Geraint

Dear Charles. Not Satsuma rebellion/okashi-to, have a look here for a reference for those, these are an attempt to rebind in the west without knowing what they should look like. Olvia, welcome to NMB! Could we have some more photographs of the bare blades of both swords, and of course any more of te fittings. Can we also have some sizes, specifically from the tip to the notch on the bacl of the blade where the habaki sits? As Stehen has suggested the larger sword has the look of a kinno-to or royalist sword from the Shinshinto period, 19th centruy. Looking forward to some more pictures. All the best.

Dear Georg. Just noticed this one for your comparison. http://www.sanmei.com/contents/media/T246211_S1984_PUP_E.html Very similar koshirae. All the best.

Dear Bruce. As Brian suggest the photography has a part to play here. Just to elaboate on what I suggested above, what we are looking at are swords that have been preserved properly and have then made it through the pool of available blades to papering and are now for sale on commercial sites. Any sword, unless of great age and importance with what you describe as, " an ugly, corroded nakago", probably would have been selected out by this process. Set aside the Yamato Shizu which is o suriage and forgetting for a moment that the 'Muromachi' blade is a Hizen Tadahiro and Shinto, what you have are a group of swords that have been properly cared for over their lives. The Tadahiro as an example would have been a very expensive sword right from the start and would have been treasured as such. The Shinshinto example is showing the classic signs of what happens in the right circumstances, what Nakahara describes as, "..the natural patina (from handling) has been preserved and is gradually spreading like moss growing on the surface of a garden. Eventually, the entire nakago will become evenly covered in a deep patina". In this context the rust around the kanji are the beginning of the process, not the result of cleaning. He suggests that this deep smooth patina is the result of handling and provides a protection against agressive rust. The nakago of the Yamato Shizu has that patina but also some pitting, we don't know when it was shortened but essentially all the nakago we can now see was originally blade. The uniform patina, which you see as smoothing, is the original surface after suriage with some subsequent pitting. All the best.

Just some ponints to consider here: Aoi Art works with stock in Japan and in almost all cases these swords have been looked after better than some in the West so the nakago patina is less marred by active rust. They also stock swords from all periods, increasingly more recent ones so nakago from Shinshinto might well look very clean, from WWII swords even more so, shinsakuto of course. Cleaned nakgo are a big downpoint so any swords that had been so abused would have had the patina restored. I have seen clean nakago on the website, but not cleaned, and no Japanese polisher would ever do such a thing. Hope that helps. All the best.

Dear Daniel. Glad someone on the NMB snagged that one, I think it's very well done, even more so when you regard the back of it, you can almost hear the hooves on the bridge planks! Congratulations! All the best.

Dear Rodriguez. Commenting on all of your posts about this sword, first of all a ko wakizashi would typically have a nagasa of just over 30cms, as Jean pointed out in one of your threads we don't have a nagasa but it certainy seems well over 30 cms so just a wakizashi in this case. At first glance the tsuba appears to be shakudo and the fittings are pleasant and I would suggest mid range. Nice habaki, Bruce will want a photograph of that for sure. You do not suggest that the nakago is machi okuri so we assume ubu but the nakago is quite long. The low shinogi is a point but many swords would follow this form. Lastly there are quite a few smiths signing this way, both Koto and Shinto so pinning down the time frame would help but in order to get to the specifc smith you are probably going to have a struggle. All the best.

Dear John. It seems clear that this is orikaeshi mei, if the idea of tanzaku mei comes form the torokusho then I think we can safely ignore it. All the best.

Dear Chris. First off, this is a Japanese sword as opposed to a reproduction. You say 24" length, does that include the tang, the nakago? If so then it is a wakizashi, a katana if 24" from tip to the notch where the nakago starts. I can quite see why Grey suggests the Dremel as the picture does suggest that however having the luxury of a touch screen when I zoom in a little I would have to respectfully disagree and say that this has been cut with a chisel but the guy sure used a lot of hammer blows! None of this confirms your sword as a genuine mei by one of the many smiths who signed this way, bear in mind that there are quite few generations. Some members have devoted quite a lot of study time to this school and will be able to offer an informed opinion. Meanwhile can we have an overall shot of the entire blade please? All the best.

Dear John. Jussi is referring to the nakago jiri, a close look will confirm whether the signature is gaku mei, a separate piece of metal with the mei inlaid into the nakago, or orikaeshi mei, a thinned section with the mei folded over and inlaid. We have been referring to this as tanzaku mei which is usually a term that applies to small pieces of metal fixed into the back of menuki, it's not a usage I have come across with sword signatures. Gaku mei are very prone to be false signatures, arguably orikaeshi mei less so. I have convinced myself that this sword is orikaeshi mei and look forward to seeing where you go with this decision. All the best.

The one Dave.R posted is mine and both it and a similar kaigunto with a wakizashi blade are in the thread that Bruce linked. Both are early examples from shape and materials so it would seem that they were by choice rather than necessity. Keep 'em coming folks! All the best.

Dear Adam. Check out the website here, https://www.japanswordart.com/ While I have not dealt with him I seem to recall a sword with red lacquered hi a year or so back. Nice one. All the best.

Dear Dan. I would respectfully suggest that you are thinking of collecting swords from a particular smith or school, a perfectly valid collecting goal, rather than assembling a daisho. I confess that I get the same urge when I see another sword by a smith whose work I already own and admire though I do not have the means to pursue that idea in any meaningful way. It has all been said above but two swords by the same maker are not in any real sense a daisho unless specific evidence points to the fact that they were made that way. The same is true for tsuba, with some of the more commonplace designs it is relatively easy to find two very similar examples and, voila, they are a daisho. At that level the concept is meaningless, find a pair of kinko tsuba whose design might not be identical but were clearly made as a daisho pair from the start and we are talking a different ball game. If you like the work of the smith in question then buying the wakizashi will give you a basis for comparative study and a chance to start to get under the skin of the maker, who knows, perhaps that will start a collecting journey. Let us know how this turns out for you. All the best.

Dear Vladimir. Welcome to NMB! Your sword is a genuine Japanese wakizashi and the papers seem to be genuine also, though I'm afraid I cannot easily read them. Don't worry, someone will soon.. The mounts are reasonable, with a Namban tsuba. However, you say that you are seeking to use the sword for investment purposes, with this in mind most people will tell you that an unsigned wakizashi, even with papers, is not the way to go. This is a collectable sword but given past trends it will not likely increase very much in value over the short term. Others will advise you better on this but to get some idea of current prices look at the Dealer section of the forum and see what you could get for similar amounts of money. Others will add more information soon. All the best.

Dear Mojmir. There have been few responses to your post, partly because it is the holiday season and partly because there is very little that can be seen from this sword and your photographs. We can see that it is a wakizashi, genuine, in mounts. It seems to have a longer kissaki but even that is hard to see. To be able to say anything meaningful for an out of polish unsigned wakizashi is not possible. If the sword is yours and you can see anything of hamon or boshi then please do tell us, that might help. Happy New Year. All the best.

Dear Neil. I can't clearly make out the mei from your photographs but The last two kanji are the smiths name and that is Amahide, I think the rest will define him as this man, https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/AMA8 It's a nice thing, however, while as Bruce has said your intentions are admirable in wishing to return the sword to the family of it's owner two things stand in your way; firstly, there is no way of identifying the officer who carried it, and secondly even if you could find out who to return it to they would most likely not be interested. Your best course of action would be to make it the foundation of your own collection, you have already started on the research quest after all, or to pass it on to another collector who will care for it as it deserves. All the best. (George beat me to the punch but if you combine our posts you get most of it.)