Geraint

Dear John. I am afraid that I am the bearer of bad news. Your sword is a recently made Chinese reproduction of a Japanese shingunto. Sorry. All the best.

Wow, Jean! That's real homework! All the best.

Dear Al. The sayagaki seems to say Bishu Osafune Morimitsu but I have a hard time making all that out on the nakago, the mei does start with Bish Osafune but the last kanji are pretty obscure to my eye. Compare this one. https://www.aoijapan.net/wakizashi-bishu-osafune-morimitsu/ All the best.

Dear Sabatier. To add some specifics: Photo 1, poor shape of the blade and tanto in this shape are always questionable, poor shape to the saya and tuska, clumsy fittings. Photo 2, clumsy shaping and highly visible grain structure. Photo 3, badly shaped nakago, poor file marks, rubbish end to the nakago, clumsy tsuba with signs of artifical ageing, the way the mei is cut. Photo 4, just bad workmanship. Photo 5, shape even worse, deep grind marks near the blade and uneven machi. Photo 6, same as Photo 5. Photo 7, poor lines to the habaki. Photo 8, same as photos 1 and 7. If you use these pointers with the link that Jean gave you then you will soon start to see the differences. Don't give up, this is a fascinating field of study. All the best.

Well there's nothing Persian about it but I agree with Ray on this one. Any minute now Brian will point out that nothing in tanto length that is shinogi zukuri is any good to anyone. Whatever it is, you don't want it in your collection Ken. All the best.

Well, here is one to compare it with, https://www.aoijapan.net/katana-bizen-koku-osafune-kiyomitsueiroku-jyuni-nen-hachigatsuhi Bear in mind that there may be more than one Kiyomitsu working at this time. If the sword is the same one that you posted in the other thread then don't get too excited about the price, that flaw does hurt the value. Please add your name to your posts as per the rules. All the best.

Yoshinao? Yoshimichi? (And of course both Bruce and I failed to note the thread heading, sorry.)

Lot's to like about this one and I agree with Stephen, be great to see this in polish. Nah, that's what we call hitatsura rust! Joking aside it would be instructive to look inside the tsuka to see if what the disturbed same on the outside is telling us is true, there is a possibility that this tsuka has been remounted. Of course it might just be someone's inept repair of some damaged same. The hamon is very regular and very wide, reaching up to the shinogi in the monouchi. Does not this suggest a later sword? Whatever you turn up we all want to see it in polish. Enjoy. All the best.

Dear Durrell. As far as the mei is concerned then I would agree with Giles. It looks like it was done with a blunt screwdriver! The nakago doesn't look at all bad and I can't see anything wrong with the sword apart from a bad mei. However, the fakes are getting better and the photos are not the best...... The only thing that I can see that concerns me is the machi, is it just the way the photo has been taken? Do they line up well or are they offset? Is this one yours yet? All the best.

At the auction starting price one would need to be a pretty committed practitioner to invest in this sword, not to mention the cost of koshirae to suit it. I think Antti may have hot on the intent behind the wording. All the best.

Dear Kris. This would be a no brainer fr me, get it polished properly. Given the quality of the koshirae then it doesn't even matter if it turns out to be gimei, (false signature). I would certainly want to take the gamble; on one hand there is a chance this might turn out to be genuine and Steve's analysis of the mei makes that an interesting possibility. On the other hand a blade in proper polish is always going to be more interesting to both you and whoever is the custodian of the sword next time. Of course Ken is right the soe- bi, (small groove) is looking thin and would get thinner or even disappear in some places but the bo hi will survive just fine Well it's your sword so of course your call but if you do decide to get it polished then we look forward to hearing about it and seeing it. Whatever you do, do not go cheap on this one, do your research and pay for the proper polish. It's a small investment for this sword. All the best..

Dear Kris. I tend to agree with Robert about the marks, particularly with regard to the mark toward the hilt end of the wari kogai. I would guess that the koshirae is late shinshinto, most of them, that is this type, seem to be. The blade has a date on the other side but I can't make it out I'm afraid. If I had to guess I would say Sue koto but have a look here, http://www.sho-shin.com/sue3.htm From your pictures the sword appears to be out of polish but if the mei stands a chance of being genuine then I would say certainly worth a proper polish. Forgive me, I don't know how much you already understand about Japanese swords but by polish I mean that done by a Japanese trained polisher who will know how to care for the blade properly. I think your next step should be to try to get to a local sword society to show this to some people in hand who can advise you. If nothing else then you at least know that Grey and I are a little bit jealous. Enjoy.

Dear Ian. This may be a case of the blind leading the blind but if you go to Reply then click on More Reply Options a screen with the option to attach images comes up. As long as the image isn't over sized that should be it really. If this is blindingly obvious and you already know it then please forgive me. All the best.

Well I agree with Grey and Piers. What a find! Time to go slow and appraise carefully. I know that if I found that I'd be very happy. Late mounts but lots to like, especially the ladybird. Is the kozuka dented or just worn? All the best.

