Marius

Jason, This is a somewhat futile exercise... But if you insist, from left to right: 1. scuff from saya (?) 2. Hada 3. Hada 4. I have no idea because of the hadori

Sorry to have confused you Anyway, what you see is just the pattern of the hada.

Jason, you see only hada. That is all. For activities of the hamon: http://www.nihontocraft.com/nihonto_hamon_hataraki.html

Jason, no activities of the hamon can be seen in this picture. What you see is the hadori finish on the yakiba and the hada.

Guido, Many thanks, you are very helpful The Masamune book is 54.7 MB, so this one does not work. I will read it as is, but I am not exactly happy.

Thanks for the advice, Guido. I appreciate your tip for a workaround form this problem However, spending $99 to improve the inadequate quality of Markus's e-book... Hm... I'd rather have a PDF of adequate quality in the first place. I am not sure this was done by Lulu. Previous books by Markus were normal PDFs, generated from word processing files. To put things into the right perspective - this is not a huge problem. But it is very irritating.

Markus, I have bought the book and while I am sure it will be an interesting read, I have one technical remark. The PDF looks like it was made from graphic files. As a consequence, it is impossible to copy and paste from the book and this might have been the reason to choose this form over a PDF generated from a word processor file. I don't complain about this, as understand the author's concerns. But as a reader of your books I feel I bought something sub-standard from the (important) point of view of usability. The reading experience is very bad. The font is blurred and tough on the eyes, unless I blow it up to a size which makes it OK (but try to read a book like this). It will be a pain for me to read the book and I must say I am disappointed, not with its contents, but with its form.

I have enjoyed it, too :-) Now, what struck me, was the white wrapping around the upper part of the nodachi tsuka...

Junichi look again: http://www.tozandoshop.com/v/vspfiles/kamon/plant1.html Three crests with yamabuki.

Gentlemen, Please allow me to add a few words regarding the ko-Uda. With all respect, I think John Kurata's photographs are doing it a disservice. I used to own this sword and sold it to Big John here on the NMB. It is a very imposing blade with a grand sugata, bright steel and streaks of shining nie in the hamon. I used to say it was a suitable sword for a zombie apocalypse But seriously, this is a blade which was made for one purpose - to do its job well. I still miss it, to be honest... Such long naginata naoshi do not show up very often, so that is a great chance to own one.

Great, thank you

Junichi, you might want to try to find one among all those crests: http://www.tozandoshop.com/v/vspfiles/kamon/plant1.html

Darcy, could you please post some more pictures of your Yoshimitsu? This would be very educational. I am (like most of us here, I dare say) a great fan of your photography and of your write-ups of various great swords. I hope this is not too much to ask. Only if you don't want to keep your Yoshimitsu confidential, of course. There are sometimes good reasons to do so, so nobody should be put off if you said "sorry, no"... Just asking

