cabowen

Can you post a close up of the kanji written on the saya?

Tsuguyuki is a smith from the Bungo Takada group. He worked during the Kanbun period, circa 1661. This groups of smiths is well known for producing a large number of utilitarian blades. While usually not given a lot of respect from collectors, there are some nice examples from time to time. Your blade looks to be in nice condition and of a good length. The workmanship is hard to determine from the photos, but from what is visible, it looks quite nice. The inlay reads: 立袈裟落 Which I take to mean that the sword performed a standing kesa cut (diagonal through the shoulder to the opposite side above the pelvis)...

Masayuki...Looks like a WWII Seki blade.

Maybe Kanefusa? Nice gift!

Craig- Looking at the extended kissaki and saki-zori alone, I would agree with your estimate that the blade is most like Edo period, specifically, early Shinto. The flaws could be a result of significant polishing and/or rather lower quality work. WIthout a shot of the blade from the nakago-mune, we can't really tell if it has seen significant polishing. The notare with ko-midare elements is fairly common and non-distinct. We really can't see any jigane or activity in the ji-ba from the photos so it is difficult to make any conclusive judgements regarding quality or provenance accurately. I think it is safe to say that it is not Bizen, Yamashiro, Yamato, or Soshu work. That leaves us with Mino (or a derivative) or waki work like Takada, etc. I would guess it would fall into the waki catagory without further info. I would note as well that the shirasaya is rather low quality. We usually don't find high quality work in low quality koshirae, whether shirasaya or standard. There are of course exceptions but this is a very serviceable rule of thumb.

As I collect blades by the Kato family, I recognized the mei Tadaaki in the title and it drew me to this thread, but as you note George, the Kato smith uses the kanji 明 which came from Horii Taneaki, not the aki 昭 used by smiths who trained in the Denshujo and Nihonto Gakuin of Kurihara Akihide. There is a hint there for you Patrick on a place to look for info on your smith.....

Splendid! It is nice to see what curiosity, the internet, and motivation can accomplish. Very nice work indeed.

Exactly. Since it was "sword by committee" so to speak, there is much that is impossible to know....It does looks like an interesting blade and rather atypical for the group.

To be clear, my comment that it was "fake" was addressing the veracity of the signature. "Gimei" would have been a more accurate description....

There were a great many smiths working in Hizen during the war era. Many were quite good. Unfortunately, no one has taken the time to research and publish the details of this group. It would make a great research project that would further the body of knowledge we have of WWII era smiths. I have quite a bit of data that would serve as a good start for this project. If anyone is seriously interested in pursuing such an endeavor, please let me know. Please keep in mind that the info is in Japanese...

Ed is as good as they come. There are many honest people- there is no reason to deal with those who aren't...

I don't think there are any issues with the signature on this blade though I would agree that there is almost something Chinese about how it has been cut. This smith was one of hundreds making showa-to in a factory setting in Seki. We see a lot of variation in the signatures of these blades as they were more or less mass produced with many hands involved. I don't think the market for showa-to has reached the point where gimei are being made but it is something to be watchful of going forward.

My first reaction is "fake"....Omori Teruhide is a big name...

That makes it difficult to heat too much but silver does have a 1,763°F melting point- I should think the steel would be red hot by then and perhaps a bit more heat than necessary....

Try freezing the bizen and heating the barrel....

I agree that the amount is rather insignificant, I just didn't understand the reason for doing it. If it helps with customs, that is reason enough. Thanks for that...

..I'm not sure I understand the fundamental rationale in spending anything for kantei-sho for this sword as it is clearly genuine. I thought perhaps you had heard of gimei Emura blades floating around. With the large number of hands involved making Emura blades, it would be quite difficult to establish a gimei blade in any case....

Why?

Bob- I think you need to spend more time and money learning to recognize what a Japanese sword is so you don't waste time and money on Chinese fakes.

Expensive, about 2.5x more than normal for this smith and it is standard WW2 length in shirasaya, no mount. I've been told a sword is only "born" after the ana is symbolically made onto the tang as in a spiritual context. Of course we all know it is a sword Wah Most smiths will tell you that a sword is "born" during yaki-ire....

Yasukuni blades made for presentation are signed with "kin saku" and the mei is placed low on the nakago as a form of humility.

Yes indeed. Were these ever presented without being mounted? Without mekugiana technically it cannot be a sword? Wah I have seen blades presented to shrines and temples that were mounted without mekugi(ana). It is still a sword, it just can't be used....

Very neat presentation blade by Yasushige of the Yasukuni Jinja. I posted an example without mekugiana here a few weeks ago...funny to see another!

Perhaps the issue is that they are not signed Nagamune.....They look rather new. To answer your question, meikan-more (unlisted artists) do in fact receive kantei-sho, at least at the NTHK-NPO. I would think the NBTHK would likewise paper quality examples.

you weren't kidding when you said old! You ought mount it on a kakejiku....