Bugyotsuji

Gassan Sadakazu Tantō. (How long is the blade?) (Short answer)

凉楽 Does anyone see this?

Meantime here are some bronze arrow tips found in a kofun period tomb. Cleaned up for the local museum

That’s what I mean. If it says Kikusui 菊水, then we are all happy, but it looks as if it has been written over, so unfortunately I cannot be sure either way. Anyone else? What was in the box?

Does anyone else get feelings of Bizen Sukesada?

Can't read the two characters, although I would like them to be 菊水 for simplicity! The other single black splash/squiggle is a Kao 花王 artist signature.

(Kevin, apologies, I was replying to the thread starter.)

Sure Alex, it's a tough one, and a case can be made either way. As with classic cars, if it is a part of history, and there's enough good meat in it to enjoy, then why not? Many if not most examples out there have a repair of one kind or another, often old repairs, but not exclusively old. Some new repairs are fine, others plain naughty! Auctions sites will often mention evidence of repairs. In my case the barrel was mostly fine, a gift from a friend, but leaning in a corner doing absolutely zilch, nada. Then another friend offered me this old battered stock from the woodpile, and I was surprised to see how they fitted together pretty well! As a decorative object, with genuine parts, it's just about got its foot in the door...

Jacques, what do you mean by 'upper' and 'lower'?

And the Mei Luckily the wife was out shopping

Meantime I finally got the long Yari down for a health check on the tiny sankaku blade. Signed Yamashiro no Kami Kunishige. Overall About the length of my forefinger.

Maybe I’ll leave it like this. (A friend urges to go the whole hog, i.e. fix it up with a working lock and serpentine.)

If it’s Japanese it’s the name Nakao 中尾. The rest is in two other languages like Mongolian, Thai or Burmese…(?)

Richard, you spelt/spelled 'Sukesada' wrong. Was that a slip of the keyboard, or are you totally new to Nihonto? In the meantime, 75 cm is a relatively long blade. Will you be OK with shipping? Also, are they both in shirasaya or does either of them have full koshirae available? Ultimately, it will be a question of how you feel as you gaze at the blade. Which one might you get tired of, and which one bears looking at repeatedly with pleasure and satisfaction?

It's tempting to have a proper Netsuke corner (even temporarily) here on the NMB. Pietro, where are you?! The INS (International Netsuke Society) forum has been wallowing in the seas for months, actually years now, almost unable to function. Seven or eight times out of ten it says that the site is down; even when it's up, attempting to post a photo seems never to work.

Allegedly there should be a small gap between the edge of the kozuka handle and the machi. This was to avoid damaging the handle.

Some years ago I bought a simple bone Netsuke but I was never sure why the design was the way it was. Some kind of rain dragon design, sure, but… Today while searching through Mon books for something else, I suddenly spotted a Mon/Kamon that fitted the bill. Two pieces of the puzzle. A The offending object B the Kamon Ama-ryu-bishi 雨竜菱

Which one do you like, and why?

Pronounced “Yún Qióng”, according to my Chinese dictionary.

Came across these Mon/Kamon today.

Could it be 雲窮　？ Unkyū, a spiritual sense engendered when the top of a (certain) mountain is hidden in clouds.

Step 2. Strip it back to expose the wood putty again, shape and restain. Definitely getting there, but still rougher than I’d like. You often find guns like this, stood upright on an earthen storehouse floor for 150 years or more. The hard wood of the butt will have borne relentless attacks by insect and damp.

Hi Rick, glad we are hitting the sweet spot. Some back sights did have fitting parts, but the majority did not. The variation of number 3 above looks as if it did, slide and stand, like the sights of Awa guns. Mostly they were decorative, indicating different regions or schools. Osaka and Choshu guns for example had a Mt Fuji (or half Fuji) rear sight, like No.4. Most of the grooves, or ridges, were simply lines of sight. Bizen used a blob of silver on the front sight to help draw the eye. Vertical holes were for short sticks of burning incense, for night sighting, it is said. So yours are both box type front and rear, with a valley split? Someone told me two slits is an older type, but I have not been able to corroborate that.

The owner, or a dealer, has added in pencil the opinion that this is a Momoyama period Seki blade. (Normally official registration paperwork does not record such things.) PS The date of the torokusho itself is Shōwa 52.

Tetsu sabi ji nuri.