Can you help me to identify this Koto Nihonto?

[Simon123]

I recently purchased this nihonto.

I am fairly certain that it is a suriage or o-suriage tachi.

The polish is quite old and not in perfect condition. It may need a togishi in the future. The question is, is the blade worth it? In general, the blade is in good condition. Only the kissaki and yokote are not perfect. The yokote is still visible to the naked eye, but it is difficult to see. I am not sure what type of kissaki it is, but I suspect it is a ko kissaki.

The hamon is a narrow variant of suguha. I am not sure if it is ko-suguha or something similar.

The blade is definitely a suriage or o-suriage.

 -The Nagasa is: 64.5 cm

 -The Sori is a Koshi-Sori with 2.1 cm (keep in mind that the Sori was probably a more pronounced Koshi Sori before the Suriage)

 -The motohaba is 2.8 cm

 -The kasane is 0.5 cm

 -The sakihaba is 1.4 cm

 -Hada is visible, but I am too unqualified to recognize what type it is.

 

Based on the following facts, I suspect that it is a Kamakura Suriage Tachi. Possibly Yamashiro-Den.

 -The taper is quite large at 2.8 - 1.4 cm (approximately 50%).

 -Koshi Sori with 2.1 cm after Suriage

 -The small Kissaki

 -The shape of the blade in general

 -The narrow Suguha Hamon with a fine, even structure

 -The blade is somewhat worn, as it has been polished many times over the centuries

 -The blade comes from a WW2 estate of a British officer

 

 

What would you say this blade is?

Would you agree with my assessment?

If not, what speaks against my assumption?

 

More pictures are in the Google Drive Link bellow:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Vv8AONTTp7lESMnLQmmedIBCryMmHgYd?usp=sharing

[Lewis B]

My first reaction is that the monouchi and kissaki have been reshaped. Possibly it had some damage. And that could certainly account for the poorly defined yokote.

[Simon123]

37 minutes ago, Lewis B said:

My first reaction is that the monouchi and kissaki have been reshaped. Possibly it had some damage. And that could certainly account for the poorly defined yokote.

I think these are probably battle marks, as there are some battle marks on the back of the blade. The yokote is not completely destroyed, but very difficult to see. With the right lighting, the yokote is visible to the naked eye. I don't think the monouchi has been significantly altered, as the width of the hamon is consistent across the entire blade.

[Simon123]

Is the kissaki fixable by a togishi?

[Rivkin]

Its completely unpolished so hard to be sure. Sugata-wise this is uchigatana, katate-uchi etc.. from 1500-1520 probably. In suguha. Statistically speaking with kiri yasurime and such nakago I would be tempted to say something like "Bizen", but suguha is a bit too narrow for Bizen. Might be just the condition or something else related.

Edited December 4, 2025 by Rivkin

[Scogg]

22 minutes ago, JunS said:

Is the kissaki fixable by a togishi?

That really depends on the boshi. The kissaki can certainly be repaired, but it’s unclear whether it can be repaired without compromising the boshi. If the boshi is absent, it's considered a fatal flaw. 

Can we maybe see some close-ups of the nakago?
-Sam

[Simon123]

4 minutes ago, Scogg said:

That really depends on the boshi. The kissaki can certainly be repaired, but it’s unclear whether it can be repaired without compromising the boshi. If the boshi is absent, it's considered a fatal flaw. 

Can we maybe see some close-ups of the nakago?
-Sam

I've uploaded some close up pictures of the nakago in the Google Drive folder I posted.

[Simon123]

10 minutes ago, Rivkin said:

Its completely unpolished so hard to be sure. Sugata-wise this is uchigatana, katate-uchi etc.. from 1500-1520 probably. In suguha. Statistically speaking I would be tempted to say something like "Bizen", but suguha is a bit too narrow for Bizen.

I don't think it is a Katateuchi. It is too long with 64,5cm Nagasa and the koshi sori and big taper of 50 percent would be unusual. Also the thin suguha. 

[Rivkin]

9 minutes ago, JunS said:

I don't think it is a Katateuchi. It is too long with 64,5cm Nagasa and the koshi sori and big taper of 50 percent would be unusual. Also the thin suguha. 

Could be. It feels a bit machi okuri to me, which would make the original nakago smaller in proportion to the blade... 25 inch sugata is somewhat on larger size for katana, but below typical period's tachi.

