LastSamurai

Thanks, Marcin! I will definitely check that source. In the meantime, some more pictures of that Ishido Teruhide. It was cloudy and I was unable to catch direct sunlight, which helps a bit in these situations. I was also not prepared to make a proper photo session, so I did not take a katana-kake with me. It also rained a lot, thus for now I am not able to share pictures of the koshirae and of the whole nihonto. But will do eventually. To me, nagasa looks even better in person, and the koshirae is very tight and well-made, pristine I would think. For the glory of Japan, as they say. Blade is signed "Ishido Teruhide saku", which according to this article: https://japaneseswordindex.com/teruhide.htm is the mei Ishido Teruhide used when creating blades of tamahagane in the traditional way.

What I got is an Ishido Teruhide blade, made in 1940, sitting in a fresh Japanese polish. Has an original gunto koshirae with junior officer's tassel. Everything is in pristine condition, in fact I have rarely seen, let alone held such a preserved gunto. Huge thanks to the person who made the purchase possible! I have yet to take some proper photos, in order to provide the admiration this nihonto requires. But I will now share two quick close-up pictures which try to capture the beauty of the blade in polish. I believe it has a very tight ko-itame hada, at least in person it looks like ko-itame to me (in the proper light). What do you guys think? I will definitely share more photos once I find the time to take them, probably in a week or so. But I am a very, very happy person right now.

Once I receive and inspect it, I would definitely drop in some pictures here for you. Thanks everyone for the interest!

No longer looking - a great person from this forum (I can share who he is if he so decides) helped me with the purchase of a wonderful gunto. Thanks and good luck to everyone!

Thanks for the support! Yes, with everything I've learned so far, I do believe it is the work of the first Kanetomo and the blade was made in the early 16th century, maybe around year 1510. It is a wonderful blade IMO, to my untrained eyes. I wish to thank everyone who helped me and shared their opinion and knowledge on the matter! You guys are great!

Maybe a bit, yes. As I don't have formal training in Japanese martial arts and I'm relatively more used to European swords, most nihonto feel light to me, especially bare blade wakizashi. But yes, it seems thick and a bit tip heavy, as it wants to cut deep into something when in motion. By the way, this is one of the sharpest antique swords I've had the opportunity to hold and admire. Very sharp.

Of course. I have digital calipers, so the measurements should be rather precise. Motogasane: 0.655 cm Sakigasane: 0.415 cm Motohaba: 2.85 cm Sakihaba: 2.05 cm Omosa: 547 grams

Marcin, such an interesting thing you mentioned! I was of the impression that this is just mokume hada, as I've read in the sources provided above by the other contributors that such appearance is somewhat typical of Kanetomo's work. And even to my limited knowledge, as far as I can tell, in person it looks like mokume, but it very well might be shintetsu. Very curious to hear other opinions. Worth mentioning is that the whole nagasa has practically no visible (to me) kizu, at least as delamination is concerned. I once did own a Koto era nihonto in pristine Japanese polish that exhibited a lot of kizu, obviously its lamination did not stand the test of time.

Here you go, Marcin! This is as close as my phone allows me to shoot.

Thanks, Piers D! If it were for you to guess, would you consider the said blade to be Koto or Edo era? Others loosely suggested Koto, but I have a bit of doubt and would appreciate more opinions.

I wish to cincerely thank everyone who helped with the mei and Hozon translation thus far! If, by chance, someone has the will to translate the whole Hozon, I would greatly appreciate the service! This will probably help me with my research about Noshu Seki ju Kanetomo saku and possibly to define the exact place and era the blade was made. As I wrote above, it is hard for me to trust ChatGPT, cause it already seriously mislead me once about the topic. P.S. I do have pictures of sugata and up-close of the nagasa and boshi that I uploaded, if this could help with defining the age or give more information about which specific Kanetomo it is attributed to. Sorry if this is not the place for this, I am rather new to NMB, not been very active here, thus please forgive me in advance if I should ask elsewhere.

Thanks everyone, you've been very helpful! Late Muromachi would make it even older than I expected, if so. To be honest, that blade (even to my untrained eyes) looked a bit older than the middle Edo period I thought it was made...

Thank you, Moriyama Koichi! Do you, by chance, know/learned anything about the smith or the period he was active? Any bit of information will be indeed very helpful.

Hello guys, Is it possible for someone to help translate the mei of my (shinto?) wakizashi, along with its Hozon origami? I tried using ChatGPT for the purpose, but the result was far from satisfying, in fact, it actually made things worse. I would really appreciate the assitance! I have uploaded a high-res version of the image here: https://ibb.co/Jj5VTQZf Sadly, the previous owner of the sword did not have any meaningful information to share about it, other than he bought it in Japan himself just in urge to acquire a nihonto while visiting there, so am also not able to share much... If something else is needed as far as images go, I will promptly provide. Thanks in advance!

Aaron, it is a wondeful nihonto that you have there... I envy a bit its future keeper. Can I humbly ask - after that tsuba replacement, currently how tight is the overall fit? Assuming it was (almost) perfect tight fit coming from Japan in its modern koshirae... Adam, btw, this is a gorgeous wakizashi there...