Jacques D.

Mei reads : Harima no kami Fujiwara Tadakuni 播磨守藤原忠国.  (Hizen school)

I don't like to give advice on purchases, but in this case, I'll leave this sword aside.

https://www.aoijapan...ubetsu-hozon-tosogu/

Masakiyo is a big name, and this sword is obviously gimei.

No need to check oshigata, this mei is a bad counterfeit which makes the Kajihei option invalid.

Quote

 

What is this blade? 

Some copies are actually good blades.

Is this a good blade? why? why not? 

What schools were known for copying? 

Was this blade made by one of those schools?

If so, which one?

 

What makes this mei such an obvious fake?

Was it meant to fool as this mei should fool no one?

What other possibilities, explanation, might there then be for this blade?

 

Answering these questions requires a real knowledge, and this knowledge can only be acquired by having held hundreds of blades in your hands.

I wonder what people are talking about when they talk about study pieces. To me, all shoshin blades are study pieces, especially those made by highly talented swordsmiths. What is there to learn from a clearly gimei blade? In my opinion, not much.

Sandai Kunisada was an unknown swordsmith who was a student of Masanori himself student of Inoue Shinkai. 

Unfortunately gimei.

https://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashi　bishu-osafune-tadamitsu（hikobei/

The gimei is part of the history of nihonto, and has been performed in all eras, although not all of them were intended to deceive. The most famous is that of Kagemitsu by Munetsugu.

Signature length has nothing to do with gimei

I'm not optimistic about the validity of this mei, it should be close to the mune and the characters are too large for the time.

Adam @

Quote

Thanks Jacques! Do I understand correctly that it's highly possible that Kanenori or Kanetane were smiths that worked on this blade

No, I mentioned these smiths because they're the most renowned, but there were of course other smiths who worked in this school, such as Kanetaka, Kanemasa, Tsuguhiro, Hirotaka and others.

The Echizen Seki school is a Shinto school, and the swordsmiths of this school (Kanenori, Kanetane) have worked in collaboration with the Yasutsugu school, so there are certain similarities in their work (dark jigane, for example).

Unfortunately gimei.

What says Kokan Nagayama ?

Uchigatana was designed for one-handed use, so the nagasa is 60cm or slightly more, the kasane is thin and the nakago short.

2 hours ago, SRDRowson said:

That is the TITLE of the thread.

It is only a false signature if the maker intended to deceive by pretending to be a different artisan - there is absolutely no evidence of that.

 

I know full well how to read - so when are you going to learn to stop being such an objectionable, arrogant little troll?

Who cares if it's another swordsmith? It's not a Horikawa Kunihiro, as the owner of this sword hopes. As for your attacks on NBTHK, when you have a thousandth of their knowledge, you'll be permitted to talk.  And if I'm an arrogant troll ask yourself what you can be,

21 hours ago, SRDRowson said:

Here we go with more absolutes.

 

One: it's not a "1000% false signature" if it's a different Kunihiro.

That's like saying the 'Simon' in my signature is false, when compared to that of the singer Paul Simon.

 

Two: nothing is "not contestable" - even from the NBTHK as they have made a few balls-ups, both in the past and recently.

What is the title of this topic ? HORIKAWA KUNIHIRO. Learn to read properly before trying to be sacarstic

1000% false signature.

As these oshigata are from NBTHK they are not contestable.

Katori Shinto ryu advanced members use "daisho" (Ryötö jutsu) but they are bokken.  

Don't dream too much, maybe you'll be disappointed!

The term "best" is inappropriate (you have to have the ability to judge). I'd like to mention two examples I saw with my own eyes and which blow me away : Norimitsu Odachi and a wakizashi (juyo) by Tosa no kami Tadayoshi, the latter in total Ko no te gashiwa (hamon and hada). These two examples testify to outstanding forging performance. 

You can already rule out the Kyoto shodai Yoshimichi

1 hour ago, Bailey78 said:

The file marks on the Nakago look to be straight across as well on my piece. Not sure if that says anything different either. 

The sword I've linked to is a Shinto sword (Sendai Kunikane), not a Hosho sword, so the yasurime don't have to be higaki. 

The nakago mune of a Hosho sword must be round.

8 hours ago, Rivkin said:

Hosho work tends to be more non-uniform, the width of masame varies, Sendai is very uniform.

 

 

Huh...

https://www.toukenko...&katana_A030522.html