Matsunoki

Good luck John. All the very best. Colin

No you are not being unreasonable.

Where do you see an insult ? Jacques, let’s not deflect off topic by debating the inaccurate and uncalled for comments above. instead let’s stay on topic, after all I assume you started it to educate us? You said “This nakago has been suriage” and that the reason is “The chiri disappearing towards the nakago jiri shows that the sword has been shortened” I am trying to reconcile that with what I can see. The chiri on the mune side only tapers/disappears on one side of the nakago. If your are suggesting that the nakago has been reworked on that side (the side with the Mei) and has had the kasane reduced in that way then surely if you file down onto any hi the hi actually get narrower and the chiri get wider …..just like when blades with hi or other horimono are polished. So please enlighten us.

I was polite and said what I could see. I expected Jacques to come back with an insult instead of an explanation and I was not disappointed.

Why not just tell me? Am I wrong in what I see?

Maybe it’s my eyes but the chiri only appears to taper off on one side of the nakago. On the other side it appears to run evenly to the nakago jiri. Could,the “missing chiri” simply have rusted away?..or been damaged in some other way? If the nakago mune had been reworked during suriage wouldn’t the chiri taper off the same on both sides?

….and another thing that makes the job so much harder than it needs to be is some of the horrendous Hadori polishes that we see all the time. It’s often very difficult to see anything underneath it with the sword actually in hand let alone with a camera. Many of the swords for sale on Japanese websites look very dramatic in the images with their high contrast polishes but you haven’t got a clue what the hamon or other activity actually is…or even if there is a hamon at all. It also helps no end if you can have someone else hold or manoeuvre the blade while you look at it through the phone/camera screen. As soon and the light falls on it in a way that reveals the details you simply press the button.

Depends so much on the lighting. I took these on a quite old iPhone XS Max using just daylight. Tap the images to get a better look. Not sure how you would improve on them

Don’t think it’s stainless. You can see pretty clear old rust pits on the blade especially in the image of the kissaki area. Cant definitively see a hamon. You can see what looks like a polishing effect where the hamon ought to be but need better lighting and different angles to try and see any sign of hardening.

Interesting…..just when you think you see a “perfect sword” (whatever that is!) you see this little “feature” and once you see it you always see it and it irritates!…..if you know what I mean.

Wonder if it’s a deliberate variant of the “moon over mt. Fuji” seen on some (wartime?) blades.

One of those really does look just like a low full moon over a valley. Thanks Alex. Never seen that before.

Ray, don’t worry…….I get many days like that🙂

What sword?

Is the mekugi ana on the other side hidden under the wrap? If it was a heavily tapered mekugi the ana could very very small and not obvious?

If at first…….🙂

????

Some Meiji stuff was glued together but??

Unsigned nakago are common for two reasons….. 1. It was never signed in the first place….very common 2. it has been shortened (at the nakago end) and Mei has been lost (also very common) Yours appears to be shortened.

Tsuka maki does look Japanese and seems to have some age. Meiji Tachi “fantasy piece” for eager gaijin at that time?

Meiji 3rd yr 2nd month a day?……a day in Feb 1870? Seems to have a small “spare” kanji in the date?….but I’m no expert so don’t bet on it!

Ray, how about…..

Ray….maybe overlooked to add the images? 🙂

Eg…..

The tsuba subject…rats dressed as humans is actually quite common and very amusing. They are (as here) usually dressed as samurai and carrying naginata, swords, palanquin etc as per real Daimyo processions to Edo. If really lucky you can sometimes (more rarely) discover fox depicted in the same way. Such subjects are quite popular. The fuchi subject could really be any dance or festival celebration although I think the drum depicted is possibly a small gagaku drum.