ROKUJURO

7309, please sign all posts with your first name plus an initial as is requested here. In case there is no rust, your blade could be a stainless steel Naval one. Do you see a stamp with an anchor in a circle on the tang? It is not impossible to find a set of mounting parts (KOSHIRAE) but many blades have been made partly by hand and may have a differing curve (SORI) and length (NAGASA). You can do a search ad here at NMB with the length of your blade (from tip to notch on the back) and SORI. Please inform yourself about the features and terms of swords so you know what to look for. I wish you success!

BUNGO TAKADA

SAME-NURI TSUKA.

Tiger in bamboo, welcome to the board! Please sign all posts with your first name plus an initial as is requested here.

Omar, If I remember correctly, this subject has been discussed here previously.

Fascinating indeed, but it might be difficult to represent SURIAGE or O-SURIAGE blades in these data charts.

Tyler, welcome to the board! For an arrow, your tip seems to be much too heavy. It is certainly a KAGO YARI, signed YASUYOSHI. Did you ever have a look at the NAKAGO?

Jonathan, this is a nice and well preserved TSUBA although it is a bit dusty. You can wipe it with a soft tissue and a very small amount of Camellia oil (or any other household oil), but please refrain from any attempt to "improve" the signature as this will damage it and reduce its historical and monetary value. Iron TSUBA may be handled without cotton gloves, as this will not damage the patina.

Neddyboy, welcome to the board! Please sign all posts with your first name plus an initial as is requested here. You can add your signature to your profile. Your TSUBA is from CHOSHU province, but I can't read the maker's name, sorry. http://www.shibuiswords.com/choshutsubaBK.html http://swordsofjapan.com/project/choshu-tsuba/

Perhaps: https://www.aoijapan.com/kogatanaechigo-kuni-yoshimitsu-saku/

Dan welcome to the forum! For a first TSUBA this is not bad, I think. It is an authentic one, but certainly not top of the line and not old. It has lost most of its patina so the colour of the base metal shines through. I think you can enjoy it, but please look at many good and high-end TSUBA to get an idea of what is desirable, quality, and collectable.

Ben, as has been pointed out, not 'all waves are created OMORI'. But I think the second TSUBA may profit from a professional cleaning as it will probably bring out a fine and regular NANAKO-JI.

There was a small and less likely chance in my opinion that this could be an early and heavily corroded TSUBA that had been restored by grinding corrosion spots away before re-patinating it. But I tend to second Mariusz' opininon as it is well founded and seems much more likely.

Starting with MASAKAWA? Looks partly like fluently written HIRAGANA to my eyes, but that would be strange in a MEI.

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Probably a transformed/repurposed KOZUKA?

Welcome Dan! Of course we will happily help you with identifying what TSUBA you may have. Please post nicely focused pictures of your treasures!

Stephen, the surface treatment with very coarse grinding marks is not a TSUBAKO technique, and the NAKAGO-ANA has a shape that reminds me of later 'tourist' TSUBA. The neighbouring surface of KOGAI HITSU also looks a bit strange to me. KANEIE style is mostly related to a realistic scenery or landscape (e.g. SANSUI). In your TSUBA I do not see anything realistic but a random design. But all that may be my old eyes and/or the fact that I am looking only at photos.

Stephen, I am not sure about the provenance or production process of your TSUBA. It does not look traditionally made, so any guesses about the inlaid dots should come later.

The item reminds me of Tibetan or Chinese art, but not Japanese. Please sign all your posts with a first name plus an initial..

Dion, I think you have a wrong understanding of what patina can be. Please read a lot about this and have a look at pictures of really good iron TSUBA. Rust is Fe2O3 which we don't want on our TSUBA. Iron patina should be a stable coat of Fe3O4.

I am not sure if these different ways could be separated by a given date or even period. I think that they existed side by side for a while. In addition to that, punching a hole (not 'chiselling') into the warm steel with a pointed TAGANE and then drifting it open to the desired width often gives better and 'cleaner' results than a hole that was drilled (cold) with an early drilling device where we see that drilling from both sides often resulted in not perfectly matching holes. Later blades may indeed show holes with sharp edges (and this may indeed allow an assessment of the age), and badly/recently made MEKUGI-ANA may even show some remaining burrs. In my opinion we have to think about the increasing habit of chiselling a MEI into the NAKAGO by the beginning of EDO JIDAI. This was done cold, while in KOTO times, punching a MEKUGI ANA was perhaps closer to the forging process and done hot while the blade was still near the anvil. From an aesthetic point of view, I like the 'old' punched and drifted MEKUGI-ANA much more, the edges of which are a bit smoothed and rounded by slight corrosion and a lot of use. Just my two YEN.

Chris, that would mean he died being 101 years old. In fact this is the time of the SENGOKU period, Akechi Mitsuhide (明智 光秀) lived 1526 to July 2nd 1582.

Dion, both the heavy corrosion and the 'cleaning' with acid have damaged the blade beyond repair. There is not enough metal left to restore the shape which is as important as the HAMON.

Christian, it looks more like a WAKIZASHI than a wazikashi. Identification is always difficult via photos, but if you could give us all dimensions and show HADA and HAMON clearly on both sides, some of the experts here might give it a try. My personal opinion is that it could be a blade from the early EDO period (KANBUN), and the smith knew probably about the weak spot in the NAKAGO so he did not sign his blade.