Kronos

If O-suriage then the koshi-sori would mainly be near the original machi so it fits. The only thing I can think of is that #1 isn't ubu and/or #2 is suriage and not O-suriage.

Can we get some measurements when you post the answer? If I'm wrong on at least one I'll change my answer for #4 to Oei.

1. Kanbun 2. late kamakura 3. Mid nanbokucho 4. Mid kamakura #4 is particularly difficult to place precisely in the kamakura although it has a feeling of rai.

I'd like a decent picture of the nakago if possible to be sure, it looks like it's been cleaned or at least there's something iffy with it.

I must of missed this thread the first time around. Japanese, Edo or perhaps even later, terrible amateur polish plus recent abuse. I really don't understand the calls for chinese. this is clearly infinitely better than anything that has ever come out of china and even at the very worst would be a modern western made blade by a proper swordsmith (it is not). I am quite disappointed in the forum for the bad calls. It's either keicho shinto or Bakumatsu/early meiji imho with the possibility of Gendaito in this style. Measurements etc and good photo's would be needed to say anything more.

It's always nice to know but when it comes to things guarded by the annals of time you have to accept that many times you cannot know for sure so shinsa is just a best guess. It's not so important in the grand scheme of things to know your blade was made by a guy who you know practically nothing about or his brother who you also know nothing about. After all, why do you want a blade by this particular guy other than quality?

I'm of the opinion that if the blade is good enough to pass as the master it might as well of been made by the master. After all if Masamitsu for example could make a sword as well as O-Kanemitsu then his work should be just as valuable/appreciable so does it matter which hand crafted it if the quality was there? The reason these famous smiths are famous is because of the quality they churned out so a poor example is imho no better than a sword by an also-ran smith of the day. This is of course by direct students not utsushi of old Koto masterpeices by shinto smiths etc.

Sugata por favor.

I think the problem is that you're only looking at those 3 aspects so your argument is full of fallacies while your entire premise is a strawman as no one is arguing that the sarute loop doesn't rest on the ridge cap etc an example: 1: All sarute loops on gunto's rest on the pommel cap 2: The sarute loop is resting on the pommel cap 3: Therefore this is a Gunto. Substitute for: 1: All nihonto are made of Steel 2: The golden Gate Bridge is made of Steel 3 Therefore the Golden Gate Bridge is a nihonto. and you begin to see the cherry picking of certain aspects without taking the entire gunto into consideration. It is not for us to provide examples of other chinese fakes which conform to your rules, but rather for you to provide real gunto that differ where this chinese fake does.

Forget the koshirae which has many errors, the blade itself is just plain wrong. Once the chinese learn to make bo-hi/a kissaki that doesn't look absolutely awful then there may be something to worry about but not until then.

Thats a very good price for imho one of a select few essential books (all the rest under $400 are by Markus )

It seems to begin Bizen Kuni but can't see the rest of the signature clearly. For the date it might be: (X) 永三年十二月日 where X is unknown to me. It may be easier for you to look here: http://www.jssus.org/nkp/koto.html And try to match a date as there's only a handful of possibilities with 永 (ei) As the second Kanji. I could be wrong ofcourse as it probably looks much clearer in hand.

As in just shortening the Nakago and leaving the blade as is? I'm only familiar with one reason and that being to fit it into different mounts, to fit in kyu-gunto mounts for example. I suppose another practical reason would be for single handed use as an uchigatana although I haven't heard of this happening. Speaking more broadly blades were shortened for many reasons, for example: If a fatal flaw developed near the nakago the rest of the blade could be saved for use. Cutting down long tachi from the kamakura that were designed for mounted combat to be practical with the changing nature of warfare. When changing owners to better suite the new owner. To fit the sword laws introduced by the Tokugawa. There are probably a couple more but they're the main ones.

100% not a koto. The photo showing the whole sword is at a strange angle so afer another look I'm leaning more to 1800's and less to kanbun-shinto but it's still between those two. It's an odd shape either way and a bit off anything textbook.

I did have a long post written with reasoning but deleted it by accident but imho it's kanbun shinto with a slight possibility of being early meiji.

That umetada yanone... simply stunning.

Very interesting piece, particularly because of the kasane which goes against every single book that states O-tanto from this period had thin kasane's. A point that continues to onfuse me as I see many with thick Kasane's (nothing like this though). I expect it to sell very quickly.

Aha yes, that is the same sword I came across on sho-shin just as I got to morikage and decided to look up some more examples. As for the kaeri I think there is some variations in morikage's work that I've seen who's period of work lasted over 30 years so not necessarily a much altered kissaki.

Just as I found my answer I think I may have found this actual sword or at least the spitting image of it. So I will use spoiler tags. I hate to be boring but what can you do when you agree with others.

As a newbie who stuck around we do exist and I feel the learned members of this forum have helped me immeasurably and the pushing to do my own research means that I don't struggle quite as much reading kanji etc

I'm on holiday so have no books and can't really see the photo on my phone but I'd go with soden bizen nanbokucho but no idea on a smith.

Well done Jean, very nice :clap: What made you decide on those particular swords/smiths to represent each Gokaden?

Got a link to the auction?

Out of interest, if you submit for Hozon and TBH simultaneously and it fails Hozon, do you get charged the Toku-Hozon submission fee?

Like Joe said for a Koto tanto $1000 is very low, most in any semblance of polish that you could actually study would be $1500 minimum for a mediocre sue-seki etc. Maybe a Wakizashi? You can get a lot more for your money, Either that or save up a little more?