For the fans of 'Nagamitsu' another variation.

[charlesf]

Managed to pick this up at auction and am waiting for delivery,images are those provided by the auction house and while the tang looks to have been cleaned my interest was piqued by the variation of the signature and the fact that it is dated,apparently unusual for Nagamitsu blades,hope you find it of some interest.

 

charles.

[Marcin]

Kanji of naga shouldn’t be different?

https://japaneseswordindex.com/naga.htm

also drunk „saku”

It can be different nagamitsu.

Please more pics of blade. 
Nakago looks cleaned?

Wasn’t added another mekugi ana?

Looks like „doctored” koshirae, check If hamon isn’t made with acid

Edited May 15 by Rawa

[Bruce Pennington]

Great post, Charles, and I appreciate that you bought this blade because of it's unique variance.  There are several of us collectors who are almost more interested in the oddities than in the Normal.  

 

I checked the Nagamitsu Oshigata at Japaneseswordindex.com and see that he listed at least 3 Nagamitsu, and there are another 2 I can see under just "Nagamitsu" that are likely numbers 4 and 5.  Sesko only shows 2 in the Showa era, but we know there were more than that.  Yours being dated 1943 - we see several undocumented smiths operating in the last 2 years of the war that aren't found in the references.

 

Thanks for bringing this up!

[charlesf]

There can be no doubt that this is from the workshop of Ichihara Nagamitsu,the way the kanji has been cut shows subtle variations of those recorded on JSI,for example the 'Naga' has three strokes to the right of the vertical stroke rather than the usual two and No.8 has three,all cut from right to left,my example has the top stroke cut from left to right,also the lower component is curved not straight.

Small details but evidence of an individual creating his own mark whilst using the instantly recognisable Nagamitsu signature.

[Marcin]

Ok I'm droping here Nagamitsu with Hozon mei with 3 strokes. So genuine but ranked Jyo saku. Made by aprentice or student cheers.

[charlesf]

Auction swords arrived today,the Nagamitsu,as feared,has been 'cleaned',unfortunately with a drill or similar fitted with a stout wire brush which has blurred the lines of the blade.The shinogi is now rounded as is the mune the only saving grace is that there is sufficient meat in the blade to save it although the nakago has been buffed enough to almost remove the file marks.The overall shape is good with a well formed kissaki and the hamon appears to be intact.

Apologies for lack of photos,I'm trying to figure out how to transfer them from my Nokia3 to Chromebook . . . . . . . Duh!

 

 

charles.

[Marcin]

Send an email to yourself?

[Bruce Pennington]

6 hours ago, Rawa said:

Send an email to yourself?

That's how I do it, too!

[charlesf]

Thanks Marcin (and Bruce!),I can't do that because it doesn't have a sim card and I don't have the special tool to open the tab where it's inserted,I'm currently exploring Google Drive to see if there's a simple way . . . . . . . . .  don't hold your breath!

Meanwhile,for your entertainment,here are the photos I had to work from,two swords and a saya,the sword with the military hilt is the Nagamitsu housed in a modern-ish iaito say which is not bad,it's a nicely shaped slim saya unlike the clunky Chinese repro's,sadly the tsuba is a horrible alloy casting.

The other sword is quite interesting,70 cms nagasa,narrow suguha hamon and what appears to be mokume hada,it's a wide thick blade,nice long kissaki and once I managed to remove the hilt the tang has a dark patina and four mekugi-ana.I don't think they are all old but it's hard to see if any are modern or recent additions,they all look aged.Saya is an old very dark brown textured lacquer,tsuba a thin iron ko-sukashi,I'm thinking that it could be shinshinto or Dotanuki ????????

Wishful thinking LOL!

[ROKUJURO]

Charles,

photos made on a white background are useless. 

[charlesf]

Note that I did say that these were the photos I had to work from i.e. they were provided by the auction house,sorry if you misunderstood,is English your 1st language?

 

 

charles.

[ROKUJURO]

Charles,

whoever made these photos, they don't really help for an assessment. The contrast is too low to show details. I am not criticizing, I am trying to help.

I am (mostly) German.