Geraint

Hi Nathan. Just to note that the registration card records what the sword is, hence signed Nagamichi, it is not a guarantee that the signature is correct. Look forward to seeing some more pictures. All the best.

Dear Nike. It depends on what you mean by civilian, as John says this is a Showato and it seems rather a lot of money for what it is. All the best.

Hi Grev. Bizen no kuni Osafune ju Kawachi no Kami Sukesada saku? Compare here, https://www.aoijapan...wachi-kami-sukesada/ So not a WWII arsenal blade I would think. No guarantee of it being shoshin. All the best.

Dear Teddy. You have taken an unusual decision in having a significant proportion of the major design element, the bird, obscured by the seppa when mounted. Was that a conscious choice? All the best.

Dear Ron. What follows is purely personal observation, take it with a pinch of salt. There are quite a few Shigetaka blades available to check this with. As I understand it we are essentially looking at first and second generation Shigetaka, sources mention that the Harima Daijo title lasted to the third but I have not come across this third generation. The mei of the shodai is described as wide, in other words the kanji are rather spreading sideways, whereas the nidai is described as more vertical. Both have distinctive 'handwriting', I find the nidai especially notable in this case. So, to your sword. First off we don't have the whole sword or even the whole nakago to work with so any clues from them are absent. First observation, the nakago appears to have quite a bit of age to it and the mei seems rather faint in its cutting, I can't see any tagane makura. There may be yasurime but I can't make them out. Second, as you look at papered mei note that they seem to be pretty uniform in starting just next to the mekugi ana, some swords exist with rather a lot of information on the nakago but in your case I would expect to see the mei starting just to the lower right of the mekugi ana. Third, the handwriting. Yours certainly does not look like the nidai to my eye. I am looking particularly at the Taka kanji as it's the one I can see clearly. The lower section is quite distinctive in the ni dai with a consistent curve to the stroke at the right; this as absent in yours. The shodai tends to have a very straight horizontal stroke here, again yours does not. My conclusion, and please remember it is only mine, would be that this is not what it purports to be. As always this does not mean it is not a good sword. I am sure that others will chime in here and of course the ultimate test would be to send it for shinsa, personally I would save my money on that idea with this sword. All the best.

Dear Ray. Gene is the guy who wrote the letter, Rob is the owner of the sword. All the best.

Dear JJV. Welcome to NMB! Can we have a first name so that we can address you properly? The menuki on your sword are supposed to represent a kabuto and tachi, helmet and slung sword. The detail is not clear which suggests that they are low quality pressings rather than hand carved. If you look at the back of the habaki you should be able to tell if it is silver foiled or not, look for a copper core with thin foil folded over the back edge. Underneath the wrap on the tsuka your sword has silk rather than the more usual same, this does happen so no worries. In your research try to focus on swords that have NBTHK papers, these are pretty reliable opinions as to the authenticity of the sword and the signature. There are many swords with fake signatures called gimei so checking papered examples is the best route. Start to get s feel for the handwriting style and the shape of the nakago or tang. Above all look at the FAQs and search how to care for your sword, don't be tempted to clean anything. Enjoy the journey. All the best.

Ah. well that's better! My first thought was Sendai but I couldn't reference it, after a search finally found this which was from a post by Rich S. Just needed to cement the facts into my brain. All the best.

Dear Jon. An interesting question. Most sources take a slightly different approach in that sugata, including width, sori, fumbari if there is any, taper, size of kissaki and so forth, are all used to indicate the time of the blades production rather than the individual school or style. Having said that there are some distinguishing features such as koshi sori which might lead to a specific school. Descriptions sometimes refer to a specific smith doing something which is out of character for the time in which they are working, bucking the trend as it were. Sori on its own is a problem as it clearly would relate to the length of the blade so a number on its own would not help. For example a sori of 9mms would look very different on a kowakizashi than it would on a katana. Also any suriage would tend to change things. Add to that the various waves of revival where swords were made to represent swords from an earlier period. Most of the basic texts have some diagrams of the basics with regard to sugata, those at least are a starting point but they are intended to get you to a time period by and large. It would be lovely if one could say that a small number of specifics could tell you who the blade was by but the situation is much more complex than that which is why the subject is so fascinating, so frustrating and so never endingly involved. (That is also why any mumei sword shown here tends to get a pretty wide range of suggestions as to its age.) Years ago I used a system for identifying timbers that involved a set of A5, (or the foolscap equivalent), cards with perforations around all the edges. The idea was that you clipped out the perforation next to a particular feature of the timber so each card might have twenty or thirty gaps. When you wanted to know what you had got you stuck a knitting needle into the hole for a certain feature in the sample and lifted, all the ones with that feature fell out of the pack and by the time you had done that several times you would be left with the answer. Wouldn't it be lovely if such a thing existed for us? All the best.

