nihonto1001

So, because of the Tokugawa, it seems likely that the Muramasa 'den' bifurcated into another (or other) school/s. Perhaps Shitahara?

This is great stuff. Never knew there was a relationship between Nosada, Shitahara smiths and Muramasa. Further research suggests that Muramasa may have even been a student of Nosada.

Sa School? Muramasa. The pics are very nice, btw.

The challenge will be to find an authentic koshirae (Edo Period or older) at the next sword show in Philadelphia, PA. I will try to post some pics if I encounter one.

Mr. Morita: Thank you. I never would have thought Yoshinaga. I have difficulty with the sometimes abstract kanji of this era.

Nice website, by the way, Thomas.

Hi Thomas: Army Type 3. How can you tell? This smith mainly made Army type 3 swords? I have always considered this type of koshirae as Marine Landing. Thanks for your knowledge.

I recently found this mounted in Marine Landing Koshirae. I am getting Kanemune for the mei. Would this be correct? Not sure of the date. Any help would be appreciated. This one is going to eBay.

Gentlemen, thank you for participating in this valuable discussion. Unless my memory betrays me, I remember seeing partial koshirae with papers. I bring this up, because I think it is important to preserve original koshirae, even if parts are missing. Is it acceptable to add a tsuba or kozuka/kogatana to such a koshirae? I think yes, as long as it is disclosed and can be reversed without harming the original koshirae. I too, am not a big fan of fresh tsuka make. But, if the original wrap is gone by way of the 'menuki oni', then why not? I must say, I am more on the side of preservation first. However, playing devils advocate, maybe things like re-lacquering a busted saya, could be considered as maintenance, in much the same way polishing a blade is.

Mr. Kunitaro All of these koshirae have raised my standards. Highly appreciated. It is difficult for me to pick a favorite. The lacquer work on the tachi, the carving and fittings on the tagayasan tanto, the uchigatana koshirae...are all more amazing than anything I have ever seen (even in a book).

Thanks for the pics. I must say, I am partial to handachi mounts. However, I never get sick of looking at excellent uchigatana koshirae. However, I am completely impressed by the tanto koshirae in the link David provided. Here is one that is under my care. It is NTHK papered and written up in a Token-To-Reikishi. No tsuba to worry about here.

Well, if its the "Zen Approach" I guess its OK. Just kidding, of course. Not trying to get on my high horse, I just think we have a certain responsibility to preserve history. I would like to see if anyone has a papered koshirae they could post for appreciation.

As collectors, we evolve. Our ideals of quality change. Our values change. Our tastes change... One thing I think is in bad taste is putting profitability before history. It just seems wrong to part out a koshirae to maximize profit. In fact, I do not think many fully intact koshirae still exist today, at least compared to the number of blades. How many cluster f-kd koshirae have we seen out there that do not fit together properly because someone palmed the tsuba, or the changed the kozuka? When this happens, history is lost forever. Of course, there are always exceptions. IE, when all but a good tsuba, or menuki remain to a koshirae that is too far gone to be appreciated. Why my rant? I have a couple nice koshirae that I wonder, what must they have looked like before some previous caretaker grabbed the tsuba and/or Kozuka handle. I tried my best to find "matching tosogu", but they will never be historically intact. Interestingly enough, I saw a photo of the koshirae for my Den Zenjo Kaneyoshi with the original Choshu tsuba. I think the previous owner must have sold it off separate. The dragon tsuba and kozuka were decent attempts to fill the gaps. The original fuchi kashira are nice shakudo nanako. The menuki are excellent, residing in a handle with original tsuka make. http://www.onihonto.com/Koto_Uchigatana.html Is there any sort of unwritten collectors etiquette on this subject?

If you are an eBuyer and you have access to the site, it is open season on Snipe.

Down for me in FL. USA on 9-14, 9:58 am...

We did this at the Morikami Museum. It was an awesome display of many high level swords and armor. It was well attended by many non-collectors. However, not many "Japanese Sword Collectors" took the time to go. Even many of the local guys never got around to going. Maybe, not such a bad thing, as we are a bunch of codgers.

Mizukage in and of itself is not a flaw. It is a condition that happens when the blade is quenched. Thus, if the blade is ubu, it may not be an indicator of saiha (retemper), which is considered a reason to not paper a sword. Though similar, I don't think it should be considered the same as utsuri. If your sword is naginata naoshi, and not drastically shortened, the mizukage may not indicate saiha.

Thanks Chris. I have found other Kuni kanji that look like this. But, it does not match any examples I found for Kobayashi Kunimichi. But, at least I think we can agree on the Kunimichi part. Excellent.

Original Saya and Blade now reunited

I picked this one up over the weekend. I had to, in order to buy the original saya for my Railway Sword, which this sword adopted...long story. Anyway, I am looking for assistance with the mei. It looks like No-Michi, or Yuki-Michi, to me. Someone suggested Kanemichi from 1940, but I cannot find matching mei examples for Kanemichi. It has a very nice shape for Showato with an elongated kissaki. Any help would be appreciated.

I remember buying a wakizashi from a well known Japanese eBay seller, whose name I will not disparage at this time. It had NTHK papers and a rather obvious hagire, that was not disclosed. It was otherwise a beautiful sword. Of course, I sent it back. I even paid shipping. I asked how it could possibly get papers with a hagire. He agreed that it should not have and said he was going to destroy it. I later found the same sword on an Aussie website. I made the collector aware of the hagire. He was very surprised because it had not been disclosed to him either. Point is, if you don't like the gamble, stay out of the eBay game. I think the point has been made well enough.

....and you can take pics of items on other people's tables and sell them on eBay.

IMHO, in looking for "Sword Deals", nothing is better than attending a sword show in the USA. However, there is no better feeling than pulling a good one out of the wood work.

Most of us know that Ebay is not the safest way of acquiring this type of stuff. So what keeps us going back? I think it is the gamble; the chance of finding a hidden treasure that the seller overlooked. Although infrequent, it does happen. I talked to a well known collector the other day, who said his best find came from Ebay.

I would avoid the extra virgin olive oil. Might be a little acidic. Dont rub on that fingerprint too hard. It is better than having a buff mark. See if you can find a good, non-acidic metal polish. I use Noxon 7. It seems to be amonia based.