Grey Doffin

None of the references in my index have the 3rd or 4th. Grey

Yes! Exactly. The rest of the nakago has been refiled as well. The dark spots are from the original nakago and the coarse file marks to the left of the mei are new. Grey

The nakago does look like it has been altered somehow; not sure exactly what. The mei reads, "Something Ju Masazane Saku". I'm sure somebody can supply the something. Grey

At the top of this page you'll find a link to a fake vs. real Nihonto article. There's also this one: http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=greyguy0 which I put together for my ebay "me" page. But neither of these guides will be enough. You need to look at lots of the real thing; study. Grey

I suspect it is Chinese also. Grey

Something on ebay caught my eye: a kyu gunto with a line of script lightly etched into the blade above the habaki. Probably just some patriotic saying or an exhortation to bravery, so don't go to great lengths to translate, but I'm curious to know what this is. Here's the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/VERY-NICE-Japanese-ARMY-KYU-SHIN-GUNTO-OFFICER-SWORD_W0QQitemZ120500206757QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c0e5f3ca5 Thanks, Grey

Hi Steve, Hawleys has a Rai Kunifusa from 1449 but It seems unlikely that a Rai School smith would have used Fujiwara in his mei. No record in my Index of a Fujiwara Rai Kunifusa (or of Rai Kunifusa for that matter). Grey

Hi John, We'll need to see better pictures before we can tell you much about your sword's value, age, and correctness of the mei. Once we've seen them and told you what we can, decisions can be made about restoration. In the mean time, without a handle the sword is in a precarious situation. Without the handle with the pin through the hole in the nakago, there is nothing to hold the tip of the sword away from the inside bottom of the scabbard, and the tip is very easily chipped or broken. You would be smart to cobble something together to work as the handle. Take 2 blocks of wood, whittle a recess for the nakago, drill the hole to match the hole in the nakago, and glue, wire or tape the 2 pieces together. Almost anything is better than nothing. Grey

He's wrong about the stamp, also; it's the Showa stamp, not Seki. I've never seen a blade made before Showa that had a stamp, and I don't believe it ever happened. The seller has a terrible bed side manner. Even if he were right, why piss off a potential customer? Grey

The point I'm trying to make here is that if the mei doesn't match any of the illustrated mei in the references (any of the smiths important enough to make it into Fujishiro, say), it is likely gimei. If we were talking about a regular mei (not gaku) it could be from a lesser known smith who signed Kanesada, but a gaku-mei needs to match someone important. Of course there are always exceptions. Someone performing o-suriage on a run of the mill sword once upon a time probably did do a gaku-mei for whatever reason, but I've never seen it; gaku-mei I've seen have always been big names. And there probably was at sometime a smith who didn't have a great reputation but who did fine work and one of his swords received a gaku-mei to preserve his work; that's possible. But, these slim hopes are nothing to spend good money on; the great majority of gaku-mei that don't match the references are fake. BTW, there are 2 variations of gaku-mei gimei. In the 1st a real mei from a broken or burnt sword is let into the nakago of a different, undamaged sword, and in the 2nd a fake mei is let in. Neither is something we want to collect. Grey

Gaku-mei and orikaeshi-mei imply importance; you don't go to the trouble to save the signature of an unimportant smith. If this mei doesn't match that of someone important the blade wasn't made by someone important and you can assume gimei. Grey

There were 2 methods used to preserve a mei if a sword was to suffer o-suriage: gaku-mei and orakashi-mei. Orakashi-mei is when the mei is preserved on a rectangular piece of the old nakago dangling from the new nakago, which is then bent back on itself and inlaid into a rectangular recess on the other side of the new nakago. On average, orakashi is less likely to be a gimei than gaku, simply because it is still part of the original nakago. A gaku-mei can come from any sword. Of course, any kind of mei can be gimei. The same caution taken with the mei on an ubu sword should be taken on gaku-mei and orakashi-mei. Grey

Thank you both of you. Grey

Hi guys, A translation, please, for the hako-gaki below. Thanks, Grey

About $1,650 US. May be Nobu; need a better picture. Is seems weird that gunto are worth that much (are they?); when I got into this they were $300 in good condition. Grey

Hey guys, Take a look at the placement of the mekugi-ana in the 1st picture; it seems a bit too far down the nakago to me. And if you follow that placement to the 2nd picture, is the other end of the mekugi under the menuki? Does anyone have an idea what the out of place dark line on the habaki in picture 2 is? I agree that this looks like a civilian mounted gunto but these 2 details bug me a bit. And let me add, without proper training you or anyone else shouldn't be polishing any true Nihonto, regardless what it cost you. Grey

Hi Adam, Looks like an ubu (unshortened) wakizashi to me, nothing all that unusual about it. Grey

Hi Melanie, If everything is there and in decent condition I would expect this to sell between $500 and $900, either on ebay or at a well attended gun/militaria show. I don't have a lot of experience with military sword values so someone else might have a better idea. Grey

It would be tough to come up with a formula for determining value lost due to ha-giri. The more important the smith the less reduction in value, I would think. A ha-giri in a Masamune might result in a reduction of 30 to 60% and in a mumei so so wakizashi maybe 50 to 90%. But those figures might not hold true. Someone willing to collect a blade with ha-giri might not realize how serious the defect is and might be willing to pay more. If the ha-giri is close to the ha-machi the blade can be shortened to move the crack into the nakago and make it disappear. How much is value reduced in this instance? As a general rule, it makes sense to stay away from blades with ha-giri. No matter how much you like them they will likely be very tough to sell when you decide to move on. Grey

Sometimes to hide defects in the hi, sometimes because it is easier than polishing the hi, sometimes because it was the style at the time, and maybe someone else knows of other sometimes. Grey

I have seen a tanto by Shikkake Norinaga that had a lacquered saya with a shira saya inner saya that had saya-gaki. Most cool. Grey

The mei reads, "Sagami no Kami Yoshimichi". Grey

I know of a Miyairi Shohei (Akihira) katana with a star stamp and NBTHK Hozon papers, and I know the papers are legit. Grey

May also be read Kanemichi but usually Kinmichi. The date is Showa Ju Hachi Nen Ju Ichi Gatsu (Showa 18 year, 11 month: November of 1943) and the painted figures are the number 862. Grey

Nagahiro 永弘 I believe. More info in my other post on the other thread you have up. Grey