bigjohnshea

There does appear to be one spot in the nakago where the shinogi has flattened out a bit, but then it does pick up again at the appropriate spot further down the tang. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I don't cut with my swords for philosophical reasons, but that aside, I wouldn't cut or practice with this one for a few reasons. You should get a tsuba for it before even thinking about it. You should have the tsuka rewrapped and make sure all the fittings are tight. You should have it polished atleast into a practical state of polish so that the dullness of the edge doesn't cause increased tension or torgue in the blade and risk further damage. The fact that the tsuka slides all the way up to the habaki without leaving room for the tsuba makes me think that your tsuka was not made for this blade. Just a thought. If that is true, that is something else that should be rectified before you cut with it. The question is how badly do you want to cut with it, because that is a fair amount of money to spend on something just to have a sword that you can trust cutting with. If you want a cutter, you would be better off buying a used Bugei from someone. There are plenty of them out there. Cheers,

Will there be a shinsa at the 2014 San Fran show? Cheers,

I entirely agree with Chris about the quality of the horimono. The lines are not at all straight, nor are they uniform in depth or width in many areas. The picture showing the ken side of the blade is in my opinion the most evident of this. The lines of the ken are not parallel, neither to the shinogi or to each other. Areas of curvature in the rest of the design do not flow, having variations of width and depth. There is even more evidence of the deviation from the shinogi in the small portion of the hi that is shown. I may only be a medical student right now, but I am also a trained Architect. If there's one thing I know when I see it, it's a straight line. As an aside, I don't see how the impact of polishing a blade would diminish evidence of a quality horimono. Obviously when you chip away at the original you loose something of what was once there, but shouldn't a good polisher make sure that he only takes what he needs to, and that he takes it in an even manner so that no one region of the horimono suffers more loss than another? Cheers,

http://www.nihonto.us/MITSUSANE%20KATANA.htm Decided to use the credit I was issued to put toward this blade, as a future restoration. Seemed like a worthy candidate to me. Any thoughts? Cheers,

I think if you look at my track record here of buying blades out of polish you'll see I'm sort of an optomistic guy. I like the idea of breathing life back into these special objects, and often that interest blinds me from seeing the truth, that often the sword may have no lungs left. From the pictures it looks like this sword is badly damaged. My best advice, if you are determined to restore it, is to pick the most damaged area and have a window polished into that area. That will atleast show you whether or not the worst parts of it can be salvaged. It is also an affordable step. I'm no expert on the mei, but it looks kind of sloppy. If I were putting my name on a sword I think I would have done it more carefully. Cheers,

I had posted the link to site where I bought it earlier in the thread, but purposely took it down. Andy and I have discussed this, and I decided that since this was a consignment blade the easiest thing to do would be for him to issue a credit toward a future purchase. He agreed to this. He was willing to do a total refund but the credit he issued me is about 75% of the purchase price and I'm happy with that. I think that is fair. I will keep the sword and apply that credit to a future purchase with him. Flawed swords need love too, and I don't mind giving it. :-) Cheers,

I cleaned it up a bit and got the light right. I think they are correct. There are a few spots not just on the boshi where the hamon vanishes completely. Hmm... glad this was found. Thank you all. Cheers,

Is it possible that because the sword is in a poor state of polish that the boshi simply couldn't be seen during the shinsa? I can't see it very well right now, but I'm going to oil it and try and get a better look.

Interesting... Thank you for that. Looks like a flaw (perhaps) was missed by the merchant I purchased it from.

Thank you, Chris. I have his Connoisseur's Book of Japanese Swords. I'll have to find the one you mentioned. Cheers,

Gentlemen, Hope you have all been well since we last discussed this. So I submitted this sword to the NTHK Sinsa this past month in Florida. It failed shinsa due to the gimei (which was to be expected) but an attribution was made to Echizen Shimosaka around 1650. So I have a follow up question: Is the smith who made this sword related to the Yasutsugu school? I have ben reading this article and it mentions Yasatsugu's first signature being Echizen ju Shimosaka. Would this have been made by a student of the Yasutsugu school? http://www.nihonto.com/abtartyasutsugu.html Cheers,

Okay, thanks very much Chris. I think I'm still going to try and have the second sword polished. It's not much longer than a tanto so it shouldn't cost too much to clean up. Would be nice to atleast be able to enjoy it. Thanks again. Cheers,

Thank you Chris. So does low quality mean it is a badly made blade or that the quality can't be determined due to the condition of the blade? Cheers,

Closer image

Second paper

Closer photo

Hello all, Hope you are well. I submitted two waks for the NTHK shinsa in Florida. They both failed shinsa, one due to gimei no doubt, the other most likely due to not being polished. I was submitting primarily for an attribution. Could someone help me translating the papers? I don't even know where to start. I am most interested in whether or not attributions where made, and what they were. Thank you for your help. Cheers,

My humble thanks Marius.

