Geraint

Wonderful koshirae Bruce, thank you for sharing. The method of fixing the mei on the menuki is called tanzaku and is not that uncommon. All the best.

Dear Marcin. Three online examples all show a well shaped nakago. which this does not seem to be, with sujikai yasurime and kurijiri. The mei is cut with a more relaxed and flowing style than this example displays. I suppose it is possible that there is another Norihide.......... All the best.

Thank you for the correction Moriyama san. That, of course, makes much more sense. All the best. Geraint

Dear Brandon. Just to get the ball rolling, your tsuba is in copper with a specific technique known as katakiribori describing the engraving. The first two characters of the signature read Soten, the third is a kao or personal monogram. If you do some research then you will quickly see that the Soten school has a particular style that became very popular but is very different to your tsuba. Others with more knowledge of the school will be able to tell us if this is genuine or if the signature is fake. Either way this is a pleasant tsuba and it will probably have started you down the rabbit hole. Enjoy! All the best Geraint.

Dear G. Well so far this is not a military sword but rather a katana in samurai mounts. At the top of the page is a link to image resizing software that might help with adding more images but from what we have the scabbard or saya is covered with lacquered same, a type of ray skin. The soft metal fittings on the hilt ar probably shakudo, a Japanese alloy that is usually patinated to a blue=black colour though someone has had a go with the metal polish and ruined that. You need to take the sword apart, a routine process for Japanese swords but this one might be a tad awkward if it has been in storage for a long time. Some research will tell you how to do this but basically there is a single tapered bamboo peg through the hilt or tsuka, push or tap this from the smaller end and when it is out you should be able to remove the tsuka, keep a note of the order in which the parts come off. There may be a signature, there may not but don't do more than a gentle wipe with a cloth and send us the photographs. Looking forward to seeing what emerges. All the best. Geraint

Dear Brendan. Some information on your smith, I regret I did not record the source, apologies for that. A search will almost certainly get you more information. . 兼高 Kanetaka (松田 高市 Matsuda Takaichi) Born: Meiji 44 (1911) Sept 16; Reg: Showa 14 (1939) Oct 26. 1937: Bugi-gun, Seki-machi, Aza naka-machi. 1939: Seki-machi, Naka-machi. Deshi in 1937: 1. History: trained from Taisho 13 (1924) under Kojima Kanetoki (Kanemichi). Independent Showa 5 (1930) May. Hawley: KAN 2419 Example mei: Kanetaka 兼高 Noshu Seki ju Matsuda Kanetaka saku 濃州関住松田兼高作 All the best.

Dear Jack. I cannot speak to your menuki, no photograph, but the examples that Jake posted have honzogan or true inlay gold stripes. No paint here! You can see that the fur marks are made across the shakudo and gold in places. All the best.

Dear Colin. I can quite see where you are going with the Umetada idea; brush stroke shapes to flat inlay. Equally Kaga zogan with the flat inlay in a soft metal base, however the design elements do not suggest Kaga to me. Rather they recall the sort of work one might see in Yokoya school designs in katakiri bori which would fit with the dates of your maker. All the best.

Not helping Matt but just for information I have both Kai gunto and Shingunto with older wakizashi blades. Is that what we have here? All the best.

The miss assembly goes further than just upside-down, the outer sleeve of the habaki is the right way up the inside is reversed. I am surprised that worked but it seems to have. I bet the smith is groaning, you get your work published and then someone does that to it. All the best.

Dear Dave. GPT is doing you no favours here, nothing to do with bayonets. However I can through no light on the habaki, it is something I have not seen in more years of study than I care to reveal. Looking forward to what this throws up. All the best.

Dear Victoria. For your tsuba compare here, specifically the second tsuba illustrated, I don't know quite how to phrase this but the source of your current purchase usually issues certificates which are of no use to anyone and is at the top end of the market, tread carefully. If you ever get down to the far west again let me know and come visit. All the best.

Dear Mason. Personally I would go for umegane on this one. There seems to have been a rather unfortunate longitudinal delamination which someone has thought to obscure, not quite achieving a match for the original metal. The rather sharp edges and regular shape along with traces of the delamination at both ends lead me to this conclusion. All the best.

Dear Dee. A longshot from me. I cannot see a space for a kogai though there is a slot for a kozuka and a corresponding hitsu in the tsuba. One of the seppa is gold foiled, the other looks like a replacement. I agree the binding is not a good look for this sword. The hanging ring appears to be integral with a fitting that encircles the saya and includes a kurikata, all in nanako. One possible direction is that around the Boshin war samurai were wearing Western dress, or an approximation thereof, and sometimes rather unusual sword hangers. I wonder if this fitting could have been made to allow both a traditional position in the obi and a European style carry with the edge down, either as a modification to an existing koshirae or perhaps as the koshirae was assembled. Have a look at the first picture in this link, https://sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/51310/samurai-guns Also this wonderful example, https://www.toukenkomachi.com/index_en_tachi&katana_A040720.html You might also search around toppei koshirae, a form I enjoy. Edit to follow on from Marcin's post. I do not think the example in Dee's post has anything to do with Gunto, unless of course it has a Showa blade. All the best.