Dear Stephen. You might well be right especially as the fuchi is fitted for the spring clip but the combat cover has the stud for the leather strap. Hard to tell quality of fit from pictures unless it's obviously way off. Habaki looks good and for the sword, apart from that we don't know. Eathen, does the blade fit really well into the saya? The blade should slide in smoothly resting the back edge on the saya and the habaki should fit nicely at the mouth. And does the tsuka fit equally well to the nakago? All the best.

Dear Eathen. The sword clearly has a blade older than WWII. The tsuba looks as though it is made of shakudo, an alloy of copper and small amounts of gold, don't attempt to clean that, the black is the correct patina. The copper coloured collar, the fuchi, has a hole for the spring catch that would have held the sword in the scabbard but the tsuba does not have the corresponding slot and so is a replacement. (Or maybe the hilt is the replacement?) The black oval collar around the blade next to the habaki is nothing to do with the sword and probably is there to take up the slack in the fittings caused by the lack of seppa. There would have been a Gunto tsuba and anything between two and four pairs of seppa. Have a look in the mouth of the scabbard and see if there is a slot that would have accepted the spring catch, if it's not there then perhaps it is the tsuka, the hilt, that has been replaced. I'll attach a picture of the fittings as they might have looked. If you can get that black collar off the sword and the habaki next to it then a photograph of the whole blade, point upward and the dimensions would be interesting. Take it slow, don't attempt to clean more than a light oiling of the blade, leave the tang, the nakago, alone. Others will add their thoughts as we go along. All the best.

Ha! I shall immediately turn mine over in its box! All the best.

Hi Dale. That one is indeed signed Echizen ju Kinai. One of mine. This one attributed to Shoami and came with a story from the previous owner. "About a week after I’d purchased it, I went on a trip to Kumamoto to visit s resident swordsmith, Matsunaga Kiyotsugu. We started out in his forge, where he demonstrated the fundamentals of sword forging, and after we went to another building which is used for iaido training and tameshigiri. Displayed on the wall was a massive Tachibana kamon and when I enquired was told that the iaido club he belongs to was granted the use of the kamon by the descendant of the last Tachibana daimyo. I then showed him a picture of the Tachibana tsuba and his response was, “I’m jealous, I want it.” As is so often the case the design seems to crop up in more than one school, rule of thumb might be Shoami unless signed Echizen. I have seen the design elsewhere attributed to Northern Shoami. All the best.

Hi Gordon. I bought a nice wakizashi in rather special koshirae but missing kozuka, tried one or two I already had and realised that the slot was quite narrow. Took a while to find one that suited and was the right width but managed eventually from Aoi Art. A lot of people don't give dimensions when selling but thankfully they did. Take your time. All the best.

Dear Vitaly. I think you made a good call on this one. Kick me when it turns up papered but I wouldn't have gone for this one. In the end you are training your eye and while a few years from now you will wonder about how little you knew way back then right now this doesn't feel right to you. Good call. All the best.

Dear Gordon. Just some thoughts. The tang of the kogatana can be/is often wrapped in paper to adjust the fit in the kodzuka. You are right to note that the saya pocket for the kodzuka is not a standard size. When searching for a kodzuka to complete a koshirae it took me some time to find one of the correct width for the pocket in the saya. Found a suitable one eventually and it looks good. Length is, from my limited experience not so critical. Let us know how it goes for you. All the best.

Dear Sam. One of the things that you will soon discover is that the illustrations in books and the descriptions of what a blade actually has are often at odds. Typically a sword might be described as having a rolling gunome hamon interspersed with notare and plentiful sunagashi. Or perhaps gunome tending towards sanbonsugi. Another thing is that a sword that is not in polish is very hard to describe. For my part I would probably describe a boshi where the habuchi was reasonably consistent but brushed with sunagashi as hakikake whereas a boshi with more pronounced sunagashi or nie concentrations near the tip kaen. But that is just me and probably a dozen others would disagree. Don't stress this too much, especially with your sword. It's very tempting to think that a simple check list of features will allow you to identify the smith who made your blade. While that can be true, especially in the swords that are selected for kantei, it is a much more subtle process than it at first appears. Hence, I suppose, the desire for shinsa decisions. If nothing else that irritating question, 'is this kaen or hakikake will get you looking at boshi in some depth and that in itself will be a studying experience. All the best.

