Bryce

G'day Guys, I have had this sword for a while, but have never had any luck tracking down this obscure swordsmith. The blade is a mumei, shinshinto katana attributed to Kanenaga according to the old NBTHK paper it came with. Here are the stats of the blade: Nagasa 73.6mm Sori 14mm Motohaba 32mm Sakihaba 22mm Kasane 7mm Kissaki 38mm The nakago has no visible yasurimei. The hamon is very bright and pops out even under low light conditions. When you take the blade out into sunlight, the itame/mokume hada really "sings". Can anyone help me with any info about this smith? Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, I have never noticed before, but I have one that is in between the normal ball and the dome head. It is on a mumei, shinto blade in later war mounts. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, Unfortunately where I live it is seasonally very dry and dusty and then very hot and humid, so I never leave my swords out. I keep my sword collection in a set of drawers I had specially made for the job. Cheers, Bryce

G'day John Old blades - 3 out of 4 have mon Gendaito - 0 of 1 have mon Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, An update on my missing sword. It reappeared on tracking and was returned to the sender after 3 months with no explanation. I am having it resent, this time using DHL. Fingers crossed! Cheers, Bryce

Here is an example of that. Although in this case the shinshinto blade wasn't numbered. Cheers, Bryce

Maybe Naotsugu? Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, A type 98 with a big, beefy shinshinto blade, 29 inch nagasa. Cheers, Bryce

G'day John, No it isn't pinned. Cheers, Bryce

Thanks guys, The blade is longer than most you find in gunto koshirae, with a nagasa of 69.5cm. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, A type 94 with a beautiful, light blade by the shinto smith Tango no Kami Kanemichi. Cheers, Bryce

Thanks Neil, It is interesting that Kanemichi's mei all seem to be different. Were they all done by different mei carvers, or did he have very inconsistent writing? Cheers, Bryce

Great Collection Neil, Any chance of some shots of the nakagos? Cheers, Bryce

Thanks Guys, Good to know I am not all by my lonesome. The seller has initiated an investigation. Fingers crossed it turns up. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, I am waiting for a sword to be shipped from the US to Australia via USPS. The last update was that it had been processed thru the Chicago international distribution centre and was awaiting international departure. That was 28th March and no word since! Does this sound typical for the present conditions or has something gone wrong. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Neil, Here is one of mine. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Reggie, That looks like a very nice type 94 shin gunto with rare pinned kabutogane. Check out the "Pinned Kabutogane on Type 94" thread on the Military Swords forum. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Kirill, What about something like Mino Senjuin? Cheers, Bryce

I also have one gunto with a full same wrap with emperor node. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Neil, Here is mine on a nice type 94. Looks similar to your first example. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, Thank you for trying to further my nihonto education. Kirill, what exactly do you mean when you say the hada of sword 1 is a bit rough? Cheers, Bryce

G'day Paul, That is a great article and I completely accept your point that during the Showa period there was a greater range of sword manufacturing methods used than at any other point of Japanese history, making it a potential minefield for the new collector. What you say makes perfect sense. However, depending upon what part of the world you inhabit, gunto may be the most commonly encountered type of Japanese sword. Also the additional layer of more recent history provided by the gunto koshirae makes them more interesting to some, so it is probably inevitable that for many they will be the entry point to the world of Japanese swords. From my experience, the problem is that you really only have the motivation to do extensive research once you have bought your first sword. Also, a sword in hand is much more valuable as a learning tool than any number of books or photographs. You can only hope that when buying your first sword you don't have the unlucky experience of spending too much or meeting a shark/shonk. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, I am relatively new to the world of nihonto, coming from more of a militaria background. Some aspects of nihonto I still find very puzzling and I think that the world of nihonto is much closer to art collecting than it is to militaria. I know it is probably because of my inexperience, but it often seems that blades with very tight hada, where the activity in the blade can only be seem with magniification are usually rated as better quality and more desirable, than blades which I think look "prettier" with more obvious activity. I realise that hada is only one facet of quality when assessing nihonto and things like the maker, age, signed vs mumei etc play a very important role. Below are some shots of three of my swords. The first by a shinshinto Kanenaga which I think has very attractive hada, but may be the lowest quality, the next a shinshinto Sukekuni and the last a Shinto blade by Kanemichi, which has very tight koitame and is probably the highest quality. Am I right that very tight hada generally means better quality? Cheers, Bryce

Thanks guys, I now think this is probably sue-seki rather than sue-bizen because of the takanoha yasurime. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, I posted this blade originally in the translation section and received some excellent advice about it. Since then I have been able to take some better shots of it and am tossing up if it is worth sending it off for further investigation or possible polish. It has been messed with in the past. It came with non-matching gunto koshirae and an extra mekugi ana had been drilled to make it fit. It has also been lightly sharpened at some stage, has some minor pitting from past corrosion, lots of scuffing and vice jaw marks (probably from when it was drilled), but no major ware that I can see. It has a nagasa of 72.5cm, sori 1.5cm, motohaba 2.9cm, sakihaba 2.1cm, kasane 0.6cm and kissaki 3.5cm. The hamon is regular gunome at each end of the blade, but looks more sawtooth gunome thru the middle of the blade. Many of the peaks in the hamon have complex "crab claw" looking structures. In the right light, the gunome peaks look very dark as shown in the photos. The nakago looks a bit rough and to my eye doesn't really seem to match the blade. I am wondering if it could be osuriage, but can see no evidence that it is. Overall it looks to me like it could be Bizen from the Muromachi period. What do you guys think? Worth a polish? Cheers, Bryce