Dear John. Thoughts not answers but..... Matched hitsu in the form for kogai is not a feature of Kinai work generally. The scrolls are stylistically a little removed from typical Kinai work and seem to be honzogan rather than nunome zogan. The seppa dai is rather koban shaped for Kinai work. Oh, and the fact that Kinai examples usually have the design firmly contained within a mimi. There is this one,https://japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/tsuba-kodogu/t227-amazing-echizen-kinai-tsuba-5th-generation/ Although the design takes us straight to Kinai I would guess that this is one of those cases where design does not equal school. By the way I love it! All the best.

Dear Steven. What makes you think it is Koto? All the best.

Ahh Piers! So near and yet so far! I hope at least that the visiting relatives make the sacrifice worthwhile. All the best.

Dear Malcolm. In the UK the process of amalgam gilding is usually referred to as fire gilding on the basis that the mercury portion of the amalgam is driven off by heating to leave the gold deposit, obviously a dangerous process. As far as I understand it from the perspective of furniture history the same process is used for ormolu. I believe that the work on iron usually associated with Komai was in fact nunome zogan involving the application of soft metals to iron relying on the roughened ground to physically key the metals to each other. I am not able to see exactly what your box is like but the samples I have, one box included, are iron with a gilt interior and the design in nunome zogan on the exterior. It is possible to see a very slightly raised area where the ground had had the nunome zogan applied. I have come across work intended to look the same but where the ground has been etched and the resulting surface filled with something black but not metallic thus creating an easier look alike technique. A magnet test would confirm what the base metal is of course. I have not come across the term that Piers has found, Fuji zogan, but perhaps that is a reference to the area of production somewhat in the way that we speak of Nagoya mono. Some years ago my Father in law had a splendid vesta case made in Japan, the iron case inlaid most beautifully in what I would have called takazogan and he had been told by a well known auction house that the work was called obi kirime, which I assumed was 'belt cutting' and referred to the group of works rather than to the specific technique. Hope some of that helps. All the best. P.S. Enjoy DTI, can't find the green with envy emoji but take it as read.

Dear Jack. I think Marcin is essentially correct. As you observe most menuki have a rectangular post with four supports at each face which is silver soldered into the menuki, as distinct from brazing. I have never noted any signs of brazing but sometimes it is possible to see that the silver solder has spread around the back of the menuki. You will see variations, some round posts and sometimes a star formed support in place of the four rectangles. The back of the menuki should be slightly radiused so that they fit well against the rounded tsuka and often you will find a depression in the same to seat the post which should protrude beyond the radiused back, the post sitting in the depression helps to prevent the menuki moving out of place under the ito and supports the often thin metal of the menuki itself. Quite often you will see menuki which have been filled with a composition to provide additional support. Given the process of forming menuki, uchidashi, then it follows that the supports cannot be fitted until virtually the end of the making process, before patination. Menuki of very thin metal, often poorly trimmed and with one or more very thin posts rather like a pin are later pressings made in large quantities at the end of the Meiji period and into the 20th century. Hope that helps. All the best.

Dear All. Just to add a little to the theme, search for 'Hirata Donin' and more results will emerge which very much affirm the idea that this tsuba is not from that school. In particular there is a reference on an earlier NMB thread by Guido to this link, https://archive.org/details/cu31924023433349/page/n139/mode/2up Turn to page 102 for the school. Still interested to see where we go with any attribution for Jake's tsuba. All the best.

Dear James. You have posted images of two swords, does the signature relate to the one in the metal scabbard/saya? If so then there appears to be a small stamp above the signature which confirms that it is a WWII blade, as Ray has already suggested. The other sword with the leather covered scabbard/saya and the pierced guard/tsuba is perhaps rather different, do you have an image of the tang/nakago for that one? All the best.

Dear Nathaniel. I believe this is Echizen no kami Nobuyoshi,(but I had to turn the picture the right way up to read!) All the best.

Dear Alex. Just to complete the tale Kevin who used to run Ryujin Swords stepped back from the business a year or two back. It was a shame as his website was very useful. All the best.

Dear Alex. There are some few spots near the mimi where losses would indicate nunome zogan, is Kaga not known for honzogan? All the best.

Dear Mark. Good start, 'Bizen Kuni (no)ju Osafune'. That would be followed usually by the smith's name. Without seeing the whole of the nakago we can't add much but the ridge you note is almost certainly paret of the process of adjusting the nakago during the shortening process. The mei is quite distinctively cut so you just might find a match, it will take a bit of looking though. Of course we want to see more of the sword. All the best.