Darcy

I would be leaning towards it being legit. Not checking any books, but the Aoe signatures tend to be over several generations, and if someone is trying to fake an Aoe signature they at least knew to do it on the opposite side from normal tachi mei. I think it needs to be sent in. If you picked up a signed Aoe blade it will go Juyo Token. Even if the mei is no good, sometimes on these the blade is still from the same school. I'll hope for you it is Aoe, in western circles these tend to be a bit overlooked and they are really top notch items.

From what I read, keisho filemarks are the invention of Sukehiro (nidai). You are not supposed to see them before this smith. I will combine some of the teachings of a friend of mine and Kanzan sensei... and a bit of engineering and personal experience, and hope I don't get it wrong. In the koto period the smiths are mostly about functionality. The nakago is a very functional part of the sword, you see a tendency to Niji-mei and no date or anything on old work, partially because there was no requirement or need, and partially because carving up the nakago can only weaken it. In particular, stressing metal makes it fragile... that is, I can give you two pieces of silver, one that you could wrap around your fingers like a wet noodle (I have done this, I have some soft metal smithing in my background), and one that will be so hard you could use it as a knife with no problems. The only difference between the two is that I banged one with a hammer for a while. Metal is ductile, it flows because there are small spaces in the crystalline matrix. Iron in particular has the shape if its lattice changed by the presence of carbon, carbon stiffens the lattice and stops the iron from shifting around... but it doesn't completely prevent it and this also has to be combined with the right heating and cooling and distribution of carbon and percentage of carbon. Anyway, steel also will bend and flow, it is just more resistant than iron, or silver. When you bang on these metals, or bend them, you cause the spaces in the lattice to close up. Those spaces are what causes the ductility and workability of the metal. Each time this happens, you use up a bit of what the metal has to give... and the metal becomes a bit more resistant to the next move. This is called work hardening. A silversmith who is banging on his wet noodle and making it hard will return the metal to the fire to soften it, then he lets it air cool slowly, same as a blacksmith. This heating opens up the spaces for the smith, and for the blacksmith helps him distribute the carbon. It restores the ductility. So getting back to the nakago, when you pound in the mei, you are working the steel and the area around the chisel and in particular, underneath it, becomes harder than the rest of the nakago. Harder with steel means more liable to break than bend... so you get the koto smiths both without a need for a fancy nakago and with a desire to work the nakago as little as possible because they are building a highly functional weapon. The more you work it, the more likely to break. Hence: gentle yasurime not overworked, and nijimei in fine characters, or in small characters. Usually no date. As you end up in the Shinto period, fighting is far less frequent, and the sword takes on more artistic over functional aspects. The smiths have more time as well, and the dress of the nakago becomes very detailed. Signatures start becoming very long, the chisel marks become very refined and highly stylized... you get the addition of keisho yasurime, deep yasurime, you get kao being added, long and stylized dates, grass script, hot stamps, fancy nakagojiri, everything but the kitchen sink gets thrown at the nakago. Each element added takes the nakago away from its functional ideal which is a mumei nakago with fine yasurime. With this in mind, the idea of the keisho yasurime is not in harmony with what the koto smiths were doing, but is part of the repertoire of the Shinto smith... because it is not a functional concept, it is an artistic one. The beauty of the koto blade falls from functionality dictating form, and the Shinto sword begins the transformation of the sword from a functional object to an art object. Keisho yasurime are part of that (partial) transformation. The sword always remains with some of its original functionality, but the various criticisms of Shinto work against koto work can find their root in this transformation.

I think it is going to be nice, a real shame about the nakago, I figured the guy cut off about $8,000 to $10,000 worth of steel. :-).

Some scans.... camera not on hand. These really suck for quality but it's all I have right now. It's a really weak scanner. But the general difference is pretty clear and the ichimonji side you can get an idea of. The activities do not come out because the scanner uses a fluorescent light, this makes all activities kind of blurry, so all you see is the difference in the color of the steel. One place where the matsukawa patterns stand out very clear barely shows up on scanning, I've got it in a cutout below.

