Geraint

Dear Alex. No guesses regarding papers but the top row, extreme right represents wakamizu, the first drawing of the well water at the NewYear. All the best. .

Dear Ron. The only question is why did you pick it up? All the best.

DearJack. Welcome to NMB. I am sure many people will offer suggestions but just for starters here are a couple. First off, information, https://www.shibuiswords.com/ Lots of good stuff here but as you will quickly see there are few if any rules in play and it is hard to understand just who made a tsuba without a lot of practice. Of course signed ones help and there are many for sale which have papers which attribute them to a school or indeed a maker. If you go to the Nihonto Info tab at the top of the page and then to Links you wil find a ready stock of usefull resources. Check out the For Sale section here and have a look at a couple of websites such as, https://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/Tsuba-&-Kodogu and http://www.nihonto.us/ As I said, many more to choose from in the links. Enjoy the journey! All the best. Geraint

Wow Chris. Instant collection. Off the bat the second one, wakizashi or tanto in civil mounts is signed Uda Kunimitsu. Good find! The first one looks interesting, possibly Shinshinto and obviously the other is a Shingunto but with the nicer pierced tsuba. Edit: For the first one try Bushu Fujiwara Sadashige, not too sure about the Sada kanji but someone will correct we soon. I think the date is in Bunkyu which is 1861 to 1864. If you can get all the shots more like the Shingunto, i.e. vertical with point up that would help. A lot depends on the condition of the blades so overall shots with habaki removed will help. Well, actually photos of everything, just cause we are curious. Lovely to have three swords to explore. All the best.

Dear MArk. I think you did the right thing. All the best.

Dear Dow. Given the type of sword it is most unlikely to be gimei. Why do you think it is? All the best.

Dear Wes. Welcome to NMB. The other side of the tang should have the swordsmith's signature on it, can we see that one please? Also full picture of the bare blade and the mounts. So far we have an early blade in WWII mounts judging from the tsuba. Looking forward to seeing more. All the best.

If I remember aright there ws an article in one of the Bushido magazines about a jumonji yari that Robert Benson owned and polished himself, I'll check it out later. All the best.

Dear Simon. As has been said it is a Japanese tanto, the saya is nice and the rest of the mounts are OK. As long as it's not being sold with an eye to the big name and it's cheap enough then why not? As has been said the mei is probably more of a tribute than anything, I have a Shinshinto tanto that is signed Ryokai and clearly has nothing to do with that school. We don't know how much you are thinking of paying which might change a lot of things. If you are thinking of starting to collect then, if nothing else, you can use it as a marker for how your knowledge is progressing. Let us know what you decide. All the best.

Dear Howard. I wish I could get yari like that to follow me home! It's a beauty, of course it needs a polish now that you know who made it............ All the best.

Dear Andrew. Well it is a Japanese sword though these pictures don't allow much more to be said. If you are not sure then the katana/wakizashi question is simple, if the nagasa, length from the tip to the notch on the back of the blade where hte habaki sits, is 30cms/12" to 60cms/24" then it's a wakizashi, longer tan that and it is a katana. Fittings look to be OK but the kodzuka looks quite nice, shame that it is actually one that has been repurposed as a table knife and then again to fit the koshirae. Look at the point where the kodzuka and the blade meet and you will see a rivet. Really can't see enough from these images to tell if there are problems with the blade other than that it is out of polish. If you are buying this from someone who knows what they are talking about, (as opposed to someone who thinks they know), then maybe, but don't pay too much for this, you will either be in for some serious restoration costs or you will have to be content with leaving it as it is. Oh, and someone else has already asked for a translation in that section of NMB. Hope this helps. All the best.

If the nagasa is now 35.6 cms then even when first made it would only have been about 40cms, so we are looking at a shinogi zukuri wakizashi of about 40cms. Might just fit with Oei? Doesn't mean it's not a nice blade and after all you would not be buying the sellers opinions on this one. All the best.

Well I wouldn't call it a fail, after all you have an attractive koshirae and as I said, displayed alongside the blade in shirasaya it should look great. Oh, and at that price you did well. All the best.

Dear Marcus. Welcome to NMB and the fascinating world of Nihonto! Now to get the ball rolling. First of all it is a real Japanese sword and as it has no mei it can't be gimei. Bear in mind that it is hard to tell very much from photographs and that your sword is not in polish, (don't attempt to do anything to it yourself in the way of cleaning, just a wipe with some light oil). You might compare with this one, just to see the difference between a proper Japanese polish and your sword, https://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashiizumo-kami-fujiwara-yoshitake-first-generationnbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-token/ Click on the photographs to enlarge them. If your photo of the boshi is clear then it is very narrow which suggests that the tip, kissaki, has been reshaped quite a bit. It is a sugu boshi which, in combination with the midare hamon, suggest Shinto as a period. There is no yokote as a result of the poor polish. Most of your photos appear to show that the tang, nakago, is o suriage, in other words all of the original nakago has been removed. I'm a bit puzzled by the look of the nakago mune, the back edge, so hold that thought. I wouldn't get hung up on drilled/punched nakago ana as a point, have a close look and see if you can see any sign of yasurime, decorative file marks. If none then probably o suriage. Assuming what I have said is correct then what you have is a shortened Shinto sword in koshirae, mounts. Having the blade properly restored is almost certainly not worth it so study it for what you can see, read some books and compare with your sword, enjoy it for what it is and start saving for the next one. Feel free to keep asking questions. All te best.