Dear Mickie. Just a few thoughts to add to the pile. Setting aside the prospect of forgery for the moment it is unlikely that Iga no Kami Kinmichi would make a sword and not sign it. You ask how rare the sword is and the answer comes in two parts; kinzogan mei are rare and desirable, a sword by this smith would be significant. Lets assume that everything is OK with this sword and the cutting test, we have a date and we know that the sword must have ben made at least just before that date. Often signed swords have the kinzogan mei put on the other side of the nakago from the original signature but in this case there is no original signature. It is a possibility that this is a sword by Kinmichi which has been shortened, you can only do this by removing material at the nakago end because the hardened edge continues into the kissaki or tip and removing that ruins the sword. There is a style of shortening, or suriage, called Tensho suriage where the nakago is carefully reshaped and given a nakago jiri shape so that it looks just like your sword but the mei may well have been lost. Given the date of the test we know that the sword must be at least that old. As PNSShogun, aka John, said this means that there is a good chance that this sword might be first generation. If so then he was a pupil of Korikawa Kunihiro who is regarded as one of, if not the foremost smith of that time. Now would be a good time to get an image of the whole blade with all the fittings removed including the habaki and some shots along the blade which show the hamon if it is visible. Before you do that please go to the FAQ system link at the top of the page and have a look at the section on caring for Japanese swords. Don't do anything more than wipe the blade section, not the nakago with a light oil at this stage. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out. All the best.

Hi Alex. I think it was Kevin at Ryujin. A year or so back I bought some supplies from him as he was selling up his stock and moving out of the business. Another one bites the dust. All the best.

I'm sure others will correct if I get this wrong but as far as I can see it describes a blade with nagasa of 52cms, sori of 1.6, single mekugi ana and mumei. If the sword is signed then that inscription would be recorded but these are just a physical description of the blade so that it can be checked, they don't offer any opinion or assessment. All the best.

Dear Mark. You are correct the registration certificate simply allows the sword to be legally owned in Japan and is not a paper issued by a shinsa panel. You could always try showing some photographs here, you will probably get a spread of opinions but you never know. All the best.

Matt, thanks for those, it all adds to the picture. Listed here, http://www.sho-shin.com/contents.htm Masatsugu is the earliest in the Sue Mihara section but not listed in the Kai Mihara section. I wonder if there are two smiths or perhaps Hawley got this one mixed up a little? This site suggests that Kai Mihara is used to cover Mihara smiths in the Sue Koto period so perhaps that's the answer and Masatsugu working in the early part of the period was the first to use the name? http://www.ricecrack..._wak_kai_mihara.html All the best.

Dear Clive. Not a great deal to add but I am interested to see what comes of your request as I have a wakizashi signed Bingo no ju Masatsugu. It has NTHK papers which clearly attribute it to Mihara Masatsugu but make no mention of Kai, I will attach a picture of the nakago for reference. All the best.

Dear Marco. Welcome to NMB! Well, it's a nice sword in polish and with papers which is a really good start. It seems to be ubu, also good. You have got some information about the school and so you will be able to relate what is written with what you can see in your sword which is an excellent way to start to understand the terms. The koshirae is highly unlikely to be the original assuming your date is accurate. More photographs showing the fittings in more detail will help to answer that question but from what we can see at the moment I would guess that it is quite recent. Does the sword come with shirasaya? If so then best to store it in that. An overall photograph of the whole blade without the habaki will be useful but the sugata appears to be quite indicative of it's age. You might try a picture of the NBTHK paper in the translation section in case it gives any more indication of which generation forged your sword. All the best.

Dear Paz. As is so often the case n the study of Japanese swords the answer is 'yes'. Some information here that might help. https://www.samuraim...k-hozon-certificate/ Of course once a sword is forged and enters the real world then it's future owners are a matter of all sorts of things. So for example a samurai hired to fight for the temple an dgiven a sword who then goes elsewhere and is defeated in battle and the sword passes to the victor and so on. In addition the practice of rewarding faithful service with the gift of a sword, and also upping the prestige of the sword so that the gift appears more significant..... All the best.