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estcrh

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Posts posted by estcrh

  1. While there may be the occasional and very rare Gendaito that slips through with a Seki or Sho stamp...this isn't one of them. Very much an oil quenched Showato, and calling it a traditionally made sword is misleading.

    Brian showa22 is a very experienced, long time seller with over 3400 sales, so is he just ignorant or a fraud, if this is an oil quenched showato then his description is more than "misleading", it would be an outright lie would it not? ("traditional hand forged,..... The temper line is wavy gunome choji temper pattern and has deep temper at the point. The forging grain is tight itame-hada and no forging flaws at all.")

     

    Here are the available images of the blade, can anyone help the original poster (Mike) and point out what shows this to be an oil quenched blade so that in the future he will have more to go on more than just the description of the seller.

    fa4d162158280311e7c53bf26e3a5089.jpg

  2. Yes,

     

    that is a very polite comment! In fact, it is fraud, because the possible value increase for a GENDAITO in the long range and the actual financial differences are not small!

    Here is the sellers description. What facts lead you to determine that this description in false?

     

    ("This is a Japanese WWll Army officer`s sword in mountings. The blade is signed "Noshu Seki ju Kaneuji kin saku 濃州関住兼氏謹作", dated "Koki Nisen roppyaku-nen 皇紀二千六百年 (1940)", with 昭 inspection stamp, shinogi-zukuri shape, WWll time period made blade. Kaneuji made swords during WWll and after the war as a Gendai sword smith, listed in John Slough's book page 72. The blade is traditional hand forged, in old polish with original ububa, no rust, no stain and in good condition. The temper line is wavy gunome choji temper pattern and has deep temper at the point. The forging grain is tight itame-hada and no forging flaws at all. There is no bend, no crack and cutting edge is sharp. The scabbard is heavy metal scabbard, no dents, no bend and in good condition. The handle is tight fit with silver family mon on kabutogane, tsuka-ito wrapping is no cut, no loose and in good condition. Lock mechanism works fine. Tsuba and seppa are matched 136 number stamped. It came with blue/brown company grade sword tassel, no cut, no fade and in good condition. It measures 27+1/4" tip to the guard, 26+3/8" cutting edge, 1+3/16" width, 7 mm thickness at the notch and 39+1/2" in mountings.")

  3. Yes, it is a dead end :) Bob only gives his background and how to contact him, he does not need anything else, his fame/reputation is well established among seasonned collectors. He is the only foreigner who holds a stand at DTI .... :)

     

    See Guido's comments above. When you know Guido, it says it all :)

     

    Almost all of his deals are not public. His prices are hardly competed due to the fact that he has a job and does not need Nihonto business, this side activity simply helps him keep contact with collectors and Martial Artists.

     

    BTW, he must be the only foreign member of the Japanese nihonto antiques dealers association; this allows him to take part in private Japanese dealers'auctions.

     

    A great friend to have.

    Jean,thanks for the explanation, yes his reputation is stellar, I just never tried to check out his website and could not figure out if it was working properly or not.
  4. Yes, it is from that seller. Shame if true that he enhances them with acid.

     

     

     

    I should probably pass on it then if it's not TAMAHAGANE. I'm hoping for a full traditional made blade.

     

    A bit misleading of him to call it "traditional made", but not saying it is industrial steel with an oil quench.

    Is the description false? Send the seller an message and ask if the sword is a "nihonto", and by the way, are not Japanese swords made with "nanban tetsu" still considered to be "nihonto".

  5. What an interesting piece, almost two shaku on the nose yet hira zukuri... and the koshirae beautiful.  

     

    -John

    CUTTING EDGE 58.8 cm/ 23.15 inches......so not really "almost 2 shaku on the nose". Possibly a wakizashi with a katana tsuka added at a later date? Katana typically do sell for more than wakizashi.

  6. 猪毛之靭 seems to mean 'boar-bristle quiver', Eric. It must have contained an Utsubo at one time? Nice box.

