Navy

I'm sorry, my bad. So thank you Thomas

Indeed they are 👍

Thanks Steve. 👍

Hi all; for reference here we have a Takayama sword made by the smith Ishihara Masanao. She regroups all the common features of these blades, such as compact nagasa (62 cm), short and thick kissaki (2,9 cm/8 mm) and long nakago (28,5 cm). The nakago has also a second mekugi ana, which is aligned with the sarute hole on the tsuka. The tsuka itself has a peculiar shape often related to the Takayama swords. The koshirae is, I think, an expensive upgrade, with 8 seppa and texturized saya's laquer. The dai seppa are finished with gold paint. About the steel... It should be some kind of anti-rust one, just the nakago differs from the shining, silver-like ones made in the IJN arsenals. Oddly, the mei doesn't bear the name Ishihara, just Masanao; the togishi should be Kizaemon (anyone could help on this?) Thanks for watching.

Aged repro to me.

Another good product is the Nivea cream. Works well on aged leather, with no blackening effect.

My humble addition to this topic. Long wakizashi (57 cm) in wooden saya, leather covered, brass koiguchi. Notice the peculiar style of press studs.

Yes, I can validate. Reliable seller 👍 Again, congrats for your gorgeous kai.

Very, very nice! By the chance, did you get it from an Italian guy?

Is this variety already seen/common?

The blade:

Hoping my sword falls in this category, here we have a mumei Uda blade, in an early 98 koshirae (perhaps from Kakenu shop).

Another interesting point: the same is in full wrap style. The seam is roughly at 11 o' clock (mune side).

About the ito wrapping, I noticed that all the tsuka posted here have the criss-cross pattern just over the menuki done in the kai gunto style. It would seem an hallmark of this maker.

Hi Trystan; do you have a pic of the nakago ana area of this tsuka? Maybe the same maker?