Well after about 16 hours of cleaning rust and rubbing it down, this little tanto has some surprises to show.... when I got it nothing was visible on either side and I had been worried that there was no hamon or the hamon was chipped through. Way way wrong. It is definitely a joint work because the two sides of the tanto are completely different work in the tempering. I haven't seen anything like this before and I actually didn't believe it to be possible. One side is done in nioi and the other is in nie. The nioi side is a copy of Fukoka Ichimonji. It is choji midare in a middle size, with a few of the choji jumping up like flames halfway to the top, and 3/4 of the way to the top. Some break free of the hamon and reside in the ji as tobiyaki. There are nice ko-ashi and yo in the hamon. It is really surprisingly lovely and I'm surprised at the level of skill it shows. The other side has the bigger surprise because it is Soshu den in the style of Norishige. I didn't think you'd be able to do both in the same piece and have no idea how these two smiths pulled this stunt off. There is matsukawa hada visible with both black chikei and frosted ji nie. Through the yakiba there are inazuma and kinsuji especially in the boshi, so far not much down below the yakiba, but there is still visible marks from rust and stuff, this is not really polished just has been rubbed and rubbed and rubbed with uchiko paste until activities and the hamon came out. There is a lot of yubashiri in the ji, so it is like a cloudy day with blue sky and sprinkled fine nie. The kaeri on this side turns all the way down the blade. I think this Yoshi smith whomever he was was not a Bizen den smith at all. My theory on the nakago is that the dummy cut the end off to force it into a tsuka he had. Sad day for nihonto.

Identifying the yasurime as not belonging with a koto tanto is correct. So it's left to decide if the yasurime are wrong, or if the tanto is not koto. There is something wrong with this nakago, the mekugiana is too low, and the shape below the machi is strange. The rust ends very abrubtly as well at the first yasurime with a slight sprinkle above it. The shape of the nakago ha also makes an abrupt turn here. The workmanship in the blade looks older than Shinto to me. It has uchisori and looks polished down, both in the ji and in the sugata, which will enhance the uchisori on this kind of tanto as it is polished. It looks older than Shinto as a result. So it's possible that a mumei piece had the machi moved up and the yasurime and mei added later. Or an older tanto blade was used to replace a damaged blade with an existing nakago. The mei looks no good to me at a glance, so I'd be leaning towards it being a fake for the Shinto Sukenao.

The two Kanemitsu smiths are different... they come from different periods and traditions.

I want to say thank you to both of you for your generous translation assistance. It's always been very hard for us, and it is nice to have real expertise for us all to rely on. It's educational for everyone.

gah, I should have known mizuta .... have trouble getting past being a middle student.

So I wasn't so very far off! That's great, if I understand correctly, this means it has the name of the samurai who wore the sword as well as the craftsman who made the tsuka?

Pretty sad all told. Stunned that the Kunimune did not get more than $75k. I thought it would go for at least double. Nobody has any money.

