austin_militaria

I was able to disassemble it.

I just recently picked up this military leather encased tanto with a capture tag attached. I would appreciate if someone could please translate? I have not figured out how to get the leather off of the Shirasaya. Once I do i will post some pictures of the nakago. -Rob

Thank you for the help. I did find him listed as a Seki smith as well as another one of his swords. Looking at the blade closer it is machine made. The hamon still throws me as most polished out machine blades I have seen are straight and lack character.

I would appreciate the help in this signature. It was found in military navy koshirae, The hamon is nice, but I am wondering if this was a machine made blade that was polished out as the hamachi is not sharp. Thanks.

The last part of the sayagaki is the attributer?

Thanks Ray. Now just need to determine if they were correct. It is Mumei.

Cam someone please assist in reading this sayagaki? Thanks, -Rob

It is darker in person, it is difficult to photograph without getting some reflection back making it look lighter. One side is lighter in color. Not the best of pictures. Were there more gold tones to this at one time? Not sure of how the gold is applied to tsuba's -Rob

The reverse.

I don't know to much about tsuba's but I am pretty sure this is a decent one. Not sure how much gold highlights it originally had. The reverse is the same design. No signature. Comments are more then welcome.

Yes, that is what I was referring to. I think too that it was created by a polisher. Thanks.

Yes, I know. I was just wondering what happened to my blade, was this a result of taking the edge down to far?

I do now see the difference between a Kadochi and a Uchigatana. I did find a similar Uchigatana by a Koto Nagamitsu. http://www.onihonto.com/Koto__Nagamitsu__Uchigatana.html

What caused this? To me it looks as though the last time it was polished it had to be taken down so far that it almost lost the hamachi?

Shorter then a Katana, but not the size of a Wakizashi. And I found the sugata more consistant with a long sword then any Wakizashi I have had/seen. So I assumed it fell into the catagory of the kodachi.

Does the length disqualify this as a Katana or Kadachi? Or are those lengths just guidelines? Sorry for asking such elementary questions. Not that it matters but it was found in Gunto Army mounts.

What do you mean by Katana mei?

Sansaku boshi is where the the hamon straightens and through the yokote then turns upward to form a omaru. I am sure there is a more to it then that, and it could be that I have read to much about Osafune Nagamitsu that I am just assuming that is the style of boshi. I don't understand the second part of your question the "why"? -Rob

I dug this out of the closet to put a little oil on it. I had never broken it down before because it was an arsenal blade. I had no idea it had anything on the nakago. Can someone please translate? -Rob

I thought for sure this was Bizen work. Am I correct about the Boshi being San-Saku?

I spent about 3 hours with a powder ball trying to get some detail out of this. And have been very happy with what I see. Has some exceptional characteristics. Here is what I see. Kodachi, Nagasa 51cm. Kasane 5mm at the mune-machi Sori 2.5cm Nakago, 13cm. Sugata, an early shape to the Kamakura period. Mune, Ihori Boshi, San-Saku? Hada, a mixture of Itame small mokume. Hamon, (this is where I have the hardest time describing). Smokey, Bounces around in the light. Primarily Notare with some rounded ganome. A very pronounced hamon. Please feel free to correct me or add anything. -Rob

I found about 4 generations of Nagamitsu from the Muromachi period. 2 are highly rated. -Rob

Is this early to mid Muromachi Period? That is my guess judging by the sugata.

I few more pictures. Nagasa is 20 1/4" -Rob

Sorry... Thank you for the help. -Rob