Tensho

I've never seen one like it, although there has been a lot of "interesting" gunto koshirae coming out of Japan recently. I'm curious whether the saya is wood or metal, there seems to be a outline of a missing reinforcement band on the saya. The hanger is also mounted for the blade to be worn edge up. Its possible it got swapped around though. I have also not seen a hanger quite like that. The tsuka is also strangely carved away to fit the fuchi? Either ways its an interesting piece. Seems like a bit of work to go with this mod instead of a simple snap button and leather combat cover. Thanks for posting.

$20,000 sure seems good to me?

Good deals if you actually get a decent sword. He sold me one with a fukure going through the hamon on both sides and played it off like it was no big deal. It still sickens me to look at it.

To clarify a few things. There is only one mekugi-ana, and nothing on the other side. No hole inside etc. The nakago-ana has been butchered to be mounted on a stand that came with it(a piece of it). But the inside of the nakago resembles this shape: There's a noticeable "belly" and then tapers down like the above and goes down down 19.5cm

My pictures aren't very good. I'll try to take some better ones later today. It looks much nicer and aged in hand. Yes, I agree it is strange and there is only one mekugi-ana. I could've sworn I have seen another tsuka with metal panels that only had one as well. I can't see it as being a tourist piece only because the ito is worn from the palms by the menuki and the fingers on reverse. To me it definitely seems to have been mounted for some time.

Picked this up a while ago. I thought in place of samegawa it was just carved wood. Turns out its copper sheets that is blackened with gold accents. The menuki appear to be dragons with 4 toes. Black lacquered ito which is evidently worn from use and holding. Someone has attempted to "pin" the kabutogane on, but "inside" is also a detailed piece of hammer sheet. Fuchi is unfortunately missing, and I'm not sure what would have been in its place as the bare wood is a height of 20mm. Tsuka is 30.6cm long.

Here's a follow up to what Bruce showed in Dawson's. I was not able to find one with your cherry blossom and the vine design. There is probably a picture of one out there somewhere. I would imagine these were like Gunto in that the person purchasing could customized them to their preference?

Saya looks grooved, which would indicate a stitched leather covering.

Here's one I came across posted on here by kyushukairu

I mentioned it because the tsuka and nakago holes do not seem to line up fully, and you are unable to install the screw/mekugi. Is this correct?

I do not own any of this model, but the habaki does not appear to be for this? Look at the shinogi-ji on the blade compared to the habaki. Completely off.

The yari looks to have a few forging flaws elsewhere. Either way, the horimono looks very poorly carved. Not sure why it isn't more centered on the blade.

You aren't wrong.. The problem is in the way the "fitting" of the parts was carried out. Whomever did it did not seem to understand how they're fitted to the nakago(tang). The back of the seppa and tsuba is the only part that was filed. This "pushes" the pieces to far forward and you can see how awkward they look when fully mounted compared to my gunto above. Bothe the front and back should have been filed to fit centered when mounted. These do come in all sorts of mounts(crude and beautiful)as Bruce has stated, but I have never seen an original bringback completely thrown together like this. Also, the habaki may be gone because the blade wouldn't fit in the saya(sheath) when mounted and got lost at some point? Actually, here is a tsuba off one of mine, notice the copper inserts(called sekigane) these were added because this tsuba was not intended for the blade its on. Probably what they had on hand at the time and adjusted it fit for the blade.