Ray Singer

Please, please don't do this. It would be better to sell the sword to someone who will have the sword properly vetted by a trained polisher, to determine exactly what it is and whether it will sustain a restoration. Suggest selling it as is, rather than trying to restore it yourself.

Most often Seki signed this way are not traditionally made. Is there a stamp?

Kanetoshi. Seki smith

Appears that the end of the mei is being cut off in the first photo.

It would be difficult-to-impossible to provide an answer on value, especially with the lack of additional supporting photos on that website. No photos showing the mei, details of the sword, etc. He is also not a smith that I am seeing documented either, but will research from home. It does not seem that the website is working very hard to sell this sword, with so little information or reference visuals provided.

A few reference Umetada mei here. http://www.shibuiswords.com/tsuba.htm#umetada https://www.aoijapan.net/?s=umetada&x=0&y=0

https://web.archive.org/web/20120119105628/http://www.ksky.ne.jp:80/~sumie99/tsuba27.html

http://www.nihonto.us/YOSHITANNE%20DM111.htm http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/10622-tsuba-article-naotane-naokatsu-students/

Looks to my eyes like a large kitae-ware. The uplifted layer of steel, separated from the body of the blade, shows better when the image size is increased.

Apologies, jumped the gun and offered a translation rather than a guess at the generation. Post edited.

Noshu Seki Ju Hattori Masahiro Saku (濃州関住服部正広作)

My impression is that this sword is ubu, and that the kizu reflects that the sword is of lower quality. The sori, shape of the nakago, etc point to me in the direction of a kazuuchimono (mass-produced) blade from the late Muromachi Sue-Bizen group. The tachi mei of Masaie was probably intended to pass off the sword as an earlier tachi by the Ko-Mihara smith.

It is difficult to evaluate considering the damaged state of the nakago and removed patina. It is also questionable whether the mei is good. My off-the-cuff impression is that this might be a Sue-Bizen, late Muromachi kazuuchimono with a spurious mei.

Perhaps Bingo ju Masaie (備後住正家). There was a line of smiths signing Masaie in the Bingo Mihara school.

Date may be trying to say Bunei go nen ___ gatsu ju ka (10th day in the ____ month 1268). The mei is signed in a similar style to early Bungo, like Sadahide. Not saying it is an actual Kamakura period Bungo blade, but perhaps trying to be.

Sada

Chapter 1 of the Nihonto Zenshu volume 2 is dedicated to early examples.

The workmanship and activity of an Oei Bizen Morimitsu can be seen below https://www.aoijapan.net/wakizashi-bishu-osafune-morimitsuouei-27-nen-6-gatsu-hijune-1420/

The Fujishima is on a 48-hour hold for an offline collector who is checking on funds. Will update this post if it becomes available again on Friday. Best regards, Ray

https://books.google.com/books?id=FmLpLkEj1LgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false Start from item #53 on page 126.

Correction to my measurements above, the kasane is 8mm.

Not mine, but a nice example: http://www.aoijapan.com/img/sword/2013/13459-3.jpg

A few additional detail photos.

Thanks Brian. While I have had a couple of katakiriba shinto daito over the years (from the Echizen group), this is the first koto example I have either owned or consigned. Aside from the tsukuri-komi though, the health is very unusual. Like the shodai Korekazu I sold early this year, this sword appears to have lost very little material through polish over the years. When Andrew Ickeringill viewed the Korekazu, he felt it had only 1-2 polishes in its lifetime. I feel the same applies here. Like a shinshinto (or better). The collector who has given this one to me is very fond of swords that remain with their original/unmodified koshirae, and is the same individual who owned the sword in Satsuma koshirae on my site below. http://swordsofjapan.com/project/katana-in-satsuma-koshirae/

Thanks for the kind words guys. Whoever buys this one is going to be very, very pleased... Best regards, Ray