DoTanuki yokai

Think what you want, but dont ruin other peoples forum experience for the things you alone take responsibility for. If you want to tell me something you can send me a pm.

Tsuka points in the direction of the door to strike down incoming enemys faster ? Nice work, what is the thing between the antlers on the wood ? You also made this yourself ? What did you use for the red color ?

I just want to say that even if the signature is gimei it could be attributed kanemoto when the signature is removed in my opinion. Nice sword

This is the First thing that should be checked with orikeshi mei in my opinion. I think this is also an information found in facts and fundamentals. But also if it is really folded it could also be a folded gimei. I think even if the signature is gimei it could be attributed to kanemoto without it.

When I first read the question I also thought about this Tsuba in the seven samurai. I think Akira Kurosawa movies are good but not 100% sure about the historical provenance.

I think we had a similiar discussion some time ago about hitatsura/ tobiyaki hamon and chinese fakes. There is no answer but the same things are happening I think the blade is Japanese shinto.

I would not try to remove this "tsuka", i think you will break it.

This shape looks shinto, but it could be also an old sword that indeed lost most of its sori that could have been koshizori due suriage. Ofc it could also be mumei shinto with little changings to the nakago to look like O-suriage. Even if the habaki is original to the sword i think that means nothing for the potential value of the sword. Based on this pictures i can not say what it is. You should try to see what the Boshi and the Hada in Shinogiji is doing, maybe you can make something out with it in hand and the right light. I would also check the inside of the lower mekugiana for a difference in rust, i think it would be different if it is significantly older.

Video if you want to buy this blade, you are unlucky it was already sold in the sales section here. but you are also lucky the seller is selling many other of his well preserved nihonto right now here on nmb. The sold one

Hi maybe not what you are looking for but actually for sale here.

Kuniie - Yoshihara Soji is the older brother Another blade he made https://www.toukenkomachi.com/index_en_tachi&katana_A090818.html He is also the swordsmith in the "The last Samurai" movie. I dont know much about Seto Yoshihiro but i read that thread yesterday For the price i think the year when he became a mukansa wont mean much, some (dealers?) say they put more effort in the blades for the contests to become mukansa.

What i also think is always a usefull information but not visible on most pictures is if the shinogi is low or high. The first examples here show one with low and the 2nd with high shinogi.http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/styles.html This can help attribution to a school but i would say you check the "Connoisseurs Book" on that subject. Also check out the kantei series of sesko if you dont have already https://markussesko.com/kantei/. I think Useful could be a picture of the kissaki with the yokote visible. I think your blade has a kanbun shinto sugata and from sesko "a Kanbun-shintô-sugata is one of the more easier recognizable sugata". https://markussesko.com/2015/04/03/kantei-1-sugata-6/ Without the blade in hand i would say it is easier to show hada and hamon for more than the time frame.

Sue soshu tsunahiro is my best guess now.

Hi, nice blade, I think there is no signature on the tang because the blade is shortened. The blade is from mino province and maybe from the late Muromachi - early edo period. The hamon pattern looks like sanbonsugi but I would like to see more pictures Pictures of the whole naked blade and the tang. Also a close up picture of where the hamon starts and what it looks like in the tip. Thanks Edit: I added pictures that show what we need to see (not the best ones but That’s what I have on my phone now). Play a little with the lightning, it’s not easy to photograph nihonto.

Looks like nobody has a clue or is too afraid to be wrong. Maybe you can post a little more pictures to get the ball rolling.

Yes, that is what i think.

Yokoyama Sukenaga Edit: after some time i would change to shinto kozuke no daijo sukesada.

I would say you ask them for a new one.

Back in feudal Japan Mino was a own province in southern todays gifu prefecture. So i think Hawley just uses the old provinces for his reference while others uses the "new provinces" from 1896 but im not sure about the date. Also Gifu is a city and was part of mino province back then. And yes Mino town is today part of gifu prefecture. I hope i can help with this.

I don’t think this Style should be much more expensive. It is less polishing work in the lower layers and polishing is ~90% of the laquer work. EDIT: i added the "much", because different color pigments change the behavior of the lacqer so every difference in color can make it take longer. I compared only with the examples in this thread. I think all of them are very nice and took a lot of work but my favorite is the first one.

I think tip up is the right way

As always the easiest would be to send an email and ask the seller.

I have read that the whole akamatsu taro group is involved in the Restauration.

I don’t think the Blade got polished recently.

Nah i dont think this will happen.