Geraint

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?

Dear Mike. If I read your question correctly you want to understand which way around the seppa are fitted. Usually there is a witness mark, minor denting where one seppa sits snugly against the habaki. The seppa you show has been adjusted as Dave says, not common to need that much adjustment so it might be a seppa that has been added to complete the mount. The planishing marks, (the dents) should fit against the tsuba so that they are not visible, they are not for the habaki to fit. Here is a picture that might help. Hope that helps. All the best.

Dear All. Looking at the edges of the channels where inlay was you can see in some places the marks where the sides were closed onto the inlay to hold it, so my money is on this tsuba having complete inlay, now lost. All the best.

Dear Mike. You are quite right that the nakago has been shortened, in this case as the mei is a name you can assume that all the signature is there. Two character mei are quite common and although there are sometimes chracters after the mei they usually do not add much; "saku" is common but it just means ,"made". Because of the position of the lower mekugi ana next to the mei that is probably the original one. If you take the second mehugi ana and work ouit the distance between that and the machi, notches, then you can extrapolate the original length of the sword and that is a help with dating it. Well, your in now, Nihonto have got you! All you can do is enjoy the ride. All the best.

Dear Mike. Lots to like here. Don't worry about the ito, the wrap is not Japanese or original so nothing to concern yourself about there. Some very gentle restoration, a pair of nice menuki and a re wrap will make the tsuka look great. To address the title of your post, given that the mei still survives what would you estimate the original length to have been and what is it now? It looks far too short to have been a tachi. Just to be clear that is length from tip to the notch where the habaki rests. Can you see what happens to the hamon in the kissaki? If you can a sketch might help. If this were mine I would be exploring restoration and polish, not for financial reward but to preserve the sword. Let us know what you are planning. All the best.

Hi Adam. Yes, that's the way. The chief decorative element should face out when the sword is worn in the obi. This seems to be a nice blade that has been mounted very recently, the seller was up front with that. I am sure most of us would suggest getting a decent shirasaya made for the blade. The mounts are a distraction and a good example of why one should always be careful of the urge to fix up some koshirae for a blade. Unless you are prepared to go the whole way, buy good quality and appropriate fittings and spend the money on good craftsmanship, you tend to end up with something that just doesn't feel right. Enjoy the sword. All the best.

Dear All. I think the original horimono, kusabi hi, is something sometimes seen on yari. What has happened to this one since is anybody's guess. I don't think it has a connection to the "horror mono" on the sword that was posted a while ago. All the best.

Dear Ben. Might just be shinogi bi, hi running along the shinogi, rather than hirazukuri. From the look of the kissaki it seems possible. Still an interesting thing. All the best.

Dear Ed. That's one of the classic egawa designs encountered on armour. All the best.

The pictures copied from the Ebay seller don't do this one any favours but the seller links to one very similar tsuba that did sell at Bonhams. https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22815/lot/156/ To my mind neither is particularly attractive in terms of design or manufacture. Probably why the one posted has sat there for many months. All the best.

"...the sword is kaku mune,". No it's not, according to the drawing that Steve did for us. Easy to think so from the pictures but..... All the best.

Dear Steve. Sorry to say that your pictures d not show up very large and so this is somewhat of a guess. You will notice that the tsuka has a cut away around the silver button, this is reported to be so that when grasping such an aikuchi within the folds of the kimono it is possible to tell which way around it is and hence know where the cutting edge is before drawing the blade. The silver button, if it is only on one side, may be to help with this. Nice silver foil habaki, better pictures please. All the best.

Dear Robert. As with all questions in this pursuit there are many answers. Machi okuri can be anything between a few millimetres, which most wouldn't even notice to quite a lot, which would be more obvious. Machi okuri suggests that the end of the nakago is unaltered so you should have the full nakago and mei of the smith. In this case I wouldn't bat an eyelid if I liked the sword or the smiths work. Once the nakago becomes suriage then purists will start to get picky. This was recently justified on the basis that there are so many Shinto swords out there why not wait for a completely unmodified example? Personally I love this view point, it means that I can get a chance at some really good swords that fail this test and are consequently more affordable. If it is a sword by a prolific mid range smith then some people will want to hang out for ubu and might be bothered by machi okuri, I suspect that there are quite a lot of us who wouldn't let it bother us very much. I wait for the true collectors to tell me how wrong I am. All the best.

Dear Adam. Your tanto is the fourth I have seen by a smith named Seishinshi Masayuki, a late shinshinto smith, see here for more information. As the koshirae appears quite typical for this man I would be inclined to leave it as it is. All the best.

The person doing the orikaeshi mei clearly thought so. All the best.

Hi Matt. You are right, the plugged hole suggests a re mount for the blade. This is quite a common feature for older blades, less so for blades of this period. If all the hilt fittings and tsuba re present you may find a number stamped on them, if so and the numbers are all the same then I don't think it's anything to worry about. All the best.

It was an interesting outcome as the result of quite a bit of work on the part of the societies in the UK and a number of individuals. Effectively they banned all Japanese swords except those made in Japan before 1954, those made subsequently by licensed smiths. Go figure! So basically all Japanese swords are banned except those made in Japan. Not a complaint as it allows us to collect, just a note of the bizarre nature of the law in this instance. All the best.

Dear Steve. There are one or two of us not too far from you , it may be that someone will offer to look at the sword in hand which would be ideal. The handle was wrapped in a very stylish way before it fell to pieces, look after all the bits and see what we can make of it. Above all do not try to clean it up without guidance from someone who knows what they are doing. Looking forward to seeing how this develops with some more pictures. All the best.

Dear Phil. Take a good look at the habaki and the mekugi ana. All the best.

Dear Andrew.With your permission I have grabbed at least the signature and cutting test. All the best.

Neil. I love that you have only just noticed that mon on the menuki! All the best.