Naomasa1584

To me Gunto attribution would be one of the worst to me personally. As far as him changing his opinion, I think it's bc he thought I was a anime kid (not that there's anything wrong with that!) or just developed this interest yesterday. As he got to know me he realized I wasn't as ignorant as he seemed to think, bc he would say things like "you've seen too many movies when I had to tie the sleeves back as the tsuka can get caught it them. So only after he discarded his preconceived notions of me, did he give the blade the same benefit. Make sense? I really hope you were joking that you thought I would have believed it was a Masamune. Unless I took your comment wrong, you've only reinforced my believe that a lot of ppl come on here to argue and nitpick. Also, HE'S NOT THE ONE WHO SAID IT'S A KOTO!!! That was Ray Singers attribution. My former iai sensei thought maybe edo period. Yes you are correct. Wiki is frequently wrong. I just looked at my book with 30 of the most famous nihonto owned by Daimyo. I was honestly wondering about the pattern on the blade I sent pic of as I couldn't see hitasuru at all, as I you noticed. I thought maybe it was easier to see in color. So the blade I sent you must be Echizen aoe, I don't pay a lot of attention to 1615 to 1863 Japanese history. Which I should, as there's probably a lot of interesting stories. It's just the time era I'm the least interested in.

Nulldevice-my bad, I wrote this not realizing you posted a different sword bc my wife's talking at same time, so I'm gonna blame her lol. I'm new to this forum, please be patient with me. I'm talking about the katana that became Kuroda Yoshitaka's, it has a bizzare saya where half is red or brown, and the bottom looks gold and spikey. I found the one I mean, but not the koshirae. If I didn't know it's provenance, I might think this was Shinshinto as they tried to find and restore lost techniques, so I find it at times really difficult to accurately access Nihonto, but especially with pictures alone. I'm glad their are groups like this. I wish I sought out advice online a decades ago, when I could've probably afforded a few decent Mumei Nihonto's for a the money I spent on Hanwei swords. Not that I don't still love some of them.

That's a good point Eternal_Newbie. bc it probably would be far worst to overshoot and them be disappointed. I should've realized fr personal experience. I have this small sword that even my Iai Sensei gave me the worse attribution of all, in his opinion, which was that it was gunto. But the more I trained with him bc it was a personal trainer he seemed to start changing his mind about it. Maybe he thought bc I was a beginner to Iai at that time I couldn't possibly have an Iai of any consequence. But Ray, whose opinion I trust very much, said based on all the attributes, it was definitely Koto, he said probably earlier then 1500s which was way more then I could've hoped. I think some ppl have it in their head that if a katana isn't covered in rust or other signs of wear, it must be new. I wonder if European swords look that way bc of the mindset of not touching antiques at all. Like that polishing a sword would be unheard of, like with antique furniture. Thanx for input

Just letting everyone know, since I've noticed on these sites ppl always try and find reasons for a nihonto in question to be the less desired nihonto smith or era(assuming 2nd gen is less desired). A blade being straight isn't the end all be all, automatically Edo Kanbun. That seems to be a go to. There are blades with almost no sori before even 1600. Hasebe Heshikiri being almost completely straight and legendary. I'll admit, it's an exception, not a rule. Also it is difficult no matter how much you read to be able to date a blade on appearance alone. For me seeking an answer often leads to 10 new questions once found. I just wanted to say my piece. People seem eager almost to say someone's new prize is lesser then what they think. Also I used to get tons of requests for more photos, which I would promptly do, and never hear back from the alleged experts, Andy