ChrisW Posted August 23 Report Posted August 23 Hello again ladies and gentlemen, today I am offering up for sale a pair of swords that someone went to a good amount of effort to present as daisho. Type (Tachi, Katana, Wakizashi, Tanto, Naginata, Other) : Katana + Wakizashi (former tachi). Ubu, Suriage or O-Suriage : Katana is suriage, wakizashi is o-suriage Mei : (Mumei, Signature) : Mumei for both. Papered or not and by whom? : No Era/Age : Early Muromachi to Late Muromachi. Shirasaya, Koshirae or Bare Blade? : Full Koshirae for both. Nagasa/Blade Length : 27.5" for the katana, 22.5" for the wakizashi. Sori : 0.5" for the katana, 0.75" for the wakizashi Hamon Types : Very regular gunome that is borderline sanbonsugi for the katana and an irregular and beautiful Soshu midare-ba with notare for the wakizashi. Jihada : Itame for katana and itame with mokume for wakizashi. Other Hataraki Visible : Kinsuji, inazuma, Kaen. These blades have different hataraki present as is appropriate for their den. Flaws : Micro-scratches as is appropriate for blades in older polish. Minor pitting on katana near yokote. A few ware on wakizashi on one side. Sword Location : Canada to Indiana then to anywhere USA (will explain below) Will ship to : USA primarily, international contingent on laws of destination country. Payment Methods Accepted : Paypal, Cashapp. Shipping discussed below Price and Currency : $8000USD (Shipping included for USA buyers) + tariff import fees. Other Info and Full Description : Comes in full koshirae. On offer are a pair of antique blades that someone in the past, likely their last samurai owner, went to great pains to present as daisho. The wakizashi is likely to have been a tachi in its original incarnation since it appears to be completely or close to o-suriage. It is also likely to be of the Soshu tradition, given that it has an irregular Soshu-style midare-ba on notare hamon with an itame/mokume mixed hada. It possesses a very nice o-kissaki with nice kaeri and kaen present within the boshi. Beyond calling it Soshu, I am not enough of an expert to say what lineage it may belong to. This would make for a very fun submission to Shinsa, as it does not need any polishing work done to it! My belief is that this blade is probably an earlier Muromachi piece, perhaps late 1300's or early 1400's. This blade has three mekugiana, with two of them being plugged with silver. The bohi run deep down into the nakago. The katana is slightly suriage and appears to be of the Mino tradition. I predicate this belief on the fact that it possesses a very regular gunome that could be called sanbonsugi paired with a very wide-flowing itame hada. This blade is also in very appreciable polish and possesses only some minor old pitting near the yokote. What is interesting besides the workmanship of the metal itself is that this blade possesses two short bohi, one on each side, that terminate after only about 8 inches. This blade has two mekugiana. What truly makes this pair stand out though are the very nice quality fittings they come in. The wakizashi possesses a kind of habaki I have not seen before. As shown in the photos below, it is a gold-washed copper habaki of a three-dimensional carved dragon's head with its mouth open, evincing an image of the blade coming directly out of the dragon's mouth! The habaki for the long blade is a very well-made silver-plated one-piece with interesting vertical grooves that gives me the impression of a bamboo forest. The saya are both very nice gold-flake lacquered saya which are in need of some repairs as they are suffering from age and dryness, causing some longitudinal splits. They both possess very nice iron sayagiri and black horn accents. The shorter saya has a kogatana slot, while the longer saya has some beautiful ribbing along the upper portion. The shorter saya is missing a kurikata, which is the only thing absent from this entire package. The kozuka is a fantastic piece with a long dragon wrapped around a jewel of wisdom and an onishi on the other end; this piece is done in gold and shakudo. The kogatana blade itself appears to be forged and has a signature; though I will leave that to the new owner to deal with. Moving on to the tsuba, they appear to be a proper daisho for each other, with their presenting faces being the opposite side of the other. The tsuba are a matched set of the Mito tradition, prominently featuring a ‘land and sea’ motif as inverses to each side. One side of each tsuba illustrates a scene of farmers working their land with an oxen under the view of a gingko tree, while the other side shows fishermen at work in the sea or river, trying to bring their catch in with birds overhead. Accented in some gold on points of highlight, such as flowers, lily pads, the hats of people, etc. The fuchigashira sets from both blades are extremely similar and might actually be true daisho: with the fuchi from the wakizashi being signed. The silk wrap on both is similar and appear be the same color of silk, but one has faded more than the other so appear to be slightly different colors at first glance. The menuki on the longer blade is a scene of monks or fishermen in a boat. The wakizashi’s menuki are of three of the same mon in a set, possibly representing the Omodaka clan with a tie-in to the Tokugawa shogunate. Lastly, the seppa appear to be gold-plated; which is correct giving the amount of gilding and gold-leaf work present through the rest of the fittings. The only missing component is a kurikata from the wakizashi saya, which has apparently fallen off and been lost. It would be fairly trivial to match and replace this piece since the longer blade still has the kurikata on its saya. The other thing to note is that this blade is currently located in Canada with the current owner and I am performing the role of estate liquidator. There will be an assessed tariff fee to be paid by the purchaser and will be assessed once a final purchase price is reached. Since I am the estate liquidator, the swords will be shipped to me and then I will ship it direct to you! I am doing this at the request of the owner to protect their privacy. There are a couple videos of these swords as well as many more photos available upon request. If you are interested, please drop a message in this thread, then DM me here on the message board or email me at ChrisW7290@gmail.com First come, first served of course. ~Chris 1 Quote
ChrisW Posted August 25 Author Report Posted August 25 Just to bump this up for today and as a reminder: these blades are in polish and are 100% ready for Shinsa! Would be good candidates for the SF Shinsa next year! Quote
Alex A Posted August 28 Report Posted August 28 Hi Chris, mean this with respect. " likely their last samurai owner" Its a claim without evidence, these could have been cobbled together 20th century. Not that there is anything wrong with that by the way! A title of "Daisho" and you are going to get questions. Quote
ChrisW Posted yesterday at 12:04 AM Author Report Posted yesterday at 12:04 AM (edited) On 8/28/2026 at 12:32 PM, Alex A said: Hi Chris, mean this with respect. " likely their last samurai owner" Its a claim without evidence, these could have been cobbled together 20th century. Not that there is anything wrong with that by the way! A title of "Daisho" and you are going to get questions. That is a fair criticism! No disrespect taken. My opinion is that they are still likely as I've described because of the apparent age to the organic components. The silk, ray, and wood have aging comparable to other pieces that I know are original to the mid to late 1800's. The silk is no spring chicken, as it were. As with anything in this field, the educated opinions of the buyer are what is important. As for my claim of "daisho," within the very first sentence I say that someone went to some efforts to present this as a daisho. Not that it IS a true daisho. In the strictest definition of the term, these blades were not made as daisho since they are readily apparent to be from different smiths and different eras. Disregarding the strictest definition, most daisho we see are not such daisho and only the mounts are done in such a fashion to be presented as such. I feel that these mounts meet a minimum to pass that definition. If this were worn by a late-Edo samurai, no one would bat an eye and think they pass muster to be paired decently. Ergo, putting daisho in quotations. Thanks for your input! ~Chris Edited yesterday at 02:57 AM by ChrisW Quote
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