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Late Muromachi would also be my guess.

Well, no stamp, water quenched, Hada... looks gendaito to me. No sure, I’m not the best expert but in this present occasion, I don’t see any reason to doubt. Maybe I should have written “no doubt for me”. Of course, we can’t exclude that it wasn’t made from tamahagane and that a cunning seller erased a stamp, but why always see evil? From what I’m able to see here, looks like a legit gendaito. Now I’ll leave it to better experts to pinpoint why it isn’t one.

No doubt about it being a gendaito. And quite a nice one actually.

I’ve found out that sometimes, when you take the picture of a Hamon, transforming it into a negative picture via photoshop helps seeing what a positive image doesn’t quite show clearly. You might want to play with that, Georg.

I’d go for Mino school too. That tang is very rusty, so I wonder if it’s not a bit older than Edo. Love the Saya!

Yep, fake unfortunately...

Also found that one. You probably have it too but worth to see if only for the bullet impact. https://japanesesword.com/archived-pages/2017/7/28/mantetsu-to-in-34-pattern-shin-gunto-mounts-hit-in-the-fuchi-by-bullet

You mean your daughter, I hope! Great story!

Unless my karma is to be clumsy!

Horror story, but nothing like yours, about being conned or anything. Two months back, I bought the Sengo Ray was selling. Now, Sengo leads to Muramasa leads to evil sword legends and all. So the box is there, I don’t want any bad surprises or damaging anything. I open it on the bed. If there’s any fall, at least it won’t do harm. I remove the Saya and marvel at the blade,I take some rubbing alcohol to wipe the oil, my right hand reaches the Kissaki and I don’t know how, the tip slides from my right fingers and gives me a deep cut, millimeters only from the artery. I still have a scar today! So, I guess legends have a hint of truth! :lol:

Damn! And here I was looking up his auctions the other day thinking “interesting stuff!” Thank you for the alert Brian.

Gorgeous Hada!

Very interesting and polemical article!

Well, sorry then.

Hi Bruce, As I’m in the process of buying a Mantetsu, I’m looking at many websites for info and stumbled upon this sword: http://artswords.com/one_of_the_rarest_imperial_japanese_late_type_44_gunto_090718.htm I don’t think it’s in your collection yet, if it is, sorry for the misleading info.

If this is the last descendant of the line as said here: https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/YOS1067 Then he worked from 1912 to 1926, which is before the stamp system was established, so no stamp could make sense, but this one may be another guy as I have a lot of difficulty comparing the two sets of kanji. EDIT: obviously can’t be the same guy if yours is dated 1944, which I’ve just noticed. So here’s the right one (and yes, he’s one of the 209 Seki Swordsmiths who worked during the Shōwa WW2 era): https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/YOS18 Not much info I’m afraid.

Wow! Beautiful! Those Tsuba are stunning!

Thanks Axel, that’s awesome of you!

As the title says. I’ve seen it frequently discussed here and the author seems to be a member, but the page seems to be dead. So, anyone kept a backup, knows if it is archived somewhere, has changed name or at least kept some excerpts? I’ve found a few pictures that remain as ghost in the deepest places of internet limbo, but not enough to satisfy my curiosity. Besides, most of the time, any Muramasa query will give a few sword sites, but the mass of them is video games oriented. So if anyone has further documentation than what’s on NMB and google, I’d be welcome. I remember a post on NMB by the author saying he’d gathered more than 80 examples of blades and I think it’d be a shame to have this work lost.

Thanks Sébastien, very much appreciated

I think it is oil tempered

Thanks Jean, lesson learned!

Sorry for the late reply guys, it’s been an awfully busy week and I didn’t get much time to read and post here. Sébastien, that’s a great suggestion! I often go on Aoiart but am a bit lot between what’s for sale, archive and such. Would you have link to the page where they post their Kantei exercises? Thanks, JP Jeremiah, Thanks for the opportunity to see those beautiful swords. Actually, your post makes me conscious of my failings. When I saw them Ichimonji popped immediately into my mind, but that’s the problem. Wit put the names or the dates , I would probably have a real hard time realizing one wasn’t an Ichimonji! This is the exact point I’m blocked at presently. I have the basics, but I lack the finesse and I see I’m struggling to get past that point!

Well, I have a katana from a meikan more signed, katana mei “Hizen Kuni Takayuki”. Since the guy is unknown, I don’t see the point of faking the signature. Long katana, 76.6 cm, Genroku Shinto sugata (I think). I’ve already seen some katana made in another area of Japan, katana mei, with the “Hizen Kuni something”. So I wonder if, at some later point, it wasn’t an honorary title. I think I saw that katana in Markus’s Nihon Shinto Shi, so that must have been legit.