Ray Singer

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

This is a wonderful and unusual katakiriba katana attributed to the Fujishima smith Yukimitsu. There were several generations of this lineage from late Nambokucho through the mid 1400s. It is exceptionally rare to find a koto daito in katakiriba zukuri (hirazukuri on one side and shinogi zukuri on the reverse). The sword is ubu with one mekugi-ana and there appears to be a remnant of a mei which was removed. The blade measures 67.25cm with a very healthy 7mm kasane. I believe that the photos will show how outstanding the jitetsu is in this sword, with bright ji-nie and chikei. The hamon is a gonome midare with profuse activity, kinsuji and sunagashi throughout. This is a really great piece. This sword is in polish, with a silver foil habaki and high quality shirasaya. There is also a lovely and original koshirae which I believe dates to late Edo. SOLD

Appears to be Morishige. The square around the kanji SHIGE indicates that it was not clearly readable.

The answer is surprisingly yes. I met someone who is a serious gendai collector, and he focuses on very special pieces. Special order, those having historical significance and a subset of his collection are WW2 era gendai utushimono. To name few of these unusual and rare pieces are a copy of Nikkari Aoe by Horii Toshihide and a copy of a Bungo Yukihira by a Yasukuni smith (including Yukihira horimono). There is also a very faithful Norishige utushimono by Shibata Ka, which I suspect may have been based on an actual Norishige he owned (Ka purportedly had an impressive collection himself).

I will provide a bit of color. There was a discussion about this kanteisho elsewhere with differing opinions on what the NBTHK was saying. Does it indicate that they are simply saying it is Sue-Seki and not making any judgement on the mei's authenticity, or do they regard the partial mei as shoshin but feel unable to make an attribution to a specific Sue-Seki smith? I have my own opinion but will sit back for others to weigh in.

On page 68 in Roger's book are a comparison of goji mei across the generations of mainline smiths.

Here's the Tadayoshi from this auction for reference.

An oshigata from the Kanto Zuiroku attached.