smiths of the Kanemoto lineage in Mino province that started around the late 1400's. He also pointed out that it could be either a different smith who signed Kanemoto or a false signature.

Be aware that you should take everything you've been told on here as our opinions and not the absolute facts.

Chris, you say you have an opinion so I assume you don't know the age for sure either sure. Is this the case or are we gonna get a definite answer?

Yes, kanemoto looks right. My mistake