SteveM

Hi Walter, They are siddham symbols. Siddham is a type of sanskrit. Usually on Japanese items, each symbol will represent a Buddhist god, so it's not really a string of text that can be read. They are just four symbols that are each connected with a Buddhist god - similar to how certain objects represent certain saints (Peter is represented by keys, Paul is represented by swords, etc..). Top left symbol might represent Bishamon-ten. Top right symbol might represent Fudō-myōō. Both of these gods are common themes on these kinds of antiques. The other ones you can try to match by looking at the chart below; https://swordsofjapa...rary/Japanese-bonji/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishamon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acala (Fudo-myoo)

彫物同作見事之 Carving also done by the swordsmith. Excellent work. 柳沢家伝来珍重 Once in the collection of the Yanagisawa family. Precious.

Theme of the tsuba is plums and nightingales, both symbols of the ending of winter and the coming of spring. Probably made from shakudō (an alloy of copper mixed with a small percentage, <10%, of gold). The metal base is textured with "nanako" (tiny raised dots), which are applied one-by-one with a tiny dimpling tool. The birds and plum branches are either gold inlay, or some kind of gold plating. I agree with Jean; the fittings are very late Edo period or early Meiji. There are no modifications to the hole where the sword tang fits (the nakago-ana), which often means the tsuba hasn't been around that long. Could have been made with the export market in mind.

Microdia is just a funky machine translation of the Japanese phonetic spelling of Microdear (ミクロディア). Nothing has changed. Etsumi still makes them.

Yes, Daigo. Nicholas got it above in his post on the 10th.

...ninteisho tsuki. You got the meaning right. Its just the -sho should be connected with nintei.

I have to correct this bit. The allies (well, the US occupying army) had conflicting messages. The initial directive #1 issued on 2 September 1945 was for all weapons to be collected in order to demilitarize Japan. There was discussion among the Japanese: "do they really mean ALL weapons?", "what about weapons in museums?", etc... Nakajima Chikuhei (Minister of Munitions) clarified to the Ministry of Culture that "all weapons" did indeed mean every weapon in Japan. This is when swords began to be collected at local police stations. By the end of September there was enough resistance to certain swords being collected, that GHQ issued an exemption notice on 25 September 1945 that said "bona fide Japanese civilians" could retain swords that were verified heirlooms. There was no clarification of the verification process. Also, there was some internal discussion in Japan as to the precise meaning of "retain" and "bona fide" Japanese citizen, but in the meantime the police kept confiscating weapons. There is considerable difference as to how each prefecture went about this, and a lot of confusion. Then, on 3 December 1945, there is so much confusion that GHQ issued an order rescinding their exemption notice of 25 September, and they once again clarify that they want all swords collected. The intention at this time is to get all swords under GHQ control, inventory them, and then figure out how to classify swords as heirlooms, and how to return any heirlooms. In the meantime, heirlooms were lost and destroyed and separated from their owners, and Japanese collectors were rightfully alarmed. Finally, at the end of December, Honma Junji and Kanzan Satō (they were both high level bureaucrats in the Ministry of Culture at the time) petitioned the Japanese government through an English speaker at the Ministry of Culture (Kurata Bunsaku) to approach the occupying army with a scheme for the Ministry of Culture to validate and register "art swords", which was ultimately accepted by Provost Marshall Victor Cadwell on December 31st. It took some months for the legal apparatus to catch up with this agreement, but by June 1946 the details were fixed and the new registration law/system was put in place (much to the relief of Japanese sword collectors). In the meantime the police collected the swords, but they didn't pass any judgment on which were art swords and which weren't art swords. The scheme was that the Ministry of Culture would examine and validate the swords, and the "local authorities" would issue registration papers. In Tokyo, the "local authority" was initially the police department. Hence, the earliest registration papers are from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. This was the system from 1946 onward, and it kind of lives on to this day, only today its the local boards of education that now issue registration papers. The NBTHK wasn't formed until 1948, and their first job was to sort through the 100s of thousands of swords that were collected and stored in Akabane, and figure out which were swords worth registering, and how to get the swords back to their owners. As far as I know they were never involved in registering or providing proof to the police, but the founding members of the NBTHK were the ones who devised the registration scheme, so there is some overlap of the people involved. The NBTHK had no source of funding for their operations, so they developed the authentication process as a way of bringing in funding for their activities. I think Kyoto was the first branch office, and that was opened in 1949.

