The Blacksmith

I usually log in on nihontomessageboard.com, but this hasn't worked for me since Friday. I have just logged via militaria.co.za. I thought that the board was down, but thankfully not, but nihontomessageboard.com doesn't work for me now.

I had a katana with the same mon, and which was also embossed on the leather combat cover of the saya. No doubt used by several families, Victor Harris at the British Museum suggested that it was possibly the Sakai family mon. The sword that I had had a blade signed by Asano Kanezane complete with his kakihan. I do not recall if the blade was dated unfortunately. However, the blade though bearing his mei, I do not think was made by Kanezane, I think it was actually made by one of his students. I have had a couple of really beautiful blades by Kanezane, and this wasn't one of them.

It is certainly a nightmare Colin! But the really stupid thing is that some UK dealers are able to ship absolutely anywhere, some will only ship within the Uk, some won't ship at all, and others will only ship outside of the EU ! I have had a nightmare week trying to buy items, and had all these scenarios and barriers, all in one week! I jokingly said I'd stop collecting edged weapons and collect coins instead. That came back to bite me, as I found two commemorative coins that I wanted from 1915, only for the dealer to tell me that he couldn't ship within the EU! Fortunately, in this case it worked in my favour as I was able to point out that Norway isn't in the EU, so they are on their way. But I have missed out on an extremely rare bayonet that I tried to buy in France. As you say, a nightmare, in all directions! Good luck Jason. The Republic is probably a bit more enlightened than the UK post office etc., so you may be in luck.

I am certainly no expert, and extremely rusty anyway, but my reading of this mei is Nobukuni YoshiShige. Hopefully, I am correct, but then again................?

If not a clearer picture, then perhaps an oshigata may be clearer?

If you enlarge the picture greatly, I think it shows sunagashi too?

Unfortunately not, it would have been interesting if it had been!

John said that one of the owners made him feel extremely uneasy around him. It is an absolutely beautiful collection though.

As a fellow metalworker Marjus, I applaud your skill, it is awesome. I have often thought about trying my hand at okimono, but so haven't done so. I rememeber Mike Dean showing me a beautiful Myochin Munesuke crab, it was simply exquisite. he also showed me a beetle, which when you peeleed back the shell, two lacquer wings popped out! Again, absoluteley exquisite. I did see the collection at Chiddingstone, but was overawed it must be said by the armour! John Anderson told me that when he was organising the armour gallery, he felt every awkward and uneasy staying there, and had a chair up against the door!

As Ed has said, it looks much better in the later picture....................but, my feeeling is that it is a later casting, taken from an original and altered. Several things don't seem to add up to me. The lack of crispness in the casting. Not proof of any sort, but a classic sign when you take a copy from an original, you usually lose a little bit of the crisp detail. The hitsu ana has what appears to be a drill mark in the bottom right hand corner. Perhaps it was slightly misplaced and then stopped and the hole then filed out. The burrs on both sides of the round hole are puzzling me too, and I cannot quite figure out why. Finally, the colour, which whilst looking much better in the last photograph, still appears to be a bit wrong to me, though the colours do vary a bit on originals it must be said. To my mind too many red flags make me think that it is a copy, though perhaps an old one. My only explanation for the round hole is that this was made in the original pattern for the casting mould to save time, and then the hole would be quickly filed out to a rectangle to a size and shape as required when assembled on a sword. This would be a quick job, and would account for the various differences in the shape of the holes. So, if that is the case, two possibilities spring to mind, either the original tsuba that this was copied from was an unfinished casting, or, that this is an original unfinished tsuba and presumably a late one, hence the slight lack of detail. Hope you are all still awake, and that this makes some sense.........

Is it just me, or does the tsuba not seem to have the crispness of the casting that we would normally expect?

I would definitely class this as a wakizashi. And a rather nice and decent one.

Thank you Bruce. I had wondered about officers using civilian mounted katana in combat, other than the so called tank officers wazizashi that we sometimes see. That said, I did have, as mentioned elsewhere, an Echizen Ju Harima no Daijo Shigetaka katana that was in civilian mounts that belonged to the officer commanding a prisoner of war camp during WWII. Thanks again.

@Bruce Pennington Bruce, I haven't as yet found the thread with the tsuba with the bamboo motif, but if you look at Military Swords of Japan 1869-1945, it is shown on page 47 in the centre. The sword that I had, was signed Ido Hiromitsu saku. I do not honestly remember if it was dated too. The tsuka had black tsuka ito and the fuchi and kashira matched the tsuba. The same was rather poor quality as I recall. The wooden saya had a leather combat cover. IIRC, there was also a simple sarute. A quick question here, would this be a gunzoku sword, or could an officer elect to take what is basically a civilian katana into combat instead of the standard shin-gunto katana? Sorry that I couldn't, so far, find that thread on the forum, but I will! NB. Going back a bit through this thread, I just noticed that Ohmura shows these fittings on his page, third weapons down!

