SwordGuyJoe

David is right - most star stamped blades that I have seen also bear a small armory stamp on the nakago mune. These are gendaito. For those that have a Seki stamp are showato. There are levels of non-traditional, but non-traditional is what they are.

Very common.

Via Paul - About a 6 months when we agreed to do the work. Of course this is depending on work being done by other craftsmen. I am getting another botan-yujo double gold-foil habaki with Miyashita-sensei (mukansa habaki-shi) for all of my blades and he is pretty stacked up, so I may have a 1-2 year wait.

I actually have a few blades with Abe sensei. Looking forward to the results!

Good luck bud!

It’s genuine though the habaki is a bit off putting. The sword is by yasumoto norimitsu. He made one of the most impressive swords I ever owned. It wound up on yakiba.com (Ed Marshall’s site). Take a look, I’m sure you’ll find it. Any pics of the blade itself?

Thanks Stephen. It doesn’t get any better than this. Keisho mei Shigetsugu are incredibly difficult to find and this is an exceptional example.

Okay - last chance, last discount. $5,000.

Yup. Nice tanto. You don’t see many early tanto from Horii Toshihide/Hideaki/Kaneaki.

Does the spine of the nakago have a very distinct diagonal file mark towards the Mune machi? If so, then the blade is almost surely shoshin, as this is a kantei point for the Horii group.

LOL - Thanks Jean.

Thanks Brian. It is a really nice blade, historically significant, by one of the most important gendai smiths, papered, with nice aikuchi koshirae. What’s not to like? Is it cheap? No. Nothing by this Smith is cheap. By price vs. value is more than there. List price on Seiyudo was 700,000. While, full disclosure, I didn’t pay full fare, I certainly didn’t get a $1,500 discount. Also compare to a recent tanto sold on Aoi for over $8k. Granted it had horimono and a th rated aikuchi koshirae that drove the cost, but also illustrares that I’m not asking a bonkers price here (for those of you that don’t follow the market as closely as I do - which, why would you ).

$5,500, plus pp, plus shipping. Deal ends Sunday. If it doesn’t go by that time, I’ll put it back in the safe. Don’t miss this chance for a keisho mei blade.

Here is your guy. From Markus’ index: Kanehisa (兼久), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – „Kanehisa“ (兼久), civilian name „Ōsawa Kan´ichi“ (大沢勘一), born am January 2nd 1915, student of Kojima Kanemichi (小島兼道), he worked as guntō smith and died on July 7th 1945

+1 for Shinto- given the lack of sori, I’d say Kanbun Shinto.

From Sesko's index: Ujifusa (氏房), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – „Ujifusa“ (氏房), civilian name „Shinoda Hiroshi“ (篠田寛), born May 20th 1912, student of Watanabe Kanenaga (渡辺兼永) and Katō Jumyō (加藤寿命), he worked as guntō smith

Likely Shinoda Ujifusa (篠田氏房).

Most WW2 blades are signed Tachi mei, as indicated, when mounted for military service, they were worn as Tachi. This doesn’t mean that there are no katana mei blades from WW2. There was the Iai and marshal arts markets, as well as special order blades. But those knowingly being created for the military will be signed Tachi mei.

I don’t see Kanetoshi or Kanehide. I could be wrong, but what immediately comes to mind is Kaneyuki (兼幸) saku kore.

From sesko’s Index: Kaneyoshi (包義), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – „Kaneyoshi“ (包義), civilian name „Kotani Yoshizō“ (小谷義三), he worked as guntō smith and died April 14th 1950, posthumous Buddhist name „Hyakuren´in Hōgi“ (百錬院包義)

Looks more like Kanesumi to me 兼住.

Location added. https://www.jsc-mw.com/meetingsandevents

Lol - agree to disagree then. I’m not going to risk wasting a polish for a $300 shirasaya or a $300 habaki, but I understand that others will.

But I didn’t polish it

What would you call this, if not rust?