Mark

I noticed the naginata. I see it was listed and sold in the past, the bidding on the past auction seem a bit unusual

I had a tsuba (for a koshirae ) that needed some care. I had Skip Holbrook restore it. I was very happy with the result. It was an iron tsuba but not as old as yours and did not have lacquer coating but Skip does nice restoration work

Bi Shu Osafune Suke____ Tensho period. The tsuba look nice

David the maker of the blade usually did not make other parts. the scabbard has a battle cover or leather cover, the scabbard may be the age of the blade or may be newer, the leather was added when it was taken to war in 1940's. The handle looks like it was made for use in WWII so was probably done in the 1930-40's The tsuba (hand guard) is a Nanban style, it does not look very old, maybe very late 1800's or even 20th century, it was not made by the maker of the blade. The menuki is a civilian style, not military, it is hard to estimate age from a picture

Peter yes it says that. It matches his age the year it was made Ken, sorry I missed your comment. I can take some pictures but there is not much to see, the blade is beat up and someone tried to clean it and managed to scratch it up badly, you can see the temper in the right light but other than shape I am not sure there is much to see mark

David good job with Meiji, you got it,

David John gave you the makers name, try this for the date http://www.jssus.org/nkp/shinto_to_modern_nengo.html mark

both looks like Chinese fakes, they do not make any sense if translated

not sure who to address this to (rules say you should sign with at least a first name) The sword is a traditionally made sword, you did well to save it. Before just giving you the info maybe you would like to try and start yourself? Is so the makers name is not hard to translate, check the kanji page link at the top and follow to sword makers kanji........ the makers name is the last two kanji (bottom of line if the point is up) in the right hand line on the side of the tang that has 2 lines of kanji........ try it if you can't find it we will help. the other side of the tang (one row of kanji) is the date, the top two kanji are the era, you might be able to figure that out without too much work using the date charts Mark

Grey Thanks! any chance the taikan mentions what period or date etc those examples came from? Great books to have for reference Mark

Patrick thanks for the reply. I had checked the Koza but those example show his more "grass script" type mei, he used a number of different styles of signature from very flowing to the more traditional kanji, I am trying to find more examples of the traditional style like on my sword. The show has not been cared for, it was in trashed gunto mounts (they were nice at one time), the nakago looks to have had older rust and it may be the vet tried cleaning it a bit (he scratched the blade trying to clean it making it hard to see the hada). Looking at the nakago from the mune there is no trace of narrowing (as I might expect if a mei was removed), I think the condition of the nakago is just poor due to the care it received (or did not receive). Thanks again for the look, I enjoy trying to research things Mark

I am trying to research the mei on a katana I have. The blade is in poor condition so seeing the work in the blade is difficult, it does have a gunome temper that could be correct for the maker. Saneo seems to have changed his mei a lot during his career. I did check and his age does seem correct for the date made (age 62 in 1865), but that would have been available to someone faking the mei. I found a number of reference oshigata but as the mei style changes it was hard to find ones that were like mine. The closest seem to be in Zuikan Tomei Soran on page 167, I included a picture of the sword next to the 2 oshigata. Does anyone have additional oshigata done in this style? I would be interested to hear any opinions on the mei (good or bad - I am not thin skinned). This maker is Kiyomaro's older brother so there is some upside if it is genuine and would be worth restoring, but being a "big name" I realize there are probably a lot of gimei. Thanks! Mark

It looks like a Chinese fake to me. sorry

Yoshishige 1944

I remember seeing this sword. I thought the fittings were nice (but I am not info fittings) and the blade seemed to be a decent sword for the age. I only noticed one small spot I thought was possibly core steel but all in all the condition seemed better than most swords of that age. It seemed a nice package in good condition.

looks like a Chinese fake. usually they use kanji but they do not mean anything

Tampa show has past, now is the time to plan for the next Sword Show The Chicago Sword Show is April 26-28 2013 Hyatt Regency Woodfield Schaumburg IL Info can be found at http://www.chicagoswordshow.com and http://www.midwesttokenkai.com The show should be a bit different this year, things are changing. After years of living in Chicago and promoting the Sword Show Marc Porpora has retired to Arizona. Because of the distances involved he has invited Mark Jones to promote the Chicago Sword Show, one of the longest established in the US. Marc Porpora will help Mark to make the transition a smooth and positive change to insure the continuation of this show. Many of NMB members know me, I hope to expand the show and make positive changes. If there are any question contact me through NMB or at nixe@bright.net Thanks! Mark Jones

thanks! I will work on some research, there should be a number of references for Saneo or masao

I think this may be Sadataka but I am not sure. Any help with the inscriptions would be appreciated, the date is in grass script. I think it says it was made when the smith was 62 years old. Thanks mark

I am thinking there is a mistake in the way they show the sold price, a flag selling for $23k? maybe the decimal is moved 2 places, it would make more sense if the flag was $230 ??????

I am happy for Barry. Great that he recognized something special. I am glad the sword will be saved and cared for in the future. Shows that there are still good deals out there. I think going to a show is the best way to see and learn, and hopefully find a great bargain. mark

I enjoyed the show. I thought Bill and his staff worked very hard to try and make things go smoothly. I sold a number of items (maybe one was the treasure Barry found - if so good for him), some that were only a few hundred dollars each, so if you are looking for a "genuine" sword that is not too expensive a show is the place to see things hands on and find a bargain, much better than buying on eBay from pictures. I hope the Tampa show continues to thrive, we all need to support the shows help them improve.

John he posted this with the picture "Giboji Fusetsu Ni Todomarazu..... akin to causing a cut that seems like people falling off a bridge with no handrails.....or something like that." I took it that was the translation, maybe I misunderstood

I have seen a few of these, usually have Showa era blades with signatures or Masamune, Rai smiths etc

I mail swords to the EU regularly and have not had any problems. I do not know of any restrictions for Priority (or Express) mailing of edged weapons