Alex A

That's why signed swords are important to me, history, as in known history. Not forever contemplating on "attributions" As are wrong on occasion.

Its a good blade and healthy and sturdy for its age. You have to like a blade to buy it and obviously know why you like it, if you don't know then don't buy it. Have you read books?, learned for a while?. Learned to know what you like and why ? Would bet most folks 1st sword purchase they later sell. Also. you will get numerous opinions that are not your own. Personally, im not interested much in unsigned swords these days, would that opinion put you off? If it does, your not ready to buy this sword. Its only your own opinion that matters.

You don't need to say a lot more about, no doubt many here will know it from Aoi Art Why do you like it?

With the title, expected to see a junk wall hanger but its far from it. Looks ok to me and good that it is signed.

Thanks Jussi, as always some folks get it right, well done to those.

John had it right with the trolling. This is ridiculous. Assume like others here, they gave Dan the benefit of the doubt out of decency but he keeps coming back on the same subject and being wrong, like a misguided boomerang. Its boring now. No doubt if you have written a book Dan, you really have gone about it the wrong way in promoting yourself. All the best anyways.

Dan, your tsuka looks like what i expect untouched and used Edo tsuka to look like

Agree John, though given the ones above a look over for appropriate wear, for the most part i am convinced. Pictures are not good and maybe some restoration to some saya. Also assume Kozuka are just something paired up at a later date. The only reason i really look in the Lanes is to see what koshirae comes in, try and avoid write-ups lol.

Misses watching masked singer, so perfect opportunity look through the Lanes, as one thing they seem to have a knack for is finding good old Edo fittings, they do it well. A quick fly through The Lanes Armoury | A Beautiful Samurai Shinto Kirin Based Tanto Fabulous Signed Blade by Echizen Ju Yasutsugu The Lanes Armoury | A Delightful Armour Piercing Sengoku Period Samurai’s Dagger. A Period That Commenced in 1468. A Samurai Tanto From The Koto Era, Made Around 500 Years Old. Fully Mounted And Fitted With Original Edo Period Mountings {Koshirae} The Lanes Armoury | An Opportunity to Acquire An Original Almost 700 Year Old, Ancient & Beautiful Samurai Dagger, A Signed, 14th Century Nambokochu Period Ancient Samurai Tanto The Lanes Armoury | A Superb Antique, Shinto Era, Unokubi (鵜首) Zukuri Blade Tantō, Late 16th To Early 17th Century, from the Battle of Sekigahara, Shinjitai: 関ヶ原の戦い; Kyūjitai: 關ヶ原の戰い The Lanes Armoury | A Beautiful & Impressive Shinto Period Long Samurai Tanto Circa 1650 The Lanes Armoury | Koto Tanto By Masaiye With A Full Matching Suite of Edo Mounts, & a Fabulous Oni Demon Mount on The Saya The Lanes Armoury | A Very Good & Beautiful, Late Koto Samurai Katana, Mounted With A Full Suite of Higo Mounts The Lanes Armoury | A Magnificent and Large Horse Mounted Samurai's Battle Sword Katana, With A Simply Stunning Shinto Blade In Near Mint Condition for Age. The Mounts Are All Completely Original Edo Period.

Don't remember ever seeing inlay like that on a saya Steve, a lot of work obviously went into it, cheers.

Was also looking at what is about online. Tsuka with Wasps and Chrysanthemums | The Walters Art Museum Tsuka with a Dragon | The Walters Art Museum Tsuka with Dragons and Waves | The Walters Art Museum 15 Tsuka, Artwork Images: PICRYL - Public Domain Media Search Engine Public Domain Search baleen whale / OAI - Open Art Images Sword Grip (Tsuka) with Hilt Collar and Pommel (Fuchigashira) | Japanese | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hello, yes that was wonderful koshirare, real nice package with the blade, shame it has gone.

Every now and again i think back to a wakizashi in the Bolton museum. The koshirae is something you rarely see and you just know its original and untouched. Been looking online and cant find it, been saying one day will go back in just to take a picture. From memory, stocky and had that dark lacquered kind of a Tensho look about it. Real museum piece, not as in high quality glitz, just basic utilitarian and even the first time i saw it i knew it was the real deal. Not seen it for many years but have always remembered it, presume its still there. There was a suit of armour as well and other bits and bobs. Just looking if anyone has koshirae or is aware of koshirae online that is totally as it was back when they were owned by someone in the Edo period. Quality don't matter and neither does it matter if look tatty as hell with the fuchi kashira hanging off or whatever. I know some folks collect old tsuka, so maybe they could post here. Not looking for anything restored.

