reinhard

Hi Charlie, For someone with a general interest in Japanese swords at the very beginning of his search I recommend : - "The connaisseur's book of Japanese swords" by Nagayama Kokan - "The Japanese sword" by Sato Kanzan - "The craft of the Japanese sword" by Yoshihara Yoshindo, Leon and Hiroko Kapp Having read those I'd suggest: - "Nihon-To art swords of Japan" by W.A.Compton, Homma Junji, Sato Kanichi and Ogawa Morihiro - "Japanese swords and sword furniture in the museum of fine arts Boston" by Ogawa Morihiro - "Selected fine Japanese swords" published by NBTHK's European branch, Solingen, 2002 - "The influence of MASAMUNE" by NBTHK's American branch in 2003 - "Meito and Yagyu tsuba" by NBTHK's American branch in 2005 If you have a particular interest in army swords (GunTo): - "Military swords of Japan" by Richard Fuller and Ron Gregory If you have a particular interest in polearms: - "Japanese polearms" by Roald M. Knudsen Last but not least there are some books I advice NOT to buy/read, for they are completely outdated and/or contain many mistakes: - "The Samurai sword" by John Yumoto - "The arts of the Japanese sword" by B.W.Robinson - "The Japanese sword" by Inami Hakusui A word about Hawley's compilations: Willis M. Hawley collected an enormous amount of information during his lifetime and we owe him gratitude for this achievement alone, but his ratings are still quoted nowadays by many sword dealers and collectors even on this board and this is nonsense, of course. He never really managed to organize the wealth of information he collected in a reasonable way. His books are good points to start a search from. Infos about some long forgotten smiths can be found, but they represent the beginning of a search, never its end. From there on only Japanese literature will help you any further reinhard

I agree with Ludolf’s guess. Probably the other way round. TOSHIHIDE made the blade and YOSHINAO carved the horimono. At least that's what the saya-gaki says. BTW, it dates from Showa Kinoto-I (10th year, which is the equivalent of 1935 AD). Obviously it belongs to this blade. Nagasa of this wakizashi should be: 1 shaku 4 sun 7 bu. reinhard

The addition of tsuchinoe-uma makes it Kansei 10th year for sure. reinhard

Interesting enough, the two katana blades on the sites provided by Moriyama-san (Aoi and "auction.women.excite") are the same sword. Same measurements and many other details are proving it. The kinpun-mei look slightly different though. On Aoi's site the kanji for "TSUNA" is partially erased and looks more real, whereas on the "auction.women.excite" page, it looks perfectly intact at first sight, but not quite as reliable considering the picture's quality. - It doesn't really matter in this particular case, for kinpun-mei from Meiji times are not of real importance, but this is a good example for showing the importance of staying cautious when buying online. Many times you don't get what you see when buying on the basis of pics and descriptions. Nihon-To is about most subtle details and nowadays most people are just not used to this kind of perception anymore. My advice would be: Check as carefully as you can, then check again and after a while: check again. Collecting NihonTo is not about being quick. It is about looking carefully at the real thing. Dealers may have other priorities though. reinhard

Hamon is said to be "gunome midare ha". The name of the expert is Mr. Kobayashi Yukinobu. reinhard

No, they didn't. But it was said before that some mei were deliberately removed (mostly for commercial reasons). - There is a magnificent naginata (juyo token) in Europe, obviously made by Bizen MOTOSHIGE and with full-length nakago, but the mei (including the maker's name) was removed a long time ago. The traces of the removal can still be seen. All that's left is a nengo dating from 1343. Unfortunately this practice started a long time ago and some very precious informations are lost forever by now. reinhard

Some collectors are still fascinated by the myth of "the" MURAMASA, although there were at least two generations by this name in Ise province, maybe three. It is true that many of their mei were changed or even erased during Edo times, but this particular one was not obliterated enough. The top two kanji on the sashi-omote can still be read as: "Bishu" meaning Owari (province). Unfortunately no MURAMASA ever worked in this province as far as I know. It must have been the mounting then, or somebody will be really disappointed soon. reinhard

Provide us with an example, please. It will help us to understand what you are talking about. reinhard

Felipe, Etchu NORISHIGE is one of the greatest names in the history of Japanese swordmaking. His blades don't pop up just like that once in a while. If one of his blades with full naga-mei existed, it would have been a treasure four hundred years ago, well documented and stored in fittings appropriate to its value. - Your sword is a rather naive and therefore old forgery. You better focus on the blade itself and forget about the mei. - BTW the one pic of mei including name and province is a composition of different fragments. When checking mei, it is desirable to get pics of nakago taken as one shot and depicting the entire nakago. Thanks. reinhard

