mtexter

I went and visited my cousin today to see his inherited sword from our grandfather. Pics attached. I think this is a type 98, I did not see any arsenal stamps or mon on it, and once again I got too carried away with looking at and cleaning the sword to take good pictures. No engraved mei, but some kind of wax or red ink or something that someone could translate... Curious to know more about it. Thanks!

It looks black to me instead of the usual dark brown, also seems glossier than the nakago i've looked at, but like you said, could just be the lighting

+1 for this, as far as my amateur eyes can tell

Oh cool! So if for example, James Woods (American actor) were Japanese, he might be called James Hayashi?

Interesting. Probably not a maker's mark then, unless they identify themselves as a forest. Thanks Piers!

I assume he's tried a few things already, but just in case it's helpful - The first time I took out a mekugi, (a similar situation to this actually), I (very carefully) used a punch and a hammer to get it loosened and out. In hindsight, maybe a bit reckless, but effective! This was before I knew about the proper tools of course. A setup like this:

Sorry to necro this thread, but I just bought this 3-volume set, can't wait to get it! Matt, I didn't see anything about a pdf format, where and how do you get that?

Piecing some information together on the tanto, the nakago appears to be suriage, signed 備州長船祐定 (Bishu Osafune Sukesada.) I'll see if I can verify this in person. The fuchi is Yoshinaga, and thanks to Ray I now have more pieces by the same artist with a similar motif - https://www.aoijapan.net/fuchi-kashira-the-signature-is-yoshinaga/. This is very cool. If only we had the kashira to match... In just under a week I'll be back in front of these blades and armed with MUCH more knowledge than I had before. I'll probably take about 50 pictures of each item, and will upload many of them here. Check back in a week if you're interested!

Oh man, thanks Ray, I should've looked back. Thank you (again!) Time for me to get some books and find out more about these names.

These are part of the cache of things brought back from Japan by my grandfather after WWII Hard to make out some of the kanji on the nakago, but the fuchi should be readable. Thanks for your help!

Yes!! This is so true. I'm sure there's an accepted lighting setup that the professional photographers use, but I haven't had a good chance to look into that. It's just fun to pull out the blade and look at. Monitor light, (with varying/changing images) in addition to what you mentioned is kind of cool too

This saya came with a 28 + 7/16" katana signed Jumyo, no other parts, just a bare blade and saya. Thanks for looking!

Since I can't figure out a good way to downsize my pictures, here's an imgur link to all of them. https://imgur.com/a/9k0hGsZ Apologies in advance if it doesn't stand the test of time. I noticed some writing on the inside of the saya, will also post over on the translation board. Can't be sure but it looks like pencil. No idea about the age of the blade or the saya so if anyone can give a ballpark estimate I'd be grateful. Thanks for looking!

Beautiful engraving, not that I've been looking for very long but I've never seen anything like it. Very cool!

I have the sword now and I'm blown away by the level of detail I can see. Pictures really can't seem to do any nihonto justice. Seeing it in hand, observing how each feature catches the light just so... well it's overwhelming even with a blade in this shape. I've already oiled it 3 times and it feels glorious to do so in a way I can't adequately describe. Despite all its flaws, I think it's damn interesting and I love it. I've taken no less than 44 pictures in the few hours I've had it, but am only able to upload just under 10MB here. I'll try to find a good way to downsize and post some. Looks a lot better now that it's cleaned up a bit too. It also came with a saya which was not mentioned in the listing, so that was a nice surprise. More to come soon, cheers all.

It's sad that the population of Japan is aging so much. Certain communities can't sustain themselves as the older generations die off, and their kids move to the cities. Thanks for sharing the article!

lol

The nakago (tang) appears to have been shortened, they call this suriage. Very cool saya! (scabbard) I'm pretty new here too and this is my first post giving any info about a blade Welcome!

Valid input Michael. In my case it boils down to impatience. I wanted something in my hands to study before I go back to see the family collection in a couple of weeks. I want to learn as much as I can from a real nihonto, and having a baseline of comparison of a poor quality blade could be useful I might get myself a Christmas present later this year / early next year... I've already been talking to Mark Jones of Toledo and he's shown me several affordable pieces.

Looks like this is arriving tomorrow! By the pictures it's obviously in poor shape, and I'm curious if there's anything I can do to it (outside the realm of polishing for course) that might brighten it up a bit, other than the basic oiling + uchiko treatment. I decided I'll try to make my own shirasaya for it. Is there any particular wood (available in the northern US i.e. oak, maple, cedar...) better or worse than others? Obviously one with very low moisture content would be sought. Or just let me know if this is a terrible idea; I'm still just a rookie Thanks!

Hey I think that was me! Thank you for saying so. We all need(ed) a starting point, and there's no right or wrong way to collect *anything*. In the end, this is a hobby like none other, but the purpose of any hobby in my opinion is to have fun! Personally, I am having a great time on this board while I learn about this fascinating subject, thanks in no small part to all of you. Something I think that's important to keep in mind - in this limited medium of text and pictures, it can be hard to express things like sarcasm or the intended tone. Where one feels offended, I'd bet that in most cases no offense was intended. Also we're dealing with many different people from many different cultures, and English is a second language for a good chunk of our members. Cross-cultural sarcasm and wit don't always translate successfully, and at worst can come across as rude or insulting! If we can all agree that sometimes things get lost in translation, and to never intentionally berate others, I think we'll all be better for it. Thanks again for making this an enjoyable community. I'm looking forward to my future here.

Mike, that's correct. No fittings included. I have a small woodshop and had entertained the idea of trying to make a (very non-traditional) shirasaya for it, but that may be a waste of time. This is just for study and my own edification in the wonderful world of Nihonto

Thanks Grey. This is definitely meant to be a blade that I can study, figure out best practices for care, rust removal (NOT polishing!), and can study up close to learn more of the terminology and look for certain characteristics. I hope it's useful for these things. All in all, as a budding collector with a limited budget (and before I go back to my family's collection and handle some real pieces again) I think this is a good step for me. Thanks all

yep, I wasn't exactly shooting for the moon here. If I bought an authentic, possibly traditionally-made tamahagane Japanese blade, then my goal was achieved. Could definitely make out a sort of funny shape and several flaws, but as a start to a someday-modest collection, this would be enough to make me happy

Brian, I am curious, do you have a smartphone? If so, I'd strongly suggest using speech-to-text to reply to posts. It might change your life for the near future! Thank you so much for everything you do. I hate the thought of you suffering