Kanemitsu Katana Thoughts please and thanks

[Francis Wick]

Hallo Friends

 

I just bought this sword this morning on Liveauctioneers so obviously dont have it in hand just yet, but was interested to see if the distinguishing members has some initial thoughts on it given a few rather sketchy details currently available 

 

The swords was obviously a war trophy as it has an old canvas cover with a US officer named on it. There is also kanji on it likely mentioning who owned it on the Japanese side ? I’ll post some pics is a member is able to see is they can figure out what it says.

 

it is a katana signed ( I think ) Bizen Osafune Kanemitsu. There doesn’t seem to be a date 

 

it is obviously later than the original OKanemitsu who only made tachi so a later generation. 

 

The Nagasa is 28 inches

 

Judging from the nakago and shape it is probably koto 

 

the hada looks to be large mukome 

 

I’ll post some pics for comments and will get better images once I receive it in a few weeks ( Canadian mail on strike again so good luck !)

 

thank you for any contributions or thoughts 

 

Francis 

[Francis Wick]

 

Edited October 11 by Francis Wick

[Bruce Pennington]

Francis,

Can't help with the writing, but just wanted to say that blade would be quite stunning with a professional polish!

[Francis Wick]

Just now, Bruce Pennington said:

Francis,

Can't help with the writing, but just wanted to say that blade would be quite stunning with a professional polish!

I hope so Bruce it might be worth a polish if the mei is shoshin and there are no fatal flaws, I’ll have to have a good look when I get it but it has some promise for sure. 

[Francis Wick]

Just noticed my grammar errors 🤣 it’s meant to state “ I just bought this sword …” too late to edit apologies 

[mecox]

@Francis Wick     interesting sword maybe late koto, does look to be "Bishu Osafune Kanemitsu".   The covers on tsuka and saya give variations of Japanese officer owners name and  address:    (1) Tokyo-to, Yozobashi-ku, Kashiwagi-cho.  (2) 3/386.  (3) Takayanagimoto  (family name?)   Yasuyuki (given name).  At bottom on saya the  US soldier name  "Louis O A----" (?)

[Francis Wick]

Thank you ! Probably muromachi I would guess . I thought it would be the officers name and so on so thank you for confirming 

[Scogg]

5 hours ago, Francis Wick said:

Just noticed my grammar errors 🤣 it’s meant to state “ I just bought this sword …” too late to edit apologies 

 

Fixed it 

 

Interesting sword! Would love to see more photos when you acquire it. Congrats on winning the auction and best of luck.

-Sam

 

[Guest When Necessary]

Hi Francis?

 

That is a very intriguing sword - congratulations! 😃👍

 

Could I just ask if the black areas shown on the blade below are holes or pits or whether (as seems likely from the photograph) merely dark marks on the blade surface?

[Francis Wick]

Thank you Sam and Dee for the comments

 

I suspect it is surface rust not pits. There seems to be a few areas of “ roughness “ or metal loss that is superficial in the hada but these things can be dealt with largely with a polish. It’s the much dreaded hidden hagire that I worry about when buying something sight unseen. Once I have it I’ll post some better pics. I was wondering if the members had more ideas as to where to place it timewise? Perhaps someone has a good reference book to see which generation of the Kanemitsu line this blade may represent. It is unlikely to be gimei

[Francis Wick]

Not that it matters to the sword, but just an interesting little bit of information for members. I very nearly got scammed, trying to buy the sword. Liveauctioneers was hacked and scammers got their hands on the email system and pretended to be the Auction house that sold these items. Several people lost a lot of money and I was very nearly scammed if it was not for Visa and their automatic fraud prevention system I would’ve lost close to US$4000 with no way to reclaim it. The lesson is be careful even if you think you’re dealing with a large Auction house or an online auction platform you can still get scammed. If something looks weird it probably is if someone asks you to pay through PayPal and send it to friends and family. It is a scam if they ask you to pay through a different payment system it is a scam if you cannot speak to someone personally or the telephone number of the Auction hours doesn’t work. It is a scam a visa or your credit card company automatically blocks a transaction. You should probably reconsider paying this person as it is probably a scam. Lesson learned. You would think an online platform like liveauctioneers would be safe and even that wasn’t.

[Lewis B]

So the whole auction was a scam? Or just the payment process post auction?

[PNSSHOGUN]

That's rather concerning, glad you were able to avoid this. When possible I prefer going directly through the auction house rather than the listing sites. 

[Francis Wick]

4 hours ago, Lewis B said:

So the whole auction was a scam? Or just the payment process post auction?

No, the Auction near seems to be honest it was Liveauctioneers ( the large auction platform, like invaluable or eBay ) that got hacked. A lot of people lost a lot of money.

[Francis Wick]

1 hour ago, PNSSHOGUN said:

That's rather concerning, glad you were able to avoid this. When possible I prefer going directly through the auction house rather than the listing sites. 

That’s always best I think. This is very unusual though and a big problem for a large auction platform like Liveauctioneers. It’s the equivalent of Sothebys or Christie’s getting hacked because these larger platforms are doing just as much business as the major auctions these days