Toki

I did search for the 記 Character, unless I did something wrong there are not many listed.

Hi, That's interesting. I never seen a Kanji in a square like this before. The Kane on my papers is not in a 'square' as seen in the picture. It's written normally, so someone with a good eye has seen it, i guess😅

Got that exact same one yeah. I guess we just have to wait it out

Hey all! As written in another post (Here) I recently recieved a new Tanto. The fittings it came with remind me a bit of Aikuchi style Koshirae, but they look different to previous pieces I have seen. I would be grateful for any kind of insight. For once, the Kurigata is a simple metal ring, decorated with what looks to be a chrysanthemum motive. The Fuchi is plain metal, while the Kashira has a hole with a leather strap. The Habaki has some kind of Mon engraved on both sides, maybe a Mitsuboshi Mon (three star crest) ? The same Mon can be found on the opposite side of the Kurigata, below the Kozuka "pocket", engraved on some kind of metal fitting on the Saya. Sadly it did not have a Kozuka come with it :/ Please see the pictures below for reference! Does anyone have an idea what this could be? All the best Erik

Had some issues too lately, but with a VPN to South Africa, all works fine

Thank you Kirill! I think you're pretty much spot on. I should have mentioned the papers sooner/include a photo of them. And yes, the first Kanji is very hard to see, gladly someone figured it out😅. Even under good lighting it is still difficult, and the picture on the certificate does not help that much.

Hey all! After about 2 months of waiting, my Tanto finally arrived today. It is my second ever Nihonto and was a bit of an impulsive buy (not really proud of that fact). While browsing sellers for Kamakura/ Nambokucho pieces, this little guy caught my eye and I was immediatly fascinated by it. Skip a few days, and lots of pieces from my wishlist sold out one after another, so I decided to go for it and got it. It is a pretty thick Tanto for its size, not sure if it is quite Yoroi-Doshi territory yet. Some stats first: Nagasa: 21.2cm (7 Sun) Sori: 0 Mekugi-ana: 1 Motohaba: 20.8mm Motokasane: 8.4mm (Pretty thick!) Jitetsu: Itame with Masame Hamon: No clue what to call it, but some big Midare? It has little islands of Hamon that could be Tobiyaki? Boshi: Was described as Midare-komi Kaen Nakago is Ubu and Suguta is Hira-zukuri. The Mune is in the Iorimune shape To finally get to the reason for this post: The Mei. This piece is signed Kanemitsu, but 包光 with 包 as the Kane Kanji. Now, from the signature alone it reminds me of Tegai/Sue Tegai with the niji mei and the choice of the Kane 包, as many smiths in that school seemed to use that particular Kane. However, in my eyes and especially after reading Tanobe Michihiros Book on the Yamato tradition, which a friend borrowed me, the worksmanship does not fit at all. On a side not, I should probably pick up the other books from the Gokaden series. Now, I initially wanted to ignore the Mei completely and enjoy the piece for what it is, but it has Hozon papers. Please correct me if I am wrong on that, but that basically rules out gimei? The certificate states that the region is unkown, though that it is a late Muromachi era piece. My best guess currently is, that it is some unregistered Mino smith, where there was not enough references to nail it down with certainty. Nonetheless, I found some hints for this theory: 1. Left of the MITSU Kanji are faint Higaki file marks visible. 2.I have seen some wild Midare hamons on Mino during my last Japan trip. 3. While this is a little far fetched, but according to the Nihontoclub Mei search, there have been smiths in Mino during that time frame, that did use the 包 Kanji for Kane. There is also a Kanemitsu listed for Mino (KAN137) but there seems to be not much info on him. I did shoot some pictures of the blade with my Macro lens, there will be some added below. Another cool thing is that it was registered on March 16th 1951 in Aichi, which is very early. It has what seems to be matching Koshirae with a three star like Kamon on the habaki and on the Saya (On the side I forgot to take a picture off, of course). It might not help much, but it is still interesting. If someone has any clues on where the smith could have come from, I would be most thankful. But all feedback to this little sword is welcome. All the Best Erik

I am afraid the days are long gone where this was a safe method.

I like the Tsuba and Menuki actually. But the Saya puts me off, it looks so "Mall Ninja" somehow.

I once remember buying something on a forum (Non Nihonto related) which had a reputation system in both ways. The buyer obviously could rate the seller, but in return the seller could also rate the buyer. In all fairness, it was a forum more focused on the Marketplalce aspect of things. This is probably not practical here,when comparing the benefits to the work required to make such a system and would lead to more complications, but it was interesting nonetheless. I hope the seller and buyer can somehow resolve this issue!

