New Year Mini Kantei

[Jussi Ekholm]

First of all, this is purely for fun, as the sword is mumei and ō-suriage (at least in my opinion) there is not really a single correct answer. I just thought it would be fun to do stuff like this to get forum members having fun and participating.

 

 

Nagasa: 72,0 cm

Sori: 1,2 cm

Motohaba: 3,6 cm

Sakihaba: 3,1 cm

Motokasane: 6 mm

Sakikasane: 5 mm

Kissaki: 11,5 cm

Nakago: 17,7 cm

Weight: 956 grams

 

 

Shinogi-zukuri, mitsu-mune

Ji: Itame mixed with nagare, lot of nagare on shinogi-ji

Hamon: Midare with gunome and togari elements, sunagashi and some nie

Bōshi: Midare komi with fairly long kaeri because of kissaki length.

 

 

This is an ō-suriage mumei sword with extremely wide width and no noticeable taper. Sori is very shallow and the sword has very large ō-kissaki. I tried to take photographs of the hataraki but unfortunately my pictures are not that great. They pop out so much more when viewed with naked eye towards the light source. The current polish is actually dulling the features a bit, and unfortunately the sword is not of super high quality. And I am not really the correct person to identify small details as they are not my forte.

 

I will post the NBTHK judgement in one week 6.1. I hope everyone interested will have fun time guessing.

[Mikaveli]

Namboko-cho, Soshu?

 

I'd also agree o-suriage (having lost the original sori).

[Rivkin]

Smartphone in hand it feels akasaka senjuin mino.

Datewise late Nambokucho or beginning of Muromachi.

Mune does not match, but everything else looks good for it....

Edited December 30, 2025 by Rivkin

[klee]

I am 1000% wrong bc the hamon doesnt match but the 1st one that popped into my mind bc of similar sugata I ve seen was Chiyozuru.

 

That that is my guess in the spirit of participation lol 

 

Nanbokucho Chiyozuru 

[Tcat]

Agree with Rivkin, or papers might say Nambokucho Mino den.

[Lewis B]

Forging looks a little too proficient for Mino Senjuin. The mitsu mune cannot be ignored, again not a feature for Senjuin. My guess is Yamato Shizu, (after further research, quality is lacking for Shodei work). My final answer is the backup => Naoe Shizu.

[nulldevice]

Spoiler

Naoe Shizu

 

[Natichu]

Thanks for this Jussi. 

 

Just in terms of showing my thought process (primarily so that my beginner mistakes can be highlighted for me) to my eye Nanbokucho sugata, with the size and o-suriage pointing to that period rather than a retro throwback from a later period. Masame/nagare in the shinogi-ji pointing to Mino-den, and togari elements in the hamon agreeing with that.

 

Guess is Naoe Shizu (maybe Kanetomo or Kanenobu?). 

[Schneeds]

I tried to cheat, but it appears Jussi left his blade out of his own database

[eternal_newbie]

11 hours ago, Rivkin said:

Mune does not match, but everything else looks good for it....

 

I think Mino Senjuin is a good guess, and while rare, Mino smiths did sometimes use mitsu-mune on daito and naginata (so Naoe Shizu remains viable too, although I personally would expect a deeper nioiguchi and more nie in a Naoe Shizu blade).

[oli]

Spoiler

Kanabo school, from Yamato late Muromachi

 

Nice blade i like the sugata

[Jussi Ekholm]

Well I am tad early with the answer but as I am not sure about my day tomorrow, I think I will post it today.  Thanks for everyone participating and I hope it was fun.

 

The sword is indeed now mine and I knew the attribution when getting the sword. I did not care about the attribution at all, I just wanted the sword because of size & shape.

 

 

NBTHK attributed the sword to 伯耆守信高 Hōki no Kami Nobutaka.

 

I would assume that they see this as 1st gen Nobutaka and possibly a Keichō-Shintō sword from very end of Muromachi to early Edo period. Nobutaka is seen as one of Owari sansaku, one of three Owari masters, so he is well regarded smith. However when such a mumei sword gets attributed to Edo smith it kinda demolishes the value. I have seen few nice mumei swords that I thought were Nanbokuchō swords that got NBTHK papers to Hizen Tadayoshi. I happened to see Owari special exhibition at Nagoya Tōken World last summer, back then I didn't know much about Owari smiths, and to be honest I don't know too much now either.  I have found few Edo period wakizashi by Nobutaka smiths that have very wide sugata but so far I have not been able to find a reference long sword with very wide sugata. Most of the katana by Nobutaka smiths I have been able to find are just normal early Edo sugata. This was the sword at Nagoya exhibition, by 3rd Nobutaka: https://www.touken-world.jp/search/13753/

