Yukihiro

Thank you for this explanation, Jean I know very little, so I need to be educated (the reason why I ask so many questions).

Well, apparently, the name reads YokoTa, so there goes my theory down the drain!

Thank you very much indeed for your reply. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to give you more details about this tsuba at the moment, as it is mounted on a gunto I am to receive at the end of next week. I had also wondered whether the irregular surface could be "tekkotsu", which would plead for an older tsuba.

Hello, I know very little about Japanese swords and probably even less about Japanese sword guards - from what I was able to gather, this could be a Shoami tsuba. Could you tell me more about it - when it was made (I was thinking of late Edo) and who might have signed it (several kanji on the surface, one of which seems to be identifiable)? Thank you in advance for your replies! Didier

Hello, I'm buying this gunto from rodrig4 and wondered whether this Yokoda on the nakago-mune could have been some kind of lucky charm to protect the bearer of the sword : when processed through the on-line translator, Yokoda yielded "sideways"... I have just realized that rodrig4's original post was not in the right section (his gunto is definitely showato) - could somebody move it to the appropriate section? Any opinion on this inscription will be welcome! Didier

Yes, you're absolutely right. I still need to train my eyes before I can distinguish the one from the other at first glance.

Well, the first one (by Kanemune 兼宗) has got the bright and glowing hamon in my opinion, but I don't know a thing about either nihonto or showato, so I might very well be mistaken in my assessment of a "bright" and "glowing" hamon.

This one glows (= water-quenched?) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeyifHOj_3o Whereas the other one doesn't (= oil-quenched?) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln0YtEpXjAA

To your knowledge, does oil quenching tell us anything about the way the blade was produced? By that, I mean hand-forged or industrially made?

Yes, I understand the point. The reason I asked was that I kept reading about water quenched vs oil quenched blades and couldn't even tell the difference other than water quenching was THE traditional method that (among other things) set a gendaito from a showato apart.

Thank you, Hamfish. So I suppose this is an oil-quenched hamon too :

Hello, My question is simple : how can I tell the difference between a water-quenched, an oil-quenched and an acid-etched hamon on a Showato blade? From what I have read here and there, most Showato blades were oil-quenched, but some of them were water-quenched or even had their hamon acid-etched - I haven't got the faintest idea what the visual differences induced by these specific processes can be and would be eager to know more. Thank you in advance for your replies! Didier

Thank you, Bruce. As always, your clear and concise explanations help me understand the why and how of things

Here is another input I was able to find on this very forum : "The general rule is that because in the 1930s quite passable non-gendaito swords were being made (ie. western steel, non traditional forging and quenching) and were deceiving even experienced collectors, especially as even shinshinto mei possibly shinto? mei was being cut on them to deceive, the government ordered about 1938 that a stamp to be put on ALL non-traditional swords (called gunto and showato). This was the "sho" stamp. from about 1941 the Seki swordmakers factories banded together in an association and insisted that they put on their own mark, "Seki". This was done...it is technically not an acceptance mark, but an ID mark for showato/gunto quality produced by the Seki Association." (http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/7476-use-of-the-seki-stamp-and/) Could it be that a number of 1940-made blades were kept in stock only to be released and stamped at Seki after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when the demand for such blades must have risen dramatically?

Oops! Sorry!

Would you, by any chance, know when that Seki stamp was recorded for the first time?

This is the thead I was talking about : http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/563-seki-stamped-gendaito-i-dont-think-so/?hl=%2Bseki+%2Bstamp+%2B1941&do=findComment&comment=4284

Top right on the second picture - am I mistaken?

Hello, I have read on the forum that the Seki stamp is normally seen on blades dating from December 1941. Could you tell me what is the meaning (or the absence thereof) of a Seki stamp on a 1940-dated blade? Thank you in advance! Didier

Thank you all for sharing your expertise

Thank you for your answers (and for the suggestion). The French on-line shop I'm buying it from seems rather trustworthy, but I want to make sure that this is the "real" thing. From what I gather, fake gunto tassels aren't made of pure silk and their "crowns" are larger than the ones that can be found on authentic Japanese sword knots. The problem is to distinguish the fake one from the authentic one when they are not side by side ^^

Hello to all, This is a tassel I'm buying and I'd like to know whether you think it is authentic or not - I know the Chinese produce very convincing copies... Best regards, Didier

A very interesting input, indeed! Thank you, Bruce

I have read somewhere on the forum that gunto being in short supply by the end of the war, family blades were donated for the war effort (together with the corresponding saya, tsuba and koshirae, I imagine).

I suppose these tsuba were associated with old family blades...