Ken-Hawaii

Well, the hamon definitely looks Bizen, Scott, although I don't recall ever seeing a bo-hi that went quite so far into the nakago. And I'm wondering just what happened on the mune/hi area; kinda' weird-looking. No sign of yasurime that I can see, where I would expect either kiri or katte sagari. Something about that bothers me. I've dealt with that seller once, with okay results. He sold me a wakizashi that wasn't exactly as advertised, but immediately refunded my money when I complained, including shipping. Not much more you can ask -- other than getting me what I wanted in the first place, of course. :D

It has a very lovely & interesting hamon, Anthony. I hope that someone can make a positive identification of the smith, because I'd love to find a tanto just like it! If that's a kitchen knife, I want a whole set!! Can you please tell me where you found &/or bought it? And the approximate price? Thanks!

Umm, Reinier, I live about 20 meters away from the Pacific Ocean with strong onshore tradewinds almost all the time, so I definitely understand both humidity & blowing salt. But not taking a look at your sword because you don't yet have choji oil is really overkill. Remember that your blade has likely been through a lot more humidity, dust, dirt, & possibly blood than it's going to see in your hands (or so I hope!). I do keep our Nihonto in a case with a dry-wand, but take them out at least a few times each month to admire or examine, which is why I think any of us collect them. I add a bit of choji oil once a month or when I've handled them for any length of time. But trust me that steel is not going to rust very quickly unless you do something really dumb (sprinkle with acid, dip into salt water, leave covered with blood). Just go & enjoy it!!

The rust pattern isn't at all consistent, either, so I doubt that it's "real" by Nihonto standards. The mei also looks almost too perfect, even if I can't translate it. I wonder why anyone would try to disguise/mimic/masquerade a sword with an otherwise authentic-looking nagasa?

Just to add my two yen, my wife & I both practice MJER iaido using standard zinc-beryllium iaito, & we're certainly used to their weight after many years of swinging them. So when we started tameshigiri a few years ago, we were both a bit surprised that the modern-day folded-steel shinken ("live blades") are so much heavier. We're also both engineers, so we carefully weighed & measured the blades. My shinken, which is exactly the same length as my iaito (2-4-5, or two shaku, four sun, five bu), weighs 17 ounces more. That's obviously because of the steel blade instead of the Zn-Be alloy, so no big surprise. The balance of the shinken is about two inches forward of that of the iaito, probably because it's made to do physical cutting (rather than the virtual opponents we slice & dice in iaido). But what was really interesting was when Linda bought her Showato katana last week for jodo practice. It weighs four ounces more than even her shinken, although it's about 3.5 inches shorter. So we measured the thickness of the blade at the nakago & along the nagasa, but both were slightly smaller than the shinken. So the only conclusion we can draw is that the Showato steel itself is more dense than modern-day steels. The iaito & katana both balance in almost exactly the same place, thank goodness, so her forearm will just have to get used to the weight difference. I haven't quite wrapped my brain around that one.... So if anyone has ideas on steel density, please comment.

You know, Rich, I've been on Rich Turner's Web-site a thousand times, but never noticed that set of links.... Thanks! I did notice that I've already visited about half of his links, but I can see a bunch of really interesting new places to visit. And another database to play with, oh, boy!! How does ToShow compare/cross-reference to Hawley's?

Thanks, Rich. My wife keeps saying that we just have to learn Kanji, but even with my detailed dictionary in front of me, along with a few cheat-sheets specifically on Kanji for mei, I get only about 10% of my guesses correct.... I see the three smiths in Hawley's, but what is "ToShow?"

I was fairly certain that I had figured out the Kawazoe portion of the mei, Koichiro, but was completely lost on the Teruhiro part. Thank goodness my son & his Japanese wife are moving to Hawaii in 10 days! She may be able to help on some of these Kanji puzzlers. Hmm, you're right - Hawley doesn't have a smith listed by that name, or even close to the Showa era. Guess I have to do a bit more digging . Thanks!

My wife just purchased a nice Gendaito katana yesterday for use in jodo, & I'm trying to decipher the mei. Thanks in advance for the help.