I think the upper right is: 肥前守戸塚工 Hizen no Kami do tsuka kou. I may have the character pronunciation wrong, but the meaning I believe is that Hizen no Kami is the Daimyo of Hizen province, the "do" (not sure on the reading of that) is the household, and the last part "tsuka kou" is "tsuka artisan." So he is naming his title, Tsuka maker for the House of the Daimyo of Hizen. Next you have his signature: 黒?久作 First character is not exactly right, didn't attempt second as first I couldn't really find. It could be an older style of writing the character that has now changed, this happens sometimes and makes me go bonkers trying to look it up. So I'll just defer on that, but the last part is of course saku, for having made this. Under that it looks like it says: 正村之常負 Which is something about owing or responsibility to the perpetual immortality of Shomura? I could be comically wrong on that, hard to read the kanji, Shomura could be Masamura, first two characters, middle is Kore. Last two carry the meaning, Shomura/Masamura I believe is a name. I think maybe Shomura/Masamura either ascended to power or maybe died? If I were to guess. Again, could be COMICALLY wrong. To the right of this I read: 暦元? Which looks like a reign name, first character is "calendar", then I'd speculate that it is Genbun (1736) or Genji (1864). Can't really read the second character, but first is obviously Gen (Moto) so that narrows it down. Leaning to Genbun. 三月 3rd month. Then something-something kore, probably a super lucky day or something blah blah. On the opposite side now, looks like another date or the continuation of the date or something. Skipping over the first part because I can't quite make it out, the left part looks to read second month, lucky day. ﾆ月吉日 Maybe one is date of manufacture, other is commemorating something. Last part looks like it starts with Yuki 行 and the next character drives me insane every time Tanobe sensei writes it because it is scripted and it takes me forever to map it over... though in theory it is easy I can never count the strokes in it and I keep forgetting what it is. I lose the next couple, then it looks like it says 日七有之 which is almost gibberish to me so I am probably wrong (day 7 this is... but the order is weird). Anyway hope this helps at least narrow down the meaning, looks like for the maker this was important, maybe someone died or someone ascended to the ruling seat of Hizen province I would guess and this was for commemoration of that. It's sad that it got taken apart for the menuki, however you'd never find out this information if this did not happen. A very cool collectable thing, and I look forward to seeing my clumsy work here cleaned up and finding out what is going on. Please keep in mind that a slight error can really cause the meaning to deviate so take all this with a grain of salt until it can be corrected and confirmed.

Slight correction to Rich... I think it reads: 備中國水田住國次作 Bitchu no Kuni Suiden Ju Kunitsugu Saku I think this is a smith working in Kanbun. The papers state that the piece is a Nagamaki. If the piece were not ubu, I believe that the NBTHK would have called it a Nagamaki Naoshi or a Naginata Naoshi. Given that information, and the timeframe for manufacture, I think the evidence is pointing towards it being ubu. If we could have a look at the nakago in the photograph it would be easier to tell. These shinto pieces tend to have a small size and short nakago, and there are some full sized items that show up in shinshinto. I took photos of a massive Naotane naginata with full nakago, done in masame a while ago. Always exceptions to rules of course. Defering to Moriyama san on the "Suiden", I'm not entirely confident of that but I think it is ok.

I picked up an interesting tanto that had been abused somewhat. It was jammed into the tsuka and had to be removed carefully with the use of a vise. When I got it out I found out why... Someone had taken BOLT CUTTERS to the nakago for some reason argh. They cut off about 3/4 of an inch of it, I can see the crystalline fracture lines where the steel finally broke under the pressure. The person then put it back into the tsuka, and it of course slid in further so that the mekugiana did not match up, so they jammed it in but deep and good until the tsuka held it in place. Why people do these things is beyond me. Anyway, the piece is actually very interesting. It is healthy but with standard el-whackjob state of scratches and looks to be a gunome midare hamon. Camera is elsewhere (again sorry keep forgetting it), and it has the typical shape of these pieces from the very end of the Momoyama period. It has a date of Keicho 15 which agrees (1610) and on the flip side is a Bizen signature. Unusual I would think because of the flooding that happened before this, these had to be in the last group of holdouts who kept things going after most of the production failed. Signature reads Bishu Osafune then gets cut off when interesting . But just enough was left to make for a satisfactory mystery. On the left is Haru and on the right seems to be Yoshi. Looks like a joint work, the left would be pretty certainly one of the Harumitsu line, and the one on the right I can only guess at and think maybe Yoshinaga. Any opinions, theories or discussion welcome. I'd like to pass it on too to someone who will polish it / paper it and let me photograph it in the future for my books if anyone is interested, it won't be expensive. Also has some fittings of no high quality... contact me via email (not PM! I am always late with them).

Rubbing alcohol contains water, generally a good idea to avoid. You would be better off with methyl hydrate that you can find in a hardware store, which will contain no water. You don't want methyl hydrate on your hands though, it is very efficient at stripping the oil from your hands and the results can be very painful if you stay in contact with it for a long time.

I posted about these a while back... Gabriel *AND* Carlo, sorry wrote that on the train and everything was bouncing around, thought Carlo was Gabriel following up. Both of you I think have recalled pretty much everything I had to say then. The NBTHK wrote this Awataguchi Kunimitsu up as being possibly a mete-zashi due to the signature being on the opposite side to standard use.

