eternal_newbie

A bit difficult to tell exactly how much nie there is in the hardened area, especially at the turnback, but I would agree with either kaen or hakikake in notare-komi.

For various reasons, many owners of Juyo candidates will instead appoint their agent (often the dealer they bought it from) as the blade's owner while in Japan. Makes things easier if the contact person is there and speaks Japanese (plus the shinsa fees are lower if submitted by a local NBTHK member).

If I'm not mistaken, Andrew Ickeringill has photographs of the Go on his Facebook page as he's the one who polished it (well done, by the way). https://www.facebook.com/toukentogishi

Just a heads up for anyone who's in Japan over the next few weeks that the New Juyo exhibition is running until the 1st of March in the Tokyo Sword Museum. 36 blades from the most recent Juyo shinsa and several koshirae and tosogu are on display. You can see the details as well as download an English list of exhibits here: https://www.touken.or.jp/museum/exhibition/exhibition.html And here is a link to @Jussi Ekholm's translation of the full results from the 71st Juyo Session: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/54363-jūyō-71-results

Generally, when buying from a somewhat reputable dealer such as Aoi, they will have at least gone to the trouble of making sure the saya fits the blade by using a long-handled rasp. However it's always worth tapping out the saya to shake loose any debris or shavings before attempting a fitting - even for a koshirae that was custom-made for the blade.

If you can't find one, it may be worth sending yours in for shinsa to the NBTHK. Being a rare example of a signature adds historical (and often financial) value to a sword, especially koto.

Google Translate got it wrong, the original papers clearly state 8th gen (八代, hachi-dai). The 5th or 6th gen Masahiro (there are some disagreements; Nihonto Club says 5th gen https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/MAS205 while the Soshu-Den museum says 6th https://nihonto-museum.com/blog/soshu-tsunahiro) was the one who changed his name to Tsunahiro, however the Masahiro line continued for at least another 2 generations parallel to the newly established Tsunahiro line.

Not only that but blades owned by more prosperous samurai often had multiple koshirae at the same time (e.g. one for ceremonial duties, one for casual use, one for battlefield use). Check out this Hokke sword that just sold on the forum: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/53726-nbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-hokke-katana-w-2-koshirae/

A good first blade indeed. Regardless of when it was made, koto Soshu in good condition is a very nice place to start. Putting in the effort of looking at blades in person has worked out quite well for you. I believe this is your sword: http://www.nihonto.us/SOSHU mASAHIRO KR.htm

The lighting tricks needed to properly photograph a blade also makes them look deeper than they really are.

Looking forward to it!

The Kashima sisters have some thoughts about tekkotsu on their website: http://www.ksky.ne.jp./~sumie99/tekkotsu.html http://www.ksky.ne.jp./~sumie99/makingtekkotsu.html

@Nazar there is another Echizen Rai sword up for sale:

They go with a photograph for mumei nakago to properly document all the dents, bumps and other identifying features, but in the case of a mei they will often use a rubbing/oshigata because it can be hard to photograph in a way that displays it well.

And to give you an idea of just how many smiths from different eras, schools and provinces used the name "Kanemitsu": https://nihontoclub.com/view/smiths/meisearch?type=All&mei_op=contains&mei=kanemitsu (and there are plenty more that aren't documented there, including some contemporary ones)

Likely a typo by Tsuruta-san or Soren, T and R are right next to each other. Here are some prior discussions on NMB about Soten school tsuba: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/1745-really-genuine-soten-tsuba/ https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/6737-soten-school-aesthetics/

I've seen some people refer to that design of a triangle with two semicircles as "insect eyes":

Good luck Mike, we could definitely use some options Down Under even if they're just for low-to-mid level blades. Looking forward to seeing some examples of your work!

Also folks who go in with a relatively low bid, knowing they can probably resell at enough of a premium to make the profit worthwhile on any items they win by default. The kinds of folk who show up on eBay/Yahoo with a bunch of eclectic blades with very different photography styles.

Unfortunately dodgy polishers aren't just something you find outside Japan; I've been watching some blades on auction sites in Japan in which a "polisher" has absolutely butchered the blade by 'painting' on a hamon/jigane matching the kantei points for famous smiths which the blade is then attributed to.

Slightly off-topic but that guy had something else that might be of interest to the various polearm data gatherers in here: https://www.facebook.com/raymond.yan.950241/posts/pfbid0UicaokdPan3LXQAGrdZnFEmmb5cWgaqdmBc6JJubhLxHwdFp33VxudWtyuQWt2gBl It's a sankaku-yari (sold now, sadly) in which the entire blade, aside from a small section near the base, is hardened (more pictures in the link).

Saka-choji (逆丁子) is the correct reading, yes. I don't believe the pronounciation changes to gyaku depending on the direction they slant (happy for someone with more knowledge to correct me). That said, I've only ever seen saka-choji that slants towards the kissaki on non-Japanese katana, so maybe it simply isn't done and therefore an alternate name isn't needed. Sesko's kantei blog simply refers to it as saka-choji: https://markussesko.com/2015/06/04/kantei-3-hamon-boshi-1-2/ As do the Kashima sisters: http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/hamonpatterns.html Those links both have a pretty good visual glossary so if it's not actually saka-choji you're thinking of, there's a good chance you'll spot whatever pattern you had in mind.

Not at all, this was regularly done as part of the routine maintenance process for Japanese swords. Just don't be too rough.

"The requested page could not be found". Looks like it's the same as the old link, did you copy and paste it correctly?

Not much we can tell with such small photographs, unfortunately. The WWII-era fittings at least look like they might be legit but we won't be able to discern much about the sword without some higher resolution shots (preferably with the tang out of the handle). Maybe you'll get lucky and one of the WWII sword experts on here will recognize something at a glance.