Bugyotsuji

Here is the ceramic or pottery chestnut. The reverse with typical Himotōshi holes forming bridge. Recent antiques fair 灰皿 haizara find And reverse

This is my old faithful, possibly Hirado ware. Quite heavy in the hand, about 4 cm across by 2 cm thick. Silver mekugi peg/post/pin gold-plated at one end, an eye in the other. And the reverse

Some illustrated examples. Two of mine are very similar, the seated Daruma and the manju.

Neither raising nor lowering the tone particularly, but just to add another coal, log , er, uh... another shovel of wood chips to the fire, here are a couple of ceramic Netsuke examples. Unfortunately I do not have any human or animal figures here with me here, or good photos of them, but my general impression of ceramic figures is that they tend to be quite crude. I do have a nice little Satsuma figure of a woman carrying a giant 'kabu' beet on her back, but I cannot be sure that she is a Netsuke, or just a small *okimono. The first of these is part of a sagemono set I carry everywhere with me as it contains my hanko. The next is a similar ceramic 'haizara' ashtray which I found in an antiques market quite recently. The third is a lacquered ceramic chestnut, with quite a bit of damage to it. The fourth is a very simple 'manju' with copper fastenings that I found about 20 years ago in an old drawer of bits in an antiques street market. (Photos to follow.) *Okimono, a free-standing decorative object designed to be placed on a flat surface for display. They might have been carved, even signed by the same artists, but differ from Netsuke in that they were not designed to be worn like Netsuke, they are usually bigger and more intricate, without needing to worry about catching on clothing. Other general giveaways are a large-area flat base and lack of himotoshi holes.

One word of warning. There is no perfect blade, as everyone knows. You seem to be asking for people to point out stuff you cannot see, in advance. But if someone actually does that, you then seem to go off the boil, as with your first candidate above and BBB's subsequent comments. If you show a blade to people, ten people will tell you ten different things. If the blade is really good, and cheap at the price, someone may step in and buy it! In order to rise above small defects, you may decide to spend more and more, until you reach another fiscal limit, only to have another flaw or drawback pointed out by some higher authority later. Some collectors have several swords, each with imperfections of some kind, but each strong in certain other points, a series of compromises...(?). Hoping you can find a nice balanced medium!

Hate to have to agree with Brian, but

常陽住源正兼? https://nosyudo.jp/b08021385/ Masakane(?)

Happy hours ahead!

Marzio, check out Maru ni (Tachi) Kaji no ha 丸に(立ち)梶の葉 Paper mulberry leaf http://cts2.web.fc2.com/img/kaji.jpg

If you do go the rewrap route, be prepared to pay medium to large bucks, unless you do it yourself or know someone special. Does the value of the sword allow for such expense on a wrap? So, do you prefer the refreshed look, and are you willing to shell out? PS Myself I tend to want to 'improve' things I've bought! (In a good, suitable way of course.)

Brian sometimes you us!

‘Desirable’ or not will depend on many factors, but as expressed above it must connect to resale value. If a person likes the package for what it is, however, then why not?

What is missing? Hmmm... The whole world outside of Aoi Art. What they do not say in their description about the blade. The reason they did not give it the top grade. Encouragement for you to make an offer on a blade that has not sold for a long time but is calling you. Personally speaking I like the whole package and background romance, but I wonder how long the original blade was before O-suriage?

It appears to say 備州長.... or 備前長..... but for some reason the rest of it is missing. Why? What it tells you is that it was made in Osafune, which is in Bizen/Bishu (same area), one of the five great traditional swordmaking regions of Japan. What has happened to half of Osafune, and the name of the smith which would normally follow?

Can you take a couple of shots of those last two Kanji, P, under different lighting angles and conditions, please?

Yes, these have come up many times on this NMB site. Check out ‘Soten’ (Sōten) school tsuba.

Which other markings? Grey and Uwe covered everything we see above. The date and the name are chiseled into either side of the tang. Seki no Ju Kanenori Saku means: “Kanenori who lives in Seki made this”… Now you can start the track and chase!

Hmmm… I wouldn’t be too sure. Some folks like to focus and go for one thing first, and maybe socialize afterwards. Horses for courses, no?

That’s all we can do, Ian. Just keep learning, all of us! You did just fine above. (My comments were free additions for anyone reading this thread. Thank you for supplying the template and diving board!!! ) PS We have many weird conventions (contractions) in English too. Why do we call ‘two weeks’ ‘a fortnight’ for example?

Rob, can you get a clearer shot or two of the concave diamond cartouche contents?

The age Joko should be Jokyo 'Gwan-nen' and 'gwatsu' are old Victorian Romanizations of Japanese. Gan-nen 元年 and gatsu 月 are normal today. Also 四日 is made of yon/shi (4) and hi/nichi/ka (day), but when they are read together yon+nichi are conventionally pronounced 'yok-ka'.

Arthur, the Mei on the Nakago of your wakizashi says 則光 (Norimitsu)

You're most welcome. Are you enjoying your 'new' Wakizashi blade?

Yes, 18 June, Reiwa 5. (Two years ago)

平土入とは二ツ胴を一刀両断してさらに土壇を通り越してその下の大地まで達したということである This means that after the blade stroke cut cleanly through two bodies, it continued through the soil base and into the ground below. I found this explanation after a bit of a search, Uwe. It was on Yahoo auctions, so I cannot guarantee its authenticity.