Geraint

Dear David. First of all, welcome to NMB! So far what we can see is that this sword is mounted in Shingunto koshirae, I think I see a leather covered scabbard in one shot which is for field use. It has silver mon or badge on the kabutogane which is a nice touch. From the tang, (nakago), it seems that this is an earlier sword, not made specifically for WWII. This is less common but well known. The blade has suffered and is not in good condition though so far none of the damage is serious as far as we can see from your photographs. Whatever you do don't try and clean anything, just keep the blade lightly oiled and get into the habit of not touching the blade with bare hands as this is a cause of damage. The sword may have been shortened during it's life and it has some minor flaws but you might want to do some more photographs of the blade to give people more to go on, specifically some shots of the tip, (kissaki), and of the whole blade without mounts. Others will pile in with more info. Both accounts of how the sword was acquired are possible and you will probably never be able to find out which one is correct but I don't think that really matters. Your Grandfather fought a long war, this is a tangible reminder of what he did. I am very glad that you are regarding it as a family heirloom and finding out about it. All the best.

Dear Mike. Take it easy. Almost all of us would assure you that you have a lifetime of study ahead of you and even then you won't be an expert. That is at least part of the fascination. I started quite by accident when my Mother bought me a Japanese sword for Christmas. All I had to go on were some very basic general books on swords, there was no internet and almost no material in English. I did some work on the subject at college and manged to glean a lot of information from Stone's Glossary. Pretty thin stuff. The Victoria and Albert museum had a small booklet, I still have it, and then I found by accident again, a copy of Sword and Same. That and a copy of The Arts of the Japanese Sword by Robinson were it for many years. All this time I still only had the one sword and that was battle damaged. A year or three later I cycled past an antique shop and saw a fine katana in koshirae, had to go in just to see it but I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw what it was going for, the dealer didn't know what he had and I went into overdraft to get it, it' still one of my best swords. Carrying it home on the bike was tricky! Some years later I met a guy who had a sword and he put me in touch with a dealer who was not too far away and who used to publish typed lists of his stock. Oh, the excitement when a new one arrived! No pictures, just typed text but you could dream. He suggested to my wife that a membership of JSS/US would be a good present and so on. No NMB and no one to talk to until a collector got in touch as he had seen my details in JSS/US. Too much information I'm sure but the point is it all took a very long time. With the advent of the internet a host of information and disinformation is at your finger tips. If you have not already found it try here, https://www.aoijapan.com/ Read the descriptions and try to see what they mean by looking at the photographs. Try to decipher some of the signatures. Lots of information here, https://www.japaneseswordindex.com/sites2.htm and links to many other sites as there are if you click on the Nihonto info tab at the top of the page. One of the FAQs gives you a list of books to start with. I still have that first sword, it's worthless as it has a bullet hole through the hamon but I still learn from it. Most of all enjoy! OK, enough rambling, time for another sip of Calvados. All the best.

Dear Jason. I am really surprised that no one has commented on this. You seem to have started collecting in the way that we all advise others to do but failed to do ourselves. Most of us started with a pretty dodgy sword and then found out what we were looking at. To start with a papered Shinto katana which is ubu, in full polish and with Kanzan sayagaki is pretty good going. It's a lovely sword! You will have done your research and know who the smith is and how he fits into the pattern of Shinto smiths. The Kiku mon was given to a number of Shinto smiths, it's not what you would call common but it is characteristic of certain smiths. All the best.

Dear Tyler. The new photographs help. So here we go! You have a wakizashi which is in unokubi zukuri form with an o kissaki, a bit unusual. The mounts are OK but not spectacular. Some pictures of the tsuba would be nice. The signature is Fujiwara Moriyuki which would suggest a smith of the Bungo Takada school of around 1661. (That is of course assuming that the first character of the name is Mori.) There is a possibility that this is a gimei or fake signature blade. The papered examples that I have seen have a very different way of cutting the yuki kanji. Not to worry, it's still an interesting blade. Lots to learn here and hopefully a member near you who can look at the blade in hand for you and tell you some more. Welcome to the wonderful world of Japanese swords! Enjoy! All the best.

Dear Tyler. Welcome to NMB. Your blade appears to have an out of the ordinary shape. Could we have a picture of the whole blade out of the mounts please? All the best.

Dear Michael. This is turning out to be quite the find, isn't it? A very nice Kaigunto, showato blade but Kaigunto are scarcer than Shingunto and this is in nice condition. The red lacquer marks are assembly numbers, nothing remarkable there. I'll bet that blade is longer than 3 inches! 😁 All the best.

