Geraint

Dear Roy. First of all, that is a lovely naginata you've got there! Now to the imponderables. The available listings tend to indicate the main period of a smith's work and they are often compilations of what is available. This means that although a smith is given as working predominantly in Kanbun period in fact his dates of production might span quite a time before and after the limits of the reign period specified. For example according to the sources you provide the second generation ends thirty years before the third starts; this is clearly not the case. Another factor is that many smiths changed their mei over time, often this reflects an elevation in their honorary tittle, in many cases it indicates that they were working in different parts of the country and so forth. I have a yari by a smith who worked in Edo, then moved to Odawara following the daimyo for whom he worked and then back to Edo. All this is to suggest that the lists are not to be taken as infallible, especially with regard to date, that new information adds to our knowledge as time passes, that mei change according to what is happening in the smiths life and in the family for whom he works and so on. Now the gap of thirty nine years is a bit of a reach here but, as I am sure you already know, this is a smith about whom not much information is available. I assume from your question that the naginata is not papered so you are left with a slight conundrum. If you can find papered examples of the mei then you can compare handwriting. You might consider sending it to shinsa and seeing what current scholarship suggests, or you might just enjoy it for what it is and keep your eye open for references to this line of smiths and see what you come up with. You have a research project on your hands. Whatever you decide to do enjoy this for what it is and enjoy the search. All the best.

Dear Johan. Brace yourself, making shirasaya is a tricky activity. I'm sure you know this already but absolutely no sanding, all finished from the tool edge to avoid debris scratching the blade and rice glue to avoid modern adhesives staining or rusting the blade. Might I recommend 'The Craft of the Japanese Sword' as a very useful book. As you are about to find out it is perfectly possible to make a new tsuka fit an existing nakago, including the mekugi ana so an unaltered nakago does not confirm that it has only had one tsuka in it's life. Shortening is done for a variety of reasons but only in rare cases to allow a blade to be mounted in a specific type of koshirae or a new koshirae. All the best.

Dear Irwin. Let's assume this is ubu, mumei and Shinto period. If so then it is a katana not a tachi. If it's what you are looking for then go for it. All the best.

Dear Henri-jo. First let me say that I agree with Chris about your approach to study, it's great to see the detail that you are pursuing. You are right to say that examining the blade in hand is much better but your drawings help. It is always a problem to pin down a date from just one feature such as a raised shinogi, what can be made can be copied and various revivals through sword history looked back to the old masters and copied them. You say, "taking into account the shinogi which extends into the nakago which is rather typical of Bizen." Your intent may be lot a little in translation here, for any sword with a shinogi the line would be expected to continue into the nakago, the fact that your blade has a raised shinogi would tend to make it more prominent but I do not think you should rely on this as typical of Bizen. You are clear that the sword is suriage, do you think the whole of the original nakago is lost? In your photograph of the mune near the nakago there seems to be a considerable thinning of the blade above the nakago. This raises the possibility that the blade has seen many polishes and that might effect the shinogi, with that in mind chech this part of the blade to see if the raised shinogi is an original feature. Unlike Chris I do not think there is anything about the sugata that I would call Kanbun Shinto, and as you are clear that it has saki zori then that, with the midare komi boshi would suggest Koto Muromachi, wouldn't it? With a nagasa of 62cms as it is you should be able to get an approximate original length which might help. Your last question asks if this is suguha and I would say no, sometimes hamon can be simply described in one word but often you will see that Japanese descriptions say things which are quite a mixture of terms, something like, ".. a gentle notare with some angular gunome, tobiyaki and profuse sunagashi, becoming more regular with nijuba in the monuchi." I think your sword would need a description like that. Enough of my random ramblings! Keep up the study and enjoy. All the best.

It's looking very good James. Bookshelves, always more book shelves. All the best.

Oh yes! An accidental arrival but it is a Mino den katana/tachi with an iron tsuba, clearly battle damaged in WWII and mounted as a Burmese dha. Worth almost nothing but can't ever let it go. It started me on a journey of discovery for which I will always be grateful. All the best.

Dear Rob. The blade is o suriage so the nakago you see now is a part of what was originally the blade itself, hence the rather smooth surface and the clean cut nakago jiri. New mekugi ana are drilled and the surface looks quite different as you observed. All the best.

Dear Ciro. What Ken was asking for is a picture of the whole blade without the koshirae, something like this, Also, please describe what you can see in the hamon and boshi. All the best.

