Inherited sword - looking for more information

[Timothy C]

I inherited this sword. I was looking for more information on it. Do you guys know how old it is or who made it?

[Timothy C]

More photos. I’m having trouble adding more because it says the photos are too large

 

[Ron M]

Bishu Osafuna Sukesada. Many smiths used this signature. Could be any era pretty much but an honest older blade 

[Bruce Pennington]

Hi Timothy!

You have an older civil blade re-fitted for WWII.  If you want an approximate age, I'd recommend posting (or having Sam move this) to the Nihonto forum of NMB 

https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/forum/3-nihonto/

 

They will need to see the bare blade, full length photo, and a couple of measurements like Nagasa and Sori

[Ray Singer]

Unfortunately it looks like the nakago (tang) has been cleaned. Please note that the rust should never be removed from the nakago of a Japanese sword, even in the effort to improve readability. Doing so substantially devalues the blade. 

 

Best regards, 

Ray Singer 

 

 

[Timothy C]

Hey guys, I measured the sword.

 

the tang or Nakago is exactly 5”

 

The sword minus the tang or Nagasa is 14 and 7/8”

 

the curvature if the nagasa is 1/2”. 

[Timothy C]

I was told it might have been shortened in ww 2 because of damage, but I was told that 25+ years ago when I was a boy and am not sure that is true

[Timothy C]

Here is a photo of the Sori or curvature

[Bruce Pennington]

Thanks Timothy, I'm moving this over to the Nihonto guys to give you a bigger group of experts on these.

The size of the shorter sword, wakizashi.  You might have noticed the old samurai used to carry two swords, and the shorter one was a wakizashi.  Yours was re-fitted for the war with the leather retention strap, and the leather saya cover has gone missing.

 

The nihoto guys should give you a ballpark idea of the era of your blade.

[Robert S]

That's a decent tsuba (sword guard), so someone thought enough of it to pair it with that.  The blade itself looks like it may have been subject to some lower quality polishing at some point, which has altered the blade shape a bit... or the swordsmith had a particular and slightly unusual aesthetic in mind.  Not a big flaw by any means - and could potentially be corrected with some work around the kissaki, if there's enough hamon left, which I think there is, and if the judgement of more expert people is that the shape has come off a bit.  That is, if someone wanted to spend the not inconsiderable $ to get a professional polish.  Looks a nice enough blade - as to school and era, I'll leave that to the experts .