Naval Katana meiji?

[pcfarrar]

I have an interesting katana in good quality kai gunto mounts and I'm stuck trying to figure out the age.

 

It has a thick kasane, thin mihaba with small ko-kissaki. The nagasa is 27.5". The hamon is suguha with a thin nioiguchi that is heavily lined with nie. It has huge amounts of ji-nie, including clumps of ara-nie. The nakago is very long and suriage, with a clear change in the patination from the shortening for WW2 (sujikai to kiri yasurimei). The original length of the sword would have been in excess of 32". The kai gunto tsuka utilises two mekugi-ana, the top and the bottom one. Given the sheer quantity of nie present on this sword I'm assuming its not an oil tempered showato. The large mekugi-ana (2nd from top) does look like the ones you find in swords from Kyu-gunto koshirae. I'm wondering if it might have been a Meiji period Kyu-gunto katana that has been shortened and remounted for WW2.

 

Thanks,

 

Peter

 

 

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

The original length of the sword would have been in excess of 32". OMISSIS I'm wondering if it might have been a Meiji period Kyu-gunto katana that has been shortened and remounted for WW2.

 

If I'm making the conversion correctly, at over 80 cm (original lenght) it could even be a

Shinshinto copy of a Tachi.

[pcfarrar]

Hi Carlo,

 

Assuming the 2nd mekugi-ana is the original, the nagasa would have been >80cm originally so I guess copy of a tachi is a distinct possiblity.

 

Thanks,

 

Peter

[dkirkpatrick]

Hard to tell in the pics but almost seems more of an ikubi kissaki as the mihaba seems to be fairly consistent throughout the blade. Also the boshi seems to be almost komaru sagari or yakitsume. It would be interesting to have a squared up pic of the kissaki and the exact blade measurements to add to the discussion. I like the activity and the steel color, the health aside I am curious as to what would rule this out for being Shinto (or older?). It seems swords of all eras were shortened in a variety of ways for an equal variety of reasons so I think it can be hard to say sometimes without multiple experienced eyes seeing the piece in hand to say. Pics of the bottom two ana might be useful along with a nakago mune shot that might show cues to original lengths. Looks like a great sword to me! Thanks for sharing.

 

Doug

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Yes, Doug, it's interesting. Ji and Aranie, Nioiguchi, Suguha...

The older the better (well, generally speaking...) for Peter.

 

But as per being pre-Shinto I think that Peter would have spotted a punched Mekugiana if present.

If there aren't we still can suppose it has been cut away in a previous Suriage, but this way how long would have

been (originally) the sword ? It would have been close to a Nanbokucho lenght, period that the thick Kasane

*should* exclude.

[pcfarrar]

The measurements:

 

Nagasa - 70cm, nakago length - 23.5cm, kissaki length - 2.4cm

 

Moto kasane - 0.8cm , saki kasane - 0.6cm

Moto haba - 2.6cm, saki haba - 1.8cm

 

Considering the kasane it does have quite a light feel in the hand. Very hard to get any sort of decent photos.

 

After hitting my books I did think that Aizu Kanesada might be a possibility? I'm certain the sword is no older than the 19th century.

 

You can see the nie falling through the hamon in this photo, it's very nice, looks a bit like snow falling:

 

Kissaki, no pitting just some light rust: