Looking for help

[Jim Zanon]

Hello, I am looking for help with information on this sword. Mei is Aizu Ju Shigeyuki it is in gunto mounts and it was sold to me represented as manufactured during WW2 era. Picture of blade and nakago attached. Wondering when this was made and if it is hand forged - any information would be helpful I have been digging on the internet for info on this smith and have been unsuccessful.

Thanks in advance, Jim.

[Bazza]

Hello, I am looking for help with information on this sword. Mei is Aizu Ju Shigeyuki it is in gunto mounts and it was sold to me represented as manufactured during WW2 era. Picture of blade and nakago attached. Wondering when this was made and if it is hand forged - any information would be helpful I have been digging on the internet for info on this smith and have been unsuccessful.

Thanks in advance, Jim.

G'day Jim,

 

I'll stick my neck out and say nice-looking sword. The hamon shows ashi ('feet') and a tendency to saka ('sloping' or 'leaning' and a good nioi (fine crystal structure). The nakago is nicely shaped, filed and signed. I'd like to see better pics (i.e., higher resolution) of the hamon in various parts of the blade (point, midway and at the machi) as well as a better shot of the tang. I'd also like to see more effort at cropping out the useless information in a picture and to rotate the tangs to vertical so I don't have to crack my ancient neck vertebrae looking at it sideways!!! Jim, for closeups of the tang try putting the sword running left-right and use the flash. Take a number of pics straight above, higher and lower (as in north-south not up-down) to get a pic without reflected glare from from the flash. I've attached a sample of what I mean. This image is 100kbyte jpeg which I THINK will fit here. I've also rotated and cropped your image Jim and played with the brightness and contrast a.w.a. the colour balance and attached it here as well so you can see what is possible. Imagine, blokes, how much better your images will look if you pay more attention to their presentation, which is more likely to attract the desired help from already busy people...

 

Best regards,

Barry Thomas.

[Toryu2020]

Your photos don't really say one or the other if this is hand made,

may be hard to determine except in the hand,

I'll agree with Barry the nakago is finished well but the mei is clumsy,

I would look into the Aizu Shigefusa group, they worked into Showa signed Aizu ju, and though I didn't find this smith the Toko Zenshu says "He had 5 students..."

 

FWIW

-tom

[Jim Zanon]

Thank you very much for your help. Hopefully these pictures will assist in providing more info about my sword. I wasn't able to get the picture quality any better than what's here. Again, thank you for your insight. Jim.

[Toryu2020]

Jim -

Looking much better here, I would say yes it is handmade. Still cannot see the jigane in the photos but you have a nice hamon, a well finished nakago with a single plugged hole ( a sign of age), may just need a polish or a better photographer :-)

-t