This is a very excellent film that shows a realistic portrayal of the lives of lower class samurai during the Edo period. It's set towards the end, where the samurai have the impression that their time is wrapping up. It is away from the stereotypical samurai movie, and I think is probably my favorite film to come out of Japan after having digested for a couple of days. The fighting is very realistic and well done, but mostly it shows that the samurai life was for many of them very different from what we may have in mind. Because of this, I think it is an important movie for people who collect swords to watch, as it will help adjust our understanding away from the overly romanticized versions and towards more realistic impressions. It is also beautifully shot and directed, and the acting is all very top notch. I was very impressed with this film and highly recommend it. Even the wives who are only just barely tolerant of their pet sword collectors would enjoy sitting down and viewing this film I think, the story is very strong.

looks like: Noshu Seki ju Fujiwara Kanefusa Saku to me. 濃州関住藤原兼房作 But doesn't seem to match: http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/kanefusa.htm

I think Stephen is right. The piece I think is middle period Muromachi, Mino, probably something related to the Kanesada line. It was shortened towards the end of the Muromachi period, and a new nakago jiri done for it. If it were kiri then it would have been shortened later. It might have had a large chip from fighting, and the only way to save the sword was to shorten it for wakizashi use. The nakago does not look like a normal one made for the sword in later times.

Sukesada 祐定

I should be starting on the Soshu volume in October. I am planning a trip to New York, will be booking it soon, and will photograph swords in the area.

Fake as everyone else has already said. Improved fake over the standard. I recently saw a faked naginata of this same breed, first time I've seen a faked naginata.

I'll be leaving the site up with the reference works there, and maybe be adding more articles over time. I learned a lot about a lot of things by running that site and having swords come in and out. I wish I could keep doing it, but running a business blows. Wish I could do this for fun, but import/export is not fun haha.

I'm a bit rusty in this area. Heres what I think I know in regards to this... the Tadayoshi line is influenced first by Shizu in the teachings of Umetada Myoju who made great Soshu copies. Tadayoshi I makes them as well. Later on he bases his school style on Rai, but you still see the Soshu influenced work. Soshu is generally a middle patterned itame/mokume mix showing strong emphasis in chikei. The above Tadayoshi to me looks like the kind of classy second period Soshu work (Masamune / Go / Norishige / Shizu). It would not be nashiji hada as far as I know, though could still be konuka just with emphasized chikei. The scale of the pictures might be throwing me off a bit, first I felt it was more just mokume/itame mix. In general, nashiji hada is a Yamashiro tradition thing, and so that's how you get it being mentioned at all in combination with Hizento. Usually you hear "konuka hada" though which is rice-bran hada and that is what the fine Hizen jigane is described as. Any particular sword by the Hizen smiths though has to be examined to know what the influences are. I think the following Omi Daijo shows the konuka hada properly. Chikei are de-emphasized, the jihada is much finer grained, and in the hand in the light looks like silk. Nashiji hada in the Yamashiro tradition is shown in the trademark work of Rai Kunitoshi. Before this there is mokume and itame but it is not as fine as when Rai Kunitoshi establishes the elegant and simple style of fine hada and suguba while departing from the choji hamon of his youth. Below the Omi Daijo is a picture of the jihada of a Rai Kunitoshi, this is nashiji hada mixed with itame. It is my tanto, which also happens to be the earliest known dated Rai Kunitoshi work. It has some itame and masame mixed in, not an effect of polish as it is almost in original condition, but possibly because he was still working out the details of the new kitae. You can see in the finer areas though how tight it is without becoming muji. Again, the blade looks like silk in the light, and you can see how a great smith of later years would look at such an elegant blade and desire to copy the style. I think the two pictures show well the relation of the two schools. Omi Daijo konuka: Rai Kunitoshi nashiji with some mix of itame and masame:

yes, show us what you can show. I don't know anyone in Spain off the top of my head, but there are many people in Europe who could help you out.