ChrisW

A terrible loss, may his family find peace. We have lost a great artisan.

Gimei blades were made/marked at all points throughout the history of nihonto. Regardless of whether or not this blade is gimei, it is almost certainly an older blade and could still merit restoration. Find a trusted polisher and ask their opinion. You could also take it to a sword club meeting and get opinions there. It is very hard to judge such things from photographs!

Thank you all for the advice! I've no horse in this race, just trying to get information for a friend. He will appreciate your sage words! I'll inform him of how to check.

Thank you Moriyama-san! Now hopefully someone can piece the mei together. I would also appreciate your opinion on the workmanship. It looks decent to my eyes, but I am still not experienced enough to make such a call.

Hello gents! I have a friend here who has had a Kozuka come into his shop. He asked if I could obtain a translation and any information on the artisan. He would also like to know what the theme is and the general quality of the work. Lastly, he is wondering what a fair market price for such an item might. Thanks for any and all opinions!

Mark! Conway! I'm almost insulted that you didn't mention the Indiana Token Kai! We have our meetings every third Saturday of every month (unless a holiday intervenes), from 10am to 2pm at the Morgan County Library in downtown Martinsville, IN. Message me if you have additional questions! ~Chris, ITK Co-Founder

We were actually discussing this at our Token Kai meeting last week. Its been my standard since I started over 14 years or so ago. I prefer very fine unscented tissue paper or microfiber cloth, both will achieve the job but with microfiber having multiple uses (since its a larger area to start with).

I can attempt to answer 2-4. 2. There are a lot of types/shapes of 'small knives'. To name a few: kogatana (the blade in the side slot of a saya, used as a general utility knife), the yoroi-doshi (armor piercing tanto), the ken (two-sided dagger), osuraku-tanto (has a very long boshi, where half or more of the blade is boshi). 3. Any of the aforementioned could be signed, with kogatana having the least likely probability to be legitimate signatures. 4. Kogatana are by far the cheapest usually, with ken tending to be the most expensive/hard to find. Osuraku are pretty up there too (many of the best ones were made by Kiyomitsu). Kogatana can be had for as little as $50 on fleabay (eBay) usually, and the others will run low thousand to several thousands depending on condition, school/smith, papers, etc. Here's a picture of two ken (three actually, but only two are tanto sized). I'll have to see if on a sunny day, I can get a good picture of my yoroi-doshi.

Theoretically, could it not be reshaped into a much smaller tanto? Similiar to how a naginata-naoshi has some of its boshi removed, I wonder if the same could be done to this blade being that it is an osoraku tanto.

It is a fatal flaw on any blade, but it can be considered somewhat forgivable on very old (early Kamakura or Heian) or very historically significant blades.

Japanese felling axe. Had one very similar to it. Traded it for my new ken!

Agreed. A poorly rendered fake. Hopefully not too much was spent on it. This site has a lot of available resources for you to study. And when you're ready, reputable sellers who can hook you up with a genuine article. Stick around and move past this initial stumble!

Perhaps Southeast Asian, like Vietnamese or Cambodian? Mind showing us a picture of the tang area and the hole in the tang? The soft-metal casting looks too crude to be Japanese. The whole thing looks like something done in the past century as a tourism piece. Might be loosely Japanese inspired? But I doubt its actually Japanese.

I've got one, its a bit of an odd theme: soybean on a stalk. Gold and silver leaves/stem with copper beanpod. Measures approx. 2" tall.

What is the price range you're looking at? Open hitsu-ana, right? Any particular theme?

Forgiven! And please, its just Chris. Or Christopher if you insist. If you ever come to the Chicago show, be sure to stop by my table and I'll show my tanegashima as well!

Well, you can't tease us and not show and tell!

A shame you got rid of it so soon! I would have at least waited for an opinion on it from a polisher you like first (someone who does it for the love of swords and not necessarily the money... as if there is much money to be made for the time spent anyways!) Not to be crude, but to quote a favorite author of mine, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. once famously said, "Opinions are like assholes, everyone's got one." I find that opinions fly fast and quick when people are looking to add it to their collection or they have some sort of interest in it. Also a shame you didn't give me first crack at it, I would have probably went for it. Oh well! I am sure it will find someone who will take it on. As for the blade itself, its possible it was an omi-yari, but to me... it looks like a ken and looks ubu. They're not standardized pieces and they're fairly rare. The final judgement would have been a good polisher and then shinsa. Ken were made through all time periods, so it matters little if the patination does not appear to be that old. The only problem that I can see on it from the photos would be that long ware that appears to be running up most of one side of the blade. As for the possible atobori? It'd study the patination of the nakago closely to see if the rust within the carving seems to match the rest of the nakago. If it doesn't, then I guess we have an answer. Lastly, I've taken a risk of a ken before.. returned it too. I discovered that there was a nasty hagire hiding within the pitting on one side of it. Was the quickest return I could have made. So I understand your hesitance! Best of luck to you Piers! You'll find one soon that speaks to you I am sure. ~Chris

I love it and would love to add it to my collection, but it is in your care it seems!

There's a wealth of knowledge here, enjoy!

It was great meeting you Marco! I hope to see you again at the next Chicago show. I'll be sure to have some more interesting pieces by then as well. Ah, you're one of Coco's friends, are you not? Both of you, welcome to the board!

Any opinions out there? Much appreciated!

And a few more:

Here are some photos of the activity:

Hey guys, Been a while since I've posted a new acquisition, but this one has me excited and its not something you see every day. I acquired it at the recent Chicago show and got it in a trade deal. I've put it in front of several people at the show, including Bob Benson. He seemed to really like it and told me how he could properly bring out the hada even more than it is already so this one is going to Bob for work eventually. His opinion was that it was late Shinto/Shinshinto. Bob did note that someone had messed with the nakago in an attempt to make it look older but he believes it would be easy to remedy and properly repatinate. It is a massive 29" nagasa with a VERY active hamon and mokume hada. There is kinsuji, inazuma, nie and nioe present. This piece feels like it was made to show off the smith's skills yet is mumei which leads me to believe that this was a temple offering piece. I am welcome to opinions on school and smith. My blind guess is perhaps Mino, but ken are so poorly researched that it is really anyone's guess. Without further ado, here you all go! (If you want to see it in person, DM me and I'll get you the information for the next ITK meeting which is this next Saturday.) The first picture shows my two other ken for reference to scale since I neglected to lay a tape down with it. The top one is a Yamato den, and the bottom is Bungo Yukihira (1199-1206).