Surfson

I never went to have a look at that piece. Does anybody know if it sold and, if so, for how much?

Based on this thread, and the many others that we have built on Showa 22 and Komonjo, these two believe that building a great reputation is the path to business success (just kidding here...). For some reason, they both have lots of non discerning customers and do a lively business. Unfortunately it is destructive to the greater hobby, as they damage healthy swords and misrepresent false ones. Sadly, despite the decades long complaints lodged against both of them on this thread, they continue to thrive.

As far as I can tell, you have mitsu Mitsu.

Thanks again Kyle, I will do just that and this translation will go into the box. I will take a couple photos of the rest of the tsuba later today or tomorrow and post them. Cheers, Bob

Thanks go to all of you, Morita San, Steve San and Kyle San. What a great surprise that it was made by Iwamoto Konkan! I will have to show you both sides of the tsuba. The other side is iron and very different from the side you can see. The tsuba is the two types of metal welded together right down the middle. I haven't seen that before.

Hi Marco. Which one is the fugu?! I assume it is one of the ones on the tsuba. Does this image help?

Yoshihiro mon jin Edo Yotsuya ju Asai Yoshihiro gyotaku mei jin nari

This is a set of fittings that I have owned for many years. The maker is Asai Yoshihiro, and one of the really interesting features is that the tsuba is made of soft metal on one side and iron on the other (shown is only the soft metal side). There is an inscription that looks like an appraisal underneath the set (see next page). I can make out most of it: Yoshihiro mon jin Edo yotsuya ju is the middle line and Asai Yoshihiro gyotaku mei jin nari is the right side. My understanding is that he lived in Yotsuya in the Edo period and was famous for making fish images. The left line appears to have the name of the appraiser, and I can't figure that one out (see next page).

Mark, I recommend hitting the books. There are a lot of great general books on Japanese swords. You can also spend time on NMB and answer lots of questions that you have just by searching. Grey Doffin's site is a great place to buy books. The bright side of this sword is that it is genuine, has good resting mounts and is in good polish. It is also signed, and Kunimitsu is a very common name, so people won't be concerned that it is gimei. On the dark side, the ware, or flaws in the steel, are quite large and distracting. The temper line is chu suguha, meaning narrow and straight, and most collectors find simple suguha to be a bit uninteresting (although some love it). It's worth maybe $300-600, depending on the market. My advice is to enjoy it as long as you can and study it. Hopefully you got into it cheap enough that you will get your money back or even make a few bucks once you decide to sell it. After you have made progress on your reading and know what you want next, then you have a sword budget from the proceeds. Best of luck with your collecting!

It does appear to be an excellent sword, well done. The kissaki can be repaired, I think. And I still think that the mounts are some sort of unusual court mounts.

Are the menuki any good? Is it missing the fuchi? Is the kashira nice? Even if the sword is a tsunagi, it might be worth a few bucks based on the mounts.

The paper also appears to state that it has gonome hamon and masame hada. I also think that it attributes the sword to the Edo period, making it a true samurai sword. Sadaharu is listed in Hawley's as Kensaishi Sadaharu, and worked in 1866, toward the end of Edo.

My fingers are crossed that the cracks are small!

Judging by the yasurime (filing pattern), it is probably fairly new (e.g. shinshinto or later).

I agree with Matt's assessment. It looks like a nice blade that appears to be in good polish. It's hard to tell more with the photos about blade condition. The papers and the shumei (lacquer mei) are contradictory. I'm not sure that NBTHK or NTHK would paper it if the shumei is incorrect - perhaps others have had them pass swords with incorrect shumei, but I have not. On the other hand, if the shumei is correct, they would likely paper it. Setting value is more difficult, though again, I agree with Matt ($1200-1800 as it sits most likely). You can submit it to NTHK at one of the sword shows and if it does paper to Hasebe, life is good. If you set aside the papers, you are in the uncomfortable position of passing it off as a Hasebe or playing dumb, even though you know that at least one expert (the sword dealer) thinks otherwise. Most collectors prefer to put all the cards on the table and let the chips fall where they may.

You have gotten lots of great advice. I also endorse the order of priority that Tom advises. Finally, when it comes to names, a very good general book for translations based on stroke count is Koop and Inada. Japanese Names and How to Read Them.

Steve, I have seen the first two characters referred to as Ichiryu

Not only does this look like a good deal for 200, but my gut tells me that it may be an excellent sword, with some sort of court mounts.

Mark, if this were my sword and I was in your situation (family treasure that I want to have restored regardless of cost), I would send it to Mr. Kenji Mishina in Japan for restoration followed by shinsa at the NBTHK. If I have misread your situation and you do care about the cost-benefit ratio, then I would take the more cautious steps; I would submit it to NTHK shinsa in Chicago or another US sword show (I prefer the NTHK-NPO shinsa led by Mr. Miyano). If it gets papered to Shigemasa, hopefully they will tell you which one and which era. My personal opinion from the shape is that it is likely to have been made between Keicho and Kanbun eras (1596-1661 or so), when the swords were fairly straight like this, with little curvature. If it does paper, I would send it to Japan for restoration, after which it might be worth the cost of restoration or more if the polish comes out good with few or no flaws in the blade. If it doesn't paper at the NTHK shinsa because of doubt about the signature, I would consider about whether it is worth sending to Japan for restoration. In that case, it would likely involve another submission, this time to NBTHK. If it doesn't paper there due to the mei, then the next step would be removal of the signature followed by polish, followed by yet another submission to NBTHK shinsa. Note that if the NTHK shinsa team rejects it due to some kind of fatal forging flaw, then I would just have the mounts restored as well as I could and just keep it in the US and abandon my plans to restore the blade. Just my view of it, and you will get as many opinions as people that care to reply. Either way, it is a nice old blade with good mounts and I do endorse your plan to treasure it!

It looks like a legitimate samurai blade to me by the way, and the mounts were once very nice.

There are nine Shigemasa smiths listed in Markus Sesko's bood Swordsmiths of Japan. Some are in Bizen, others are in Seki, Bingo, Sagami....

Any summary takeaway observations you can share Bazza?

I think that it might be an interesting sword based on the photos you sent. Do you have more of the whole blade (for sugata) and the nakago? Also, the dimensions would be helpful.

Volker is a friend and I have bought and sold swords from and to him. He is also a true expert on shrine swords from Yasukuni and Minatogawa. Good to see you on here Volker!

You have done very well Michael! Most of these swords are authentic samurai swords that would make respectable starter swords for a collection. While there are a few that may be worthy of restoration, I don't see any that would recoup the cost of polish (meaning that after a polish, shirasaya and maybe habaki, none will be worth more than you have invested in them). This is just my quick assessment of the collection. If I were in your situation, I would take great pictures of all of them and sell them one at a time on ebay. You should have proceeds in the range of triple or quadruple your money I would think. You can then take the profits and buy yourself a beautiful sword in nice mounts in full polish with papers. You can sell them in a couple of weeks with slightly more work than you put in to post them here. And hey, nothing wrong with picking out one or two of your favorites and hanging on to them or even restoring them if you get the urge. Congratulations on a great find!