The Blacksmith

It doesn't work here either unfortunately.

I think it is Noshu ju Takanobu, but if it so the Taka character is a bit badly written. The date is Showa Jyu shichi nen go gatsu. May 1942.

@A Dunne I quite agree with you on that ! I do not have a problem with copies, I do have a couple in my collection, but they were known to be copies when I bought them, and they were priced accordingly. So copies for me are fine in their place, so long as they are sold and bought as much.

That's the same with Ebay, I see something that isn't right, I will write and let the seller know what and why. Most sellers have absolutely no idea about socket bayonets, and they mostly look the same to the inexperienced, which I totally understand. Some sellers write and thank me and alter the listing accordingly.or pull the whole listing.. Others simply ignore it, and me, and continue with their wrong description and listing and full well knowing that the item is wrong. There are a couple of items for sale at present that I mentioned to a seller a couple of months back, no reply and the listings are still, and incorrectly, up. Both are fakes, replicas, copies call them what you will, but being sold as genuine. Fortunately, nobody has been fooled........yet.

Well to be honest Adrian, I think it is a fake. There are a couple of things that just don't seem right about it, and it is not one that I would want, unless it was bought as a copy. The seeming flaws with it you will find in this thread, but the kissaki and the en of the hi are the obvious ones to start with. The new paint job on the scabbard, and the new sword knot do not help it either. For my money, I'd be pleased you missed this one. I'll be very interested to hear what other, far more knowledgable folks here think.

Sam @Scogg This is a fantastic thread. So much to learn from it, so a big, big thanks to all who have contributed! Just a thought, the sword with the defaced numbers on the blade, could that have been done by the soldier prior to surrendering it, so that there was no way to trace it back to him? Officers often did this with their mon on their swords prior to surrendering them, so I wondered if this might be something similar? I do not know if there was ever a list of who had what numbered sword, but it was just a thought.

Thank you John, that is completely new to me, though I do seem to remember somewhere in the empty cavern of my mind the bit about shi and death being similar and thus sometimes avoided. I didn't know about ku though. Thank you for the link.

Thank you for that Joe! I have never seen a date written quite like this before. Very interesting. I have only come across the character shi written in the more normal fashion, 四 it certainly looks to be Kanehiro to me too.

I believe that you may be right Mark. Mine was water tempered, not oil tempered, which, though it had no visible hada as such, I thought to be a sign of a hand forged blade. The obviously oil tempered sword that I bought at the same time, Shin-Gunto signed Mitsutame, was a more machine made blade and obviously oil tempered.

Perhaps it is a better bet to just stick with the known dealers Adrian, at least until you have a sound knowledge of what to look for. Yes, you will pay that bit extra perhaps, but no hassle, no fuss, no extras ( which are themselves costly!, buyers premium, plus tax etc.), and shipping from auction houses can be a nightmare too, and extremely expensive! I did buy a bayonet at an auction house in the UK a couple of years back, the cost of shipping was almost the same as the item, over £100! A friend kindly collected it for me, and sent it here, cost £12.50! I almost never buy at auction now, I much prefer to go to a dealer. Also, with a known dealer you have a guarantee of authenticity and money back, unless an item is sold as a replica or is a doubtful piece, but then they will be priced accordingly anyway. As for sending items, yes that too can be a nightmare, though many dealers ship all over the world with no problems. Some dealers though will not post to an address within the EEC, some wont send it out of the EEC, some wont even send it within the Uk. I sometimes have problems getting items sent here (Norway), until I mention that we are not in the EEC, that sometimes helps. I tried to buy a book on Amazon Canada the other day, they do not ship to Norway! My response from the dealer when asked why, was met with 'we don't know'. Jeeez, its a refernce book, not a machine gun. They then said could I 'buy it from Amazon UK or Germany', yes, but at four or five times the price. I thought about asking someone on the forum if it could be sent there and then forwarded, but decided if the shop do not want the business, then thet can keep it anyway. I used to buy quite a few bayonets from a dealer in Ireland, but he unfortunately gave up, partly due to ill health, and mainly due to problems he had posting post Brexit, it just became a nightmare for him and not worth the hassle.

Pierced tsuba, which is always a good sign! My first 'real' Japanese sword, not counting type 95, was an Ido Hiromitsu, in gunzoku koshirae with a leather cover on the wooden saya. The mounts were bamboo leaves. These same mounts are illustrated on page 47, plate 63 (centre) of Military Swords of Japan, 1868-1945, by Fuller and Gregory.