Bruce, I know that similar koshirae have been mentioned on the forum before. I will try and find a link for them as I do not have pictures of mine unfortunatley.

Not exactly matching, but similar, mine had a bamboo motive, and matching fuchi kashira. The blade on mine was signed Ido Hiro Mitsu saku. Showa.

Likewise Bruce, the effort involved in tooling up must be astounding. I have even seen fake WWII No.4 'Spike' bayonets, made in China or India I suppose, complete with all the relevant markings. These even have the tapered steel MK.I scabbards, which were difficult and expensive to produce during the war, which resulted in a tubular steel scabbard being introduced instead. The fakes I have seen for less than $50, just about the same cost as an original! It doesn't make sense, though someone obviously thinks it does.

No problems for me with either Chrome or Edge, all was visible.

Totally agree with bruce's post, nevr say never! Regardin you statment about fakes, I cant agree with this. fakes and copies can in themselves be extremelyinteresting, both to collect and to study, but of coures they must be kept as such and not mixed up with the originals. I have some very interesting bayonets in mycollection, bougt as fakes thankfully, and they are a very interesting adjunct to my main collection. I have also had nazi daggers, both genuine and fakes, again, the fakes are in themselves extremely interesting providing they are bought as such, or at least with that probabilty. BTW. for what it is worth, the saya at least looks genuine to me, so who knows, maybe, just maybe...............................

Please don't touch it. Definitely to be left alone. as it is a valuable relic of history, and should be left as it is IMHO.

It certanly has that apperance Brian, though it is rather sweet isnt it!

But Kev, I think that perhaps one should simply forget the mei and simply think of the blade as mumei, then the simple question is, is the blade then, as it stands, worth the money? If it is, then nobody loses out. That said, I must admith that them getting the smith wrong is very annoying and they should be more carful, but as ever with such things, caveat emptor. I bought a Tsuta Sukehiro wakizashi blade years ago, Obviously, it wasn't by Sukehiro, even with my limited knowledge, but the blade was simply gorgeous, so I was very happy to buy it. Some would decry the blade as it was gimei, but the blade was fantastic workmanship and in perfect polish, so to me, well worth the £700 that it cost me.

Thank you Benjamin, I'll try and do that! Something else that occurred to me was that with WWII swords, I wasn't woried about handling them, carefully of course! Some of the prettier swords with for example Goto fittings with gold, shakudo, shibuichi etc, actually scared me to pick them up and look at them, The WWII weapons were a little more robust and more of a pleasure, for me at anyrate, to handle, examne and care for. Interesting that as you say, very soon they will also be classed as antiques!

Very good question Benjamin, For myself, though it was far too many years ago when I collected Japanese antiques, there were certan things that motivated me........ I had collected edged weapons since I was a very small boy, and was always captivated by all things Japanese, especially the swords, which even though I knew very little about them at first, I knew that they were special. When I eventually started collecting them, they were really an adjunct to my general collection of swords, knives and bayonets, but the bug quickly consumed me! Probably possessed is a better word that consumed!. I quickly became obsessed with all things Japanese and sold my other collections to concentrate of Japan. Though I had several old swords and blades, my main focus was on swords from World War II. of which I had about thirty or so. The thought that a sword, possibly a treasured ancestral blade, still had a place in modern warfare fascinated me, and this was where I devoted most of my efforts to collecting. Of the World War II swords with older blades I had, a nice Osafune Sukesada, a Harima no Daijo Shigetaka, and an o suriage nambokucho tachi , with kiri komi. The thought that these ancient swords were still reverred and thought important on a modern battlefield was fascinating. I was already fascinated by Japanese tradition, culture and history, so learning about the swords and armour was immensely interesting. I was fortunate to know Ron Gregory, Basil Robinson, though only through frequent correspondence undfortunately. Ron I would always send oshigata whenever I acquired a new sword. Fortunately, however,I got to know the late Victor Harris at the british Museum quite well, and John Anderson, whose collection of Japanese armour had to be seen to be believed! So with their help and guidence, study and appreciation of the subject came quite naturally. Regretably, kno longer have that collection, but tmy interest in all things Japanese has never been far away, and hopefully, a sword or two, or three.... will before long once again be in my collection. Apologies for any spelling mistakes, but I have problems with my eyesight at present and cannot read or writ properly! Russ

I am pleased that I was not the only one that immediately thought of the top part of an NCO's blade. That said, the bohi seems to end a bit too far from the kissaki for that possibly? (We know what the kissaki is, but it the actual pointed tip of the blade still called the kissaki??). I do not think that the seppas is stamped, it seems a bit irregular for that IMHO. but it certainly doesn't look to have any age to it !