Something Different - Mite Kudasai

[tokashikibob]

Gentlemen,

    I really do not have any thing to say about this as nobody I've contacted who I consider experts seems to have seen anything like it.  Silver cage, copper kani, wooden tsuka/saya with touches of mother of pearl where a branch knot would be.  Seems like much age to it.

 

Best regards,

    Bob

[ROKUJURO]

Looks like a Japanese blade in a south east Asian KOSHIRAE (Myanmar, Thailand or so) 

[tokashikibob]

Never thought of that,  that seems possible however!

[Peter Bleed]

I agree with Rokujuro. Something ginned up in the spirit of a Dha.

Peter

[Death-Ace]

Possibly an old koto blade bought in the Meiji era by a tourist and on his travels, had a koshirae created by a craftsman in one of the other SE Asian countries. Trades with other cultures were known during the Edo period for weapons and this could have been done then as well, although the habaki looks well taken care of with the blade, so not sure how true that could be. Another thing I think of as plausible is a blade taken by a Christian Samurai during the early Edo Period diaspora to his new homeland. To keep his heirloom, and adapt to his new culture while keeping his identity, he may have had the new koshirae fashioned. A reason so, could have been to also avoid possible punishment if the Tokugawa regime were to expand their boundaries in occupations. Last I can think of is blade with bad koshirae that a GI had completed on an island before the home stretch, but that's a bubba story!

 

Lev

[lonely panet]

what about the king of siam, who had samurai body guards on the 17 cent??

[tokashikibob]

I wonder what those samurai mercenaries where outfitted with by the Portugeuse in their colonies?   The ones Blackthorne was complianing about to Toranaga.   It's also a old Sukesada. 

[manfrommagnum]

My recommendation. Find the sword date and the type of wood. Then go from there. In the early 1600s, many samurai fled to Phillipines, fomosa, et.al.