The habaki says it all. reinhard

Mark, There is no standard procedure of how to verify/falsify a signature. What goes for KOTETSU and Kajibei cannot be applied to nidai TADAHIRO's mei and some minor changes occuring during his long span of working. Both mei look quite allright to me and what's more important: They are placed where they should be. reinhard

Compare this kanji "Shin" with any true and verified version of SHINKAI's mei. Jacques showed you the way. reinhard

Don't give in too quickly, Sean. Problem is: State of preservation allows hardly any conclusions about quality or characteristics of this blade. On the other hand, nothing seems to be obviously wrong with it so far. - I wished the area underneath the habaki revealed some news, for it is usually the best protected area on deteriorated blades, but for some reason, it looks even worse. (This is supporting the "mismatching koshirae"-theory, BTW.) Advice (or even expertise) on the basis of pictures is very difficult in a case like this. You better show this blade to an experienced collector whom you can trust. We could go on speculating wildly for some time, but this is probably not what you are looking for. reinhard

This mei reads : Inoue SHIN(KAI), but it doesn't really matter, for it is subsonic (gimei). BTW a real name besides your avatar would be nice/is expected. reinhard

Hi Sean, When trying to understand this sword you better separate the blade from its koshirae. This particular koshirae is an occasional assembly of mismatching parts. There are a leather frog and a tassel pointing towards WWII, but the tassel is not where it is supposed to be. Tsuka and tsuba seem to be of earlier date, but at a closer look they are not. The crossings of tsuka-ito are all made in the same direction and the diamond shapes in between look poor. This is pointing towards a later date of manufacture. The habaki is not fitting the blade properly. Seppa are asymmetrical and of poor quality. - All in all you better focus on the blade. The koshirae can be neglected. reinhard

Hi Jimi, I'm inclined to believe this sword was retempered. One particular feature pointing towards this direction is the Ha-Hada (Hada clearly visible within the Yakiba). This can be seen often in retempered blades. This could be due to a poor polishing job as well though. This katana was polished by a togishi from a minor league. Hadori finish looks stiff and awkward and lacks refined taste. - Another irritating feature are mekugi-ana. The "older" one (below the "actual" mekugi-ana) looks quite fresh, particularly on the inside. The nakago seems to be shortened in a quite careless manner, judging from nakago-jiri. All in all, it looks like a retempered katana trimmed to look old, but this is just a guess on the basis of pics and we all know what that means. reinhard

The mei reads "YOSHIMITSU", but it appears to be a crude fake. No real smith to track, I'm afraid. reinhard BTW, please add your real name to your post. That's the way it is on NMB.

Pictures are not very reliable, but hada seems to be a very tight and crisp ko-itame. This is typical for many swords from Bakumatsu times and later. Constricted nioi-guchi (shimari-gokoro) is pointing towards this direction too. reinhard

Hi Peter, This is pointing to a later date of manufacture; ShinShinTo or later. Does the blade feel well-balanced or top-heavy when lifted? Many ShinShinTo and GendaiTo feel like a bag of stones compared to their handy predecessors. reinhard

The "konnote gashiwa"-concept harks back to Tegai KANENAGA and Kamakura times. It has been known ever since, but it was applied to swords very rarely. reinhard

Allright then quoting "eddie" in chronological order: "picked up this old tanto" "looks to be from from early koto period" "wether it's gimei or shoshin is not the concern" "it will be a nice koto piece to display" "Please enlighten me as to how you came to that educated opinion" From ignorance to sarcasm in no time. Unwilling to learn, but exposing himself and his intentions in an exhibitionist's way. Some fun's ahead. reinhard

I can see neither elegance nor taste in this particular example. reinhard

Kanji in signatures can differ strongly from textbook examples. That's something you will encounter quite frequently. It's the same with our personal handwritings. Most of it cannot be deciphered by somebody, who is not familiar with Roman letters and our language in general. - After seeing and understanding many mei, you will get a feel for it. reinhard

Enlarged and put side by side, the first example looks more informative to me. reinhard

Amida yasuri on this tsuba don't look like file-marks to me. Some of them vary slightly in thickness and some of them aren't perfectly straight. They seem to be made by a very fine chisel. My guess would be: rather by pushing than by hammering (Ford?). My question to Richard: Do you think the rim was added after the plate was finished or is the tsuba made from one single piece of steel? reinhard