In my humble experience Dan, when looking for answers and finding answers that are "too complicated" just to find an answer, sounds kind of an overly desperate quest for validation. Maybe time throw in the towel

Spent a bit of time on this the other day and was leaning towards Ko Aoe, maybe later. Though then read somewhere that horimono were pretty rare with this school, which kind of put me off. Anyways, thats where i was at.

Stephen, did consider that, good point. Dan. They are cast and were sat in an outdoor brick toilet at the bottom of my Grand folks garden for many years. They saw many variations in temp and conditions, as old tsuba do. Funnily enough, bumped into a video on youtube about how Japanese houses don't have central heating, apart from one small part of Japan. The guy was saying the houses in old times were murder in winter to keep warm. So if you have old iron like tsuba knocking about, you have to think about what they might of been through. Personally, i think your overthinking it.

Would suggest water has got into pores, corroded, frozen, expanded and pushed an hole in the surface. Like when your shocks on your car always brake in winter. Its what iron does.

Reminds me of a a 1920s dumbbell i have. No outer construction coating method as far as im aware, just one of those things.

That's the best piece of advice anyone can get here

This has been an interesting thread, seeing examples. To some maybe just another "Daisho" thread. We all have our own perspective, personally gained some clarity on the subject and at the same time asked myself a lot of questions. Seeing swords from 1985 with Hozen was somewhat a surprise. Left asking myself about how many papered "Edo" koshirae are actually from the "Edo"?. There really is no certain way of knowing without some kind of provenance. People are interested in "Daisho" nowadays, obviously by such discussions. Assume people were interested after the Edo period, 1880, 1900, 1940, 1960 etc etc. So without provenance then i think its fair to say that a papered koshirae doesn't necessarily mean it is an old antique Edo assembly. You can look for clues, as discussed already, stuff like tsuka and saya that appear to have no age. I guess you need to take a real close look, whether been restored, whatever. Then you take a closer look at the swords. The pair Guido own being as close to the real deal as your ever going to find. When you think about it, it wouldn't be difficult in this day and age for someone with access to a lot of paired Daisho fittings to put something together. Wouldn't be difficult to find two swords, lets say a Tadayoshi Katana and wakizashi of similar type. Not something i would take on as know what a pain in the ass finding the right tsuba with the correct fit can be, let alone finding two tsuba to fit two swords well. On top of that all the costs for other fittings and assembly. Personally, now don't see anything wrong with this, would see it as legit as buying a papered Daisho that has no provenance, so long as its done well with good fittings. Also wondering why we don't see so many with provenance. Occasionally come across Brit antique weapons of the same era with some kind of family provenance. One of the reasons that springs to mind is that dealers simply split them up to increase profit. Anyways, been interesting and finally got my head around what i would be willing to live with and be clearer on how to question what is out there in the future.

I guess flash saya like that may not have appealed to your everyday Samurai. Had to make an edit above, reading more into the papers. Its a punched dot date top left.

Stumbled across this fine set, very nice koshirae which is papered with NBTHK Blades are also papered, though not on the same paper. There is a different hamon on each blade. Two ana on the Wakizashi which i find interesting. Daimyou daishō by Moritsugu | Mandarin Mansion

Lots of people here talk the talk, just nice to see someone walk the walk. Also extremely kind of them to share their collection from time to time. As said, some folks here moan that all we see is junk and there is never ever any good stuff. Well, there you are, good stuff. People should be able to present quality items here without a running commentary that ruins it. To me, just comes across as envy and i wish they would just shut up and go and read a book or something.

Il be honest, not really looked at blades and assume gimei without looking further. Even so, still a fair deal. For a display daisho, swords have to be of no importance, otherwise price goes sky high. Swords are adequate for purpose, for me.

Think two swords like that deserve a nice Japanese stand. Don't have be old and megabucks, see them on Fleebay at reasonable prices, oldish wood stands. Ps, for someone just wanting a display without wanting to spend a fortune, then i guess the Daisho i linked could suffice. Also, never going to know when those two swords were put together for sure. May have been late Edo, may have been together in other koshirae previously. I guess one would need to take a real close look for further clues. Evaluate all the fittings and fit and wear. Says in "old polish", just noticed that.