 

I do admit the hada and bit "featureless" hamon might be actually quite close to work on some of Nobutaka line items I found online and in books. However I think 1st Nobutaka work would be better than on this mumei sword. I personally would think like many did in this thread that this would be late Nanbokuchō to Early Muromachi sword. Naoe Shizu would of course be maybe the most optimistic outcome that I can think of and something like Mino Senjuin I could easily see, however it seems I am way off in time. This sword was sent to NBTHK by a small sword dealer at the end of 2024, and I would believe they were not too happy with the attribution that was given out. You get attribution like Naoe Shizu you are very happy and it is a valuable sword, you get Edo smith attribution and the value sinks really hard.

 

I know this was bit of a curveball  as it has been for me too. I think all discussion is welcomed and would be also fun to have some discussion, as unfortunately we cannot view and discuss the items in person.

[oli]

Hi Jussi,

 

you have a nice blade and thanks for the work for this kantei. Keicho Shinto is a nice period, i saw some very nice blade with impressive Sugata. Nobutaka is counted as one of the Owari Sansaku (尾張三作), the “Three Owari Masters.” (Keicho-Shinto from Markus Sesko)

 

thanks

Oli

[eternal_newbie]

Is there anyone out there with knowledge of Shinto swords willing to venture a guess as to how this attribution was made? My own study and collection has been heavily focused on koto and shinsakuto, so I'm curious to see what someone with more experience thinks of it.

[oli]

Here is an example of Nobotaka Katana:

https://eirakudo.shop/182980

Also there is a picture of a Nobotaka Katana in the Book Keicho Shinto from Markus Sesko

[Rivkin]

I don't really kantei shinto well, so all is basically a guess why it could be shinto.

Its a bit heavy for its nagasa, which might be a hint to shinto, but it does look like a heavy type of blade.

We've seen substantially more Owari NBTHK judgements recently for anything that includes a wide suguha.

Famous story TJ Go who've been Owari for a long time until it got TH Go and then it was a smooth sailing forward.

Roundish-well-defined gunome can also be seen as Owari-shinto trait.

There is a tendency to go shinto if jigane is zanguri with mokume elements, which one sometimes sees in Owari though not as often as in Kunihiro-Kunimichi.

[Natichu]

Very interesting, first as I've been pining after a Nobutaka wakizashi in Eirakudo (https://eirakudo.shop/601981), but also as it reminds me of one of the recent NBTHK kantei problems available on their website. 

 

I again thought Nanbokucho Mino and in my head guessed Naoe, whereas the correct answer was Horikawa Kunihiro. While I don't know that I can do a translation any justice, the initial discussion on the sugata points to viable options as Nanbokucho, Keicho Shinto (and very late Muromachi), and Shinshinto. It then goes on to discuss why the first and last options didn't fit the bill. 

 

Problem and solution images below:

[Jussi Ekholm]

That picture of yours is stunning Kirill. When you combine high quality sword and high quality photography the result is amazing.

 

I've been on a good roll on NBTHK monthly kantei but I must admit my real kantei skills suck.  As I've been doing it for several years it is easy to catch some pointers that they sometimes use, had to check that I got that one correct. For example "The hada is visible and is a unique hada" in their English description points to zanguri. Usually that is pushing it to Horikawa and for 2 character signature I think Kunihiro is the logical answer. For me this is book knowledge that I have, in real life I could not say what is zanguri hada, as I don't have too high real life kantei skills.

 

I saw this ōdachi at Nagoya Tōken World last summer, and it is my favorite Owari sword: https://www.touken-world.jp/search/127485/ maybe massive kissaki and strong width might hint that sword in OP could have been originally a big one like this one. Of course as I like ōdachi that would be my wishful thinking. I have seen the even larger 1620 dated Kanetake ōdachi at Atsuta Jingū few times but I don't like that much maybe as much. So far I have not yet seen the shorter Kanetake ōdachi of Atsuta Jingū, maybe some day I will.

 

Of course NBTHK might have more than likely the most probable outcome. I just personally would wish they might have had more general attribution, like mumei Owari - Keichō-Shintō etc. Of course that is their style to go for direct attributions for specific smiths, I don't personally like that but I understand how that is what people actually want. Most would be probably very disappointed in just general attributions that would state roughly province and time period.

 

Big thanks of all the comments and discussion, it is really much more fun to have discussion than just think about all the things alone.