Isocyanide

Aoe made some of the best looking hada imo.

The nakago is missing an easy kantei point for the Sandai Tadayoshi, the slightly sloping, deep katte-agari yasurime. From the photo I see no discernible file marks.

Is that koshirae supposed to double as a cricket bat?

I agree with Ray, seems like Muromachi era work.

The left katana is a Shodai Hizen Tadayoshi. It's a damn shame it has that ware, because it's otherwise very a nice sword. I've actually noticed ware in the same exact spot a few Hizen Tadayoshi blades.

Did you buy this? I saw it on one of the auctions, forgot which, with one bid on it.

Man that's an amazing piece of work!

And here I thought they were rare.

and for some reason is VERY giving of his time and expertise I really hope Roger comes back and shares some more on the school. I'm still a padawan, but hopefully I can gain a fraction of the knowledge on the Hizen Tadayoshi school that Roger has.

I believe he's from Echizen. http://nihontoclub.com/view/smiths/list?id_op=%3D&id=&name_op=starts&name=tomoshige&kanji_op=%3D&kanji=&province=All&start_era=All&school_nid=All http://nihontoclub.com/smiths/TOM194

I'm dying to see some pictures and evidence.

Perfectly fine Roger and thanks for the verification.

I emailed you a jpeg of the sword Roger. I will defer to you since everything I know is from reading your book. But I would say the yasurime is a pretty deep katte-agari, even more so than the other wakizashi I have, very similar to the dai-mei you've shown. I was thinking it was circa 1674 due to the slightly sloping vertical stroke in Tada, that or the Sandai signed it. The horizontal strokes in Wara are aligned, maybe Sandai? Does it matter who made it? I'd say no, it is what it is a great piece of work. I do enjoy the detective work trying to figure out who made it though.

Thanks Roger. I was just thinking that the scrap pile in the Tadayoshi forge had to have some really good quality blades in it when the Yondai took over. Would of expected him to sign some for the dough. I suppose his perfectionist father beat it into him to only produce and distribute the best of the best. Based on the work of the Sandai and Yondai, the Nidai was one hell of a teacher. And yeah by 25 the Yondai would have been more than fully trained. I now have two dai-saku mei made by the Sandai. The new one is here: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/17728-hizen-tadayoshi-perfection/ You helped me out with the first one and got me hooked on the school.

Great and interesting information Roger, thank you! OK chaps we have two options .... down tools for 5 years until we train him up, cash the gold, and sell the wife,kids and concubines (to the cries of "no... not the concubines"!), and eat grass with some rice for a while .............., OR we can run off a few (err.......thousand) gimei in the meantime, sign them all Tadayoshi as "Deshi" and "Dai-Mei" on behalf of the spotty teenager, and no-one will know for a few hundred years until Bill Gates and the NMB arrive.....just dont tell anyone in the meantime. I'm surprised this didn't happen with the Yondai after the death the Sandai and the Nidai. The loss of them in a relatively short period of time and the very young age of the Yondai had to be a huge blow to the school. You'd expect there'd be a large number of dai-mei in the early days of the Yondai, but apparently that's not the case. Any guesses why this is?