lonely panet

well I have bought about 15 or more from Japan, over a 10 year period. and only now have ran into issues. its really abit of a joke as they arn't even sharp. basically a Iai blade really. well sounds like its time to give up dress swords from Japan now too. at this stage I'm about to just go fishing and camping, instead of collecting. mmmmmuuuch easer

no thats the funny part, there only dress swords. type 19 kyu gunto dress swords!!! I have bought heaps tho ebay with no issues at all. not sure whats changed?? Having all sorts of issues from EMS, FEDEX, SAL and Japanese CUSTOMS. Evan the Japanese dealers are surprised by the difficulties faced. dress swords were easy, cheap and common. even trying to get a type 19 Kyu gunto flag sword posted over is hard, ands its not evan sword shaped???.

Out of pure interest, 98 top level blades In ones life time sounds abit high to me. That's appox 5 a year for 20 years, not concluding failures, bad weather, Xmas work party hang overs etc

you keep finding nice thing Jon. first time iv ever seen in a minatogawa in army mounts

great buy the money spent, to me it reminds me of sue koto yorodoshi, except its abit longer then normal. shape and thickness is classsic osafune kiyomitsu, sukesada etc maybe the mei is abit on the largish side for normal sue osafune work of the time. mabe some closeups of the JI just around the habaki area please. iMHO the mei is funny

what a grand sugata, sori and motohaba. this is such a ( dare I say almost bold ) large meaty looking sword. you need to book an appointment with a togishi

sweet find guys, iv just sold most of my books, so this makes great reading and is in a very easy format to print off.

pre 1880 navals swords are very odd balls, never 2 the same and always influenced by Prussian, French military, and on a rare occasion mounted like a US saber. this sword was obsolete by 1886 as the fully enclosed d-guard was introduced, in the 1873-6 junior officers sword, marking the permanent change to the naval sword we have seen until the kai gunto. this guys hit lotto, jackpot most machine made blades are made over seas and imported into Japan, the inspection marks are datable but tricky as very very little information. the Germans did a lot of early blades clemen & jung, junkers etc, its amazing its in complete condition, call jim D this one needs to in a book for reference. its a real, rare gem. love it, I would have killed to have one like it when I was collecting (literally killed) out of interest what did u snap up this little gem for??

about 500,000 to 1. but if your gunto is for a General, the odds drop alittle. if its a gensui-to well theres a very good chance hahhaha like the passion for the chance tho

either you have massive hands, or its a rather slender blade

I'm with Steve, (ps nice crew kai gunto) there is a craze about crew gunto, semi made up by dealers. True imperil sword enthusiast should be able to pick the true crew gunto from just short gunto or civilian mounted wakizashi just look for the very short single handed tsuka, with matching kai or shin gunto fittings just my 10 cents

HHHHHHHHAAAAAAHAHAHAH, now Japanese customs returned it to the owner. the sword gods dont want this one to get through. last try SAL I wonder if drug dealers ever have this much trouble

the construction of the blade would have to reversed for this blade to work at all by a right handed person to scalp the placement of the shinogi would prevent a good enough angle of the blade to cut efficiently in its current formation, if the blade construction was reversed or the user was left handed it would be efficient. IMHO my experience is animal based only guys hhahaha not scalped a human yet. I have been slaughtering all our meat since a kid. personally I think this nata is for gardens, and the owner is just wearing rose coloured glasses and had made up his mind before asking for advice. short thick hatchet to cut through the neck??? cant see it being quick or clean, but rather messy and slow. for example I have trouble removing a sheeps head with the correct butchering knives, but a human head with a nata. I think your arm would be tired after all that hacking regards H

it gets better guys, the sword was returned for a second time. I called customs, in VIC, NSW AND SA and they make it very hard to find the right guy (they only transfur you to about 6 other extensions before you get the correct place) customs are stating the Australia Post rejected it, not them. they have no issue with it now. the seller informed me that's customs??? so stuck between two groups who blame each other!!!!!! NICE

ok cool,

I'm a bit lost, ubu or osuriage ???

so UBU?? tori sori o kissaki maybe gunome?? unokubi zukuri?? tradition?? mino/echizen a real guess as I have no books

kissaki is 100% gone. probably a bin job

mark the Hi and the whole sword appears to have alot of meat removed from repeat polishing, compare the nakago to the habaki-moto. machi's appears to be re-done too IMHO sue koto from the over polish but the sugata makes me think shinshinto too

maybe have a closer look at the tsuba, looks like it might clean up well. not Omari but the waves appear to be stylized after that school. but my guest would be shoami

sorry that's so bad sorry, but I think that's a faked off a fake. ahhahaha my eyes are bleeding

thanks guys, it just threw me when i read it, as it was on a very respectable persons webpage, and thought i should ask. I thinking its like the two courts argument, where its only a few years difference and its just done to someones point of view. cheers guys

Hi guys, was just doing some light reading while watching my 16 month girl distroy the "just" cleaned kitchen. (not important) and I read that soshu was the last of the 5 koto traditions to develop!!! I was always of the understanding that Mino was. whats the facts please

wowwwwwww, really stunning work, the habaki can maketh the man/sword in this case

its a very cool and rarely seen custom latch, ordrerd by someone who really took there sword seriously in combat. once your place your hand around the tsuka your ready to draw. not fiddle around with your thumb to press the latch then try and draw. very nice variation