The Blacksmith

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.

Yes it certainly looks like it, and not even a good one! Very strange welding techniques they had in the Edo period, it must be extremely rare, as I have never seen this before!

PM sent regarding book Nr. 8 Japanese Swords and Armour by Paul Martin.

Kanemori seems to be the mei, and the date is 'showa juhachi nen', 1943. Pictures like this should be shown with the point uppermost so that the mei can be read vertically. Also, best shown against a black background.

Site trouble today too. I haven't been able to look in for some six hours this afternoon.

Regarding the Mon, I had a katana with this mon on it, and the late Vic Harris at the British Museum ID'd it as the mon of the Sakai family, though this may well have been used by other families as well. As regards the armour, it is a great study piece, and while restoring it you will learn a tremendous amount for use in future. Years back I knew John Anderson and his fabulous collection, and as John said to me, 'Don't think that all these were in this condition when I got them, many certainly weren't ! He had a garage full of armour awaiting restoration. Enjoy your armour!

Nice sword! Unfortunately I have only just seen this listing. Just to add to Scoggs earlier post regarding these copper handled NCO swords and the lack of a mekugi , the other usual givaway on fakes or mismatched scabbards and swords is the ishizuke (chape) on end of the saya. These rare copper hilted ones didn't have the ishizuke, simply a rounded end to the saya, as is clearly shown in the original post. Does anybody know of any exceptions to this ?

@Conway Thank you very much for posting those images. As I mentioned earlier, the two that I owned and the third that I had in my possession were all very different. One I wish that I had been able to obtain, and one that I really wish that I had kept! The last mentioned blade was full of tobi-yaki. Thank you again.

Sorry I cannot help with the translation, but could I ask....... is it possible to get a clear picture or two of the whole blade please? I have had two Kanezane katana, and a third in my possession for a while, and all three were totally different. As I understand it, the thinking is that several smiths or senior students were allowed to use his signature and stamp, which would account for the vast differences in the blades that I have had.

@eternal_newbie If one had to ascribe a hada pattern to it, I would call it 'camouflage'!

Not hada, simply a rather loose etched decorative pattern I think.

Gerry, I am really happy for you that your parcel has arrived at last. That is excellent news to hear. Do enjoy your new acquisition

This is a great place to start, welcome to the forum! A library will be absolutely required, and a good book to start with is this one: The other thing that I would suggest, is look in the Nihonto info section at the top of this page here under the forum banner, there is a glossary there and I would suggest trying to learn the various terms used in relation to nihonto, at least try and learn as many as you can, they can easily be cross referenced with the above book. this will make the subject a bit more accessible and easier to understand, as there is a whole vocabulary of terms that are used when talking about Japanese blades. Perhaps try and learn a few different terms each day. Have fun with this absolutely fascinating hobby!

Other than the above possibilty, any mercury used in the various treatments and decoration when the tsuba was decorated may perhaps be very slightly radioactive.

If it was done with intent to deceive, then it could be done with a machine, and the finished with a chisel to produce the tagane no makura.

I used to buy bayonets from a dealer in Ireland, and he has now sadly given up, and one of the reasons that he did so was too many problems with sending items both in and out of the country. The original post is nearly a year ago, so I wonder how things turned out?

I wish you luck Gerry, and I'll keep everything crossed that it turns up. All the avenues mentioned previously are well worth tyring, leave no stone unturned. A few years back I had an extremely rare bayonet go missing on route from Ireland. Proof of postage, numbers you name it, no trace..... Suddenly, some seven weeks later it suddenly turns up safe 'n' sound! IIRC customs had been sitting on it all the time. This is the only time I have had any problems, fortunately, with the right outcome. I hope for the same success with your sword.

For what it is worth, I also read it as Katsumasa.

Brian, whilst I would generally agree with you on this, though they can be a bit stubborn occassionally, I did once eventually remove a tsuka for a Japanese friend who had obtained a Nodachi. The Tsuka was an absolute bi*ch to remove and took ages and ages and a lot of careful effort. It wasn't, I must admit, helped by the fact that the tsuba was covered in very thin black leather, so I needed to be extra careful. The leather covered tsuba was something that I had never seen before, or since that I can recall. It was just the rust on the nakago holding the tsuka very firm, plus of course in this case, the tsuka being extra long didn't help! And yes, it does indeed look like a nice and interesting sword!

What an absolutely fantastic app, thank you so much for your time and efforts on our behalf. Even though I am sadly not in the market for buying, there is just so much to take in here and drool over. It is an amazing resource indeed. Thank you Hoshi. Darcy would be extremely proud indeed!

Awesome display! I would have loved to have seen it. What is the tachi blade in the third image please? I am immediately drawn to that. Thank you for posting the pictures Thomas.

I think that their prices are well justified...............................................after all it must take ages to think up and then type up all those lengthy descriptions, I mean if they were offering a simple British 1907 SMLE bayonet they would probably type up the entire history of the First World War!

My apologies for this as it is a slight deviation, but following on from my earlier post regarding the 'perfumed' blade and myths of days gone by.......... I read somewhere, I don't recall where though, that the Japanese say that the weather changes when one draws a sword indoors. perhaps the smell of choji indoors makes the Japanese think of a certain season? Perhaps Piers or someone may have heard of this? The other thing that I remembered was a dealer friend of mine shivered when she went past my stall and saw the Japanese swords on my table. I asked her what was wrong and she said that the Japanese wrapped curses into the hilt binding. Well, I had never heard of this, so I asked just about everybody I that knew involved with nihonto, and David Parker at Armada Antiques eventually came up with the answer. Going back to the late 19th and early 20th century, when people were beginning to start collecting Japanese sword furniture, when they cut off the tsuka ito to free the kashira and menuki, small pieces of paper fell out (the packing for the tsuka ito), but as few people could actually read Japanese it was thought that they were curses. They were in fact bits of old prints and news letters etc, just old paper, but the collectors of the day didn't know that. Maybe we could start a thread if anybody has any other old fables and myths regarding nihonto? Incidentally, it was David Parker that I bought the Kunitoshi from, the grand price then (ca. 1981-82) was £175 ! I wish we could buy them for that price now! Apologies for going off topic, but thought this might be of some interest......at least to someone....

Many moons ago, when collecting nihonto was almost unheard of and in its infancy some people thought that some blades were perfumed. Later they found out that it was the choji oil than gave the blade its aroma. The smell seems to linger a bit more on some blades than on others, and the Kunitoshi was one of those blades. There are many myths that stem from this period. There is a section in Alfred Dobrées Japanese Sword Blades , which was originally printed in 1905.