Steve, several parts of that first group of photos look really strange to me! It's as if everything between the shinogi & the mune disappeared. Did you take those shots? And, if so, what the heck did you do to get that effect?? School-wise, I'd guess Bizen to start off with.

Excellent replies, Richard & Franco!! Everyone on this forum should take these messages to heart.

Can't think of any reason why value would be added just because of the former collection. But the fact that the Nihonto would likely be extremely well-documented might add to the selling price, but not necessarily the value.

Your English is a darn sight better than my Italian, Carlo! You're right that I haven't seen many tanto that weren't cut down from a longer blade. I looked very carefully at the nakago, and it is obviously the original forging. Now if only there had been a mei so that I could easily determine the school & smith!! Any ideas?

You're obviously a more trusting soul than many of us, Jean. I can't remember a time when I had a positive outcome from wiring money anywhere....

Sometimes, you just get lucky. I was in a store this morning talking with a fellow Nihonto collector, & an older gentleman walked up & asked if I would be interested in seeing an old "sword" that his parents had left him. I followed him to his house, & he showed me the mumei tanto shown below. I won't mention how much I paid for it, but I guarantee that it didn't break the bank...! It's in shirasaya, & in fairly good shape except for a small patch of umegane on the omote. I would appreciate any comments on its provenance.

Yeah, but he's charging too much in dollars: about US$500 more, considering the current exchange rate.

Beautiful!! Now I really wish I had studied Kanji harder!!

Hey, Peter, I'm looking at that Naganobu myself!! Just waiting for my wife to say "yes."

Very nice blade, Reinier. Good that you saved up to buy a top-quality Nihonto instead of settling for a cheaper crap blade.

Koichi is absolutely right!! In my wanderings around Japan's old farmhouses, antique stores, & the like, I've found far more gimei blades than real. Not sure why this is so, but as you learn more about what the nakago should look like, Misawa, the quicker you will be able to spot these fakes, which are found mostly in Japan. Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever found a gimei blade outside of Japan -- wonder why? Get yourself some good reference books (just click on the Suggested Reading link at the top of this page), & start studying!

Wow! That was a really quick answer! Thank you, Koichi-san! :D Now all I have to do is find out a bit more about the smith, & then delve into the details of our new Nihonto.... Not much on the Web on Terukado, either. Ah, well, there's all the fun of sleuthing out another mystery!

Aloha, all: I just purchased this nice wakizashi from Stephan Hiller, & would appreciate some help translating the mei, as well as the shirasaya Kanji. My Kanji reading abilities are pretty poor, & the best I can get from the shirasaya is ?-Kuni-Mori-Suke-Kado (?) on the left, & I'm not even going to try the right or the mei.... My six-year-old grandson can help me once my son & his family arrive in Hawaii next month, but maybe one of you can help a little in advance...? Thanks!

Ichi, I'm guessing that you're probably not married. Husbands stay where wives want them to stay....

Well, I'm not putting my photo on this forum (I want to stay a member!), but I think you've got about 1/3 the amount of body hair that I do. My son is still complaining about what he inherited...his Japanese wife shaves him every week! Ouch!! Yeah, we stayed at the Park Hyatt a number of years ago, although not when we went to Aoi. I quickly figured that we could stay at a nice onsen for about half what we paid there, so that's what we did. But we have family all over Japan, so it's hard for us to just wander off these days without one clan family or another inviting us to stay with them. And we of course need to stay in everyone's good graces. Sigh. Our daughter-in-law explained recently why we're so damn popular: my wife & I hold dan rank in Muso Jikiden Eishin-Ryu Iaido. We're evidently the only living members of the Yoshida clan who are actively studying Iaido, & everybody wants to know what we do & how we like it. The fact that I hold three other black belts (& Linda one other) isn't important - it's the sword that has them so enthralled.

Definitely Aoi. And I think we parked at the same place you did, too. There seems to be an infinite number of Nihonto sold from shops like this. Does anyone have a vague idea of just how many swords were created in Japan?