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?

Muramasa is definitely present in popular culture, so I can understand the mass appeal. My first experience with the name Muramasa was probably in the early 90s with the Final Fantasy video games series. It's generally the 2nd best sword for ninja or samurai in the games, while Masamune is always the best.

Humans are not rational creatures, they will buy anything for the name. If you put four wheels on a log and slapped any luxury car badge on it, people would buy it. I think it's a pretty nice sword, but has some issues, which have been pointed out above.

As a new Hizento addict I'm diggin this.

How do people who make these thing live with themselves? Can't see how being a deceptive scumbag is an enjoyable way of life.

Thanks!

Thanks gentlemen. Hopefully I can share this sword with some folks in person. If anyone is ever in the NYC area let me know! Photos look better on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/46661974@N06/21225965714/in/dateposted-public/ Nice Ray! If you don't mind, could you send me a picture of the mei? I'm always looking to expand my knowledge on Hizen Tadayoshi.

Well almost. I feel honored to have upped my Hizen Tadayoshi to two with the addition of another Nidai Tadahiro dai-saku mei. This piece is an amazing, flawless work by the Sandai Tadayoshi who's diagnostic, deep katte-agari yasurime is quite evident. I picked the sword up from the Aoi-art auction, and Tsuruta-san said this is one the best works he's seen from the Nidai. I was the lone bidder on the auction, the sword was going to go to a Japanese collector if no one bid, so I feel very lucky. Tsuruta-san even sent a handwritten letter to me thanking me and also asking me to take very good care of this special sword, which I told him I absolutely would do. So I say almost perfect, because a flaw with the nakago. The munemachi side of the nakago is shaved down slightly. This changes the profile of the nakago-jiri. So it's not 100% ubu. If someone has an explanation why someone would do this I'd like to hear. This sword is a beast! Very thick, 3.3 cm at the hamachi, 2.5 at the kissaki, very powerful sugata, nice longish chu-kissaki. The jihada is absolutely gorgeous konuka hada, as one would expect from the Sandai. The jinie appear larger than my other wakizashi and I'm having a lot of fun comparing the two. This sword shows absolutely no shingane, which is notorious with this school. I'm really enjoying the chu-suguha hamon of this sword. The nioguchi is very thick and nice looking. From the slanted vertical stroke in Tada, I would date the sword to 1674 or shortly there after, definitely post 1672. I'm using one shot from Tsuruta-san for the full length shot, I need to set up my wife's office to get anything decent with my lens.

If you're dying to have a sword buy one from a reputable dealer. You need a lot of knowledge to weed through the sea of garbage that is online auctions.

So much bling in one post! I really like the turtles that Ed posted.

I would never judge an auction item based on the number bids it has, I've seen plenty of junk items with tons bids and great pieces with 1 bid. There's a lot of psychology involved in bidding on items and it's generally not reflective of the quality of an item.