Thank you @mecox! I somehow overlooked this article. Location would be in Munich, Germany.

Thank you Sam! I have been trying to find this one for a while now, unfortunately no luck so far. Hopefully one day I can get a copy.

Hey all! After reading a few beginner books, I am looking to expand my knowledge into more specific topics of Nihonto and would like to start with Mino (my favorite). If anyone has book recommendations (Preferably in english, but Japanese is also okay) I would be truly grateful. All the best Erik

Maybe 珍 with the left side lost in the Mekugi Ana? Though I dont know if any Mei uses that Kanji.

Very interesting question and a lot has been said already! Another point we should not forget is the availability of such hypothetical inscriptions/marks. If everyone from Ashigaru to high ranking Samurai marked their blades, there would be an abundance of such and therefore no real reason to charge a premium. The only exception for this would probably be if the blade was wielded by someone important. That is a hard decision. If the blade is appealing to me outside of those marks, I would not be bothered by them I think. However seeking out blades for their marks would not be my first choice. You never know what kind of action your blade has seen in its life, with any Nihonto. Especially those shortened to due damage (and not Edo regulations) are prime candidates to have seen combat. Historically, such marks would be interesting, especially if they can be linked to certain events/battles, like the one Hoshi posted. It would help to trace the journey of a blade better, which is very interesting to me personally. So it would be a nice bonus, but not a requirement for me.

I dont have much experience yet, but I agree with Jeff. Over the past year or so I have been searching for a nice piece from the Kamakura era that peaks my interest. Plenty of Items on my wishlist sold out quickly over the past few months, most of them between 7 - 10kEuros. Some were sitting on sites for years making me think I have time to consider carefully which one to get and suddenly a lot of them were gone. Made me impulse buy a cheap Tanto I really really liked.

Thank you all for your contributions First of all, @YourBabyBjornBorg I hope your friend gets his money refunded. Especially at this price point it would be a major loss, depending what sword he actually got. While this is really unfortunate, it's a relief to hear that the NTBHK is open to help in such cases, especially so quickly. I don't know the legal situation in the PRC regarding that, but getting caught forging documents (Urkundenfälschung) over here can land you in serious trouble, even more so if you have monetary intent when doing so. All the best to you and your friend! Julien, that seems like a pretty fine checklist to follow, I will keep that in mind for future purchases. Buying from reputable sellers should minimize the risk in my opinion, but as I learnt from other collection hobbies (Rocks) even they can have something slip through once in a while. Geraint, thank you for the article. It's super interesting to read about their new security features and I´m glad to see that they put serious effort into it. The sheer amount of them should make it harder to forge one, though obviously not impossible. I wonder how the NTHK (both branches) fares in this regard. I can only speak for the NTHK NPO, but their papers seem less secure, with the only notable feature I can see being the "stamp" above the picture/oshigata. Maybe they are not as focused since most prefer NTBHK papers? All the best! Erik

Good Day everyone, I think we all are well aware of the scandal regarding NTBHK Origami in the 1970s and it´s consequences. Today, I stumbled upon a tweet on X ( https://x.com/tukimaru1967/status/2050541246490533952) warning others to be careful with Nihonto being sold at an auction. In the tweet, they point out some suspicious activity with the papers of some of the swords which could be hints at a forgery . From what I understand the "easiest" Method to forge such a certificate is to simply swap the Picture/Oshigata on the Origami with one of the Nihonto you want to sell them with. However, it got me thinking. How common are forgeries these days, and probably even more important, what is the chance of encountering one? Is this a real risk, or a niche issue? In any way, if someone with more insight wants to share their thoughts,I would be super grateful All the best Erik

Wow what a write up....half of it sounds like AI

I hope you are wrong, but the signs seem to agree with you....poor blade

Hello The seller was kind enough to send me a scan of the registration card. Since I already bought it, I hope its okay to share. This one was registered in Aichi, which has their own Number, on March 16, 1951.

I can´t say if it got enlargened or not (sure looks like it though) but as a practitioner I would not swing a sword that isn´t tight in the Tsuka. Too big of a risk imo

That is pretty interesting, is there any info on why thats the case?

Yes, I sent them an E-Mail last night. Haven´t heard back yet.

I haven't seen the actual paper so far, since it wasn't of priority for me, but I hope they include a copy. It's still waiting for export permits, but it looks to be an interesting/dubious blade as a whole