Geraint

Welcome back Dale! All the best.

Dear William. A significant number of Japanese swords came back to the UK at the end of WWII, most were swords produced specifically for the war using different manufacturing techniques to the process used to produce traditional swords. The Seki stamp on yours and the date range make it one of these. In more recent years such swords have been collected and examples have been brought into the country but given the missing mounts yours has probably been here since the end of the war. They were little regarded during the time following 1945, one collector's story speaks of going to see a sword and finding the fence beside the garden path made up of blades stuck into the ground with a wire threaded through the mekugi ana, the fittings had been stripped off and sold for scrap. Your sword would once have looked like this: If all you need is this thread then so be it but if you find yourself interested then perhaps consider joining the Token Society of Great Britain, easy to find on the web. If you want to do some research then this sword would be a Shingunto, pop that in a browser and you will find a ton of information. Great place to start would be: http://ohmura-study.net/900.html All the best.

Dear Kim. Welcome to NMB! Your approach to this sword is very good and will stand you in good stead in the future. To give some more detail, first picture shows a poorly shaped tsuba with a suspect hole in it, perhaps the copyist was trying to mimic a kozuka ana. The blade has a weak overall shape and the area around the kissaki/point has poor geometry. The nakago is again badly shaped and the signature is cut, metal has been chiseled out of the blade whereas Japanese swords are signed by chasing where a punch dents the metal, none is removed, and the repetitive strokes are clearly visible. The grain of the steel is crude and very obvious, hada/grain on Japanese swords can vary between almost invisible and quite clear but on this sword it seems almost to have a texture to it. The tsuka/hilt does not align well with the overall shape of the mounts, compare to the example that Alexi linked to, and is itself poorly shaped, it seems to wiggle. The fittings are close copies but not the right shapes, especially the menuki and the hangers on the saya/scabbard. The tsuka ito/binding is badly done, skinny and not laced or knotted correctly. You say you did not pay very much for this sword so in the long run this might be a fairly cheap learning experience. I am sure that we all wish you a much more interesting sword next time around. All the best.

Dear Jeremy. David is spot on with advice about not judging sori from the koshirae, after all it is a description of a feature of the sugata of the blade. I have a wakizashi where the habaki is made in such a way that when mounted the sword looks like koshizori but on its own it is clearly not. All the best.

Dear............. Or a tanto of course. The punch marks are securing/concealing two soft metal plugs that have been inserted to fill holes drilled in the tsuba. Sometimes tsuba were repurposed and a couple of screw holes drilled to fasten them to something. Edit to add. Hmm. When I look at all the photographs on the listing I can't see any sign of the holes on the face of the tsuba and although invisible repairs are a possibility they certainly weren't for the person who did the work on the back so perhaps not screw holes but stopped holes for some other purpose. All the best.

Dear Simon. Sorry to add to your disappointment, it is always a shame when this happens. Referencing your FB post and this one the 'ring' test is one that surfaces from time to time, coming I believe from an early 20th century article which suggest that a dull sound should lead you to,'suspect a cast or broken piece'. I have found that cast iron rings well unless it is cracked. Another point to note is that an 18th century piece that has survived this long without showing any signs of having been mounted on a sword needs careful examination, not to say that these things don't happen but it should focus you on the nakago ana whereupon the distinctive bottle shape should ring alarm bells. I do hope that you will have something positive in the way of feedback from the seller. All the best.

Dear Nathaniel. With regard to your specific question regarding NBTHK classification I am unable to help you but simply from an observation of the blade I would suggest that this sugata was originally made just as it now is. To describe it as 'naginata naoshi' is to say that it has the form of such a blade, not to describe its history. All the best.

Dear Gerry. I don't think there is a simple answer but all polearms suffer from the sheer inconvenience of the length of the pole from the point of view of transport and storage. As a result the blade is often separated from the koshirae, which is a shame. I have come across three yari fairly recently which come with their saya but not the pole, they now have what I suppose I should call shirasaya poles, much shorter than the originals but sufficient to protect the blades which are in their original saya. Several of the pole arm blades that I have seen for sale are fitted with shirasaya, sometimes quite elaborate but always with a short pole just sufficient to house the nakago. I do not recall ever having seen a tsunagi fitted to a yari koshirae but as with everything in this field I am sure they exist. Not directly relevant to your question but I have a fine yari which has been mounted in tanto koshirae and that has both tsunagi and shirasaya. All the best.

Dear John. I do not think the plate was/is ever welded in, simply inlaid and secured by the edges. Given that fire welding was the only available option for gaku mei the necessary force would destroy the mei and make the process useless. All the best.

Aaaannndd back to the sword! First picture seems to show a forward stoop from the monuchi, as though is has been struck against something pretty solid. Just the photograph? Or possibly just my eyes. All the best.

Dear Adam. Just a wild hunch but is it the same saya that you love? A nice sword indeed! All the best.

Dear All. Thank you for your contributions and to Okan for sharing his tsuka. If you are not familiar with Kunishige then this excellent article of Peter Dekker may be of interest, https://www.mandarin...ary/hirado-kunishige Edit to add: Alex, our posts crossed but I do remember that tsuba well. As for the dragon theme you are right, an NBTHK article says of him,'For an artist, Kunishige did not much vary his motives (sic) because almost all of his works show this subject of a tamaoi-ryu.' (trans: Markus Sesko) Having said that Okan's rather wonderful fuchi kashira show shachihoko, perhaps more suited to the space. All the best.

Dear All. Very pleased to have received this one in the post today, much better in hand than the rather sketchy photographs would indicate. The patina appeared washed out in the photographs but is a lovely deep brown, there are scattered silver and shakudo inlays of shells on the carved wave background and the obligatory dragons and sacred gems. I have long fancied to add one like this to my collection but assumed they would be forever out of reach. Somehow this one slipped through the auction net and is now mine, just wanted to share it with you as I know some here are interested in this school. Enjoy! All the best.

Dear Grev. As regards the second tsuba what is portrayed is a garden hut; thatched roof supported by wooden pillar and bamboo fence. Given time the shakudo will heal and it will look much better It hink. All the best.

Dear Jason. I agree that it's an unusual feature but not altogether unheard of. https://www.ricecrac...471_tsuba_jingo.html Enjoy the journey!