Blazeaglory

I agree! I love a well made long sword and only recently have I really begun to appreciate Wakizashi. Considering allot of them used to be full length Tachi and other long sword who knows if my O-suriage waki are as is due to purposeful reduction in length or from being broken during battle and resized. I would love to see a real duel between two veteran samurai. If I could be a fly on the wall in Japan circa 15th/16th century!

I was thinking that as well. The optimist in me is thinking that maybe the seller was going to resubmit it but now needs the cash. Could be either way. Maybe he or she felt they already put too much $$$ into it? I wonder how old the habaki is, If its new, its not cheap. Here is the registration. Seller states its 1951. Any other info worth gleaming?

Mail service in Japan is stopped for now? I can see some similarities in the Uda school and the mei that was removed looked to be a 2 Kanji mei. What gets me tho is the silver habaki and Daimyo registration date (if true). Seems a bit much for a "normal" blade huh? Could it be a really tired Kanesada blade I wonder? Or maybe thats what the removed mei was trying to get passed off as. See there I go again with useless speculation lol

I prefer whatever type of polish the sword is calling for!

Yeah I noticed that as well. I'm wondering if the smith who handled the sword making it Osuriage put the original smiths name there to "preserve" the record? But who knows, that's just an assumption and either way, it would still be considered a gimei correct? I don't know why I even speculate like that lol Anyways, that is another sign that someone actually cared about this Nihonto and polished it properly. Maybe they just never sent it back to shinsa afterwards? I mean the silver hibaki alone costs upwards of 300$ to 600$. Also, at first the blade doesn't look that great but upon closer inspection, it has some nice detail to it.

Does this appear to be a decent deal? I thought I'd share with the members here if someone thought this was a good deal. Sword is on the shorter side in length but it's in decent condition for the price. Someone thought enough of it to put a solid silver habaki on it. That's almost the purchase price in itself. Good starter blade imho. Supposedly it has "Daimyo" registration date of 1951 as well. On the other side, it is kinda tired with some pitting in the Hamon and some ware. Also looks like a mei or something was removed from the nakago https://www.ebay.com/itm/283833030433

Thanks. There's so much more as well but I can't get my camera to go micro enough. Plus I only have a few Nihonto worth photographing haha The detail is so small it's amazing. This particular blade is very fine and feels almost weightless in the hand but so sharp. It appears to be Osuriage. I could imagine a Samurai carrying two Wakizashi or Kodachi and being this sharp, any 1v1 battle they got in, wielding dual short swords, must have been a sight to behold! Personally I would think 2 Wakizashi would be better than carrying a long sword/waki combo. I've seen competitions where they demonstrate the speed of a short sword compared to a long sword but I guess it depends on the one wielding the blades as well

Wow. Just reading that made my skin crawl!

Hello all. I'm bored at home trying to get good pics again. I thought I'd share. Here are some images showing the different color steel under different lighting as well as up close shots of Sunagashi and some Nie? (It could be something else considering its in a line?) Anyways, this detail is so small that it has to be looked at super magnified or with a jewellers loop. For those who haven't seen this b4, please enjoy and for those who have, please enjoy the new pics! Haha

Would that be an Odachi I'm wondering?

Blades broke all the time. There are stories from witnesses after battles in the 15th/16th century and prior that after the battle, different families would go and look for their loved ones swords and come back with broken pieces to create Osuriage Nihonto. The sword was usually the last weapon to be used during a battle after the pole arms, bow and arrow, spear, etc... Even the best made sword by the best smith could break if hit right and I think the samurai knew that and would save it for the very last stand or when hand to hand combat was happening.

I dunno, I still see allot of Chinese influence

I spent so many hours yesterday reading the book in Franco's original post that I delved into multiple different areas, mainly The Tale of the Heike and the first Shoguns of the Kamakura period. That book discusses early and many different Tosogu but at the same time talks about many other things! So today I guess I'm spending hours reading "The origin of the Curve"?? haha Thanks!

The menuki look either really nice gold plating or high end gold. Very nice!

Awesome! Starts out really good! So far in reading I've discovered something interesting, I mean, other than the topic the book is about. It reads really well and has pictures and diagrams to match. But here is something different below that I thought was pretty cool. The hilts are reminiscent of early Japanese blades https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knife_money

I can see that. With better technologies comes stronger steel. I think allot of definitions and opinions are getting mixed up here possibly and there are multiple answers As far as "great" blades go, not mentioning semi modern techniques and steel quality, my opinion is early Koto blades are supreme in many aspects. Thats why we see all the Shogun and Daimyo passing around Kamakura/Early Koto blades from high end smiths. Not only were they "better" but it was fashionable to have them. Well, I dont know if fashionable is the exact word, maybe "prestige" would be a better word

Wow~ So many great smiths!

Very interesting thread! Way to go Jussi!

Cool!

Seems in really good shape! Where did you get it if I may ask?

Wow! That has to be an Ubu nakago right? That sword is amazing But to the OPs question... There were many reasons to get horimono but I think as time went on it became more of an "art" or a way to show off your sword. In earlier times horimono represented certain beliefs in the symbols being carved into the blade adding power specific to each character or image. Kinda like Viking runes maybe? And yes some horimono are meant to cover up flaws but most of the time you can still see what flaws were being covered.

I think postings have actually increased! Plus, no virus can kill the spirit of the Bushi!

Oh BLACK POWDER? lol Man that would have been interesting to watch!

What? My kazoo? I only wanted to play you a friendly tune!

I stumbled across this earlier today and find it quite interesting. I imagine it as a last ditch effort to either escape from or deal the final blow to your enemy? Or used by kidnappers for the element of surprise? Its called a Suna-Teppo and works by filling it with blinding powders then blowing through it into an enemies face/eyes https://samurai-world.com/suna-teppo-secret-samurai-weapon/