Fuuten

Adam, On the link Geraint shared above, I think what you describe would be a Tempering crack as opposed to a crack perpendicular to the cutting edge - hagire.

That would have to have been one brave baby!😂

All valid points. Last week there was a blade by Masayoshi that was also very cheap (went for under 5k I think). But the signature was such they didn't recognize it even though it had old koshu tokubetsu papers. I was scratching my head a bit too but I a layman at best.. I've also thought about the following hypothetical. Say a blade is the last signed piece by some old smith. Since it's the last one chances are it's not recorded anywhere. In modern some expert judges it and goes, well I don't know, perhaps some unknown smith but the blade is very good, might go for this big name if we remove the mysterious maker to raise chances with papering. Smith's name lost forever though he could have hypothetically be the origin of certain aspects of say one of the 5 traditions.

Thank you for sharing your work. Gorgeous koshirae! The last koshirae, the cord wrap on the saya, I don't recognize it (the cross-knot). I don't think I've seen it before. Do you have it know if there's a name for it? Edit: I checked the one booklet I have that explains cord wraps and details different koshirae and this knot isn't listed.

Seems like a chest with lacquer work? This one has a design featuring coins but there are countless types and subjects. I'm not sure the coins and plaques here are lacquer themselves but they could be. I can't put my finger on it but the work makes me lean more to Chinese than Japanese but I'm not sure.

Because I'm basically not knowledgable or experienced enough with all sorts of swords to do kantei, i didn't participate. However I did do a fair bit of reading because of this thread which was great. I could've thrown in some guesses but they would be short minded, and based on a few connected dots based on the hada and the connoisseur book. Ending up fairly quickly with Tametsugu or Sanekage. Wondering on Uda or whether it was a trick pony kantei (which lead me to reading about Mito Rekkô (烈公)). I enjoyed the exercise though and rarely feel like learning from home gives palpable results. Now I have an idea of where the approach failed, what worked etc. Cool thread! But what really leaves me wondering is that I was under the impression that the 'blander' circular/pool area's in the hada were a trait of Aoe (I could be mistakenly remembering this). But I wasn't really sure whether that was shingane or a trait. Plus reading the topic already gave me many "influences" on the way of thinking. Maybe its an idea to do kantei posts with spoiler tags (although for really knowledgeable people i suppose this is not an issue). Its like seeing many trailers from different sources for the same movie.

That doesn't help when you find your sword after dropping it

To sidestep the congratulations, allow me to make an observation and pose a question. Best investment of your life right?!

Ok my bad. I for one as detailed in OP stumbled on it and it seemed interesting.

That gif gives me the creeps.. and I'm unsure what it is.

I can't edit the post above anymore so new post. Under a section of the 'Heimin', artisans and merchants I found the following from which it stands to reason they surely were not allowed to mess about around with more than one sword. It is mentioned when a number of factions and organisations emerged amongst merchants that gained some power. Considering iron fans were dealt with surely something like a second dagger or wakizashi was not even worth considering. The text is from a book titled 'secrets of the samurai' by Oscar Ratti & Adele Westbrook, which I got for my birthday last year (lovely thrift shop book). I never heard of it before so being a little skeptical at first I started reading it. Turns out, it's a surprisingly good and interesting read.

They look like a pair to me as well. A nice rustic image. I like the set. And thanks Robert, I wasnt really aware of laws prohibiting 2 swords for merchants but it would make sense. Kind of curious if there is a place online about the laws around this time, will give it a go when I have the time.

Now that's something I try to avoid at all costs and infact I will only touch my swords when I'm sober and have the time and attention they deserve. Besides that's asking for (bloody), accidents.

Weren't samurai class in general expected to wear 2 swords? As in mounted together, assuming in a identifiable as such set of fittings. I can't recall specially where I read this but "many" (probably the ones with higher stipends), had multiple sets of fittings some for different occasions. But the practice is supposed to started during the Edo period. Just a thought but it should be an exorbitant number compared to the few koshirae that are left from Muromachi and earlier. That's just those who were supposed to. Did merchants sneak by with daisho sets of lesser length to the point where it was not breaking any laws? Maybe a wakizashi with a tanto? There were some mighty well-to-do merchants around back then. Maybe it was largely a fashion thing? I think these days daisho are thé archetypal image of the bushi.

Seems I'm late to this party. All genuine blades and all famous smiths too. Lovely father figure u got there. I think everyone would also be interested in seeing the first blade if you're having it polished! Nice thread.

Please just take it for what it is.

Good evening everyone, Trying to find something entirely unrelated a photo lured me to the following article which for me is interesting. For longtime collectors studied on these things i doubt there will be any new information but I felt it was still more thorough than just basic information and its not copy paste information recompiled (i checked with a few paragraphs). Amongst other parts it goes into schools specialized in using these firearms and also gives some very specific instruction and details on use, instructions, to me knowing nothing it seems information comparable to the juicy details you get in the connoisseurs book. In short i couldn't find this information elsewhere so it might be worth adding it here as a reference (but obviously I can't attest to the validity and or truth to what is written - get some salt). Hope its of some interest and hopefully someone can confirm just how accurate the information is. https://medium.com/@harunakahoshino/Japanese-tanegashima-musketry-2e60b1726d48.

I would assume various motifs as on this tsuba would make the work creating it a lot less tedious than just the perfect nanako.

I would assume various motifs as on this tsuba would make the work creating it a lot less tedious than just the perfect nanako.

You're probably right, perhaps the stamp is just the corner part that's throwing me off

Looking at it a little bit closer it looks to me like a top view of horses moving in groups in the direction the arrows depict. I don't know if its a real or fake tsuba but it looks I quite interesting to me.

I'm not sure if it's intended or whether I'm imagining the image but anyone seeing the galloping horses?

Apologies, I didnt realize I wasn't on the last page.

Ah gourd shape, something about them, always pleasing to the eye.

Fantastic koshirae. Simply stunning kozuka and tsuba.