estcrh

Excellent link on historical sword lengths. http://www.una.edu/faculty/takeuchi/DrT ... of_wak.htm

Sounds like a great garage sale!

Steven, you bring up a very good point, how many of us have made provisions as to were our valued items will go in the event we pass away before we have to or are able to sell them or give them away ourselves? Or do you just get buried with them?

Put it on Ebay..you might get thousands from an unsuspecting novice!! On a serious note, here is a Japanese sword glossary link which might help you. http://members.shaw.ca/nihontonut/glossary.html

Ian, I knew there was a name but couldnt find it, here.are another couple of types.

For the samurai that wanted some protection without all that heavy armor?

Gun powder grinder? I give up.

Very good advise from everyone and Jeremy will have to decide what level of sword collecting he desires to reach....The sword is an acceptable example of a Japanese sword as a weapon...if he eventually decides to learn more about the subject he can sell it for some were near what he paid and perhaps for now the urge to just own a sword..any sword ...will be satisfied and he can do some studying and increase his knowledge to the point that if he ever purchases another sword it will be one everyone here will approve of. Or he might just decide to wait and save a little more money up and see if someone here can recommend a sword with better characteristics. At least he has asked for advice instead of buying first and asking later.

First of all you are suggesting that every Japanese soldier descended from a samurai family and had some "family relic" at hand. This is sheer nonsense of course, but it is in perfect accordance with the militaristic doctrine of that time. Sons of peasants and kulis were told: "We are all samurai". This was just propaganda and it will probably take some more time to get this crap out all heads, especially the smaller ones. Even many of the subaltern officers who had to carry swords were not of samurai origin. They had to get their swords and mountings from elsewhere. Secondly, the use of swords as weapons plays a minor role during WWII (politely said). Thirdly and most important: Japan's ideology during WWII was not a continuation of samurai-culture, but its perversion in the first degree. reinhard I said Japanese and not samurai for a reason..but regardless a Japanese sword being converted to a ww2 sword gives the sword to SOME people a certain amount of historical significance and is part of the swords history. When a sword which sat unused and stored away got refitted for war it again becomes a weapon instead of a memento even if the sword never actually got used as a weapon. Swords made during the was should also have the ww2 fittings kept with the sword even if the blade is refitted to suit the new owner. Just my personal belief...I acknowledge that there is still a considerable amount of hostility towards the Japanese by some collectors who admire the object but do not want to think about its origin...The Japanese ww2 ideology was sadly just a reflection of the American and European ideology that they had observed first in their part of the world..but thats another debate.

When a Japanese soldier took his families relic and put it onto ww2 fittings it changed to sword back to a weapon and all the fittings become part of the swords history...all fittings and related items that came with the sword should go with the sword when it is sold, but the sword does not necessarily need to be kept in the fittings. A future owner of the sword ( we do not really own anything..we just get to take care of it for awhile) may appreciate having some of the swords history accompany the sword even if the current owner does not. Think about some future owners delight a hundred years from now when they can show people the swords history.

You need to post pictures of the tang also as that will tell a lot. the damascus type of pattern looks funny and the fittings look new but with a few more pictures it will be clear what it actually is, or at least what it isnt.

Alf, there is nothing bad about Ebay in general, its just an internet market place and like any market you need a certain amount of knowledge to make an informed purchase. On the forum there are people who have spent a life time (and fortune) to get to a higher level of understanding of nihonto and to those people the sword that looks nice to the average person looks no better than a steak knife. The swords that these people live for are rarely sold online and never on Ebay. The Japanese do not want these swords to be sold to foreigners and even the foreign owners of these swords often will not sell them to just anyone even if you could afford it and for good reason. When you mix people who collect for different reasons and who have a different level of understanding of a subject your bound to have a difference of opinion. If you want to buy a Japanese sword as an example of a weapon, or a ww2 historical item, or to just have a low cost sword to own and study then you can find a decent sword on Ebay but you will almost never find the type of sword that exemplifies what Japanese sword making has come to represent to a collector who searches for a rare high quality nihonto.

Piers, its a rainy day here.

Thanks Ian, interesting idea..I have also seen the tea swords being called "doctors swords" or "bokuto" Here is an interesting one> http://www.trocadero.com/thekura/items/964574/en1.html There are some others on http://www.trocadero.com/ if you search for doctors sword.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-Japanese-SA ... 1056wt_754

Ian, I was thinking jutte or some sort of tessen type of weapon myself but is seems to be sort of fancy and then I recalled the so called tea and doctors swords which were wood sword shaped symbols of status and class, could it be one of these? I have never seen a metal one pictured anywere though. Here is a picture of a wood "tea" sword which I have seen being called a "chako" before. Maybe it is a sort of jutte or tessen..I have seen them with kurikata before sort of like this one that has no kurikata.

I saw this in a New Orleans antique store that carries high quality weapons etc, its labeled as a samurai police weapon..any thoughts?

Donald, this site works for Yahoo Japan, I have used it myself but I do not believe it will work for Bidders.

One of the items for sale>

Here is one that I have. It looks like the one you are asking about.

Some more of them. I was wondering how these might have been used. http://www.japanauctioncenter.com/view. ... ugichocoya

http://www.japanauctioncenter.com/view2 ... b111725844

Does anyone know if there is a service that will bid for you on Bidders like the services that you can use for yahoo?

I do not have a problem buying a samurai item that has been used or even well used but it always amazes me to find something in almost pristine condition, I can not imagine the set of circumstances that took place for something to remain almost untouched, reading Peirs description of how hard it is to keep his equipment in good shape is a reminder of how lucky we are to have so many surviving examples in circulation still, that might change in our lifetime.

Your statement shows just how amazing it is that so many armors and weapons and related items have survived for so long in Japan in such good condition. A lot of that has to be due to proper care and storing of family heirlooms.