Jonas Ne

8 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

No, I don't think so. Probably the finger stains have been polished away in the meantime. But more likely that people in the past knew that touching a blade is not only bad for the steel but also an insult against its owner. There was more knowledge about handling blades correctly, and there was more respect, I believe.

During the appreciation of nihonto this is true. However there are many kenjutsu kata that practice touching the blade in some way with you hands. Maybe a samurai using one of these techniques died and a blade was scavenged?

On 3/19/2024 at 8:24 AM, Bruce Pennington said:

Second time I have heard such a story.  Could be true considering the number of planes the Japanese sent after ships.  It is quite nice looking!

 

Be sure to avoid touching the blade with fingers.  The skin oils can make permanent stains in the steel.  I have a Type 95 NCO with permanent prints from some previous owner.

On the note of fingerprints etching stains into the steel. I suppose it would be hard to know, but has anyone ever found a nihonto with an ancient person's fingerprints on the blade? 

3 hours ago, Rivkin said:

Think kasane, work consistent... However its quite possibly Muromachi generation. First generation has very fine and prominent masame, nice jigane.

I'm a super amateur at this so what I'm saying may be completely incorrect but imma give it a shot. When looking very closely at the blade under magnification and the naked eye, towards the HA (which appears more in polish) I see swirls and almost circular traits that resemble an Itame hada. I read that Itame is a mixture between masame and mokume. Am I observing incorrectly? If not what would that mean for the blade? It appears very prominent in the correct lighting and doesn't seem to be lifted from the steel as an oil stain I imagine would be.

Today I received the Tanto purchased from Mark that he posted in a previous thread. Here are some of the better pictures that I could take of the blade. I plan on submitting the blade to the upcoming NTHK shinsa. There is some surface rust along the corner of the mune and the signature is really hard for me to see unless in perfect lighting which I tried to capture here. I havent done any measuring yet but will update the thread as soon as I do so. 

On another note, is this blade in a good enough polish to submit to a shinsa? I have never submitting a blade before and am not familiar with the process. In the meantime I will be doing As much research into the blade as I can in my freetime.

21 minutes ago, ROKUJURO said:

It seems it is one of the cheap TANTO that were made for the war. They are often called 'pilot TANTO' or 'SEPPUKU TANTO'. They look quite nice when in good polish as yours is, but the NAKAGO is very crude, compared with that of a carefully made TANTO of the SAMURAI era. 

Anyhow, a nice find and a good story!

There is probably no KOSHIRAE but a simple SHIRA SAYA?  

Yep, it came in Shira-saya with a wooden habaki attached to the shira-saya. As you said the nakago seems poorly shapen and the file marks also seem almost random (where they can be seen).

I recently purchased this tanto at a garage sale. The seller is the son of a WWII medic and his father told him the story of how he obtained it. I took this with a grain of salt but nonetheless interesting. During an air attack on US ships a Japanese pilot was shot down and crashed onto the deck of US ship. The pilot was still alive when found with the tanto in his stomach. He later died of the injuries and the sellers dad took this home. It looked authentic (was covered in thick old oil) so i bought it for 100$ took it home and here it is cleaned up.

6 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

Jonas,

I am happy for you that the KISSAKI is not damaged. For most collectors the KISSAKI is "the face" of a sword blade!

26 cm are about 10 inches. I am assuming you were meaning to write inches.

Correct 😂, I did mean inches not cm thank you.

3 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

Jonas,

it is a SURIAGE (= shortened) blade, which means it was considerably longer originally. The SORI is not at all shallow, compared for example with a KANBUN SHINTO blade. The condition is something that will be of concern in the future. The blade is out of polish, but it seems to be quite tired, so more material loss is probably not doing it any good. The KISSAKI seems to have a major KIZU which probably cannot be removed. But we would need better photos to be sure.

So the question may be allowed what you see in that sword? A lot depends on what you paid for it and what your expectations are.

There are no openings or blisters on the KISSAKI, it is just the manner in which I took the photo that makes it appear as such combined with the surface scratches. I am aware the blade is somewhat tired and just wanted a sword that was of modern papers to research and admire until I can afford to move on to more prestigious blades. The only reason I commented on the length is that I could not find a single blade to have been shortened to that extent from this school. Most were around 26cm or longer which I thought to be somewhat strange. I paid only 1200 for the blade. 

My first Hozon papered Katana. I thought it was very interesting how short the blade is and how shallow the sori is. The sori is only 2.1cm and the blade happens to only be 62.4 cm long. When looking into the blade I found that most blades attributed to Naminohira were munch longer than this, so this is a rather short katana. It has some minor flaws along the blade and is out of polish, but none the less I think a great first papered sword.

I purchased this tanto purely for the blade. But it had a mei and I was wondering if the mei was authentic or not. I tried researching the smith which appears to be Nobuyoshi. But I couldnt find any signatures on tanto. I searched the sword smith index for Nobuyoshi and found a few smiths that signed Nobuyoshi but no photo examples. Anyways, wondering if you all had any opinions on its authenticity! Thanks so much again. 

Just out of curiosity, does anyone have an opinion on if the signature is gimei? I tried researching the signature to not much avail. I believe the signature is Nuboyoshi?

My first tanto! It has a bit of ware along the mune. It was only 300$ so I would not be surprised if the signature was inauthentic. Nonetheless, happy I got my first tanto.

Can someone please translate this Mei for me, thank you!