Dear Eric. The fittings are not standard WWll ones but it is not that uncommon to find swords in simple civilian mounts with the addition of a hanger for use in the war. Your sword might have had a leather combat cover over the saya. Personally I would leave them as they are. All the best.

Well this one is signed tachi mei, which makes it interestng. Yoshi something. Again condition, lack of sizes and so forth make it hard to say more. Enjoyed seeing them Georg and I am sure others will add much more information for you and your friend. All the best.

Hi Georg. Not naginata naoshi but a standard hira zukuri ko wakizashi, assuming that it is more than 30 cms nagasa. I can see why you like the koshirae. All the best.

Hi Georg. Well the blade is signed Kiyonobu, again quite a pleasant koshirae. I don't think this is katana length, is it? Might be worth looking up Mino Kiyonobu, from memory he sometimes does a hamon that looks like what we can see of this one. All the best.

Hi Georg. This one also appears to be suriage and possibly Koto, can't see much and dimensions would be a real help but, again, quite nice koshirae. Tsuba signed Shoami I believe. All the best.

Dear George. I think all of use are screaming internally about those nice finger prints near the kissaki. We are lacking dimensions and a full picture of the bare blade but from what little we can see this looks like an o suriage koto blade in what looks like very pleasant koshirae. The tsuba is signed Yamashiro no Kuni Fushimi ju Kaneiye. All the best.

Dear George. That's a sweet Kaigunto! All the best.

Dear James. Looking great! As a matter of interest why did you scrap the idea of the low stand for your armour? I think it would look good and if you are canny you can have some low concealed drawers underneath it, just right for swords......... Looking forward to the rest. All the best.

Dear Grev. For your last two images I think both are folded and then etched. With a properly forged plate very little grain would be visible unless an etchant is used. For the first image I would really like to see a view of the whole tsuba. Often a piece of raised metal is inlayed into the plate and then the whole carved, if well done then no visible joint would be apparent. I'm sure others will chime in . All the best.

Ooooohhhh!.. That would upset me every time I used them. All the best.

Dear Glen. I'm sure that pictures would help but here are some thoughts. I wouldn't file the menuki at all, much easier to enlarge the hole in the tsuka slightly, especially if the tsuka is lacquered wood rather than same. While Chris is correct that rice glue is used for saya and tsuka cores the more usual glue for metal fittings is based on pine resin. A thread here, The kozuka is often secured to the kogatana by nothing more than a paper wrap to provide enough thickness to make the blade fell firm. again, I wouldn't use any glue here. The blade itself is sometimes replace with a bamboo tsunagi, this allows the kozuka to display well in the koshirae and because it is small bamboo is more resilient than the usual timbers. And lastly, yes, working backwards to make a tsunagi fit a koshirae is tricky. I've just done one and it is much more interesting than making one to match a blade so well done for that bit. Hope some of that helps. All the best.

Dear Ron. I've checked both the books that Dale listed and cannot find your fuchi kashira in either, I'm afraid. All the best.

Dear Seth. That's a really good approach. Enjoy the journey. All the best.

Hi Adam. I will take Swords of Imperial Japan please. 'I'll message you. All the best.

Well we are in the middle of a heat wave, (for the UK that means the drizzle is slightly warm) so even the prospect of a coat is un bearable. Don't even think about getting yours John! Kirill's comment, like so many aphorisms, has a great deal of truth in it but we work with what we have got and on a forum that means we are largely at the mercy of photographs and papers. In this case we have an out of polish sword with a mei and we are not even agreed on what the mei says yet. Sometimes we can help along the way but definitive answers are hard to come by and usually the best results are from some of the swords which have gone on to polish and shinsa. From time to time a friend will turn up with a sword or two and we look at them together, one spots something the other had not picked up on and vice versa, we throw around some ideas and in the process learn a little from each other, it's not high level kantei but it's fun. That's pretty much what is going on here though some are able to offer more informed opinions, generally we are tolerant of each other and if someone throws out an idea somebody else is on hand to counter and in the process, hopefully everyone learns a little more. In spit of the heat wave maybe I'd better get my coat now. All the best.

Dear Mark. It has been my understanding that machi okuri is a term that refers to a slight adjustment of the machi without suriage. Once a sword is shortened then it becomes suriage, Of course the machi have been moved but it is a different condition. Like you I thought the nakago was long but as we are working without an overall blade image I am now not so sure, trying to extrapolate from the image of the blade in it's koshirae. All the best.