NotANinja

My thoughts exactly!

I reckon it is Jizo, but I think you've got a lot of information already so it probably won't add all that much!

Yes he and I discussed it and both decided it wasn't worth putting a full polish on it as there's a few even bigger chips close to the hamachi, but we decided on a window as I still wanted to see if I can narrow down the smith. At a later date I think I'll get a polish that preserves the chips to show it some respect however.

Hi all! I've recently received my Shigemitsu wakizashi back from Les who very kindly put a window polish into the kissaki and a bit to show off the hada. The hada is quite interesting to my eyes but I'm struggling with identifying the boshi, it doesn't look much like anything I can see in my copy of Nagayama, and the number of blades I've seen in person is so far very low. Does anyone have any insight or recognise this type at all? I'll also attach a picture of the hada for prosperity. Many thanks in advance!

Hi Marcus, Seems like you've got a lot of information in this post already so I'll just add one thing about the boshi. Do you have a connoisseurs book handy? Because I forget the name but it reminds me of a specific type of boshi meant to look like one of the Buddha, or a statue of, and it has a specific name and allocation. I don't have my book to hand right now given I'm currently in bed haha. Will look again in the morning. Rob.

As another has said in this thread he is Les Stewart and he's a great bloke, I've had the pleasure of meeting him and he has done some work for me recently. If you check my profile I've posted recently about a wakizashi he put a window polish into that was, like yours, stored improperly. I won't give his details as it's not for me to give them out but if you contact the token society of great britain they might be able to help you.

It's really hard to get features properly when the blade is in a sorry state. Fills me with great sadness to know that this has potentially been around for 800 years being cared for only to end up rotting away in someone's shed in the last 50 years of it's life.

I've taken some better photos trying to capture as much of the hada as I possibly can and ill add them here. To me it looks like a tight ko-itame/masame hada? Difficult to see. With my research the most similar blade I could find in terms of sugata, mune, hada, hamon, kissaki and tapering of the blade is this kamakura piece sold recently at sothebys. But I am fully aware this may be massive wishful thinking on my part: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2025/important-Japanese-swords-and-armour-from-the-paul-l-davidson-collection/a-katana-attributed-to-awataguchi-kuniyasu-heian

Additional photos. More can be provided if needed.

Hi all, I picked up this wakizashi as my first nihonto at auction for very cheap as they mistook it as un-signed when it is in fact signed 'shigemitsu'. Sadly it's not in the best condition, and the previous owner obviously took sandpaper or an angle grinder to the nakago. The nijimei still survives which is good, but not much else. I was hoping to get as much information about it as possible but understand that's quite difficult given the lack of any hada, hamon etc. The specs are as follows: Overall length 59cm Nagasa 46.5 Nakago 12 Sori 1.8 Kissaki 2.3 Motohaba 2.5 Sakihaba 1.7 Motokasane 0.5 Sakikasane 0.35 ish From the parts of the nakago they didn't sand I can see it used to be basically black with rust, and quite deteriorated from presumably age. There's not much meat to it so it has been polished in it's past however many times. It is extremely difficult to see but in extremely specific oblique lighting it looks like there could be a hamon, and if there is its comprised of some pretty large grains. Finally it has a mitsumune. From the swordsmiths index there aren't that many shigemitsu's known, and most of them are nanbokucho. Do you think it could be this old? I'll hopefully be getting a window polish on it soon to see if there's anything under the surface which might help. Ill update the thread if anything comes from it in the coming months/years... Cheers!

Aaaah I see, that makes a lot of sense thank you. It's a good pointer towards authenticity then!

Hi all, I posted my latest aquisition here a few days ago and as I was doing my research came across a number of bladed that have a notch in the nakago and wondered if this was significant at all, or if it was a product of the habaki making process? Please let me know your thoughts!

I also edited this photo to show sugata better

So there are 3 thin metal bands under the wrap, one close to the opening and the other 2 where you can see them in the picture. The depth of the tsuka is the same as the length of the nakago. When assembled, the tsuka seems disproportionately big compared to the blade, I'll attach a picture.

Ill give it another measure when I get back from work this evening. It might very well be smaller but there's no yokote line for me to measure from as the kissaki looks like someone's taken sanpaper to it. I'll try and get some better pictures then too but it might have to wait until Sunday as I'm at work all day today sadly. Either way whether Kamakura or Muromachi I'm still astounded at the age of these things and feel privileged to take care of them. On that, what's the best way to take care of it at the moment? I've wiped the blade down with isopropyl alcohol and then wiped it down with choji oil. It's quite badly rusted in places and sadly as some deep-looking pitting in the spots along the shinogi line and all over really. There's also a big ol kink about 7" from the end. I don't want to put it back in it's saya as I'm worried that'll make it worse as I don't know what's in there. Currently it is oiled and wrapped in butcher paper. And any way to get rust off the tsuba without damaging it? Cheers!

Thank you for the info! And for the welcome! I did wonder about the koshirae. Another thing to note is that when on, the tsuka seems much too big for the nakago even though the mekugi ana is in the right place. Wondering if perhaps the original tsuka broke at some point in the field and was replaced with what they had at the time along with a bunch of seppa to make it fit better? Not sure. The tsuba I found a reverse image search of one identical but in better condition but the webpage it was on has been deleted now frustratingly! The only bit of caption I could read says "sukashi tsuba, mid edo per..." Thank you for all your help!

Additional photos of the hamon

Hello all! I was lucky enough recently to be given this blade and wondered if anyone had any ideas on it's age or possibly which school it's from. I have my suspicions possibly koto based on the sugata but unsure about school. The hamon seems strange, ko-midare on one side and chu-suguha on the other, but as it is quite poor condition in most of the blade it's difficult to tell and I could easily be wrong. Pease tell me what you think I am very eager to know as much as possible about this blade. Also tsuba is iron and signed but I can't make it out as its rusted quite badly. The habaki is 2 part, with the inner part being gilt copper and the outer being copper with a gilt brass(?) plate soldered to it? Is it mumei or o-suriage? I still don't realy know how to find out as I'm still learning. Here are the measurements: Nagasa: 71.8cm/28 1/4 in Overall length: 92cm /36in Hamon: Appears chu-suguha on one side and ko-midare on the other Sori: 2.5cm /1in Motohaba: 2.9cm Sakihaba: 1.6cm Motokasane: 6mm Sakikasane: 3mm Kissaki: 2.7cm Nakago: 20.3cm Thank you!