DavidF

Beautiful work. But too rich for my blood.

Bummer. It's a nice piece.

The lack of serial numbers seems odd.

There is always someone who knows more. There is always a faster gun. To echo your sentiments, it always pays to be humble in what you know and open to learn. Because the more you know, the more you understand how little you really know.

Welcome, to NMB.

Pete, yes, I see what you mean. You are noting the silver amalgam in the recesses of the petals, if I get your drift.

I think that it is an authentic tanto tsuba, but the photograph needs better white balancing. The photograph has shifted the colors in a way so that they look a bit unnatural, giving it an "overcleaned" look. My guess is that it would probably look better in person.

Mario, Your blade has all the tell-tale signs of an authentic blade, even if (as already pointed out) acid was used to "enhance" the hamon. While a pretty crappy thing to do to a blade, acid etching is not the worst thing that could happen to a blade. At least, the nakago appears prima facie unaltered. If you take care of the blade, this is certainly a piece that you can appreciate and enjoy for years to come.

Sweet wakizashi.

The geometry of the blade looks wrong, the metal screams mass produced, and the mei looks hinky. My gut tells me this is gimei. But take this opinion with a grain of salt.

I agree with Ted. It's a delamination blister.

I hope he wipes it down and oils it afterwards.

Hello George, I might have some thoughts on the value of shinsa documentation. The value of shinsa documentation as you have already probably discovered is worth very little on its own. In your case, you have a gorgeous quality blade in polish with a clear signature. If you paid a fair price for the blade, it probably won't add much to the value to blade. The value of a sword is ultimately based upon the sword itself, although the NTHK papers are based upon the relative quality of the item. So, the grading sheet can give you a third-party expert opinion as to the quality of the blade. But there is one notable exception. If you have a sword that is out of polish, has crap fittings, that you picked up for a song, and you take it to, say for example, the Chicago sword show and everyone laughs at you and tells you to not get your hopes up, but you did your reading and you did your research and you really believe in your blade. And you put it through the shinsa and it scores, say for example, 77 points, and people stop laughing at you and your rather hapless blade. The shinsa is so worth it. Not that anything remotely like this has ever happened to me. Actually, I find that the best part of the shinsa is the grading sheets. Ideally, you should know as much about your blade as the grader, but the fact is that they have spent a lot more time looking as blades. They have an eye that can see things that you wouldn't otherwise notice. And even years later, I occasionally go through my grading sheets and learn new things about my nihonto. What I learn about my nihonto makes the shinsa worth it for me. David.

Yes, it is true that "every newb comes in here thinking they have God's greatest sword", but on occasion newbs do stumble upon great swords. I know because it happened to me. I doubt that this guy's sword is legit. And even if legit doesn't mean it's valuable. But sometimes, just sometimes, snow does fall in June. David.

Dwain, Such a beautiful blade is a great way to start off in the hobby (or should I say "addiction"). You can learn more from a few wise purchases is better than a hundred mistakes. And it looks like you're off to a great start. David.

Hi Milt, It is true that the Shimabara rebellion was the last public act of defiance against the harsh treatment of the Tokugawa shogunate. But at the same time, the Shimabara rebels were not the only Christians in Japan (see Morton, Japan: Its History and Culture, 122). As to your question, I'm not familliar with Protestant/Catholic conflict in Japan in 1859. There were some tensions in the 19th century. In 1859-60, Pius IX was recovering from the fact that the Papal states were all being confiscated by Italian revolutionaries. So yes, there were tensions, but they weren't as heightened as they had been in the 17th-18th centuries. DavidF

Christian tsuba are generally in the tokei ("gear") shape. They are generally extant from AD1550 to 1631, when Christianity was outlawed. The cross is not generally indicative of a Christian tsuba since there are some mon that are also cross-shaped. These mon have nothing to do with the symbol of Christian faith. The reason why the tokei symbol became the Japanese symbol of Christianity was because the Jesuits' logo the IHS symbol became synonymous with Christianity. Following the Tokugawa shogunate declaring Christianity illegal and a horrific persecution, Christianity went underground and was thought by many to be extinct in Japan. But after WWII, there were found to be 100,000 Christians living in Japan, descendants of those early converts. I would agree with the previous poster that Fred Geyer has done a lot of research in this regard. He's probably the expert on Christian sword fittings. The Christian cross can be found on some tsubu, like what is displayed in my avatar, but making a positive identificatoin can be problematic. DavidF.

A destroyed blade... very sad. DaveF.

Hi there, I took a look at the sword. Here are my impressions. The rust on the tang looks a little too "new". I don't think it is as old as the seller is indicating. My guess is that it is shin-shinto period, probably, into the late edo period (late 18th, early 19th century). Looking at the chisel marks on the signature, also makes me suspect that the blade has a fake (gimei) signature. The blade does look in polish and of what I could see the hamon does look like quality work, but it is hard to say much more without a high res. picture of the entire blade. In short my impression is that it isn't that old. DavidF.

Photograph the tang and the full blade (with tang). These can be helpful with evaluating a blade. DavidF.

Cool! I can't wait to get 'em. :D Thanks for the update, Milt. See you at Shinsa. DavidF.

If iron has been properly annealed, doing nanako would no be too difficult especially if a cross-hatch scoring had been done first. DaveF.

He presented my sword to the NY Shinsa. His polishing skills are top notch. Very reputable and honest. I highly recommend his services. I would not hesitate to buy from him. DaveF.

It looks like a mumei wakizashi from late koto/early shinto period. Beyond that it is hard to say. But, at least it is real nihonto. :D DaveF.

If it the blade from the "anyone of you know this smith" thread, then my impression would be to concur that it is gimei (but I could always be wrong). Assuming that you had the signature removed, I think probably the biggest problem for the shinsa team would probably be the workmanship of the blade--the shinsa team tends to be more picky with gendaito stuff. The blade may not be worth having the signature removed. But if you a low-end (but genuine) Nihonto, then you probably couldn't go wrong. DaveF.