Nicholas

Sword is signed: Taira Sadashige and dated second month of showa 18

I’m going to have to look more into this. I never thought about that. Thanks

I took some pictures because I can’t tell.

I would love to hear what he thinks. I believe the sword is of good quality. It’s hard to capture in photos.

In my opinion it’s closer to Kajihei than to Kotetsu. I also wouldn’t be mad if it was a Kajihei forgery I find his story fascinating.

Yes, who ever chiseled the mei did a good job trying to copy Kotetsu but fell short on the small details. You can also see the difference between the shoshin and the Kajihei cut mei as well but it’s far closer than the sword I own.

Thank you for taking the time to find and post these pages @Ian B3HR2UH I find it very interesting that Kajihei also made forgeries of Tadayoshi blades. It makes me wonder where he was sourcing these mumei blades to sign. Or if he was forging blades in the Hizen style and adding the signature.

In Sesko’s Kajihei video he shows a slide of 2 swords. 1 signed Soshu Masamune and the other Soshu Sadamune both swords Gassan Sadakazu added the signature to. Not papered though. Just thought it was interesting.

I thought they might have papered due to the historical significance. How are these swords being recognized as Kajihei forgeries? Possibly through sayagaki attribution.

While researching Kajihei I stumbled across a thread from this forum that was of a member who purchased a Kajihei Naotane forgery. The sword was still impressive. I wonder if the NBTHK issues origami for these Kajihei forgeries.

While going down the Kotetsu rabbit hole I came across a video made by Markus Sesko at the New York Token Kai from November 16th 2016. The video was about the famous forger Kajihei and how he would forge Naotane and Kotetsu signatures. Kajihei was said to be so good at these forgeries that at the time hardly anyone would be able to discern the fake from the real signatures. Now in no way am I implying this sword I own is a real Kotetsu or a Kajihei forgery. I’m just curious if anyone has any reference material they are willing to share of a Kajihei Kotetsu forgery besides what I’ve already seen from Markus Sesko’s site because I find this subject very fascinating. I’d also be interested to see if any of these forgeries have ever came up for sale.

Side by side comparison. I don’t think the sword is a real Kotetsu. I’m not that lucky

I’m well aware.

Here’s a picture of the nakago

Thank you John, George and Steve. I’m curious to know what the valuation of this sword was. Here’s the upper portion of the sayagaki.

Can anyone please help me out with the translation of this sayagaki and possibly who wrote it.

Thank you @Nobody. I just watched a video on sword polishing recently that featured Manatsu Hitoaki at his workshop in Osaka. What a coincidence.

I’ve had this sword in my collection for a few years now and always wondered what the sayagaki says and most importantly who wrote it. The sword is signed Echigo No Kami Fujiwara Kunitomo as stated in the upper part of the sayagaki. I’d like to keep a written English translation of the sayagaki with the sword for future reference. Thanks to anyone willing to help.

@Rawa thanks. I’ve seen these a few years back when I got the sword and was researching the smith.

@Rawa the sword I have is different than this example. The sword I own looks more like this