Misconstrued

I'm wondering what old mountings exist and have survived despite them being old. Mountings are replaceable and so seeing old mountings is somewhat uncommon, yet not unheard of. (Photos are welcome but not needed).

Thank you everyone for responding and taking the time out of your day to post a reply! I appreciate you showing me photos and sending me links to articles! -Jace R.

Im fine with clan leaders or any nobles, I don't know much about royalty so I'm not picky. -Jace R.

Are there any Nihonto that belonged to or were made for Royalty? Even blades that certainly didn't belong to a noble I find very nice. So I wonder what a blade made for Royalty would look like. Thanks! -Jace R.

This is the first time I've seen red stingray skin and a Tsuka of that style.. Civilian Tsuba and Civilian Tsuka with a gunto leather covered saya. I sadly can't translate the signature, but it is in rough shape as you said. You already are knowledgeable to know that cleaning anything is a big nope. I'm more confused on what style that Tsuka is, first time I've ever seen one of that style. -Jace R.

It does look like there's a mark, but I'm inexperienced with these types.

Pardon me if I'm wrong, but isn't it a Navy Gunto? I don't see many with much of any patina.

It appears to be an older blade, heirloom?

Once again an interesting photo.. Apologies for all the posts. I can make odds and ends of a few swords, but others I can't. Thought I should share it!

Do you happen to have photos of the buke-zukuri? It sounds like a beautiful blade! But it's sad because as you said, for 70 years nothing will be there.

Someone should really take a metal detector to Japan! Obviously abiding by the rules and laws, but imagine all the stuff you'd find!

What happened was awful. I feel like taking away the swords made a bit of sense, but destroying them? Feels wildly excessive. I mean you took their family heirlooms, and just to go and put icing on the cake, destroy them.. thankfully someone from the U.S. government told them to stop, the damage was already very significant though.. glad it stopped before it got worse.

That's insane! I wonder if recovery is even an option. I mean it's a very broad place to dump swords. Even if recovery was an option, none of them would be in good condition.. I'd be surprised if you even got a piece of metal recovered.

During WW2, swords were taken, many were brought home, but many were destroyed. How were these swords destroyed and why were they destroyed? It's saddening to know so many swords were confiscated and destroyed.

I'm sure this is talked about all the time, but what do you believe happened to the Honjo Masamune? I once talked about this topic when I was a novice to Nihonto. If the Honjo Masamune is out there, it would be in Shirasaya, as it was being stored at the time. It could very well be in someone's collections on this forum due to many of Masamune's blades being mumei, and if the blade is in bad condition, the hamon might not be visible to even compare hamons with the record of the hamon that was recorded before it was soon surrended. Personally I feel as though it's possibly in someone's collection and they're unaware. What do you believe happened to the Hōnjo Masamune?

Some farmers did make fittings for swords after WW2, many of them were guntos, but there were family blades occasionally due to soldiers using them as guntos. This one could've had mountings made by a farmer, but I don't really know much about it myself.

The mountings do appear to look somewhat like what would be mounted as a dha.

I'm confused. There is no habaki? This either is a fake sword or these are just very low fittings.

I had seen a post on the internet about someone using an antique blade for training, I obviously said for them to use a modern reproduction, I'm glad to know I'm not alone!

As I'm not as experienced as most of you, how do you feel about using antique nihonto for training or cutting? Personally I'm against using antique blades for cutting and anything of the sort. Modern reproductions that are functional can be inexpensive and can do almost everything an antique blade can, and you wouldn't have to worry about chipping because it's a modern replica, which is replaceable, whereas antique swords are not.

Could be, the fittings seem lower end as it is.

I've also learnt that the veteran who brought it back in our family, he took care of the sword even though the war scarred him physically and mentally. That's why it's in good condition thankfully.

Found another photo online, apparently this man paid to wear Samurai Armor and be photographed in it.

I found a photo on the internet of what appears to be some confiscated swords from WW2. I can't make out what most of the swords are, but look at that giant katana (Tachi?) he's holding! Hopefully it wasn't destroyed like many others sadly were.

Chinese fake, sorry!