Bazza

OH YOU HAVE TWO!!! Wonderful. Already on the front is an outline of a fan, suggesting there may be nice things hiding under the paint - at least, I hope its paint and not a shade of rust!!! I also meant to comment that where a rider's feet go, that space would most likely have been filled with sideways wooden slats lacquered red. At least that was what I saw in a pair sometime. Here's looking forward to more revelations??? BaZZa.

Hello Greg, It does indeed appear to be a genuine abumi. If its very heavy, or a magnet sticks to it, its iron. If fairly light it could be lacquered wood. Either way, if you own this get yourself some paint stripper and take that (shudder) gold paint off. If its an iron abumi it could have lovely silver/gold inlays on it. Also, the front edge (or back?) might have a signature. Artisans from Kaga often signed their stirrups. Just google abumi Japan and there you are... BaZZa.

Habaki on my Gassan Sadakatsu katana in Shingunto koshirae. It is 2 ozs of solid silver. BaZZa.

It is also possible that the habaki is not cast aluminium, but "white metal" such as is used to cast engine bearings. It would, I think, have a lower melting point than aluminium??? BaZZa.

I have seen a Shingunto with a "monster tsuba". What do we know about them??? BaZZa.

Geraint, I assure you I am one such. I was only doing it yesterday and wished I'd had my camera with me to capture it. I have some cloud/hamon shots in a folder somewhere I'll put up when I next find them. BaZZa.

Rotsa ruck!!! BaZZa.

Umm, what happens if you photograph them upside down??? Seems an easy experiment... BaZZa.

Thank you Piers and Malcolm. With a little more diligence over the years I might (might!) have been able to find this out for myself. BUT... there was always a sword to chase, a sword book to buy, and other collections to chase down and see. I do have a number of books on prints, but this one wasn't in any of them. I always thought the bloke with the kama at his throat was a sword polisher, so my question is "What is a 'blacksmith' doing with a mere tub of water and not a yakiire trough??" BaZZa.

Though not a print collector I have always liked them and am immensely enjoying this thread. However, 55 years or so ago, in my early days of buying anything associated with swords and the samurai, I bought the print herewith. I have never researched it, but the mie shown in both characters indicates something very serious is going on. I always though the lower figure was a sword polisher who had somehow offended a customer who was about to take a terrible revenge. All these decades later I wonder what the cognoscente can tell us about it. With thanks, BaZZa.

Thank you Kiril for a most engaging challenge. The mumei Shinshinto dumpster seems to be Hosokawa Masachika, and in Koto Mihara... BaZZa.

More hmmmmm - I once saw an impressive Bizen sword in suguha - maybe Osafune Bizen??? BaZZa.

Hmmmm - I once saw a blade very similar to this with the chikei. Mutsu no Kami Tadayoshi, Hizen sandai, though the tateware in the hi seems atypical for the meticulous workmanship of this smith. BaZZa.

Nice yari, Good to see all the bits present. A 3-character name can be a bit of a stumbling block in a mostly 2-character world of names. Thanks again to Moriyama san for a quick response. BaZZa.

Hi Chuck, Nice looking hamon in the first pic. What's the length now after suriage?? And could we please see on overall clean shot (no habaki) straight down on the blade. There are hints of good stuff... BaZZa.

I am really no one to say anything, but... I think it is truly better that the "whole thing" is out in public. I deeply appreciate the explanations given by our learned and steadfast friends above and the Good Ship NMB is in safe and strong hands to chart our course through rough waters. I truly believe we all know 'who is who' in our little Ocean Cruiser. I have been 'here' since 2008 and marvel at the 12 years passed. I have learnt much and continue to do so, but more than that I have another group of good, honest people whom I can call good friends. Good to clear the fronts indeed Peter and I'm sure Paul is not in a seppuku frame of mind... With warmest and sincerest regards, Barry Thomas aka BaZZa.

And yet, looking again at your photo Steven, it seems to me that the koshinogi extends further back toward the nakago. This would be the prime determinant of where the yokote should be if the polisher was up to the job. And without the sword in hand to see the subtleties that is where i will rest my case. BaZZa.

Steven, your yokote is definitely not cosmetic. The mitsugashira clearly shows this - mitsugashira is the place where the yokote, koshinogi and yokote meet. Your koshinogi is well defined where it meets the shinogi and the yokote also originates at that place (I have purposely not used "point"!!). Can we see the nakago and perhaps you have an overall sugata picture?? BaZZa.

I'm about to have a chat with my wife over the dinner table.after doing some rare work outside, to wit, cleaning gutters. I'm encouraged by Guido's example and will open a bottle of Shiraz as dinner cries out for it. I've even been know to walk into the house at dinner time, sniff what's cooking and say "That meal cries out for wine", turn on my heel and drive to the bottle shop to get a Shiraz. My wife is really a nice person - she lets me collect... Another daisho story. This one goes back some 40 years when Alan Harvie used to visit Sydney in Australia as Chief Engineer on the "Monterey" cruise liner. He always had stuff to show us as we did him. On one visit he found in a shop (our local shop!) a wakizashi IDENTICAL in mei and nenki to a katana he had found in San Fran. Were we all green with envy!! Still, green in Japanese connotes first class, as in Green (railway) Car, does it not?? First Class find by Alan. Sniff sniff - dinner is near. Time for the Shraz, a case of which is at my feet... BaZZa.

Where's an AAAAAAGH!! button when you need one!! BaZZa.

I have always known the Musashi tsuba as namako - sea slug, or sea cucumber, and totally Musashi's design in his time. This blog bears particularly and germanely on this thread as it also addresses the fish and gourd tsuba above as a Musashi design: http://ichijoji.blogspot.com/2011/01/musashi-tsuba-and-koshirae.html BaZZa

Roger mate, if you use the Search window at the top rhs of the screen and type in heianjo and press the magnifying glass symbol you will have TONS of information and discussions on such tsuba. Best regards, BaZZa.

Somewhere, maybe on NMB, I read where a collector replaced the steel pins with small diameter bamboo rods glued in place... BaZZa.

Gee Jean C, if I ever knew of Ken's HEIANJO TSUBA link I had forgotten all about it. I enjoyed the read/re-read and I think I can truly say that NMB is the place where there is more "forgotten knowledge" than many of us know about... Sadly, I can't spend all of my waking hours here, though I think my Better Half wishes I would surface for a breath of "outside" life more often... BaZZa.

It's a very big club!! My Darling Son has forbidden his Mother and I to leave our property in the present crisis, preferring instead to leave stuff for us at the front gate. He rang not 10 minutes ago to say there was a case of wine and beer at the front gate. What a thoughtful lad... BaZZa (hic)