Bruno

Jock, Is the munemachi descent(3-4 mm)? I have been told by skilled man that it is one of the good good way to see if the sword is tired or not. May we have a pic of it please? Regards

Yes Stephen, you are one of the pillar of the forum. I will be very disapointed if you would decide to leave. You are a very helpfull person, with a nice sense of humor. Sometime direct but always against contemptuous people. Please stay!

This is what I thought too. But I dared not to tell it. My reasoning is simple(I know too much ), when a gunto is poorly signed it makes me think of a low grade showato. But if the mei pretends to be a skilled war smith's one, I am always wondering if it is a gimei as I would hardly understand why a skilled smith would have signed its nakago so badly after doing a great job with the blade. Sorry for my english. Regards

Hello Joe, No problem. When I had a look at the mei it appeared poorly(cheepy?) written to me as it is sometime the case with ww2 swords(mass produced, lack of time to forge and sign). So I guessed it could be a quickly made showato by the Kaneyoshi Seki smith. You are right about the kanji that does not match. Did you check your books to see who this may be? Regards

Hi Mark, I found one KANEYOSHI as a SEKI KAJI TOSHO:兼吉 (Kaneyoshi)松原 正造(real name) 小谷 包義 (Kotani Kaneyoshi): 上作 (JO SAKU) 松原 兼吉 (Matsubara Kaneyoshi):上作 (JO SAKU) probably the same as the seki one. http://home.earthlink.net/~ttstein/kaneyos2.jpg http://home.earthlink.net/~ttstein/kaneyosh.jpg I would say that your sword is from Matsubara Kaneyoshi, but like you I am still studying and might be wrong(again!) I am sure some friendly guys will help you better very soon. Regards

Congrats! It seems to be a good buying! Interesting shape, what is it exactly?

I agree with you Thomas, I agree with everyone, I am an easy going man! :D You are right in a way. I said that because my present knowledge does not allow me to buy old signed blade as I do not want to spend high amounts in blades that I can not identify. I guess after "45 years in collecting" I will change my point of view. Yes David, some showato are very well done and nothing to see with stock bar blades.With them you can be pretty sure they are not gimei as the seki smiths are quite modern ones.There prices are reasonable. As a conclusion, I am focusing on blades that have no fatal cracks(not twisted, no kizu, not retempered...), not tired(fair munemachi) and on modern signed blades to avoid gimei problems. But I guess we have been far from the very first question asked by the first post, haven't we? Regards

100% agree with you! I never buy signed blades except with showato, with showato you can be pretty sure they are never gimei! :D

Maybe not a so much financial consideration as now but a financial purpose anyway. The sword can be a great copy but still a copy, and even in those past times swords were sold, and sold more expensive if greatly signed.The will to sign the nakago with someone else famous name has purely for goal to lead somebody astray, it is just a greedy goal.Furthermore, a lot of false signatures were added on th enakago sometime 100 or 200 years after the sword has been forged, in that case if it not a greedy purpose I do not know what else it is? To conclude, as far I am concerned, a removed gimei sword is more respectable than a non-removed gimei one, even if a true mei one(or mumei) is the best of the tree! I do beg your pardon for my so poor english.

I would understand that gimei sword's owner'd rather sell their sword due to the high cost for making a new virgin nakago!

I 100% agree with you Guido

Hi all, By reading this topic a question came to me: If a sword is 100% sure gimei(I am not talking about the one in this topic) and as the same time it is a good quality one, is it sensible to ask a togishi to erased the fake signature and make yasurine(file marks) on the nakago?Or just erased the fake mei maybe? I know that a nakago must not be tuched, but in a gimei case I was wondering if that could be appropriate.Furthermore, if every gimei sword's owners would do that, it would solve the gimei problem definitely! I'll be glad to have your wise opinions about that.

Same bottle at 18$ Nice cost killer Stephen!

http://cgi.ebay.fr/Japanese-Sword-Tsuba ... 439b938d38

I am not so sure it is a chinese copy.....To me it could be an end of war sword. They were badly made with poor fittings as this one. IMHO

It was an US or British speaking one but I think it was a Japanese video as US and Brit guys were not very welcomed at that time in Japan. Probably a part of imperial propaganda. The tv prog I saw was more a compilation of ten to fiftenn minutes sequences, some about kamikaze, some about Japanese Navy etc....So I suppose a longer movie about Japanese swords arsenals might exists but have to be a master in Interet researsh to fing it. It was so interesting but really too short.Some SEKI swordsmiths were showed at work but I do not know who.You do undesrtand what "mass produced sword" means by watching it!There were plenty of Japanese women polishing the swords, people making the mounts etc...really nice for those who like Gunto. i will try again to fing it but with no big hope!

Thanks Klaus; No I do not remember the name. I guess this kind of video documentary might exist somewhere but not sure that it has ever been available for public .Probably too specialized.

Hi gentlemen, I recently watched an historic documentary on TV about Japan during WW2 and during few minutes they showed how arsenal swords functioned.It was quite interesting to see the huge number of people implied in this process with all the famous machines which made swords, women polishers etc.... Unfortunately it was just a small part of the program. Does anybody have ever heard about an historic video documentary which topic is all about Japanese arsenal swords? Thank you PS: My english is getting worst these days, sorry for that!

Sorry for that!

There is a SUKEHIRO in the RIKUGUN AND KAIGUN JUMEI TOSHO list. Do not know if that could help.....?

Not Kenkaku, but MORIYAMA SAN! I have made the same mistake before! BTW, I am still wondering what KENKAKU means? Regards

Yes it allowed in France, BUT postmen have the right to refuse to handle the package if they consider that what is the box can injured them.I have been told that by my post office.In that particular case you might have to pick your sword up by yourself quite far from your home which is bothering.

Definitively! :D It was a waste of time!

I should not post the other insulting answer he sent me, some NMB members could be shocked. BTW, he knows our forum, I guess he could be also a "member of NMB" as he has probably read the topic. After his so shocking and insulting answers I was not so polite with him! Even if I should not. Debate closed for me. Regards

Wooo!!! This seller is terrible!!! After looked at the sword I told him gently that his sword might be a showato and that it could have done a mistake;I was very polite. Here is answer: "Hi, you have been blocked from bidding, happy thanksgiving." I do not care coz I do not want the sword but why being so stupid! Sad seller!