Thank you for that Sam. We have certainly all seen much, much worse blades than this one, so again, well done. On page 30 of Military Swords of Japan 1868-1945, by Fuller & Gregory, it mentions this type of ishizuki, and says that they are quite rare . I wonder of something like jewellers rouge might possibly take some of the palm print off, while not damaging the surface of the blade. I have also heard that Duraglit works quite well, though have never tried it. As regards the habaki / saya question, well my money would on the habaki being a replacement, it doesn't seem to fit the blade either.

I saw a couple very similar, but a little better condition to the one featured, and they were £950 each (ca.$1250 US). They were in the UK. It certainly pays to shop around a bit!

I would have to answer BOTH ! A craftsman in that he is actually making something by hand using years of knowledge and skill, but an artist in as much as he is free to manipulate the metal and shape it to achieve HIS desired effect. The hada, sugata and hamon etc. is down to his artistic ideas. So I do not think that you can differentiate the two, not in this instance.

I cannot answer for Ireland of course, but here for instance, such items are very rare, so we have to look abroad and pay the extra. Most of my collection, admittedly they are not Japanese swords, has been sourced from abroad. If only I could find them locally!

The ebay link doesn't work for me. But anyway, it is agood thing that it has finally found a good and loving home at last! Hope that we will see picture of the entire sword.

Not General Yamashita I must admit, but another sword purported to have belonged to another famous general, this time Lt. General Masaharu Homma, but on what real evidence?? Sword of Lt. General Masaharu Homma............

Would that also not mean that is was perhaps a wakizashi?

That is an unusually short tsuka On Tojo's sword? I presume it is a katana and not a wakizashi?

@Steves87 Here is the whole entry for this lot. It is a stunning piece isn't it. @Brian, I am sorry for the size of these images. I do not have a scanner at present, and couldn't resize them, so this was the only I could do it. I can e mail them to you and you can resize them if you wish. sorry about that.

I was looking through an old Sotheby's New York catalogue of the sale of the late Charles A. Greenfield. The sale was on 25th March 1998. It comprised of 133 lots of exquisite inro. The final lot was a beautiful Inro by Shibata Zeshin 1807-1891. Unfortunately, the reverse is not shown, rather surprisingly as this was the star lot. However, it featured a kozuka and fuchi in shibuichi, which judging from the tsuba on the front, I would love to have seen. The front featured this yasuchika tsuba. The estimate was $40.000-$50.000

The last three kanji read: Kami Mune Shige, but the first two are unfortunately too blurred for me to read properly. maybe someone with better kanji can read them. But if you are going to post pictures and questions like this, please make sure that the photos are crisp and clear. This is important, especially with kanji. Welcome to the forum by the way

@John C This was many years ago. I bought them from Michael Dean at Nihon Token, which was a shop just by the British Museum. I often used to pop in to see Michael, being interested in Japan as I am. They were admittedly lesser quality ones. IIRC they were about the £100 to £129 each range, though Mike had netsuke that were in the £1000's even then, and this was back in the early 80's! Funny enough, the last time that I met Mike was in Islington, and he was in a shop in the Mall, looking at netsuke! To put the price into perspective, at that time you could buy a good Shin-Gunto katana for about £175-£200. I did buy two from Mike, an absolutely stunning Asano kanezane in shin-Gunto mounts, and a Nambokucho tachi, again in Shin-Gunto mounts. The Kanezane was possibly the most beautiful blade I have ever owned, that cost £250, and I really wish that I had kept it. The o suriage tachi was £400. Nihon Token was a little oasis and I used to love going there.

Is the catlogue still uploaded, all I get is a blank page. I love netsuke, but have only ever owned a couple of them. In the British Museum in London is a fabulous example. As I recall it is either a walnut or peach stone, carved in wood, and inside the nut/stone are two men playing Go. It is fabulous!

@MattBrandon Welcome to the forum For what it is worth, I had a Shin-Gunto dated March 1943 (Showa Ju Hachi Nen San Gatsu), which had three megugi ana. The difference was that on the blade that I had all the holes were quite close together, which is a bit unusual for such a late blade. If the chuso doesn't fit, I am sure that you can either sell it on the for sale page here on the forum, or dare I say it, flea bay. As regards polishing, well, it would as I am sure that you know, cost a great deal to have polished, which must be done by a good professional, and take a lot of time to accomplish and get back. Possibly, as it was a bring back, some of these marks were from its service life, and if they are not too serious I would personally leave them, When polished you would also need either shira saya, or probably to replace or at least clean thoroughly the wooden saya linings, as dirty ones may have grit and oil etc stuck to them which could mar a new polish almost immediately. Removing the linings is worth it though, as there may be additional information written on them. The blade that I mentioned earlier ( mei: Oite Noshu Ju Katsuyama Yakushi Sanrinka Yoshimich kore wo tsukuru ) had a profuse amout of writing on the scabbard lining, which I deeply regret I never photographed or translated. Enjoy your sword, it looks a nice one.