ROKUJURO

It is not a KOZUKA, it is a KOGATANA blade. The second last KANJI looks like NAO (or SADA) to me. Quite sloppily chiseled.

Let's not forget that the TSUBAKO of the late EDO JIDAI were masters of their craft and well able to forge very good TSUBA! In our TSUBA forging workshop this summer the participants experienced how much work is involved to just make a TSUBA blank. From there to a well balanced functional TSUBA with a good size, even thickness and appealing surface texture is still quite a jump. And then imagining the long experience, commitment and talent that are necessary to create a real masterpiece leads to great respect for the old masters and their work!

This seems to be a general thing. A thickness between 6 and 5 mm is often seen, but there are rare exceptions up to 10 mm, and many early iron TSUBA of the TÔSHÔ and KACHUSHI type are much thinner.

You can be sure this was not etched. It was scratched.

Jens, in evaluating a blade, the age is of lesser importance than its quality. SUGATA and condition of NAKAGO (MEKUGI-ANA) could point to early EDO, but this may be due to the SURIAGE process. Late KOTO era is also a possibility, but to be sure, an expert will have to study the blade when it is (again) in a good state of polish. Please consider that in some periods of Japan's history, swords were mass-produced due to the war situation. So even if you had a 500 year old sword, it may not necessarily be a first-class one. What you could do as a first step is having a "window" polished by a traditionally trained polisher. This may allow you to learn more about your blade which is a genuine one with some age in my opinion.

I obviously missed the competition: Who can make the ugliest sword blade?

....waiting for the right photos. NAKAGO shown tip-upwards, no HABAKI, light from the side, images cut-out so very little background is showing. This background is fine.

Always tip-upwards of course, and presented as cut-out, if you can! The important parts to see are the MACHI - the little notches where the cutting edge/MUNE begin.

Hi Jens, this may well be an authentic blade. The rather straight blade reminds me of KANBUN era (early EDO JIDAI). To me, it looks as if someone tried to erase the MEI, which was X MITSU before. A picture of the (vertical) NAKAGO without HABAKI (dark background, light from the side) would help further, I hope.

Jason, that looks like REISHO character (Sino-Japanese script) to me.

Michael, welcome on board of the NMB! How far have you come with your translation? And are you looking at the sword or at this photo where the smith's name is not visible because of the reflections? Take a better photo on a dark background and with the light coming from the side. The mounts are no help in identifying the blade.

Looks like a souvenir item to me. I cannot imagine it in a collection or museum.

For other beginning collectors: A damaged TSUBA may be cheap, but it is never a bargain! In most cases, there is a good reason why an item is offered cheaply. E-Bay does not make presents!

Jake, if you watch Ford's video carefully, you will understand how iron TSUBA were made. There is no "mold" involved, and no stamping or casting at all. When the TSUBA blank has been forged, the shape is cut out, and the design is carefully chiseled and filed.

See how traditional iron TSUBA of the SAMURAI era were actually made:

Pierre, the light on the NAKAGO is not enough to show a MEI - it may be my old eyes but I can't see anything. By the way, it is TOKUBETSU ( (特別 )

It was perhaps a YARI in its former life.

Yes, may be iron, but it has a greenish hue on my screen, so I was not sure. Can be tested with a magnet. If you don't have a magnet, you can make a melting test. Iron melts at 1.538°C. If the TSUBA melts considerably below that, it is possibly SHIBUICHI.

Yes, it is a TSUBA. If the colour is showing correctly on my screen, the material may be SHIBUICHI, a copper/silver alloy. The seven fans are arranged in a way to look like petals. Age is probably 19th century.

Very nice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7z9pkQnz_0 Don't know if this has been shown before.

The German AI text is incredibly flawed.

I think the decoration was meant to be $, but to make the work easier, they left the vertical strokes out.

It is not a good photo to reveal everything. It would be much better to photograph it straight from above, not at an angle, to get every detail in good focus. However, I think all that has been written above is correct. But to make you feel a bit better I can tell you that from 100 random SOTEN signed TSUBA lying on a table in front of you, ALL may be fakes! Authenticated and genuine SOTEN TSUBA are very sought after and fetch high prices on the market. This was even so in the past, which explains why there are so many fakes. They are easy to spot for experts as good iron TSUBA from the SAMURAI era were never cast. Your TSUBA looks quite crude in execution, so that is just the opposite of how good SOTEN TSUBA look like.

Just found this on YouTube: