Stephen

I second that

looks to me that it should have a gold plaque with kanji..im sure ford could fix it. your insert dont work imho.

hard to tell from the pix, may be bizen, trading is good if you can find it, cash buys you parts.

Jim id hate to see it just sit on your wall, maybe put it up for sale here so it will go into the Nihonto community, not that there's any thing wrong with it there but I'm sure you hate to see a 69 camo just sit in someone's back yard if you know what I mean. here is a scan from the connoisseurs book. it may have been a kinnoto or Royalist sword. I really like the subtlest of the tsuba and with some boning and oil it would come back. nice find..no handle just blade a tsuba?

a quick look shows us its a stainless steel blade, the tassle may have been added on as its mounted in the hanger, under the leather cover is it a plan black wood saya? fittings shot is too far away to see what your talking about as far as how well its made.

truer words have not been spoken, here's a scan from the Yoran, looks close to me. id have the shinsa team look at it and if they say good, that'd be great, if bad get another opinion as they are known for making a few head shakers.

another reason it's great Doc, is both our names are in the front for advanced sales and Oshigata contributions. .

Bobby yes its great for looking up Gendaito smiths to cross check mei, a must have if your runing into swords from that era.

I think you did well with your first katana, some like them a bet longer but yours must have had the hamachi moved up so it may have been a standard kanbun size. all in all nice sword. It will be intersting trying to photograph a Katana this time. id hope others will take time to reply.

a side note or two, art is what we make it, having been in ART school and all the night long decisions on what is art have come rolling back, if you draw the diagrams but have a union welder weld it is it still art...the list is endless. one request to this thought provoking thread...please spilt it from the Ebay sword Kotetsu ...its no longer about a Ebay sale. I'm enjoying the trip down memory lane with all the who what is art... and if you have ever held a sword that takes your breath away you'd say it was a beautiful thing, but it was made by man which makes it art.

PC Geek turned me on to this today, take your laptop to a show and plug itin, scan the blade. http://www.pcgears.com/default.aspx?oid=223384

YOME TO TANMONO WA HIRUMA ERABE insert nihonto for piece goods

frist off John Gods speed on that ice, i dont know tosogu mei much, but the first kanji looks like kane to me.

thanks Mike, i think its a fine looking tsuba.

Yes

NOTICE NOT NMB CONNECTED I'm in the process of starting a small service to the Nihonto community and Ebay buyers. If you've ever come up against a stonewall seller who does not want to work with you on customs. A seller you don't really trust to pack with great care the items you cherish the most. I hope I'm the one you can turn to, if I receive significant input I will carry this in to a web page. future possibilities are being bonded, escrow service, most importantly packing. which is the first service ill offer. I recently sent a package to SA required repacking of eight knife's that had been just dropped into a tube with hardly any packing. it was sent to me by land in a round tube with maybe a half a dozen foam peanuts. Round tube in a truck over eight days...it was a washing machine action that ended in tearing one sheath. I shudder what it would have looked like if sent to SA that way. So let me help you get what you buy over the ponds in a safe and secure matter. As I said if I get feedback on this service ill be taking it to a web page with much more info. For now just a PM if your interested and if you have had service from me already a line or two to let others know what I have provided will be greatly appreciated.

Its the Token Yoran many printings, each is a different year. mine is the same as the far left which I think is 1984? (may be wrong on the year) and as one member likes to say "Never leave home without it"

PS pix of the saya (scabbard) where theres a white lable? may help us also. the area next to the hanger and under the torn leather cover. Like Brian said most likely a war time smith as the long linage of Yoshimichi end in the 1850s? in Hawleys book. Pix of the blade temper line and grain pattern will help us tell.

Welcome Sarah i turned your swords pix right side up to read the mei (sig) which is Yoshimichi the other side is the date showa ju roku or 1941 if you care to share more pix that would be fine as we always like to see the blade as well. http://home.earthlink.net/~ttstein/yoshmich.jpg please sign your name per sign on rules and once more

Thanks B and M just really like Go piece look, Marty that is a lovely tsuba, thanks for sharing.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... otohosting as you can see i was not to crazy over the carving but do love the shape of this type of tsuba, would like to see more of this if anyone cares to post, pix for those who dont want to click n auction

I have a bid on a tsuba which called Goishi-gata style, or like a stone for the game Go, i was wondering does anyone has one in collection that they care to share?

No kidding? Well not all are forging mistakes, some do happen in battle and the one in my mind had battle nix on the mune just above it. The above kizu city blade is not a deal i could live with, who wants to be yelled at each time you handle it KIZU KIZU KIZU KIZU KIZU!!!! a kantai paper saying what it is would enough IMHO

http://cgi.ebay.com/Japanese-Sword-Kote ... dZViewItem for PPl who want a look.

always a head scratch to me that a blade with that many kizu gets papered and one really nice one with one hagire that has battle stress above it can get the das boot don't make any sense