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Mystery O-kissaki Katana


ChrisW

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Hello again gentlemen!



This is a blade that I recently acquired locally. At first, before cleaning it, I thought it was going to be another relatively young blade that has simply gone through a world war and was brought back by a veteran. Beneath all the cosmoline or brake grease (and grass clippings), came a blade with no edge damage and a surprisingly interesting hamon. The blade is 27 1/4"  with a very nice o-kissaki point. It has two mekugi-ana, of which both appear to be drifted. The fittings are somewhat plain but have some hint at having some kind of applied ornamentation (cloisonne?) having existed though it is mostly gone, some manner of white flecks that have mostly rubbed off. The flecks appear on the kashira, tsuba, and kojiri. The tsuba, although plain appears to have a shakudo plug in it. After cleaning it, I was impressed and made an offer which was accepted.

When I brought this to my local Token Kai meeting, neither I nor Dan could figure out what exactly we were looking at. We spent a good while pouring over the book he brought, trying to narrow its manufacture down, to no avail. There are also a few spots where the hamon lifts up beyond the normal pattern. One notable oddity was that on the omote side of the blade, about 3" up from the hakabi is a set of three circles in a triangular arrangement above the hamon. But most noticeable of all is the CRAZY amount of kaeri. The hardening goes at least down half to two-thirds of the mune towards the habaki. The mune width itself is also rather narrow compared to many other blades I've seen. Its not quite a cormorant neck shape, but it is nearly diamond-shape.  I am unsure if the blade exhibits true utsuri or not, but there appears to be evidence for it. I am also unsure if the blade is simply suriage or o-suriage. The sori is interesting too.

Therefore, for your perusal, is this blade! My asks are:

Probable age/era of production

School

Possible smiths
Ideas for the reason of the strange hamon/kaeri

Suriage or o-suriage

As always, any and all help and opinions are appreciated! This one has our local TK completely stumped, so here it is!

The images are arranged with a link to the imgur resolution, followed by what is a lower resolution image.

https://imgur.com/Hj1GCSN
Hj1GCSN.jpeg


https://imgur.com/8561qnC
8561qnC.jpeg


https://imgur.com/TQlpT4f

TQlpT4f.jpeg

 

https://imgur.com/9Gz77jo

9Gz77jo.jpeg

 

https://imgur.com/iw8vMdz

iw8vMdz.jpeg

 

Evidence of what I believe is significant kaeri:

https://imgur.com/tpTt2rp

tpTt2rp.jpeg

 

https://imgur.com/UKeumwT

UKeumwT.jpeg

 

https://imgur.com/39iTzDt

39iTzDt.jpeg

 

https://imgur.com/BF5K2Dr

BF5K2Dr.jpeg

 

https://imgur.com/5FTx1sT

5FTx1sT.jpeg

 

https://imgur.com/aKDB56h

aKDB56h.jpeg

 

https://imgur.com/3GrrcF9

3GrrcF9.jpeg

 

https://imgur.com/YCNiIaV

YCNiIaV.jpeg

 

https://imgur.com/swcjM2C

swcjM2C.jpeg

 

https://imgur.com/mEYn8O8

mEYn8O8.jpeg

 

The image showing the three circles:

https://imgur.com/ULFj0N4

ULFj0N4.jpeg

 

Boshi:

https://imgur.com/EibDmsK

EibDmsK.jpeg

 

Evidence of utsuri:

https://imgur.com/0l2X34o

0l2X34o.jpeg

 

https://imgur.com/MBxdYvx

MBxdYvx.jpeg

 

More kaeri:
https://imgur.com/d9a1IcQ
d9a1IcQ.jpeg

 

 

Thanks again gentlemen! As always, very appreciated.

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Sorry the pictures are bad. Can't see kaeri, can't see boshi, can't see hamon - its all there, but blurry, shaky etc.

For example, it can be Daido. He did straight blades with o-kissaki and long kaeri. A lot of possibilities here. The most desirable is obviously Nambokucho Soshu, but...

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Unfortunately the batteries in my calipers are dead, so I'll have to search for new ones, in the meantime with a ruler:

Motohaba is approximately 1 3/8":

Sakihaba is approximately 1"

 

Edit: found some batteries!

 

Motohaba: 32.64mm

 

Sakihaba: 24.28mm

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Hi Chris

 

Mino, not sure on age though as nakago dont scream Muromachi, the way it was cut short does though

 

Only ever seen one katana with really well done controlled muneyaki, that was a Shinto sword

 

A mino sword with muneyaki here. Higaki yasurime again mentioned. Maybe some masame on your sword maybe.

http://www.nihontocraft.com/mumei_katana.html

 

Not much help, killed a few minutes why misses has masterchef on

 

cheers

 

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Hi Chris, sorry, but as Kirill points out its difficult with those images, the image of the saya looks to represent sori better than that of the blade.

 

Can only go with what we have available which can be fun at times.

 

Had a look at iphone images of the nakago and i take back what i said about it not appearing to be Muromachi, to be more precise i think the blade may be Momoyama (really sticking my neck out lol). You see the worn Hikagi yasurime typical of Sue-Seki.  Would say it has only been cut short the distance between the two ana, this would put the original length into blades made at that time.  

 

I mentioned the way it looks to have been shortened, significant maybe, some info. Tenshō-suriage and Keichō-suriage | Markus Sesko

 

Probable age/era of production.................1600 ish

School................Mino

Possible smiths.........................................Kane- whats it
Ideas for the reason of the strange hamon/kaeri...........Not typical, but see sword on the link above, guess it happens.

Suriage or o-suriage   ....................suriage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Chris,

 

i actually go into a closet and lay out a black bed sheet. Using my camera phone, zoom in to 2.5x and focus. Turn on flash turn out the lights and snap a picture at a slight angle to deflct the flash away from you. i have gotten some great pics doing this.

 

1st pic is a wakizashi by Kanesaki.

2nd & 3rd pics are a katana by Shichibejo Sukesada

 

Just a suggestion.

3081.jpg

Sk 1g.jpg

sk 20.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one, unless your post is really relevant and adds to the topic..

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