SteveM

12 hours ago, Tokugawa Gord said:

Congratulations Steve on your 2 body test cut katana

The two-body sword is Gary's. 

I posted a three-body sword that is, sadly, not mine. Just one that I found posted to a Japanese seller's site. Thought it might be interesting for Bruce. 

@Bruce Pennington Yes I found that kao also interesting. Same kao design as the OP's, but the date is closer to the one Markus posted. So I guess the smith really revised his kao sometime that year (1681).

OK, thanks for those. Unfortunately it doesn't help me with the exact year, but it does appear to confirm the era of Bunmei. And it confirms Katsumitsu of Bizen/Bishu (which is also supported by the era of Bunmei, as that is the general time frame when Katsumitsu worked). 

The precise year is a bit eroded or corroded, but its not so crucial. 

You have similar, sharp close-ups of the other blade? 

Bishu Osafune Katsumitsu (備州長船勝光).

The reverse side should be the year, Bunmei (1469-1487) something, August. 

Need better photos to figure it out. Same for the second sword. It almost looks as if the name has been scraped off, but better photos would help. 

万囗弘光　Hiromitsu would be the name, but the two before that are... 万寿? 

There are three Hiromitsu artists in Wakayama. All mid-to-late Edo. None of the entries provide any clues as to what the first two kanji are (location or family name or art name). 

That is an awesome photo collection. You could get lost in all of those old pictures. 

Another one from 1681. (Not the Sesko one).

https://www.tsurugin...om/items/a00220.html

Sword itself is by Tsuguhira, and is Jūyō.

備州長船住横山祐久作     Bishū Osafune-jū Yokoyama Sukehisa saku  (Sukehisa YOKOYAMA of Osafune in Bizen province made this).
友成五十九代孫                Tomonari 59th Generation (59th generation from founding smith "Tomonari")

慶應二年二月吉日             Keiō 2 (1866) an auspicious day in February

Tsuba is 正阿弥　重信　(Shōami Shigenobu). 

Probably Aizu Shōami Shigenobu. Mid-to-late Edo. 

I'm at a loss. No such swordsmith (Kaneshina) appears in any of the obvious references. My gut feeling is that the original reading of Kaneshina may be wrong, and that the "shina" part is actually something else. But I can't tell what it might be. But I could be wrong. Stay tuned. Maybe somebody on the forum has a more comprehensive list of Nōshū swordsmiths.

Nōshū is synonymous with Mino. Seki is the center of swordmaking in Nōshū/Mino province. Kanbun is also a safe bet for this sword. 

Hello Michael - Do you have a picture of the papers?

服部正廣

Hattori Masahiro

One of the million variations of his mei.

I may be in Japan then. Will have to see if I can swing a trip to Osaka. 

I think your polisher did an amazingly good job on this. 

2 hours ago, Infinite_Wisdumb said:

Amazing knowledge of history

Haha  - "amazing browsing skills" would be closer to the truth. Well, being able to read (usually) the hakogaki is also a big help. I've been looking at a ton of tsuba and hakogaki recently, and I recognized the horse coming out of the gourd and the name 張果老, but I still had to do a bit of browsing to sort them out. 

Two Chinese sages

Chō Ka Rō (張果老) who travels on a horse or mule that he essentially dissolves every night, and revives every morning by pouring water on it. 

Handaka Sonja (半托迦尊者) who I think conjures a dragon out of an incense bowl. 

Its a kind of mixing up of sages and beliefs, because Chō Ka Ro is a Taoist sage, and Handaka Sonja is a Buddhist disciple, originating in India. Anyway, despite the odd pairing, it authenticated (Tokubetsu Hozon) and the hakogaki is from Ogura Souemon, and looks to be in good condition, so the price is probably fair. Maybe a special order piece? 

Edit: Thinking more about this: the price seems very reasonable for a Shozui piece with TH certification. Especially with the exchange rate for JPY being so low. 

Similar striations in this tsuba that was attributed to Myōchin. I wonder if it was a stylistic trend, or if it has some particular meaning.

https://www.seiyudo.com/tu-090116.htm

Box says 秋虫 (Autumn insects). I don't quite see the insects, but a lot of these tsuba with long, stem-like images in sukashi get attributed to autumn insects because the long filaments look like antennae. The box also says the fukurin is silver. 

I like it (even though I can't find any insects in it). 

Edit: Box also says 赤坂 - Akasaka. 

People mount gendaito in katana koshirae all the time. There is no taboo against having a koshirae made for a gendaito. But there is an economic headwind  against making a bespoke koshirae. It is usually a labor of love, and whatever cost (including time and energy) you invest into having a koshirae made, will probably not be met with a corresponding rise in value of your ensemble. 

Here's one from March 1936

http://kajiyahiroshi.../token-ka311101.html

October 1936

https://sword-auction.com/ja/product/16319/as22470-刀昭和十一年十月吉日-靖憲/

February 1937
https://x.com/GinzaM...200423282196480?s=20

Hello Shawn,

The guy that evaluated your sword was correct. It is a genuine WW2 sword. The writing says 

関住兼松一則作 - Seki-jū Kanematsu Kazunori saku

which means: Made by Kanematsu Kazunori, from Seki (city)

Kazunori is the swordsmith's "professional" name. His real name was Kanematsu Kazuichi. Swordsmiths usually use a professional name that has some significance to their family or to the master craftsmen whom they apprenticed under. Anyway, the smith is Kanematsu Kazunori, who was what they call an RJT smith, which stands for Rikugun Jumei Tōshō (an "army-appointed swordsmith"). The small hot-stamp above the hole in the tang is actually an image of a cherry blossom with a kanji character "昭" inside the outline of the blossom. the kanji character is the first character of 昭和 (Shōwa) which is the era name of the era during which Hirohito (aka "the Showa Emperor") lived. This stamp was put on swords that were made in an arsenal, to differentiate them from completely, traditionally hand-made swords. So this means your sword is not 100% traditionally made, but instead was made using some modern methods and materials. Nonetheless, it is still an authentic piece of militaria. It looks like the tang was aggressively cleaned with some steel wool or something, which unfortunately stripped the tang of some of its patina. Cleaning with any abrasives or solvents will most likely ruin the blade - or at least damage it so that it will need to be restored by a traditional Japanese polisher. But set that aside for now, your blade is OK as is. 

There is some more information in the thread below (although the first link seems to be broken). 

Works for me. 

This is the swordsmith's signature

濃州関住村山国次   written in a highly stylized way. 

Nōshū Seki-jū Murayama Kunitsugu. It means "MURAYAMA Kunitsugu of Seki city in Nōshū province made this". Nōshū province is present-day Gifu prefecture. It was made circa 1938-1945. 

The writing is quite difficult to decipher. Take a look at the attached thread which shows a sword with the same signature. 

Just booked my room. Count me in for Friday dinner if there is still room. 

Looks nice. The online seller misspelled the artist's professional name, and in the text inside the pictures, the seller misspelled both the artist's real name and the artist's professional name. It a really sloppy, lazy listing from this seller. I see another tsuba by the same artist from this same seller with a similar misspelling (link at the bottom of this post). It's a level of sloppiness or laziness that makes me slightly suspicious.

Anyway, the theme on this tsuba is (obviously) bamboo and plum blossoms.

It is a winter theme, and on the box they refer to these two symbols as the "two elegants" (ニ雅) which is a poetic allusion to plum and bamboo. 

No idea if the mei is authentic or not. 

https://page.auction.../auction/m1120190916

Professional name of Isshu (一舟).