1 hour ago, Tensho said:

Guys a whack job. He blew up on me after I called him out on several blades he bought from komonjo that he re-polished(but said they were professionally done in Japan) and a few "yari" that were actually rifle bayonets that he wouldn't show the nakago on or the stampings of one that that said U.S(Also sold on ebay by komonjo)

 

No one on SBG seems to give a crap about what he does. He very obviously misleads people. 

May I ask who Komonjo is? I see that name/term thrown around every once in a while and it never seems to be in a positive light.

After looking into it a little deeper, after I found an issue with one of his previous sales, I found that he is actually https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/profile/5962-sunny/ and the only presence I could find from him is a rather negative thread that actually ended in a temporary sale ban. Maybe this was a one-off incident, if so does anyone have any positive things to say about this seller?

9 minutes ago, Stephen said:

Not joining to find out does he have a website?

He does not have a website as far as I can find. He's been a member since 2021 with around 271 postings, all posts to do with sales and some general conversation about nihonto. 

Hello everyone, https://sbg-sword-fo...orums.net/user/54419 (Ichimonji) has a Hozon wakizashi I have been discussing purchasing. He said he was willing to lower the price with a direct wire but this obviously set off alarms in my head. Just reaching out here on the forum to see if anyone has done business with him in the past and can verify he is an honest and trusted seller.
Thanks guys!

Type 98 Gunto
Mei: Seki Hibino Kinmichi (seki stamped)
Age: 1940's Showato 
Koshirae: Decent condition type 98 mountings
Polish: decent wartime polish
Flaws: Tsuba is slightly loose, small dent in the bottom of the saya. Blade shows general signs of wear with very small "dings" along the mune of unknown origin. 
Price: $1450 USD 
Payment method: Zelle/Paypal
Shipping: US only 
Photos: https://drive.google...gfnWkvMs?usp=sharing

On 10/22/2023 at 4:41 PM, mecox said:

Jonas, looks to be  this smith from Gifu:  “Kinmichi” (金道), real name Hibino Ichiji (日比野一二), born May 6th 1917, he worked as guntō smith and died August 20th 1945, real name Hibino Ichiji   (日比野一二) and he was from Oyama, Tomida-mura in Gifu.   Hibino is an unusual family name.   Note 金道 can also be read as Kanemichi.   He registered as a Seki swordsmith in 1942 (Showa 17) September 10.  There is an example sword by him (at right) listed by Meirin Sangyo Co Ltd, which is dated Showa 18 (1943) September and signed ni ji mei  "Kinmich"  and their note includes "On August 6, Showa 20, he took responsibility for the defeat of Japan and judged himself on August 8 ...".  The meaning being he committed seppuku.  However the dates listed disagree, if he "died"  August 20 1945, and was born May 1917 he would have been 28  (the surrender of Japan was announced by Emperor Hirohito on August 15, 1945). 

Another example from Yahoo Auctions (3 from left), no date.  No. 2 is from Rick Stein site.

 

                 

 

do you mind If I use the information you provided in the sale of this sword?

4 hours ago, DTM72 said:

If that is the case, I would complain to eBay that they are selling product that they do not own. Many facebook and other websites are requiring sellers to show a date and username on one of the photos to prove ownership.

 

Sorry for the loss.

I have myself sent a report to ebay. I believe you can report listings against TOS without having purchased an item from the seller as well. If any of you have the spare time to report the seller yourselves please do, it will likely save a lot of amateur collectors such as myself some time processing refunds from bad business sellers. 
Thank you :D

4 hours ago, Tensho said:

I would leave appropriate feedback. They sent me an offer on an item I was watching, got a notification and accepted it. Didn't even have time to pay when it was canceled saying it was an error. 

 

Offering a "large discount" on another item sounds very much like another eBay seller. I'd believe it when I see it. 

Agreed, their refund has still not been processed and now seeing that they are attempting to sell items they do not own and or are selling these items at auction on multiple websites and taking the "high bid". I don't recommend purchasing anything form this seller.

Thanks everyone for the feedback and help!

3 hours ago, Alex A said:

Hey Jonas, did you end up buying that book i recommended?., expect not

 

You be better reading that, rather than buying something on Ebay and expecting folks here to tell you whether you been scammed or not.

 

Ridiculous.

12 hours ago, Jonas Ne said:

ought the sword was HOZO

I could not buy the copy you referred to me as it was for UK only (at least when I clicked on the link) I did order another copy elsewhere but it has yet to arrive. Also, there's no need to be rude sir. I am a new collector and only 20 with limited funds and just enjoy collecting Japanese antiques and sharing cool things with people on the forum. No need to act a snob at me for not being a devout and dedicated collector, if this post somehow offended you then don't waste your time responding much less being hostile. There are many kind folks here just discussing a hobby and having fun. Not to mention this post further helps new collectors who shop at online auctions avoid purchasing form bad business practice sellers. Stop being rude and driving away new members of the community, all this does is give the image that the Nihonto community is snobby.

CONCLUDED

The manager emailed me saying they made a clerical error, forgetting a 0 on the listing of the sword. Sadly they wont sell the sword for that price but positively they have offered a refund and a large discount on any other swords they are currently selling.

8 minutes ago, Bugyotsuji said:

Strange. Could be a scam, or hot property even...?

That is what I thought, but wherever I check for signs of a scam I see no issues. Surley if the item was stolen the owner would've reported it as such, and since the item has papers and must be cleared through the cultural affair system it would be caught no? Plus the seller offers returns and has a very good reputation on ebay. I'm kind of shocked, originally I thought the sword was HOZON which was amazing enough but to find out it is TH is even more shocking.