     

    All the good boxes are coming here instead of the other thread I started a few weeks ago! :rotfl:

    Piers...a utsubo-bako, amazing, thanks. I did not know about your recent thread on Japanese boxes, I think this box belongs there, maybe Brian will move it. When I click on a forum members name and then click on the box for "threads" or "posts" it only displays a few of the most recent ones and no more, it should bring up a persons entire history. Here is a link to your other thread for anyone who is interested. http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/22563-Japanese-boxes-we-like/
  7. Speaking of large Japanese boxes, I bought this one from Kelly Schmidt recently, he described it as a "katana box", I neglected to check the size before I paid for it. I was a bit shocked when it arrived, it is 54in / 137cm on the inside, as you can see it is quite a bit bigger than a katana. There are no racks and no sign that it ever had any. It must have stored something large but what? It appears to be old, held together with wood pegs.

     

    41e7398711e4855b620fdad62fe6bb84.jpg

    • Like 1
  8. That's great. A friend has a couple of those large arrow boxes, one with Hideyoshi's Mon on it!

     

    Another friend just bought a whole bunch of those large cutter arrowheads fom a collector; I managed to sneak just one, all I could afford!

     

    My Katanabako I took to the local sword shop to see if they might be interested, but they said that no-one in Japan wants anything so large nowadays. :o

    Piers, if you ever want to free up some room in your house just let me know!! I always wanted one of that type of arrow head but I just have not been in the right place at the right time.
  9. Wow, yes, I haven't seen those shots for a while! The top four are indeed the large brown katana-bako which is still in the hall today.

     

    The bottom shot is the now long-lost black teppo-bako.

     

    Clever find indeed. :clap:

    Piers, your katana-bako is the only one of its type I have seen, these bako with racks and carrying hardware must have been for military use. Along the same lines is another rare example, a ya-bako?

     

    3e2752e3a7776f0d6fa2e9c6356b57e4.jpg

    • Like 1
  10. Eric, the pole on the one you have just posted is oval in cross-section. I was assured by my sword teacher that the koshirae is genuinely old, ie Edo at the latest. The blade he feels is of So-Shu Tsunahiro lineage, mid-Edo, so it is possible that the whole package was contemporary to the blade. Sometimes swordsmiths took unusual orders when the demand for swords was scarce.

     

    PS That was why I bought each of these Kama; none of my Japanese sword-collecting colleagues had seen anything like them. This Saturday I will be taking both to our sword meeting for some light entertainment. Naturally I will be listening out for any pearls of wisdom, hiding in offhand comments!

    Piers, I do not doubt its age at all, a very rare weapon. Have you entertained the possibility that this had a dual use, mounted in a pole as a kama and it could have also had a hand held kusarigama mount with a removable chain, just pull out the mekugi and put the blade in whatever mounts you needed at the time. The fact that it has an oval shaft and a naginata ishizuki seems to indicate that the mounts were originally from a naginata and not a yari. As for the hole, in my personal opinion, if it has a chain and weight it becomes a kusarigama, otherwise it is a kama / jingama. Below is a quote from Don Cunnungham, in which he says "The weighted chain added to the jingama to complete the kusarigama", which to me says that a chain and weight is needed for a jingama to be a kusarigama. As for your weapon, I would not think about adding a chain and weight, it would scratch the blade and fittings etc and it seems to me as a pole weapon a chain and weight would not be of much use.

     

    https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/73/ab/d6/73abd664e70f0c5974225f9b53a0f95f.jpg

     

    73abd664e70f0c5974225f9b53a0f95f.jpg

    736cee34fd42c5747e409987982c213a.jpg

  11. I wonder if the absence of a hole and the long nakago might have led to calling this one a Kama-yari? (Knudsen's kamayari definition at the top mentions no vertical point.)

    Piers, this "yari" designation goes back as far as George Stone (1930s), in his book he describes a hand held kama as a "kama yari". In my opinion if it does not have a point it is not a yari, just as a kama with a hole is not a kusurigama if it does not have a chain and weight.

     

     

    1d66b5d410d05d9a744429ee1c4ffb0d.jpg

  12. Hi Piers,

     

    I'm a bit late to this one but I remember that Darcy had a very nice example of a kama blade for sale a few years ago. I don't recall whether it was signed but I think it did have an attribution at least. You might want to drop him a line in case he can help with your research - unfortunately it's not up on his website now.