Dear Cerjak. Not a lot more to go on then when you first shared this sword. The mei is Norimasa, but not the one you found from the Nihonto Club database I think, different kanji for Masa. You say it has mitsu mune and is unokubi zukuri, I can't see either of those features from the images but I do see profuse nie and sunagashi as well as nie in the ji. The hada appears to be consistent across the shinogi. I think I would go for sue koto, you might find a school that exhibits these traits........ The koshirae is a low end assembly and the fittings are rather worn so not much to say about them. The habaki looks nice, assuming that blade and habaki fit the saya well then I might suspect a sword that has had the tsuba and tsuka added to make it saleable, these fittings do not seem in character for the others. Hope some of that helps, there is certainly a lot to look at in this blade. All the best.

Dear Sala. There was a thread about Satsuma koshirae a while back and Ian B had some developed ideas about them. In this case I think the style of tsukamaki is being refereed to as Shonai though I don't think it is. The overall koshirae; plain iron fittings, washer menuki, thin ito and spiral wrap, is what has been called Satsuma rebellion style. All the best.

Dear Durell. Hmmm! Well first off I think you are right, there are some kanji on the nakago but I certainly can't read them from these photos. And there's the rub. If these are all you have to go on then go easy. I can't even determine the sugata from these. Is it unokubi zukuri? Is it a wakizashi or a tanto? It looks as though the koshirae is all of a piece but it's nothing great. As for the Edo period question, well the seller might know about Japanese swords or they might not. Edo period is a pretty safe catch all if you have no idea and it's quite a long time period. As this has suguha hamon then indicators such as yakidashi and boshi are of limited use. Given the length then you might take a shot, for example if it is a sunobi tanto or ko wakizashi and if it is unokubi zukuri then then that might give you an idea about the period. As it happens I would go for Shinto rather than Koto but that's purely an impression. Value? Well on this side of the pond you would be looking at somewhere under a thousand but it all depends on whether you want to own this one. Bear in mind that if you do buy it you might own it for a very long time, it's not everyone's cup of tea. Random ramblings, I hope some of it helps. All the best.

Dear Marco. One can only translate what one can see. I think you have gone about as far as you can go with this one. Nice habaki. All the best.

Dear William. Just to summarise, what you have is an unsigned wakizashi blade, almost certainly made during or before the 19th century, perhaps as old as the 1600 but at present, from what we can see not older. It is mounted as a kaigunto. The scabbard is covered in lacquered fish skin, which is a nice touch though it has lost all of it's fittings. Don't get hung up on the aviator idea, there is no way of ascertaining who carried the sword. Mark and Ian have told you that the marks on the fittings are assembly numbers so all you need to do is find a table of Japanese numbers on line and you will be able to make sense of those but they don't get you anywhere. George suggest that the end of the tang, (nakago jiri), reminds him of Saga work but I'm pretty sure that's a typo and he means Kaga. The blade is out of polish, please note the strong advice not to do anything about that yourself or you will ruin the sword. Down the line you will have to decide whether to keep the sword as it is or pay for a professional Japanese polish, that is an expensive option and generally advice will be that it's not worth it so keep the sword as it is and enjoy. For most collectors of Japanese swords the least interesting are unsigned wakizashi from the Shinto period, there are a lot of them. If you can get to one of the sword shows or to a sword club and show it to some collectors in hand they may be able to see more and to suggest what you might have. Some Kaga province smiths are well thought off. This sword is your entree to a fascinating and never exhausted aspect of edged weaponry, you might decide that it's just the one example of ta type but you might find yourself sucked into the whole world of Japanese swords. Enjoy. All the best.

Dear Bas. (Apologies if that is not your real name). Run away! This is not a kai gunto, indeed it is not a Japanese sword but a fake. The translation is worthless as is the sword. All the best.

Sean, that's a nice thing. Congratulations. All the best.

Dear Sebastian. The almost universal advice will be that you should regard the earlier papers as no papers at all. Most people will advise you that re submitting for papers is the way to go but this is at a cost and is not very easy to do from outside Japan so a seller will often go with these older papers. From your point of view as the buyer you would be advised to consider this an unpapered sword unless you are sufficiently confident in your own ability to judge the blade as genuine. This should be reflected in the price you pay and given Ken's useful anaysis then I think your course of action is clear. All the best.

Dear Michael. Quite a common feature of Echizen smiths signatures to have Echizen ju on one side and the rest on the other. Shigetaka mei are often like this as are others. All the best.

Thanks for the link, Jeremiah. That is a beauty! If you don't already own it and are interested in modern swords can I recommend this one, http://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/books/b347-gendai-nihonto-no-seika-translation The whole exhibition was brought to the UK under the auspices of the Token Society of Great Britain and we had the extraordinary pleasure of a hands on viewing of all the works. They were amazing! The catalogue is very good and cheap as chips from Greg. Enjoy. all the best.

Dear Zak. Yes, its a bit of a steep learning curve to start with, in fact all the way. What you have is a nice sword whatever else you discover about it. If this is your first then you have done better than most of us. Now, the length we need is from the tip, (kissaki), to the notch on the back of the blade were the habaki sits, (mune machi). If that is at or greater than 24" then it's a katana, if lower then refer to Bazza's answer. After that start really looking at the hamon and the hada to see what you can see, try this in different lights, incandescent bulb, daylight and so on. Enjoy! All the best.