Tensho

Looking for opinions on this, I know not the most brilliant looking thing, but the large hitsu ana peaked my interest. Thank you. Dimensions: 7.7cm x 7.4cm Thickness 4mm Nakago ana 28mm Hitsu ana 20mm.

Figured I'd post a follow up to anyone thats is interested. Takako emailed me back a week after I posted this on here. She said it was a mix up on her part and what I wanted to do, and that I cannot return it to Japan. I asked if we could work out a better offer on another item I was interested in(gave her the item number) another week went by and she said Well, by that time the item was already sold. To date, she has already denied 2 offers I have made and sold them to other buyers(at offer prices that weren't much more than mine) one member purchased one here. 1 item she did counter offer me, but it was $80 off $700... when I countered again the offer sat and expired. I sent her a lengthy email with screenshots of our conversation. She requested the item numbers I made offers on, and even sent screenshots. Her reply was all those items are sold, and she won't go lower on the other, choose another I wrote back, and explained our conversation once more. And that was the last. Stopped wasting my time at this point.

I was always under the assumption that samurai went to battle with a completely different koshirae than their "flashy" formal koshirae. I would imagine samurai would have more than one koshirae for a blade The few books I have showing koshirae described as been worn in battle are pretty basic looking.

The "threat" I'm assuming you're talking about is there. I honestly thought you were trying to get into an argument with the wrong guy(i.e. me) Never once argued with you over anything, never once talked to this "swords" fellow. You seem to be an unstable person with a Napoleon complex. That is my relevance to this thread and to Rematrons post. I honestly thought you were a teenager living with your parents. To find out you are a dealer is quite shocking. You do not seem like someone worth dealing with. That's all I have to say.

You seem to have issues. Not someone to do business with, and I'm not surprised at all to see this thread.

Not at all surprised.

Buy the fittings first. Better yet, find a pole you like and buy it with all the fittings on it. The ishizuki doesn't really matter, as it can be fitted to whichever ebu you have made. From the ishizuki up to the top of the ebu, the shaft tapers. The fittings are NOT all the same size and not supposed to be. All yari ebu are not the same size as well. Just to give you a rough idea I have gyakuwa that measure 18mm up to 26mm(inner diameter) so, better to get a complete ebu just for the fittings. Yari shaft construction is pretty straightforward if you go with just inletting the wood(red oak) for the nakago and insert a strip of wood to close it. A woodworker of any merit should be able to accomplish this.

Good find Geraint. Definitely a locking mechanism on that tanto!

Way to many red flags when I saw this pop up. For what its worth, I've talked to the seller before. My understanding is he has had "a lot" of parts and is in the process of liquidation. This is why I'd question full swords. Also, this is the nakago. My guess was a Chinese blade fitted to all this. Habaki didn't look like a good fit.

https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/9460-tsuba-with-slotted-seppa-dai/ There has been other discussions about them. There has to be a koshirae somewhere out there that will help piece them together. A locking mechanism of some sort is my guess. I haven't seen any fuchi or seppa with corresponding slots besides gunto though?

Mostly have seen them on Gunto which I guess would make sense considering workshops were probably dealing with hundreds at a time. I have had a couple Yari with the notches as well. Those seem stranger to me considering the ebu holds all the fittings 99% of the time and I have yet to see any fittings with notches. Would make more sense to just attach a tag to the mekugi-ana.

The papers are over 30 years old. Possible it had more than one polish since then?

I don't know for sure, but definitely an interesting topic. I can post this though:

Seriously? The hole under the barrel screw is for tying the tsuka ito knot and securing the kabutogane down.

Its always best to tread carefully with these sellers. For instance the seller you bought from, claims to be a member of NBTHK but I haven't heard of anyone who knows him, list 95% of his blades as pre koto even ones that are glaringly not and hardly ever has any with new origami.

Im betting the blade is showato just based off the WWII period made habaki. I've only owned a few gunto, and the prices are rising. By the time you get done dumping money into it, you could have spent the money on one in decent polish with everything there. From what I can see you need: Chuso $75-100 Menuki $50 Sarute(not needed) $75 Ito/wrap +/- $300 You are already at $1k(with sword if it sells for its original bid) and you haven't even got to the blade condition issues. I have owned enough to know that you will get sick of looking at a blade in rough shape thinking I should've just coughed up the extra $$ on something better and be happy.

That's my picture in the original post, they do not have pictures with measurements(maybe they should start) It is a nice naginata and I do have that going for it. We were negotiating on price for a while on it. After all that time and finally getting it to see its 10cm shorter is definitely a bummer. Measurement with curvature is just shy of 39cm.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the ebay seller. I've bought several things from them. My last experience was a Rollercoaster to say they least. I bought several things from her and made sure I asked about combined shipping before purchasing. Long story short she tried charging me an additional $115. Alot of back and forth bickering occured before she agreed she told me she would offer free shipping on those items(they all shipped in the same box) Fast forward over a month I got the items, the main one being a Naginata. Something sure seemed off about it. Well, when I bought it, it was listed as 47.3cm nagasa. It is in fact 37cm. This is equivalent to buying a Katana and being sent a Wakizashi. Obviously nothing I can do about it. Emails haven't been responded to. This is mainly for the new guys out there. Keep your head on a swivel and study the pictures carefully and ask questions. I normally do, and when I let my guard down this is what happens.

Maybe these are better.

Understandable on the photos.. Hmm, I don't think its core steel. Looks like clusters of nie to me when looking at it in hand.

Arrows pointing in red at what I'm curious about. Blade has Muneyaki(yubashiri?) And not sure if it has anything do do with what I'm seeing.

As far as the seller goes, he is no better than any of the other shady Japanese sellers. Had a blade listed that was described as having "typical dark staining from age" i asked for close up pictures of the "dark staining" the reply I got is, he doesn't take extra photos for people or waste his time because they end up not buying it(hmmm, I wonder why?) I told him if he guarantees this "staining" isn't rust that pitted the blade I'll buy it. Next day I received pictures of a pitted blade that had the surface rust sanded off.

This is the nakago without direct sunlight. I can see why the photos in sun are making it look weird. I did clean the mei area with ivory as it had a lot of active rust. I bought it as mumei . And for the heck of it,, what it looks like without direct sunlight.

The kusabi-hi isn't that unusual. I have only seen a few yari that have it though. Mei is very badly corroded. Looks to have been a 5 character mei at one point.

Couple more.