Steve, if you click on Chris' profile the others are there. Chris, for some reason your other swords show in your profile but not posted. For best results try again with a new post for each sword. All the best.

I will admit to not having tried the hot needle test but there are two broad classes of plastic, thermoplastic and thermoset plastic. The former softens with heat and would fail the needle test, the later, once formed will not soften with heat and hence would pass it. Once you add inert fillers as suggested then we are left with the limited benefit that if it fails the needle test then it's not one type of plastic. All the best.

Dear John. Assembly numbers are used to make sure that the same parts all fit the blade when the sword is made. These are not generally mass produced in the sense of interchangeable parts so the small shop where this was assembled stamped the number into all the bits so that once they fitted they stayed with that sword. If Naval Shore Patrol then there would be fouled anchor engravings at the end of the scabbard and the back strap of the hilt. Here is one of those. Note the straigter hilt, the absence of the shaped scabbard throat and the lack of side ears on the back strap. Also yours has acrew at the end of the pommel, Naval swords of this type generally have a flower shaped head here. Others will add to this but Police might be the answer. All the best.

Dear Paz. I'll message you. All the best.

On the plus side Adam, it doesn't need to fit. Just display the koshirae and the blade in shirasaya with it. All the best.

Dear Curran. Thank you for your thoughts, I'll keep studying. And thank you Luca for posting your tsuba and those photographs. All the best.

Dear Curran. Could you please expand on what you mean by pre-cut? I know that some have suggested that some inlay is pre-cast and some cut from sheet but as a metalworker I have a hard time getting my head around how one might tell the differrence. Is there anything that might be detectable or describable here? Great photographs, Luca, thank you for posting these. All the best.

Dear Glen. As you say I struggle to find any current reference to Heianjo sukashi and is the link I posted has any value then it seems to be very difficult to determin which is Heianjo and which Kyo sukashi. I have had a sukashi tsuba for years and never found a satisfactory school to pin it to which is what cued me up to Heinajo sukashi when I found an identical example in Tsuba Shusei. Of course it's hard to look at black and white images and see the subtleties so it may well be a case of similar desing, different school. However I would agree that a lot of tsuba that are currently slotted into other schools might indeed be Heianjo sukashi. The link I posted seems to suggest that all three, Onin, Heianjo and Kyo sukashi are interconnected, Onin prdating teh others which then merge. Complicated isn't it? All the best.

Dear Khalid. Just for the record splitting up an original daisho is a terriible idea. At the point that the koshirae was made, or some time before, a samurai paired these swords and had them mounted, you have a complete and historical daisho. Swapping out a blade because at the moment you find it under whelming, (and bear in mind that the longer you study swords the more likely you are to appreciate what does not neccessarily float your boat right now), destroys that historical entity. Add to that each koshirae is custom made to fit each blade so you would have to at the very least have to have the tsuka and saya re made, again destroying any historical context. Better by far to have the daisho and keep it as it is and purchase other swords that you like at the moment. Or hold out for a better daisho. Several available here, https://www.japanszwaard.nl/uk/zwaarden.html Of course it's your money and if you buy them they will be your swords but we have a historical duty to these wonderfull articles, they were created by outstanding people many years ago and will survive us by several hundred years, all being well. Sorry, rant over but I sense that you are feeling your way into this fascinating area of study and collecting and there may be some useful bits here. All the best.

Dear Jesse. Given John's translation, (and if that's quick and dirty one can only imagine subtle and refined), then I am coming to the conclusion that we should place weight on the description as Heianjo zogan, in other words a description of technique rather than a school attrubution. I am just getting to grips with Tsuba Shusei and the Onin section has a variety of brass inlay designs whereas the Heianjo section has sukashi tsuba without any inlay at all. It's an older text now but if you read on a bit in the link I sent you will see that it refers to the overlap between Heianjo and Kyo sukashi tsuba, suggesting that Heianjo workers were prone to work either in sukashi or the brass inlay that we are talking about. There is also the possibility for the tsuba you posted that someone inlayed the insect onto a plate from another source. Complicated isn't it? I'm only just getting to grips with this so others will have more to add/correct no doubt. (indeed Piers already has.) All the best.

Dear Jesse. Just to start you on your enquiries regarding brass inlay. https://www.shibuiswords.com/tsuba.htm#heianjo All the best.