Alex A

Cheers Gents, I did some measurements before the tsuka went off for a refurb, so it should fit Ken. Might be slightly out but i can sort that with various thickness of seppa. Be good if other folk could chime in with their shipping positives, might help folk to make decisions in the future and also good to read the good news, rather than what goes wrong. Cheers.

Hi Paul, read about those copies but was referring to Dotanuki, that no one copied (I presume) The others, totally understandable and you can see why Was thinking about how much time NTHK have v NBTHK, when you pay your money, last thing you want is a rushed appraisal.

One thing strikes me about this thread, that we are debating whether a shinsa panel would be so thick as to call a Muromachi blade as Shinshinto. Doubt it.

The trigger, dimensions, maybe the steel, depth and style of the chiselling in the mei compared to Koto (just an idea, you would need to see lots of Koto, which ive not) ,nakago shape, mei itself, difficult without all the resources Anyways, defo Looks Dotanuki, stout, nice blade. Never read of country smiths producing kazu- uchimono, might be an interesting thread.

Notice you have quite a few missing there John Ps, If you have anything on Shinshinto Dotanuki, theres another thread for it.

Hi Steve, i should have been more specific. I was refering to swords from around the Momoyama period, wide thick with longer kissaki. Once owned one, a Dotanuki, a beast of a sword, wouldnt want to use it in an Edo duel as it was very heavy, that one came from Ed too. I have a sword here that looks an obvious Nanbokucho, wide, o-suriage, but it was listed as Muromachi. I asked the dealer about this, and his reply was that some schools (country smiths), maybe took a while to catch on with the mainstream. I think sometimes its easy to put things in brackets.

Ok, blowing trumpet a bit. Was a sword thread, but will throw a tsuba success in to even out the thread, as this one is "if carlsberg did nihonto purchases" . Finishing off a koshirae and needed a tsuba, so buys one from Grey in US (after a certain amount of measuring twice) Arrived yesterday, should have got charged import VAT, but for some weird reason i didnt (why cant this happen with swords, and yes, all details on package complied with uk rules).....result! Fit to the nakago is bang on, like it was made for this sword, maybe it was?...……...result Fit for the Kozuka is bang on, maybe it was made for this sword...……….result Cheers Grey, Success!!

Most I have found is two swords listed as Shinshinto Dotanuki, but nothing of the school during the late Edo period and would be great if anyone can add some info. To be honest, there isnt a great deal written about the Muromachi school. Known as "country smiths" which kind of refers to them lacking in some way, but the truth is they made reliable swords for battle, sometimes very wide and thick. During the Edo period there would be no need for such blades. If you find anything out, be glad to hear, cheers.

The way i see it, cant argue with a shinsa panel, especially from images. They have it in hand and say the mei is legit. Is it Kanbun shape?,sori at 1.43 cm. See "Kanbun" around 0.6cm and almost straight, that's not to say you wont find lots of regular curved blades made in that period. Not sure on the width of this blade at the pointed end, sometimes wider blades do appear straighter in images, Dotanuki made wide blades at the pointed end. Don't see much info on later Dotanuki, be good to find out more. Congrats Jean-Pierre,

Thats one hell of a statement Jacques. End of day, all just opinions.

When I first looked at the mei, first thought was that it did not look Muromachi Dotanuki. Apparently, samurai were rather fond of Dotanuki blades.

Maybe the steel, preservation of nakago and their database of mei.

Wont forget that about Emirates and good to find out about EMS/USPS, cheers .

Agree, unusual.

Yes, that's it. Funny thing is though, tracking number works on the EMS site, but also on USPS as priority mail express international (product information) Just read the bottom of the page that Pietro presented, now I get it.

Not entirely sure Ken, the tracking stated it never left the US, but since then I received a letter from USPS/Parcelforce saying it was being held for further enquiries. I received that letter the same day the sword was delivered by EMS. Sometimes wonder what goes on, someone flags it, then maybe a couple of folk on different shifts with different amount of experience approaching it in different ways Just glad it arrived in one piece, all is well

Not wanting to sound like im blowing ones trumpet, just thought the info might help. Success, Katana, US to England, sent by EMS, no issues. Worth mentioning, this was the 2nd attempt, first time was with USPS but it was returned to sender.(All relevant information provided, tariff etc)

No nothing of armour, but the patina looks genuine, pitted, remnant lacquer. The weird thing though is the dragons. Just looking at the the one on the right, looks like it was done quite recently, with very little loss. They just don't look right.

Funny you mention india, I keep bumping into medieval European arms and armour, made in india. Interesting Nick.

Stringent rules there it seems from the NBTHK, Interesting when you see, blades of the 47 Ronin http://japaneseswordindex.com/ronin.htm Which one would expect to be worn as a "daisho" looking back in history, was not unusual for Samurai to have even oddball combinations.

No, understandable. I was buying a sword some time ago, noticed a scratch in the photos and asked the dealer if he could polish it out. He told me me what I told you about removing steel and it did make me think. If these swords are going to be around for many years to come then maybe its better to just accept the odd blemish. Prevention is better than cure, do you draw the blade properly? (on the mune and not sideways), touch of oil on the blade?. As mentioned in the other thread, I would get the shirasaya checked out. Had a similar issue with one of my blades, warped saya, maybe some debris. Always move your swords out of the way when folk come around, unless you want scratches and dinked saya.

Just a few light scratches, worth taking steel off the blade?

Been two or three good deals there over the last couple of months, and that was one of them. Actually, thought it was a great deal, lovely hada and bo-hi. I was also curious about the inlay "ichi", did they tell you more about it ?, best I could come up with was a Samurai that liked to blow his own trumpet Well done, nice sword.

No, i just use it as a starter to clean up old rusty iron.

Oh right, cheers Paul, makes me wonder how they make sense of it all down there.