Short sword (tanto) #3

[Jim Lewis]

This one is 17 inches long. It is the best looking of all 3 of them (FWIW). The scabbard and handle appear to be of walnut or oak stained dark. At any rate, the wood is very, very hard. The fittings are of iron and gold. The rims around the gold ladybug menuki are silver. The Kogai and Kodzuka are matched with embossed pastoral scenes finished in gold. The blade of the Kodzuka is etched and signed. The gold on the fittings at the handle and tip of the scabbard and at whatever the equivalent to the tsuba is called where the handle and scabbard meet in these swords are gold dragons.

 

I've repeated the certificate with this one, too (and also reproduced it backside, though I'd bet that's just boilerplate language of some sort).

 

The blade itself is signed on one side. It appears to be a cut-down blade, and I think one of the holes (the new one, I assume) eliminates part of the signature.

[Jim Lewis]

The tang and the other side of the blade. And the certificate again.

 

 

 

Mod edit

 

turned it right side up, sorry i lost the first pix in doing so

 

SC

[Jim Lewis]

And the other side of the certificate.

[Stephen]

look to be top notch, not a fan of sold wood saya/matchingtsuka, the hardware begs to be seen up close...very nice. 3 for 3 id say

[Mark]

my guess would be Nobukuni but i have no idea why there is a hole that takes out the first kanji, the other whole is closer to the blade so i would think this was the fisrt hole....... i like the mounts, they look great, I think you should sell this one to me,,, haha

 

thanks for the pictures

[Jim Lewis]

the hardware begs to be seen up close...very nice. 3 for 3 id say

 

Here are some pics of the hardware. Someone put a lot of work into it.

======================

 

I'm afraid this constitutes my entire collection. I'll have to resort to lurker status from here on out.

 

But if anyone can come to a better conclusion on #2 and tell me if they can ID the maker of this one and if the certificate belongs with it, I'll be very appreciative.

 

Thanks all.

[Jim Lewis]

My best guess -- reached after some years of thinking about it -- for the fittings on this sword is that they are MUCH newer than the sword. The menugi (is that the term?) that fastens the sword to the handle is a screw with the golden ladybugs as the head. One side screws into the other. I'm sure this is not the traditional way of doing this.

 

I'd think that someone spent a lot of money to re-fit this sword shortly before WW II and that it was sold after the war by the family, made destitute because of the death and destruction. We bought it from a shop in Kanda in the mid 50s (probably true of 80-90% of the swords that have made it to the west).

 

Oh, and here is the pic of the certificate that got lost when Brian or someone flipped the pic of the signature - Many thanks for doing that.