Geraint

Dear Joe. There are several reasons for shortening a sword and no way of telling which one applies to this sword. What is it's length now? All the best.

And that feeling when you are opening the parcel! Yes indeed, very nice! All the best

Sweet! And not bad habaki either. Is this in shirasaya? Enjoy!

It's a dragon Bruce. All the best

Is there something on the backstrap ears on that last one, or is that wishful thinking? All the best.

Dear Neil. I can sense your excitement, now slow down a bit and start from the beginning. Your sword is signed, "Bishu Osafune Sukesada". The one you have identified is one who signed as, "Sakushu", not Bizen. (if you have clicked on the spoiler from Piers then you already know that.) As I am sure you will have noticed there are a lot of smiths signing Sukesada. A lot. Out of all of them this mei is the commonest so pinning it down to a specific smith is very unlikely. Even if you get this sword put into a proper polish and submit for papers it is likely to come back confirming the mei as Sukesada without defining the individual smith. The link Ken has given you will get you started on sugata but don't be surprised if you find this tricky, swords posted here get estimates from several hundred years apart sometimes. (You don't give dimensions which would be useful.) As the sword is out of polish you are going to have to have a good look and see what you can see of the hamon and boshi and fit those to the work of Bizen smiths. As to the combat damage make what you like of it but I should think it is as likely to be the JimmyandBen ryu school of kenjutsu when they got hold of Dad's swords and played samurai with them. Enjoy the journey! All the best.

Tongue in cheek Barry? Or did you not check the price on the auction? All the best.

Dear Jason. I confess I am a sucker for handachi koshirae so I like these. The first blade seems to be signed Masanori, the pictures are nowhere near good enough to tell much about the blades though I like the extended kissaki. I assume that you can see more detail in the photographs you will be bidding from? These are coming out of Japan, (torokusho in the pictures), and they are without papers so if you are a collector of blades then warning bells are ringing. You will not likely be getting great blades. If you want swords then these are quite attractive but don't get carried away bidding, you will be buying un papered wakizashi . Let us know how it turns out. All the best.

Dear Franco. "Looms to me yo be purely decorative." Without auto correct comes out to be, "Seems to me to be purely decorative." Hope that helps. Al the best.

Thank you Jacques. All the best.

Dear Karusk. One of the interesting features of the board is that you can see quite a lot about individual members, for instance you can see that Barry has been a member here for quite a few years, that his rank is Juyo, that he has quite a number of posts to his name and quite a number of positive responses. From this you might conclude that he knows a thing or two. You might also notice that he did not call anyone dishonest, he simple reported in brief that his experiences with this seller were not positive and that he would not do business with him. It is hardly worth mentioning that in spite of you posting the seller's returns policy Barry states that he had agreed the returns with the seller and so much of what you wrote can not be said to apply. Food for thought? All the best.

Hi Jeremy. Glad it worked, by shinae I meant the bamboo swords used for kendo, much straighter, hence if you practise with that you need a similarly shaped katana, or o the theory goes. All the best.

Dear Jeremy. Apart from the very early chokuto the orthodoxy is that swords with such shallow sori, assuming they are ubu, developed during early to mid Shinto as a response to changing demands in time of relative peace and the rise of schools of swordsmanship using shinae. In this context they re not symbolic but associated with a style of swordsmanship. As you suggest the sugata was revived at various times subsequently, including the so called royalist swords of the Shinshinto period. Once again this was connected to swordsmanship rather than being symbolic, the political allegiance of the domain where the style was popular leads to the connection. Sori alone is not a reliable guide to period as other factors in the shape of the blade are significant; kissaki, taper and so on. I am not sure that any of this answers your question but I am sure that others will add to this. All the best.

Dear Piotr. Welcome to NMB! At first sight your sword does look like a reproduction. The tell tales are the shape of the kissaki, the tip, and the way the sword seems to narrow down towards the tsuka, the hilt. It looks as if it might snap off as it is so narrow. At the top of the page you will find a link called 'Nihonto info', under that you will find FAQ and in there you will find some help about taking the hilt off your sword. If you can do that and let us see pictures then we can confirm for you. All the best.

Dear Johan. Perhaps this is Japanese honeysuckle? All the best.

Dear Johan. Welcome to NMB! It is really going to help if you post a picture of the nakago. To post pictures go to 'Reply to this topic', click in the text box and the reply box will open. Then to the bottom left you will see an option to 'Chose files'. Locate the file and then click on the + sign to add it to your post. Looking forward to it. All the best.

Dear Phil and Bruno. Three, five, three versus five, seven, five. All the best.

Dear Chris. Well if, as you say it's not to your taste....................... None of us would want you to suffer aesthetically for no good reason. All the best.

Dear John. I think you can safely say that both are from the same stable and time. Yours would have been quite spectacular when made and, I think is still a stunning display piece. I would expect it to have the mei of famous smith to add to its value though it is a shame at this remove that we cannot credit the craftsman who really made it. It might have come with a set of carved wooden mounts, either archaic or in the form of a dragon. Here is another example though nothing like as splendid as yours. All the best.

Dear John. Found the reference after a bit of head scratching. Christie's, June '95. The lot numbering is a bit hay wire for these lots but it is lot294. Signed Masamune and dated 1329. They describe the habaki as, ".. carved with clouds and integral to the blade", which I presume means they couldn't get it off. The listing goes on to say, "Pseudo archaic blades were not uncommon in the Meiji period......made by smiths such as Miyamoto Kanenori and Hayama Enshin among others." All the best.

Dear Jon. I agree that it's Japanese and that it was an awesome piece of metalwork. However I suggest that it is a late Shinshinto revivalist piece that has had a very hard 100 years or so. I have seen similar nakago somewhere but the reference escapes me at the moment. I'll work on it! All the best.

In this case are the designs inside the shell not Genji chapter mon? All the best.

Dear Ed. For what it is worth I do not think researching Hirata school will get you very far with these. Its a go to guess whenever enamel is associated with tosogu but you will soon see that they do not resemble this school's work. Cloisonné is the name for the technique of soldering fine wires onto a base then filling the enclosed spaces with enamel. Japanese cloisonné can be extraordinarily fine, look closely at the shaping and joining of the individual wires on your examples. In any event you will enjoy looking at some fabulous things once you start researching both Hirata and Japanese cloisonné. Enjoy! All the best.

Dear Peter. Thank you for the photographs. I am no further forward with this idea and none else has chimed in so perhaps I am barking up the wrong tree with this idea. All the best.

Dear Dan. How about sunagashi crossing the tani of the gunome? In this case they continue the linearity of the sunagashi and do not resemble crescent moons. As with all things in this area exact terminology does not survive first contact with an actual hamon unless it is a textbook example of a smith's work. All the best