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Thoughts On Recent Purchase Gendaito


Rei Sinn

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Hi everyone! I'm new to this forum and I wanted to share with you a Mumei I just picked up here at the gun show. Funny when I found it at the show the blade was lathered in cosmoline. No one knew quite to make of it, such as making it out to be a NCO type 95 or something unauthentic. I'm curious if anyone here has any particular thoughts on its origin, swordsmith, etc.

 

I believe it's a Showa era Gendai with a beautiful Kesho Yasuri patterned Nakago. The back of the mune has a couple stamps, but otherwise no Seki, no Showa or Star stamps that I could find. The Nagasa measures 26 1/2 inches and the whole blade measures around 34 inches. The hamon appears to be Suguha with some form of ashi. There is very fine hada, probably itame I would guess. The "type 95 blood groove" was in my opinion hand carved Bohi in Ryo-Chiri.

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 My guess would be a hand forged factory made blade, and one of the higher end Showato. I really do not see a nihonto of the WW2 era going unsigned, especially with custom order fullers. If the nakago had shown some signs of age, I would have gone for it being a mumei Shin-Shinto

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Hello Christoph,

 

yes it is probably not a Nagamitsu while I personally can not comepletely rule it out. I see a great variety in Emura and Nagamitsu blades. Also their mere number is tremendous. This leads me to thinking that a larger number of people made "Nagamistu" blades. That is numberous prisoners employed at the coresponding prison forges - hence the great variety and sometimes a reason not to sign the blade.

 

What is very atypical for a Nagamitsu are the Bohi. Bohi are rather rare with Gendaitos but they exist. I have not see them on a Nagamitsu blade yet. (I actually think I have a Nagamitsu somewhere that is similar)

 

Aisde from pinning this blade down to a certain smith, I have no doubt that it is a WWII Gendaito.

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The yasurime is very unique. Looks like a variant of kesho yasuri. The nakago is kata yamagata. I search today in all books for a smith with that nakago and yasurime and found nothing. Maybe i had to less books  :laughing:

 

I bet there is only a few smiths in Meji/ Showa who do this in this way.

 

A very fine sword.

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Chris-

 

I sincerely thank you very much for all the time and input. It's truly a fascinating piece I couldn't leave behind!

 

The only reference prior to everyone's input was John slough and Kokan Nagayama. Interestingly, nagayama's Connoisseur's book has a matching illustrated example of the yasuri with regards to the corresponding era, but gendaito are a whole different animal.

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I might consider looking into an origami. Anybody know of a good polisher in the states?

IMHO, if not Jimmy Hayashi then this blade needs to go to Japan.  IMHO.  It is possibly an utsushi to Koto Bizen - suguba with ko-ashi and a hi that goes into the ko-shinogi.

 

 Most definitely needs a high level polish.  IMHO.

 

BaZZa.

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Just thinking out loud.I wonder if it is mumei because it was one of the two leftover swords usually made when a special order blade is commissioned from a swordsmith.

We hear of one blade being chosen and signed and the other two are left to the swordsmith to sell off...unsigned. Maybe this is what this blade is...it does seem to be high class work...maybe one of the leftover swords after an offering to a temple. Guess we'll never know.

regards,

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George-

 

I have read an article about this too! If I were to speculate and the sword was an offering to a temple, could the original koshirae have been a shirasaya replaced with gunto mounts? Sorry, still new to this.

 

Although, the mounts are tattered and don't exactly reflect the condition of the blade.

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Hi Rei,

no not re-mounted from temple shirasaya. I mean that when a smith makes an offering or a commissioned presentation sword he usually makes 3 swords and the "recipient" chooses the one he wants. This one is signed, but (as I understand it) the other two (there is a name for them but I forget it now) are sold off by the smith unsigned. Just thinking out loud, but maybe yours is one of these? It looks like a well made and finished sword that should be signed...just thinking of a reason it is not signed.

Regards,

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IMHO, if not Jimmy Hayashi then this blade needs to go to Japan.  IMHO.  It is possibly an utsushi to Koto Bizen - suguba with ko-ashi and a hi that goes into the ko-shinogi.

 

 Most definitely needs a high level polish.  IMHO.

 

BaZZa.

 

As I said earier  it looks o be work in the Bizen Tradition ... so yes I agree to that  ...but send it to Japan for a top level polish? I can't agree to that due to the market situation.

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Rei-

 

Your blade has similarities in the yasurime to some of the Emura blades I have seen, such as this one: https://www.aoijapan.net/katana-emura-saku-3/

 

Here is a link to a search on sold items from AOI Art for “Emura” in case the link doesn’t work for you: https://www.aoijapan.net/?s=Emura&x=0&y=0

 

I am no expert, just merely suggesting the similarities since no one has mentioned Emura yet. I hope this helps you with your research. Good luck!

 

Mark

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