SteveM

This to me looks like a particular kind of kuyō called ja-no-me kuyō (hollowed circles instead of solid circles). https://kamon.myoji-yurai.net/kamonDetail.htm?kamonName=蛇の目九曜 The habaki is signed 越前大掾源長常　－ Echizen Daijō Minamoto Nagatsune. Family name was Ichinomiya. It is certainly an exquisite habaki. The sword looks nice too.

As David says, 州 in grass script

This one, I think https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/HIR541

Mei is 肥前國住保廣 Hizen-kuni jū Yasuhiro Yasuhiro is a wartime smith. The numbers on the parts are likely to be assembly numbers. Wait for the military lads to come on line to give you more info.

昭和戊寅秋 Shōwa tsuchinoe-tora aki Autumn, 1938

Or made without any item in mind, but able to accommodate any saya that had a pocket on either side (or both sides).

I had to make one change - from bamboo to clove. Lines 5 and 6 are one sentence, so without knowing that one kanji I am only guessing at the meaning. "Additional Notes: the layout of the design, the thickness, and the plum blossoms, make the item described on the right an elegant work." On this hakogaki, and many others like it, Torigoye refers to this tsuba as "the right" (右). This just means "the item described on the right". In other words, the item herein. I can't read the kanji following 雅. It sort of looks like 掏, but that kanji doesn't combine with 雅 to form anything, and it doesn't seem to make sense in this context. I could be mistaken about 雅, but that still doesn't help me figure out the next kanji. Given Torigoye's other hakogaki, where he often finishes with some complimentary comment about "the tsuba just described herein", I think this lid is no different. 雅 by itself means elegance and refinement, and I think its use here suggests he feels this tsuba is an elegant work.

A lot of free time in lockdown, a lot of practice on NMB, better search engine skills....And also, a lot of the gents on the board are getting better as well, so there is the feeling that these guys are catching up. Robert got maybe 50% of this not-so-simple hakogaki, and probably could have picked up another 10%-15% without too much trouble. When I get good enough to read the back of Bruno's kozuka on the other thread, that will be a milestone.

Torigoye's writing is always just on the edge of legibility (with frequent lapses into illegibility), and is made only slightly more transparent by virtue of his following a very similar pattern in his hakogaki. His writing is always a good challenge because at the end of it there is usually a satisfying resolution, whereas some of the deeper "grass script" writings often just leave me drawing a very frustrating blank. This one I think I've got, except for one kanji, so I will post as a spoiler With that you should be able to figure it out. That one missing kanji is bugging me. If I'm not mistaken its repeated in his gō.

Here's a katana with both slots. https://www.seiyudo.com/ka-020620.htm

I think there are plenty of koshirae out there that make use of slots on both sides. I was looking at one on Tokka yesterday. https://tokka.biz/sword/nobukuni5.html I think the relative peace of the Tokugawa-era meant that the focus becomes less on the utility of these items than on their use as expressions of wealth and taste. Merchants start to spend their money on items like the one in the picture, because they can. So in a sense it is the opposite of what you have posted in your original post: "accessories would be less useful when relaxing". It is the fact that the samurai become idle (mostly), and this stability allows people with money to spend it on flashy items. Also, the competition among daimyo to sponsor the best artisans results in the creation and accumulation of items with more artistic merit. The explosion of bling may be one reason why the government needed to impose restrictions on koshirae that could be used while on official business. If I recall, koshirae had to be black lacquer (rounded ends for wakizashi), and mitokoro-mono had to be simple nanako (with family crest if desired). I wish I could find the original source of this proclamation, because it comes up every now and again, and I'd like to go by something other than my memory. Anyway, that was for samurai on official business. In the privacy of your own home, and among the merchant class, anything goes. If you've got the money, why not have something absolutely gorgeous like the item on the Tokka site.

I think it an excellent kozuka, by the way.