     

    Kind regards,

    John

    John, is this the one from Darcy? Not much like Piers example, different blade type and no hole for a chain, long nakago meant for a pole, Piers example could be mounted in a pole or as a hand weapon. Darcy says that this one was probably a kama yari but I have to disagree with this as it has no point.

     

    Japanese kama blade by Takahashi Nobuhide, Shinshinto (AD) nakago:49cm, 2 mekugiana mei: 浪花住清雲子高橋信秀之道 (Naniwa ju Seiunshi Takahashi Nobuhide), uramei:増田原四?正義??作之慶應四年秋 月?日作之 (Masuda Genshiro Masayoshi [?] Saku Kore, Keio 4 Nen [1868], Autumn [?] Day, Saku Kore), nagasa:10.5cm.

     

     

    https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/a8/67/d4/a867d430387abeec526585e82135bf63.png

     

    a867d430387abeec526585e82135bf63.png

    • Like 2
  13. Note that the pan itself is not illustrated in Eric's excellent photographs above.

     

    Also, a kemurigaeshi is not so commonly fitted, so omission of that would not be a serious problem. A luxury option?

     

    Looking forward to a shot of the stamp forward of the trigger, and of the Mei if any.

    Piers, kemurigaeshi are not to common, I never really looked to closely at these, now I will have to take a closer look at the images I have to see how frequently they were used. Here is a more standard example with a pan cover.

    e3d7bbc4269312545d667b9ded3e2d53.png

  14. Are there any books on the Japanese tanegashima /teppo/ hinawa-ju that are currently available and any good?

    Recommended reading material.

     

    BOOKS IN ENGLISH.

     

     

    Noel Perrin "Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879".

     

    Olof G. Lidin "Tanegashima-The Arrival of Europe in Japan"

     

    Shigeo Sugawa "The Japanese Matchlock" (English version).

     

    Rainer Daehnhardt "Espingarda feiticeira: A introdução da arma de fogo pelos portugueses no Extremo-Oriente = The bewitched gun : the introduction of the firearm in the far East by the Portuguese" (Portuguese and English in one book).

     

     

    BOOKS IN Japanese.

     

    Taira Sawada "Nihon no Furuju" (Japanese Antique Guns).

     

    Shigeo Sugawa "The Japanese Matchlock I & II"

    • Like 1
  15. heyas again,

     

    I will study this gun and others like it to find out if I can make replacement parts. Or have someone make what I cant. I think it must have an internal spring due to the position of the hinge of the "hammer" (is this what is called a serpentine in english?). Does not seem to be room for external spring under it? Also I cannot see shadow or markings etc where external spring would have been.

     

    The lock must be fastened through the "cheek piece" of the stock with some type of pegs or something, but some or most of them seems to be missing. (or so it seems because on pictures of others somewhat like this one they are easy to see on opposite side of lock).

     

    Also there seems to have been a front barrel retaining ring as per markings on the fore-stock?

     

    Have to say looking forward to receiving it. No measurements or weight given. haha, what if it turns out 15 cm long miniature toy :-) Or even better, a 15 kg giant gun. time will tell.

     

    Are there any books on the Japanese tanegashima /teppo/ hinawa-ju that are currently available and any good?

     

    Thanks again and cheers, and have a nice weekend,

     

     

    Take a look at my Pinterest board on Japanese matchlocks, you should find images of all the individual parts of a Japanese matchlock.

    https://www.pinterest.com/worldantiques/Japanese-matchlock-firearms-from-the-samurai-era-t/

     

    Japanese matchlock nomenclature. Detailed image showing the barrel protector (ama-ooi), barrel protector wedge (ama-ooi kusabi ) and removable barrel bolt (bisen).

    8de38ae4c1619092a8aabd3986131c32.jpg

     

     

    Japanese matchlock firing mechanism (karakuri), internal spring type.

    fe4c4d315db55a05e600723e684bbccf.jpg

    • Like 3
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