[Simon123]

3 minutes ago, Rivkin said:

Could be. It feels a bit machi okuri to me, which would make the original nakago smaller in proportion to the blade... 25 inch sugata is somewhat on larger size for katana, but below typical period's tachi.

I think that's entirely possible. If we assume that the original length was about 3–10 cm or 1–3 inches longer, the details fit together and it would be plausible.

[Simon123]

I just created two edited images of the blade to better illustrate what it might have looked like when it was created.
The first one is how it could have looked with a longer nakago but the blade haven't been touched.

The second is with machi okuri.

 

Looks definitly more like a tachi now on both.

 

[Jussi Ekholm]

I might guess the sword is ubu or almost ubu, I don't immidiately see suriage effects when I look at pictures. Sakihaba is very small but Lewis mentioned before I think similarily that it has been reshaped and was wider originally. I would guess it to be from Muromachi period.

 

Maybe you could take a photo from mune side of the nakago so it could show how is the thickness in the area of nakago and base of the blade.

[Simon123]

1 hour ago, Jussi Ekholm said:

I might guess the sword is ubu or almost ubu, I don't immidiately see suriage effects when I look at pictures. Sakihaba is very small but Lewis mentioned before I think similarily that it has been reshaped and was wider originally. I would guess it to be from Muromachi period.

 

Maybe you could take a photo from mune side of the nakago so it could show how is the thickness in the area of nakago and base of the blade.

Here are a few more photos.

Here is a Google Drive link with even more photos.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OTA8wDyvTbT44Nl_BvpGhNsTYwMOKl3V?usp=sharing

 

I guess whatever it is, I got it for about 400 euros, which is a bargain.

 

 

[Simon123]

2 hours ago, Jussi Ekholm said:

I might guess the sword is ubu or almost ubu, I don't immidiately see suriage effects when I look at pictures. Sakihaba is very small but Lewis mentioned before I think similarily that it has been reshaped and was wider originally. I would guess it to be from Muromachi period.

 

Maybe you could take a photo from mune side of the nakago so it could show how is the thickness in the area of nakago and base of the blade.

I just noticed, that there is a clear line in the nakago which looks less old and has kiri Yasurime. Whith the bare eye it is way more noticable than in the photo. I marked the line blue in the picture where the difference begins. I think it really a machi okuri like Rivkin said.

. 

[Jussi Ekholm]

First of all, thank you for providing very good pictures. Scoring the sword for that amount is a good deal in my books.

 

I think it is completely plausible that the machi would have been tweaked a little bit, few cm like you wrote would be very reasonable. Unfortunately I couldn't find sword that would be close to 1:1 to your sword in size and shape but I think these 3 give a reasonable idea on what I would see the sword as, and measurements are bit similarish. I think possibly c.1500 like Kirill wrote above too. (the examples are all Bizen just because it is very easy to find Bizen swords from this period fast). There are swords of even 70+cm with very short original nakago, so there are lots of maybe bit uncommon things that were still done historically. 

 

https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-bishu-osafune-sukesada-nbthk-hozon-token/

https://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords11/NT335371.htm

https://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords11/KT341483.htm

[Simon123]

1 hour ago, Jussi Ekholm said:

First of all, thank you for providing very good pictures. Scoring the sword for that amount is a good deal in my books.

 

I think it is completely plausible that the machi would have been tweaked a little bit, few cm like you wrote would be very reasonable. Unfortunately I couldn't find sword that would be close to 1:1 to your sword in size and shape but I think these 3 give a reasonable idea on what I would see the sword as, and measurements are bit similarish. I think possibly c.1500 like Kirill wrote above too. (the examples are all Bizen just because it is very easy to find Bizen swords from this period fast). There are swords of even 70+cm with very short original nakago, so there are lots of maybe bit uncommon things that were still done historically. 

 

https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-bishu-osafune-sukesada-nbthk-hozon-token/

https://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords11/NT335371.htm

https://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords11/KT341483.htm

Thank you. The swords you sent as reference are pretty close in size to my sword but a few things are different. Like the Hoso Suguha and the Koshi Sori. The blades you sent were rather Torii-Sori. I just studied the blade closer and I am not 100% sure but I think it has a masame hada. I tried to photograph it but I couldn't get a good picture.