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It is the longest one I have seen, I would be interested in what it says as well.

I found this picture of a long Tanegashima, Nagoya Castle Japan.

I would have thought it was an umbrella cover if I had not seen yours

The kanemuchi sold for 85,000 yen, thats an expensive iron rod. There might have been some thing of interest in the mei. https://www.jauce.com/view2.php?seturl= ... enlargeimg

Piers, funny you should mention this, I was just trying to convince a friend to model some of the Japanese clothing I have, I am to big for most of it...on another note I just found an item that thanks to one of the first posts in this thread I was able to know what it was used for.I saw these two items and the pictures were so small that the detail did not show up. I just happened to take a real good look and saw that the items were a yari bujuro (thanks to Piers) and a yumi bukuri, both with the same kamon. Although both must have been quite common at one time I have not seen any old ones for sale, they must have taken a beating while being used. Its hard to tell how old they actually are but they are good representative examples.

Piers, I would never guess by looking at them that they were so old..or..valuable.

According to Don Cunningham and Serge Mol the uchiharai jutte is an extra long jutte with uchi meaning "strike" and "harai" meaning parry, while the kanemuchi (kanamuchi) is an iron whip. I have images of a few that were for sale recently. Two uchiharai jutte that I suspect might be recently made and one kanemuchi which could be recent as well. The last image looks like a kanemuchi that I believe might be real, it is an extremely long one (103cm or 51 inches) with a lot of inscriptions on it, if anyone can translate I would be interested in finding out what it says. Suspect Real?

Looks great, you might have a new line of work.

Sword unearthed bearing Chinese sign for year 570, an interesting story. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/201 ... 6000c.html

Malcolm, I noted that reference about completely giving yourself to one purpose, something that is not commonly or easily done in our world, also the lack if interest by younger people in learning the old methods is troubling, the sword smith depending on a traditional charcoal maker who will not have a replacement is a sad example of the future of all traditional methods, I hope there is someone taking notes from the old masters.

When soldering you use a flux to allow the lead to flow between the two pieces of copper being soldered, I have never read about a flux being used to help meld the layers of steel used in forging a Japanese sword, thanks for the info Chris.

Malcolm, nice find...thanks..I have saved pictures of it...that is a very interesting category to look for obscure items....here is a link to an interesting article about a modern Japanese sword smith which pictures and mentions just such a fuigo (bellows). Something I have never heard mentioned in relation to the construction of a Japanese sword is the use of a "flux" when welding the different types of steel into a blade. http://thecarpentryway.blogspot.com/200 ... ation.html

Recently I purchased this pair of Kiahan or kyahan on ebay, I also bought this kobakama from the same seller but separate from the kiahan. When the items arrived I started to photograph them when I noticed that the kiahan and the kobakama were a matched set. I makes me mad that someone would not sell matched items together.

Thanks for the replies, I will bookmark this post and refer to it the next time this subject comes up.

Keith, I think you stripped it down to the essentials, I was not referring to more modern tachi copies but blades of the appropriate period which from what I have read......tachi, uchigatana, and what we now refer to as katana were each distinctly different from each other due to how they were meant to be used. I was just wondering if there were some obvious clues that the average person could spot.

This sword was for sale on Ebay, I have had this subject come up recently and I do not have enough knowledge to answer correctly. If anyone has any pointers, I have used this sword as an example since it is no longer listed. I am not looking for advice on this sword good or bad, I am just using it as an example of the type of sword that I have been asked about, in other words if someone with out a huge amount of nihonto knowledge were to see a sword in tachi mounts, with no mei, are there certain characteristics that some one can easy look look for that would differentiate a true tachi from a katana mounted as a tachi, thanks. http://www.ebay.com/itm/250878771421?ss ... 1208wt_934

Your going to let your gunsmith have all the fun? Here is something you might like to read about taking one apart. viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9771&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=tanegashima

Pat, do you know how it comes apart?

To be specific I would be extremely wary of purchasing ANY nihonto from this seller, while he does carry from time to time some very rare or unusual (although not necessarily valuable) samurai items, the nihonto that he sells and especially his swords from my experience of watching his ebay auctions for years is that he sells very used and tired swords in MOST cases, occasionally he will have an acceptable naginata or yari if you just want an example for your collection. I have purchased quite a few items from him and I have always received any item purchased quickly but since there is a NO RETURN policy unless you see something that you are specifically looking for, as in a particular sword smith or a certain style of blade that you can find NO WERE ELSE you should just pass no matter how attractive a sword of his may be unless it is very inexpensive.

Please resist the urge to buy a sword from this particular dealer, you can find a much better sword at a good price from another source if you are willing to take some time.

Ian, is that the picture of the one given to Queen Victoria? I have been trying to find a clear example of the courtiers saddle to see what that type of saddle looks like compared to the war saddle. William E. Deal in his book titled "Handbook to life in medieval and early modern Japan" P.156 has the names of the two different saddles as "aristocratic saddle (suikangura) and war saddle (gunjingura)". http://books.google.com/books?id=i0ni1N ... e&q&f=true I have occasionally seen bare saddle trees for sale in Japan which looked quite old, some were very ornate, and they were Chinese in style, I had assumed that they were Chinese saddle trees but now I am wondering if I have been seeing a Japanese saddle tree in the Chinese style.

Ian, I wonder if this was some sort of fashion of the times, William E. Deal in his book titled "Handbook to life in medieval and early modern Japan" Oxford University Press US, 2007 says http://books.google.com/books?id=i0ni1N ... e&q&f=true And this picture has a caption that reads http://www.nsl.org/nslkyexhibits.html

I ran into this picture of an interesting saddle thats from karatsu castle Japan. Its not the normal looking Japanese saddle and I was wondering if it was a womans saddle possibly.

I have wondered the same thing myself, at what point exactly does a blade become a wakizashi?

Thats what I have always heard, and the seller who was from Japan had the blades displayed with the daito on top, but not the koshirae, the asking price was $18,000.00. These are the blades. I have also read that the blades should be pointing to the right? After the recent forum discussion on daisho I was on the hunt but besides Fred Weissberg's daisho which was discussed on the forum I only saw the two that I photographed. My little dirk at $225.00 seemed like a bargain, and it worked just fine cutting up fruit etc in the hotel room!