Dear Juan. Forgive me, I am not quite sure what you mean here. As I am sure you know most shortening takes place at the nakago as it is not possible to do much work on the kissaki without losing the boshi. However relatively small changes in shape at the kissaki do occur. Have a look here for some information on what typically happens. http://www.ksky.ne.jp./~sumie99/wornshape.htm Momoyama swords are made with the sugata of cut down earlier swords but usually with well formed and finished nakago. Have a look around the information that Tomas sugests. For what it's worth I also think this is koto, you have the sword in hand, do you think it is suriage with the lower mehugi ana being original or do you think it is o suriage with neither of the current mehugi ana being original? That makes a deal of difference to the original nagasa and hence the potential time of manufacture. Good this hobby, isn't it? Endless study and just when you think you might be getting somewhere you learn something else and everything goes out of the window. Enjoy! All the best.

Dear Stephen. I think you have answered your own question by posting those other examples. I don't think the first tsuba you posted has much to recommend it and I think what we are seeing are scratches. By the way, glad to see that you got that third tsuba, I like it, but I don't think the surface is produced by filing and perhaps is not therefore Amida yasurime in the strict sense. All the best.

Dear All. In this instance I think we need to be clear about the difference between a Kamakura period tsuba and a Kamakura bori technique. We have all seen the largely pictorial tsuba with sukashi that are clearly Kamakura bori tsuba, i.e., made using the Kamakura bori technique. Where this becomes less clear cut is tsuba such as the examples in the original post. Here is a design which in one of the examples illustrated is early and in the other late. (The attribution by Christie's for the Compton collection example is very early and I can't suggest why they made it.) The example illustrated that Mikolaj posted as a pre Kamakura tsuba, or a fore runner of Kamakura, is dated as early Muromachi. This is a really early date for these tsuba and may only refer to this single example. Most suggest a period from late Muromachi onwards. See here: http://www.shibuiswords.com/ELkamakura.html So, the tsuba under discussion were made from, at the earliest the Early Muromachi until at least Shinshinto times. The clues for the age of an individual tsuba must come form the plate and other indications not just the design. In the original post the second example was sold as Kamakura style. Which of course it is, albeit made in the last two hundred years. The mei and the treatment of the plate indicate a late date. OK, I'll put the hobby horse back in the stable now............ All the best.

Dear Michael. Please forgive me if you know all this already. Your tanto is in what is often described as issaku koshirae, that means the fittings are all of the same material and design. In this case copper base with shakudo inlays. It is an aikuchi, which means 'meeting mouth@ and describes the way the fuchi and koiguchi fit without tsuba and seppa. Looks as if it might be missing the kojiri from the end of the saya. I'm not sure of the reading but it might be signed Kanetsune, I am unclear about the first kanji but if that is correct then the blade is early Shinto from the 1600s I agree with Brian, I like it a lot.

Dear Piers. I think this is the one. https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mumei-shiga-seki-kanenobu-with-kiritsuke-mei/ The translation certainly leaves a lot to be desired. Like coherence. Looking forward to what you can make of it. All the best.

Dear Darius. Does it have ububa? Not that that alone would necessarily distinguish between Shinshinto and Gendai/Showa, just curious. All the best.

Dear All. A bit of morphic resonance going on here. It looks like a bosun's whistle but it's got nothing to do with one, they are not a Japanese phenomenon. A tiger and a dragon on a roof. The original post was from an Ebay link and you would be paying in excess of a thousand dollars for it on the basis of some small pictures. I think many of the late pressed kodzuka are based on well known designs and it seems that the example at the Caldwell collection sale must have been a good one. The assertion that these were made by Hirado Kunishige is a knew one for me, I would love to see some evidence to support that theory or is it simple extrapolation? "Looks like a bosun's whistle, they are European, must have seen one at Deshima so Kunishige." I can't see anything in this stylistically or technically to suggest that connection. All the best.

Dear Dan. This is one of those recurring designs that crop up from time to time, keep looking and you will see another. Of particular note is the rather good photograph of the mouth of the kozuka which shows the thinness of the metal very well. This is one of the indicators for a pressed item rather than a traditionally made one. Dale, (aka Spartancrest), has done some great work focussing on tsuba reproductions, perhaps we can do the same for pressed kozuka? All the best.

Dear Bob. Well I'm in the, " it's worthless and that I should send it to you right away!" camp on this one. I think it's a really nice thing to have found and you did well. If the blade has no hamon then that just means you don't need to worry about a polish. A little gentle cleaning and it's good to go. If you feel like it then some jewellery restoration at a later date perhaps. That and a nice kake for it. Enjoy! All the best.