朱恒泰製 Shu Tsuneyasu sei? Reference https://page.auction.../auction/h1116882378

野村将三佩之 "Worn by Nomura Shōzō"

Yes, it says "by Kōmyō" (光明刻). Actually I'm not 100% sure of the pronunciation. It could be also be Kōmei. Usually the stamped bit says 純銀 (pure silver), but this one is too worn for me to make it out. Late Meiji or early Showa would be my guess as well.

I think he's just trying to square the circle of the Moritsuna smith listed in the Nihonto Club site (1300s), and Aoi Art's claim that the sword is late Muromachi (mid-to-late 1500s). Ben, there are a few more Moritsuna smiths than are listed on the Nihonto Club site. The kantei paper says this is Moritsuna from Chikuzen province. Markus Sesko's Index of Swordsmiths lists a couple of Moritsuna smiths from Chikuzen at the end of Muromachi, so this smith is (presumably) one of those. There are no oshigata or photos for these other Moritsuna smiths, so there isn't a lot of reference material to dig into. Must be a reasonably minor/obscure group. They aren't listed in Fujishiro at all.

Both are used by the Date (and other) clans. https://datemasamune...ory/family_crest.htm

Another one that appeared on Yahoo Auction JP earlier this year. Sold (apparently) for JPY 79,000. https://page.auction.../auction/h1106286800

豊州高田住平鎮貞 Hōshū Takada-jū Taira Shizusada

Ōno Kanemasa (1923 - 2008) https://www2.memenet...gawa/tetsu/02118.htm https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/佐藤重利

This is interesting info. I'll watch out for other sayagaki like this. I must say, Sato deciding to use the exact same art name of Okano Taromatsu strikes me as very unusual and deceptive. Maybe there is a back story I'm missing (for example: something like Okano himself trained Sato and allowed him the use of the art name). Without knowing the details, it seems, at least on the surface, to be very dodgy.

Kuniyoshi, 1847. One of the 47 Rōnin, Sumino Jūheiji Tsugifusa. I don't know why he has his hand under the futon cover. Must be an interesting story there. Actually this must depict a kabuki adaptation, because the real rōnin's name was Sugino, and his given name of Jūhei used a different kanji for "Jū". https://ja.ukiyo-e.o.../bm/AN00588150_001_l

This one feels pretty straightforward, with not much room for variation. 沖廣卓爾　OKIHIRO Takuji,

It's a location and a name (presumably of the owner) Iwakuni city, Ushinoya OKIHIRO Takuji (Okihiro is the family name, Takuji is the given name) (wrote this just as John C. posted the above)

Should be oriented as below Says Nomura Yūki, a late art name of the mid-Edo era metalworker Nomura Masatada. Many fakes out there. Buyer beware. The image is of a sword-tailed dragon, grasping for a jewel. A fairly common theme.

Lid Mumei Yoshirō　　　　(unsigned, attributed to Yoshirō) Bukan Sukashi Tsuba (Tsuba with family crests in sukashi) Early Edo Period Inside Maru-gata, tetsu-ji, ko-sukashi Shinchū zōgan (brass inlay) Mumei Yoshirō Shōwa (year of Ox) (1973) Summer Kanzan (with monogram)

Swordsmith is 良重 (Yoshishige) Inscribed with 西澤一 守刀　　(to) NISHIZAWA Hajime, protective sword or "guardian sword" or "defensive sword" etc... Other readings are also possible for the given name. In other words, the given name could possibly be Hitoshi or Kazu, etc... Impossible to know without asking this person or his family. Kind of a unique inscription to find on a WW2 sword.

Scabbards with working Iida latches must be very collectible. I don't know how many were made, but my guess is that the extra cost and extra steps in the manufacturing process would have meant they were somewhat expensive and inefficient to manufacture, and would have been stopped when Japan started to run very low on resources. That is just my guess. Feels like we only see a couple of these every year. The designer of the Iida latch ran a sword shop in Tokyo, and his descendants still run that sword shop to this day. Iida Kōendō is the name of the shop. Its one of the higher end shops in Tōkyō. https://iidakoendo.com/

I feel like I just translated this one yesterday.