http://www.aoijapan.com/tanto-□masamuramasa-2nd-generation And, since the page will be removed from Aoi soooner or later, below is Aoi Art's description and two pics: Ordering number : AS14756 Tanto in Shirasaya and Koshirae.(NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon ) Signature : □masa(Muramasa) (2nd generation) The sword Muramasa :Sue koto:Saijyo Saku:Ise province. Sayagaki: Mr Tanobe seize:explanation: Generally Muramasa was engraved 2 characters Muramasa But the blade was removed one signature Mura. Because Tokugawa Syogun issued impose the ban for holding Muramasa. This signature is a good data for this ban not holding Muramasa. The Tanto is the typical Nakago and jigane and hamon. Ise Kuni Sengo Muramasa. (We divide 4 sections for each sword as Saijyo saku, Jyojyo saku Jyo saku and regular saku)This Tanto Masashige is Jyojyo saku ranking. The blade was polished by high ranking polisher. Blade length : 27.9 cm or 10.98 inches. Sori : 0.2 cm or 0.07 inches. Mekugi : 1 Width at the hamachi : 2.56 cm or 1.00 inches. Special feature : Muromasa was working at Ise Kuwana province which is called Yoto Muramasa.（specter sword) Grand father of the Tokugawa Ieyasu Hirotada was assassinated by Muramasa and his son Nobuyasu was ordered to Seppuku and killed by Muramasa. Ieyasu himself was injured by Muramasa Yari, so Ieyasu has a vehement hatred of Muramasa. So Tokugawa Syogun issued impose the ban for holding Muramasa. Many Daimyo changed the blade to another signature by removing one signature like this Tanto. Some Daimyo who dislike Tokugawa Syogu liked Muramasa and collected. The students of the Muramasa are Masashige, Masazane and so on. I think The Hamon of the Muramasa is very big differen from other sword maker’s The Hamon is square shape gunome midair and same hamon on bit sides of the blade. In case of the Muramasa, even if the signature removed, the value is not changed a lot compare original signature sword. Recently it is very hard to buy Muramasa. We recommend this rare sword Muramasa for you. Koshirae： Tsuba：Mokko shape Shakudo Sukashi Tsuba. Kiri Mon is engraved with gold color. Fuchikashirae: Shakudo, clouds and dragon are engraved with gold color. Saya: Black color. Kizami Saya and clouds design is painted. Menuki: Shakudo, chrysanthemum is engraved with gold color. Kozuka and Kogatana: Shakudo, two dragons are engraved with gold color. NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon paper. Aoi Art estimation paper : whole Oshigata. Auction Starting Price : 3,800,000 JPY- (including shipping and 100% insurance fee) Kasane : 0.45 cm or 0.17 inches. Era : Late Muromachi period. Shape : The blade is regular size mihaba and Kasane with nice shape. Jitetsu :Koitame had and mokume hada mixed with jinie attach beautiful texture. Hamon : Niedeki gunome midare and square shape style mix, in Hamon there are sunaagashi and small kinsuji work. Boshi is round shape hakikake style yakisage.

Glenn, this tanto is very tired, but the yakiba is broad and the (healthy) hamon follows the edge. Try to imagine it in its original shape with the current hamon. *edit admin* Admittedly, spotting saiha is sometimes not so easy, and there are more saiha swords out there than we care to admit, even papered ones. In this hobby, wishful thinking is our enemy. This is not to say that you cannot enjoy this tanto. But it is neither a Kamakura tanto, nor a Toshiro Yoshimitsu. And it is (most likely) saiha. Just my opinion of course.

Tosa Yoshimitsu would be the usual suspect. The sugata says late Muromachi. BTW, this blade is most likely saiha.

Hahaha At least I knew it was not ko-kinko

James, you are right with that patina, of course. I have copper gutters that have patinated to a very deep brown. They look lovely, like a yamagane tsuba

James, You have disclosed the true nature of this tsuba and I presume that you have done this to save the face of those who would have attributed your work to ko-kinko. This was very considerate of you, thank you I find it very hard to make a comment in this situation, but I would like to point out one big give-away in your tsuba (apart from the rim and the seppa-dai): Your tsuba is made of copper and not yamagane. That means, that despite all patination effort (very good, by all means) the colour of this tsuba is off in places where the material shines through. I can imagine, though, that it would be easy for someone like Ford to produce a copper alloy similar to yamagane or nigurome. The lead plug is great Overall, I think it is a very convincing tsuba, and I must say I like it a lot BTW, what recent publications about ko-kinko are you referring to? I am very interested in anything that comes out.

Not ko-kinko. Could be Umetada.

Jeff, if you haven't stumbled upon the advice to buy this book, do it: http://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/books/b889-facts-and-fundamentals-Japanese-swords Grey is one of the most reliable dealers out there, BTW. In the book you will find loads of information on suriage, sword shapes, the impact of wear on it, etc.

BTW, I have done some photoshopping to show the boshi and kissaki. Unfortunatelly I cannot discern if the hada is a masame, which bends following the line of the ha. This would indicate a Hosho work. Maybe you can see the hada?

Darcy has written about the Hosho masame controversy. Ineteresting and worth reading: http://www.nihonto.ca/hosho-sadakiyo/

Ware in sue-Koto should not be surprising. This is nothing fatal.

Of course none of us here has held the sword in hand, but I can't help but wonder if another shinsa wouldn't attribute this one to Shikkake, because of the masame being prominent closer to the ha. In the pictures it seems that closer to the shinogi ji we have a different hada, not masame. But this is all purely theoretical a we try to judge this sword looking at photographs. Still, it seems a very good sword, by all means..