Toryu2020

Thank you Vadim! Yes there is a dedication mei celebrating going off to war and destroying England and America!! much appreciated, -t

here goes...

Yes Brian - once the full article is published I will be happy to share it here...

All the copies it seems just copied the sukashi and not the complete design... 神吉鐔絵本（ドラッグされました）.pdf

Made contact with my friend in Japan and he provided some very useful information. So the original is called "Kage Cho" so shadow butterfly? It means butterflies in sunlight and what is missing from the copies is the "eye" or "head" of the butterfly. Look closely at the original and you can see tiny dots representing the head. Notice also an even number of wings, three butterflies, three heads, six wings... -- Thomas C Helm Pres. Northern California Japanese Sword Club www.ncjsc.org

Once again Markus comes thru... Yes, I have encountered this term. It is the steel that was introduced by Kamura Heihachi (嘉村平八, 1890–1967), who was a metallurgist and the president of the Kyushu Institute of Technology. It was supposed to have a very high degree of purity and several swordsmiths experimented with it, for example Gassan Sadakatsu. Best regards, Markus

All - I am looking into Shibata Ka and there is a signature that mentions the use of "Kamura tetsu" 嘉村鉄 - I've done some looking around and have found no mention of this - have you per chance encountered it? Do we know the source? Am I even reading this right? Any help appreciated, -t

Dan - how did we find "concurrent prayer"?

A - The best guess at age will come from the shape - can we please see pictures of the whole sword? -t

asking for a friend - The inscription starts with three small kanji - 併而祈 below that, four large kanji - 武運長久 Bu-un Cho-kyu - Which as I understand it is a common four character "idiom" from the war years "Continued Luck in War" - the question is the three small kanji at the top - how is it read in Japanese? Shikamo Hei (wo) Inoru? or some such and what would be the best English translation for these three? Any help appreciated, -tch

one more

some more

Some more examples - my phone seems to do better than my brand new scanner...

Nicely - thank you!

David - Don't be a tease, can you share any photos or an "Oshy" of the signature? -t

I tell ya Piers - I don't think they were all that common though I have seen others from the group. There is enough metal in this one for two swords! -t PS If you got a copy of any oshigata from your meeting I should love to see them...

A gimei

Some Oshigata

Have had this tsuba for a while happened upon some oshigata of the Nidai Sukekane - I am leaning toward this being the Shodai - please enjoy any comments welcome... -t

PS prior to the Edo period there was less restriction but also probably less accumulation a good family would have a court sword and swords for battle but not so many I am thinking as in peaceful Edo times... -t

Absolutely - There were restrictions on the length of sword and the look of it's koshirae when on official duty - thus we have many swords with black scabbards and Goto-esque fittings. But off-duty you could wear pretty much what you wanted according to your taste and your pocketbook. If you were rich enough you change your sword according to the time of year, event or location or you could have one favorite sword and a dozen koshirae to choose from. There was nothing that said you had to wear a specific sword (only koshirae) for a specific occasion... -t

Here is an image of the annual sword gifting ceremony at the Shoguns' palace - all persons would have been hatamoto rank or higher... -t

Very common - a well-to-do household would have had a stockpile of swords for various occasions and for gift-giving. Certain ranks were expected to give swords of a set value at annual ceremonies for the Shogun and others. This is why there are many gimei to well known smiths there was demand for swords signed by such and that was one way to meet that demand... -t

If in the right hand, wouldn't the ha (cutting edge) be down and not up? -t

I'm not sure it was Ford who suggested finger bones. I guess my question would be - in your drawing which hand is holding the sword and which fingers are we seeing? -t