Marius, Yes, I entirely agree. Building on your point, I have also read that muneyaki often can be a sign of retempering of a blade, which I believe devalues it. That being said, I don't see in this blade any other signs of retempering, such as mizukage, or the hamon falling short of the ha-machi. Thanks again for your insights. Cheers,

I can't say how rare muneyaki really is, but I personally feel that the muneyaki makes the blade stand out, at least in terms of what is available out there. I was shopping for blades in this price range for a long time. I won't pretend I know what the best work is when I see it, but I probably looked at every katana offered by nearly every merchant that NMB offers a link to and I don't recall ever seeing another for sale that had this feature. Anyhow, I thought it was a unique feature, and amoung the other things I mentioned above it made for a strong component of a whole package. Cheers,

Thank you for your thoughts Ian. I doubt any pictures I take would be of equal quality to the pics that are found on the link above, in the original post. I'll try to take some once it arrives though. Cheers,

Thanks again Brian. Apologies again for the double post. Cheers,

Marius, I originally just wanted to know what the term was for the temper line on the mune of the blade. Then I decided to post a link to the blade just to get an opinion if people thought it was a smart purchase. Then I decided that people might not see the link in this thread because the thread was about terminology, not about the sword itself. So I started a second thread. If the moderators want to delete either of these threads I have no problems with that. That aside, thank you for your advice. This is not my first sword but I do only have five swords of varying quality and style in my collection. I have been collecting for a few years, but I am also a medical student so my time is used primarily in studying medicine. I learn what I can about swords when I have some free time. Uechi, Thank you for your advice as well. I posted a lengthy description of the reason I purchased this blade in the other thread. I'm not planning on selling any of my swords, but someday if I need to or want to I'm sure I would. Apologies to everyone for the confusion.

Thank you both for your thoughts. The purchase of this sword is a combination trade and purchase. After it's all said and done, my cash expenditure is actually a few thousand dollars less than the requested price of the Naofusa. The reason is I was able to get a greater trade value for the sword I traded then what I originally paid for it. Then I put out 1000$ above that to meet the sellers requested price. So I saved some money in the long run. Chris, Thanks for the two links. The first sword I'm not that impressed with. As the description says it looks like it is a bit tired and the flaws that the last polish revealed would keep me from wanting to buy it. Also the lack of koshirae would have kept me from buying it. Just my amateur opinion. The second link was really a nice blade, again, in my opinion. I'm not sure if I would have bought it over the Naofusa though, for the reasons I talk about below. I agree that I would have preferred the Naofusa to have gone through shinsa already for this price, but I will submit it to shinsa myself sometime and see what the outcome is. Mariusk, There are a few reasons I decided this was the sword for me. The first is that I do love the hitatsura hamon and the muneyaki on it. I've only seen a few examples of muneyaki on other swords, and I think this really just felt like a nice execution of it. I could be wrong but it struck a chord with me. I also thought that having a sword with a muneyaki would be a nice addition to my collection. The second reason was the overall shape of the blade. I prefer a more shallow sori, and I believe that shinto era blades are known for more shallow sori because this was around the time that the katana was transitioning from a weapon used on horseback to a weapon used on foot. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Koto era blades always get my attention because of their age, but I tend to like the shinto era blades because of their style. The third reason was the koshirae. I don't have any swords with complete antique koshirae, and I tend to prefer the no-nonsense approach to koshirae. As my taste in sori might tell you, I prefer things to be less extravagant and more direct. I am restoring another blade right now that is a shin-shinto era sword, and while I am choosing components that are a little brighter (in terms of material) they are still very subtle in their own way. Last but not least was the smith. I spent some time reading what I could about the Naofusa before buying this. There was a previous post here on NMB that got my attention. I can find the link if you really want it. The post discussed how Naofusa worked for the Hosokawa family, and actually moved from the Mino area at their request. I liked the idea that this smith worked for one of the longest running and influential families in Japanese history. As an aside, I also liked the idea that he worked for the Hosokawa family during the same era that Miyamoto Mushashi was a retainer of the Hosokawa family. Something I have always enjoyed about collecting antiquities is the mystery of what life the item has lived. There is a small piece of me that likes the idea (mind you, it is just an idea ) that this sword could have been held Musashi himself. It is not the real reason I bought it, but it is a charming thought. Hope you are both having a great day. Cheers,

Thank you. I'm aways concerned when I buy something like this that I'm paying too much and not getting the right quality. Mike Yamasaka is well known in this business though so I'm not overly concerned about the lack of papers on this sword. I'll submit it to shinsa sometime and see how it turns out. Right now I'm just looking forward to enjoying and learning from this sword. Cheers,