Robert S

But none of the well known smiths using these characters for Nagayoshi seem to have used a niji-mei (two character signature) except perhaps one back in the Heian period, which I think can be ruled out. So it would seem to be either gimei or an undocumented smith.

I wonder if the sword you have is in this photo. I believe these are the Japanese officers surrendering at Tientsin. General Worton had a rather interesting meeting with Chou En Lai during this period.

Super curious to see the sword itself! That's a really interesting piece of history and provenance!

Heike monagatori certainly tries to reinforce notions of loyalty - retainers repeatedly saying "we owe everything to you, we will never abandon you"... but it is also completely full of betrayals, clans switching sides, retainers abandoning their lords... It also contains examples of the betrayals of the other side of the deal - lords betraying and eve hunting down those who have served them loyally. Lots of Heike would make Machiavelli proud!

Very useful to something I'm working on currently!

It's not that, it's that the hadori work completely obscures and disrespects the actual, rather marvellous, hamon. For a significant juyo level nihonto, this sort of work is verging on amateur.

That polish is a crime.

Just like zen, or martial arts, in the end we come back to beginner mind, beginner eye, without logical discrimination

That sounds like the time I had to give a presentation at a meeting in Honduras... in Spanish... and realized afterwords that I had referred to myself in the feminine gender the whole time. Huge kudos to all attending for keeping a straight face

Outstanding! The RHPS (Rocky Horror Picture Show) of tsuba.

It does look a bit like a slightly acidic liquid may have gotten on the blade at some time. Don't think it's a forging (deep) issue.

Interesting thought. I think there's a subtlety here. My 50 years of experience with craftsmanship suggests to me that when you get really good at something, as the great swordsmiths were, you've gotten there because you have always danced on the edge of loss of control... and you want to cross that edge constantly, and lose control just a little bit. If you're not doing that, you're probably not learning anymore, and it gets to be rote. The better you get, often the harder it is for others to see where you've let the process and the object take over, outside of your control, but you know. One of my professors many moons ago used to say "no threat no thrill", and I think that's pretty universal. I'd add "no threat no learning". Clearly swordsmithing is not raku... but neither is a pure industrial process, where absolute repeatability is the goal.

To my mind, it's a sword that exemplifies the best aesthetics, forging and metal for its place and period. Sometimes its also a sword that was part of breaking new ground in practice or aesthetics. Speaking as a craftsperson, there's also the personal masterpiece of a given smith - that one blade where everything just came together at a level at the limit of their ability, or almost magically beyond it. Often now we know too little about the smiths and their history to be able to identify that piece, or it is long lost, but at the time the smith, other smith's around him, and his customers will have known that there was one blade which just stood out.

I have a suspicion that tsuba like this were never designed to be mounted - they were always show pieces... which considering the craftsmanship is fair!

I really like that approach. Not all blades can be fully brought back to perfect condition, but they can still be preserved and appreciated.