Signature could be 秀現斎 (Shūgensai). A search for the same artist turns up a page with the following photo: As you can see, the composition is similar, the material is similar. Unfortunately the signature on the photo is too low-res to see. The back of yours would be a waka poem, I think. Could be from Genji, or one of the other classical sources. All credits to the original site: https://www.leomax.co.jp/koramu/naka06.html

Tabs at the top of this page Nihonto Info > Links > Commercial Have a look at some of the names under that heading. Some offer the custom-made services you are looking for.

Nanban tetsu is steel imported from outside of Japan.

南蛮鐵聖綱　Nanban tetsu Kiyotsuna

Artist is Gigadō Ashiyuki (戯画堂芦幸) Actor's name is Arashi Kisaburō Character is 多加ノ太正　鳥井又助　Taga-no-Taishō Torii Matasuke

I was thinking 門 in relief, but somehow that doesn't seem right either. Maybe a design, and not a kanji at all?

撫柳斎　Buryūsai - but I can find no artist using this name. or maybe 楊柳斎　Yōryūsai (there is an artist using this name, but the first character looks a bit different). I'm nearly certain the last one is 斎, which is common enough in gō. The middle one is a bit more cryptic - I haven't completely convinced myself that it is ryū (柳). Actually looks a bit like gonben (言) as written in grassscript, but again, nothing jumps out at me. The first one is even more cryptic.

輪宝　Rinpō in Japanese. Literally "wheel-treasure". https://www.google.com/search?q=輪宝&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiw1M6vz87tAhUNzIsBHRTwDeYQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=輪宝&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIECCMQJzICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCABQ-WFY-WFggmRoAHAAeACAAW2IAW2SAQMwLjGYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=dvTXX7DBGI2Yr7wPlOC3sA4&bih=512&biw=1124 Edit: I see that on wikipedia, the Japanese translation for dharmachakra is given as 法輪 hōrin (a reversal of the kanji)

It says 石川兼次鍛之　Ishikawa Kanetsugu kitau kore (made by Kanetsugu ISHIKAWA) I couldn't find any references to this smith. Could you post pictures of the actual blade?

A few thousand dollars. The better the condition, the higher the value. Good condition means unmarred by amateur polishing or grinding, patina intact, and no cracks in the steel. Small imperfections are to be expected. The condition of the furnishings is not as crucial as the condition of the tanto itself. In your case, your saya and furnishings look as a 150? year-old item would be expected to look. This is a long way of saying the condition of your item looks fine for now, so no need to do anything but protect it from moisture and fingerprints. Read the link that Grey posted. He's given his contact details as well, so you can check out his site and get in touch with him if you want a more detailed discussion.

These are bonji characters - a type of Sanskrit script, used to indicate various buddhist gods. Bonji are often found in horimono. I think these three might be the ones shown photo. Fudōmyō-ō is a popular deity among the warrior class, and he is often represented by bonji (his is the one in pink). The others might be Jizo and Fugen. https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/fudo.html https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/jizo1.shtml https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/fugen.shtml

The bottom sword Made by Shimosaka, of Echizen province Shimosaka is a group/school of smiths. If you search on them you will find a lot of information about them. Sometimes the sword will have the inscribed name of the specific smith who made the sword. This is why I was wondering if there was anything on the back. The top sword - its hard to say. I can read the individual kanji, but they make no sense to me in their entirety. Could be kanbun (a Japanese phrase with Japanese syntax, written using only Chinese characters) but I think this is different. When I put this into a search engine, I pick up one hit from a Yahoo Auction two years ago, where the seller was claiming a similar inscription was placed on a sword purporting to be from the Tokugawa family, and that the inscription was an allusion to the Japanese noble "Minamoto" clan, but, as I say, that feels a bit suspicious to me. A quick look at the sword might clear the air. 賴具武門暇日眞鍛作之

Tanto is 岡山住逸見義隆　Okayama-jū Itsumi Yoshitaka. Itsumi Yoshitaka is a famous smith from before the Meiji Restoration, to the early part of the 20th century. He truly was making swords for the last samurai, and then made a few ceremonial swords after that, as well as swords for the imperial family. The name on the kozuka I can't quite make out 義時 Yoshitoki using a variant of 時, maybe?