runagmc

Hi, your wakizashi was likely made in the 1400-1500s in Mino province, where there were many smiths using names starting in 兼KANE. The second kanji looks a little strange to me, but Morita-san says it's Kanehiro, so you can bet he's right... (I can see it, but it looks like there are extra strokes or something) ---- Anyway... Even though this sword is probably not worth so much out of polish (or even in polish- 2 - 3 grand?), it could be a nice looking ubu Mino wakizashi if restored by someone who will do it right... You can read many posts here about the right and wrong ways to restore. Basically --- don't, unless you're trained... other than oiling and keeping clean the blade. BTW, it has enough potential not to go chopping limbs with it... ... in other words, it should be preserved...

These two kanji are very important to have in your memory bank...

Gabriel, in case you haven't been on the site lately, some work has been done... although, it still may not be the most user friendly site... but wth the amount of info he covers, it's certainly understandable, I think...

The restrictions put on modern Japanese tosho is something that is hard for me to understand. I've heard that it's the goverments way of maintaining quality... but, If you drop price- certainly demand would increase... but with more work comes decline in qaulity. Of course, if tosho could sell as many as they wanted (traditional materials allowing), competition submissions and recent work would prove that their ability is at a certain level, and quality expectations could be handled on a piece by piece basis by customer and tosho - price being determined by quality... or vice versa, if a customers budget was set. The question is, would a tosho make lesser qaulity works for customers on a budget? I would think yes, since I think many shinken made for martial artists are not top quality and therefore, less expensive... Anyway, I don't know where I'm trying to go , but are these kind of government restrictions put on other traditional artist in Japan?

Jacques, they are all "handicrafts" and weapons... and they basically all have some level of artistic (or aesthetic) qualities to them. It goes without saying that some have more (or better) aesthetic qualities than others... You seem to think arts and crafts just appeared out of thin air - NO... they are all man-made although, some use elements of nature... which, in itself, can very often be aesthetically pleasing... P.S. +1 for all of Gabriels posts so far... :D

Sorry for the multiple posts... I also wanted to say, I have a few books that are basically dedicated to oshigata, and the competency of the artist who did the art work, and the quality of the printing are a MAJOR factor. These two things basically determine the usefulness of oshigata, IMO...

Also, this is the converter I use for the Japanese I can't read, http://nihongo.j-talk.com/ ...and I have been trying to learn the language through a site called japanesepod101.com... they have a free search dictionary that is pretty good... Both seem to be good resurces...

Chris, for opening this thread, I have been trying to hint at online study (especially for new people) every since I joined on NMB. I have a small library of books and a MASSIVE digital one. I hardly even look at the books, although there are many books I would love to own if I had money to burn (just like swords). Basically, I haven't collected many swords or books, but spent countless hours studying (and collect study material) online. People without large funds who have an interest can find an endless amount of research material online. If we ever wanted to compile a collection of pics, it seems we would need to have a file naming sequence for the files (school, common smith name, mei and nengo of sword, paper level, etc.) is how I have tried to do mine. Also, to Gabriel and Stan for their work on Nihontoclub.com. Also, sho-shin.com has a ridiculous amount of info, as well as others too many to name here.

That will be good... then we will hopefully be able to tell better what you have, and what you should do with it... The shape looks pretty crisp, which is always a good sign, so maybe it will end up nice...

It looks like the habaki wasn't replaced after machi-okuri either... Also, does anyone have pictures of a nakago that they know for sure has fire scale? Just as reference...

Should fire scale be filed off after yakinaoshi? Would it be removable by a brass wire brush or something? Seems weird someone would go to the trouble of rehardening a sword, and then leave fire scale on the nakago... It does look unusual though...

Hi Vern, inscriptions on the nakago mune aren't common, but are seen sometimes.. About the gold stuff coating the blade... read here---> viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17639

Nicely put... Written material is essential to learning anything, but a picture is worth a thousand words... and experiencing something first-hand is worth even more... ...because you can usually believe your own two eyes :lol:

Hi Jacques, what you are saying is the same as what Darcy says... (at least to some point) -- Characteristics given in books (or by teachers) almost always have MANY, MANY exceptions - and often they can turn something that is even rare (Go = ichimai boshi), into something that is passed along as a "rule of kantei"... if you know what I mean... I am with Jean... you have to look at as many swords as you can (in hand, pics, oshigata... whatever you can) to see the truth... and it is almost always much more complex than the books make it sound If it were only that easy :D ... but then again, it might get boring if they always "stuck to the rules" Also, it's important (for me) to consider that much of what authors have stated as fact are just the stories that remain from a truth that is lost to time... if we only knew how many of the stories and attributions are completely wrong!

Just, FYI... It's worth noting that just because a sword has a false signature doesn't mean it's a bad sword. There are good swords with big names like this faked on the them...

So, I wonder when the lengthening began. Although, the sword George brought up, he says is 70cm, so that's a pretty big jump. George, can you comment on sugata ... does it have a shape that would make you think it was used as a tachi. I know it's hard to say since the shape varied so much, but... maybe if you could get a sugata pic and nakago (& mei) pics maybe it would help the experts. Maybe it's just gimei...

Thanks for the link Alex. I missed that post at the time somehow, but I knew I had seen some examples in early paintings. It's an interesting subject... unfortunatly, I can't add anything meanful about how they would likely have been signed, if at all...

I read somewhere that uchigatana (worn edge up) were common, at least to some extent (I think for foot soldiers) much earlier than the time frame they are mostly associated with (mid/late Muromachi). If I remember right, they are seen in some early paintings, and maybe there are a few examples?.. but I think I remember reading almost no examples remain? (I personally don't understand this) To me, it would seem more likely that they were just not common, but I guess before I keep rambling about something I don't really know about, and don't remember well what I've read, and where, I'll just leave it at this - 1. How common is the uchigatana thought to have been in the Kamakura/Nambokucho periods? 2. Is it thought that they would have been signed on the omote? 3. Could George's sword be a somewhat early example of a sword worn edge up? I guess any info aout early uchigatana would be nice to have, if anyone has any to share or can site sources.

Just for learning purposes... What about the workmanship of the gassaku tanto? It looks like it could be sue Bizen to me. Is the conscensus that it IS sue Bizen, only very likely gimei?

Hi George, the way I look at it is the change happened with the change in the way they wore the tachi/kodachi vs uchigatana/katana/wakizashi... so probably hard to give a hard date...

Hi Martin, what was the menuki?

Hi Adrian, Personally, I don't really care if this happens or not, but I don't think Brian is attacking you at all - he is only stating the legitimate issues that there may, or may not be an answer for. If this project can't be done in a carefully planned, and relatively painless manner for the volunteers involved, then it's proably not worth it. Jumping into something like this and just hoping that everything works itself out would not be smart, IMO...

Hard for me to see too. MASAshige?

I like both sides , but the additional katakiri work on the back adds some originality.

I'm not sure I'd want a coarse material (at least it looks kinda coarse) to rest my highly polished Ichimonji on, though. Other than that, nice job. Also, if you search the forum, there have been some pretty extensive threads on photography I think...