Dear Juan. First of all, I like your sword. Don't worry about the tsuba, there is nothing left to concern you with that one. Any restoration of the tsuka will really involve at least a re bind and possibly a new core. Up to you but my feeling is keep until you really need to change. As to sugata. Hhmmm! The yokote seems to have been put in the wrong place by the last polisher, according t your third photo. Given that it should be a few millimetres back that makes the kissaki a little longer. You estimate that it has lost 100mms through suriage so 766mms at least, possibly more. You mention some mokume hada in the shinogi, which is rather narrow isn't it? The boshi is not what one would expect from a Shinto sword, (and by Kanbun Shinto is well established), neither to my eye is the hada. I realise that I am posing more questions than giving answers but that's how it goes with this study. Just to illustrate this you might like to work your way through this post. I am looking forward to what others have to say on this one but I don't think we have got to the bottom of it yet. All the best.

Dear All. Surely the gold tuft of hair on the sceptre is simply the tasselled cord through the handle, just like the cords on a sword bag. All the best.

Dear All. Setting problems to one side there are none the less some really nice things being shown. I am particularly drawn to No. 4 from Mauro, that lovely Namban and not a few from Grev's post, not to mention the original selection from Patrice.. If nothing else this is a very pleasant sharing of some treasures. Thank you one and all. All the best.

Dear Patrice. Only two to my surprise. .

Well, that brings back memories, I had one of those as a child. My first Japanese sword.😁

Dear Bruno. Well I really like your tsuba! Hitsu ana are easy to cinsider as a functional part of the design but they are also very much part of the design in some cases. These large hitsu ana tend to appear in Higo/Edo Higo schools, I will leave it to the experts to steer that thought. However it is also the case that sometimes hitsu ana are included in the design but fitted with plugs from the start, It seems to happen more often in later work from what I have seen. Often the size is diminished so that the hitsu would not fit standard implements. It is possible that this tsuba was so fitted from the beginning. I am interested that Patrice can tell hat the existing hitsu is cut on the side for the kogatana, I am not sure I can see that and would have assumed that it was for a kogai on the usual side. All the best.

Hi Mike. Well. First off, the length of swords is measured from the kissaki, (tip) to the machi, (notches where the habaki sits). Extrapolating from your tape measure I am estimating this as about 9"? Nice gold foiled seppa, silver foiled habaki and copper tsuba with a shakudo fukurin. Shakudo fuch kahira which I think show tea ceremony utensils. All in all nice thing. Are you missing one menuki? If so then finding a new pair and getting this re wrapped would be good and easy. Grey has a few pairs at the moment, https://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/Tsuba-&-Kodogu You will probably also want to get a kodzuka and kogatana to round off the package. Take some advice on this regarding the theme, keeping up the tea ceremony idea would be good. As for the blade, well you know it needs a polish and it is really hard to judge what damage there is from photos. Given the shape and state of the nakago I don't think it's any earlier than Shinto and I would guess Shinshinto. None the less a nice package. I would be tempted to restore this one, once again monetary returns are not the consideration. Most of all enjoy this little chap. All the best.

Hi Tom. The OP says 49.5cms so yes, ubu wakizashi. All the best.

Dear Al. A complete hilt looks like this. I can't see from your images if the fuchi kashira, that's the two metal fittings at the ends of the hilt, are there or not. The hilt on yours looks to have a full wrap of same, that's the skin covering the wooden core, and to be missing the menuki, the two ornaments under the silk, and the ito the silk wrap. Also the kozuka and kogatana, the little knife in the saya or scabbard. These things are a relatively simple fix but you should be prepared to send some money. Much more significant is the blade restoration. It is especially important that this is not done by anyone who is not properly trained, please ask here for recommendations before you go down this road. This will not be a cheap thing to do and you may not recoup your money but the satisfaction of doing it may be worth while. Here is a sword in polish, http://swordsofjapan.com/project/tadamitsu-naginatanaoshi/ Please don't do anything hasty, just that light oil for the moment. Please ask if anything is not clear, we are always ready to help. All the best.

Dear Al. Welcome to NMB! Your sword is a wakizashi, sword between 12" -24". It is 'out of polish' which means that it has suffered some neglect although in this case there does not seem to be any serious damage. Whatever you do do nothing to clean it at this stage, just a light oil. It is signed Nio Kiyotsugu, I believe. That means the smith called Kiyotsugu of the Nio school. It seems to have lost most of it's hilt fittings so you are now faced with some restoration choices but don't rush, take advice and wait for more suggestions from the other members. If the signature is genuine, and many are not, then it might be the guy who worked in Choshu in 1688 - 1736. Gets interesting really quickly, doesn't it?