Now For Something Different - Ninja Sword

[Surfson]

This one also has papers (NBTHK TK) and is remarkable for two things.  One, is that the curvature of the blade is the reverse of the typical Japanese sword.  The second is that the saya and tsuka seem to be covered with large scales from a fish or a reptile.  I'm sure some of you can tell us more about it!  

[Stephen]

Garden tool...think its been talked about. Be home later.

[DirkO]

Used to prune bonsai and the likes if I'm not mistaken. Called a nata.

[Fuuten]

Could you show the papers as well? Seems odd to me the NBTHK would paper something like this

[Stephen]

http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/unji.htm

[Surfson]

Garden tool?  Pruning Bonsai?    To me, the fish scale tsuka and saya make either of those very unlikely, as the covering is a bit delicate.  Not to mention the Hachiman horimono and the papers (unless the NBTHK has a section for garden implements....).  I will get a shot of the papers up.  It was referred to in the paperwork from the previous owner that it is a "head cutter", and I think that Stephen's link referring to these as kubikiri does the same.  It is interesting that that link mentions several other possible uses.  To me, it looks like it was made for decapitation from behind with a pulling motion..... 

[Jean]

I have seen one papered by a shinshinto master, Naotane I think and it was a Nata, a garden tool, not for bonsaï.

[Surfson]

The papers on this one attribute it to Omi no Kami Fujiwara Tsuguhide.  The nata that I found photos of on Google seem to have a straight blade, not an inwardly curving blade.  Jean, can you find photos of the one by Naotane?  

[Stephen]

Romancing the sword is always a better story,

[Stephen]

[Jean]

Robert,

 

Try this:

 

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/3334-nihon-to-for-flower-cutting/

[Peter Bleed]

Well gee. I can't read the inscription, but I bet it does NOT say anything about Amida. I think this is a kata-kiri-ba Kaifu yamagatana - as described in the JSSUS NL 49-1 by Tanner and Coutinho. Those guys made high end bush knives. I doubt that this was ever a "samuirai sword", but whatever this blade started as, I also suspect that it was tarted up in in the rather recent past.

Peter

[Surfson]

That's an interesting thought Peter, and I had never heard of a Kaifu Yamagatana.  I will have to see if I can dig up the article you cite.  I did find this paragraph on them, but no mention of the cutting edge being on the concave edge not the convex edge.  I see no rattan on this blade, and although your theory of it being "tarted up" in the recent past is interesting, all I know is that it has been in this collection probably since the late 70s or early 80s and the tarting would have to have occurred before then. 

 

 

[Surfson]

Also, would you expect a Kaifu yamagatana to have a slot for a kozuka?  

[Surfson]

Stephen, your photos looks quite like it, other than the notch on the end.  Is that a kubikiri?  Or a nata?  If the latter, I may have to purge the imagined ninja headhunters carrying this thing from my mind.....