cabowen

they weren't making kogatana in the Kamakura period....By the way, "kozuka" is the handle...

There is a Aobasan Koen (park) near Kyoto and a Aobasan in Miyagi Prefecture -Sendai City...maybe others.... There was a Munemitsu working during the war in Yamagata ken, which is next to Miyagi ken....

Nice to have the two of you here to correct my sloppy work....Thank you!

Yamato no Kuni Hosho Kunimitsu Saku 大和国保晶国光作 Atsuta Gomon Go To (???) 熱田五門御刀

Takeshita Yasukuni Saku 竹下泰国作

You will learn much more from $400 worth of books than from this worn and out of polish sword...

I remember I lost mine once and the bank would not let me withdraw funds when I went there. I asked them how many foreign customers they had named Chris Bowen and reminded them that I had visited the bank weekly for 10 years and that they all knew me. No go. I ended up begging a local hanko maker to make one to duplicate the official stamp on my bank book, which as can be imagined, is a major no-no. He did and the bank was never the wiser....Moral of the story, guard your hanko well.....

I agree with George. I missed the left hand side of the Fuji kanji....Sure is in rough shape for a (most likely) Shinto blade....

It is an inkan. All adults in Japan have at least one. They are used in place of signatures on all important documents.

I would highly recommend a blade in professional polish. Wakizashi are many times great value. I would give that some thought. Shows are a great place to see many swords. Just be careful as there are sharks in those waters too. Always best to ask around and get opinions on which dealers are safe bets.

Minneapolis show and shinsa will be the second weekend in October, 2011. I will post details once we have locked up the venue....

To be honest, even this is not the best way to go because it is extremely difficult to clean all embedded dirt and it will never fit and protect as well as a new, properly made shirasaya.....

maybe Sagami no Kami Yasu X last kanji is cut off.....

Here is another Akihide blade with a similar inscription: 銘「於帝都日本刀鍛練傳習所／陸軍軍刀監査委員會參與源朝臣昭秀」「爲陸軍軍刀技術奨勵會記念／昭和十九年十二月上浣謹作之」 刃長729.全長972.反り19.

Many times a small tag is made and attached with string to the tie string of the bag. I have seen bamboo used, as well as other small pieces of wood...

Well, maybe my memory isn't as bad as I thought....I remember reading somewhere (maybe Uchida san's article in Token Bijutsu?) of the reasons they moved there- I think one reason had to do with it being easier to get food...I don't remember the other reasons, I had thought bombing was one, but they wouldn't have moved there then because of bombing....

You're right, it was a bit later....I don't recall the exact year but it was before 1944...

Yes, but they moved swordmaking training from Denshujo to Nihonto Gakuin in Zama in 1941 or thereabouts because of fear of bombing, difficulties getting food, etc., or so I was told....

ok, thank you very much!

Morita san: Shouldn't KINEN be written 記念, not 紀念 as on the sword???? This is a mistake, isn't it? Interesting that it says it was made at the Nihonto Tanren Denshujo as Kurihara had shut down this training facility in Tokyo and moved it to the Nihonto Gakuin in Zama several years earlier as Tokyo became too dangerous due to the bombing and other issues.....

Yes, I should have qualified my statement as I was referring primarily to the appreciation of iron (tsuba). Clearly Goto and other such soft metal is judged by different standards....

Not you I would worry about.... I have heard many times that Sasano took a lot of heat for what he did and latter admitted that he was overzealous in his "restoration"...

Not wanting to see someone mess something up, I think it best you google that and see what you can find. There are ways to do it that do not cause any harm. You need to know what you are doing..... Once Fe3O4, the oxidation stops as the Fe3O4 protects the steel surface from any further corrosion.

The Suishinshi school is the largest in Shinshinto with many dozens of smiths. Without a more specific attribution, it will be quite difficult to make any meaningful comparisons.

Since Steve directed a question my way on "aji" and the preservation of iron/steel, I started this new thread as it seemed more appropriate than to take the other off topic... Steve wrote: "I'd also like to ask Chris, who seems so taken with the notion of "aji," where he draws the line between appropriate cleaning and inappropriate (too much) cleaning. Does the primacy of aji mean leaving some rust on an iron tsuba? After all, that rust does add the "flavor" of decades/centuries of aging, reflecting so "wabi-ly" the "natural decay, imperfection, and organic form and process...the entropy with grace." Right? On the other hand, active red rust IS eating away at the steel, the steel the artist rendered in a particular way for a particular effect, an effect being "defaced" by the activities of the red rust. Right, Ford? Sasano and Kremers would have us clean away every trace of red rust from our steel guards. But doesn't that wreck the "entropy with grace" so highly prized by some?" In discussing restoration with professionals, I have often heard it said,"do no harm". There are two common forms of rust: Fe2O3, which is red rust and is "bad", and Fe3O4, which is black and is "good". All tsuba are covered with rust, hopefully the black type. Loose red rust can be gently removed, and then converted to black rust. One does not need to remove steel and grind down the faces of the tsuba until it is smooth and featureless. It is the same with a nakago. Red rust is converted to black. You don't grind down the nakago....