Inherited Sword

[lazyasian]

Recently inherited a sword from my grandfather. He served in US military intelligence as a translator in WWII and was one of the first into Japan. He took this sword to replace his swords he had that were destroyed when he was relocated to a Japanese american internment camp. My family always said it was a military officer sword however it does not resemble any WWII I have seen. One person I asked told me he believed it was from the shinto period but I would like other opinions. That is all I know please help me understand my family heirloom! I can add more photos if it will help any info age, school, value forging location anything you might know

[Mark]

very nice sword. It is a pre war civilian sword. May have been carried by an army officer but it is not an army model. The tang shape and patina look Shinshinto (1800's). Take good care of it.

[raven2]

I would agree with Mark, from the tang and the sori, it looks shinshinto.

[lazyasian]

江劦 Goshu

彦根 Hikone

住 ju

 

藻柄子 Soheishi

宗典 Soten

製 sei

 

is the translation I was given on the handle can someone tell me more about soheishi soten

[Curgan]

The kitagawa school. Soheishi Soten, an inhabitant of Hikone in Ohmi Province (=Now Shiga Pref.) mostly produced tsuba. He was good at expressing Samurai warriors in armor and mountain hermits by engraving or by inlay on iron ground. (http://www.shibuiswords.com/tsubaco.htm).

 

The school was founded by Soheishi Nyudo in Hikone (Goshu) during XVII century.

 

See as well and this interesting article

http://about.nsw.gov.au/collections/doc ... -soten-sh/

[Jamie]

Nice sword

http://www.nbthk-ab.org/Etiquette.htm

[drbvac]

I am sure given a choice your grandfather would have picked the better of the bunch he had to choose from and obviously picked fairly well. I am sorry his own family swords were confiscated - truly a bad time considering he ended up in intelligence on this side

[reinhard]

Saddest picture I've seen for a long time.

 

reinhard

[hybridfiat]

I think what Reinhart means is we cringe everytime someone puts a true nihonto on a hard surface to photo it. Plus the scale rule is a little comical and the quality of the pic is insufficient.

All that said you have a very nice piece and it is well worth sending or taking to shinsa.

Im green with envy

[lazyasian]

Reinhard haha I must say not my finest photography work but in my defense it was out of over eagerness to get information. And rest assured though I just placed the sword on the tile in my haste this time I will not again and my grandfather's sword means to me at least as much as any sword you could possibly own to you and will be well taken care of.

 

Thank everyone who has given me information so it is likely a civilian Shinshinto period blade can anyone else tell me more?

 

Cory

[reinhard]

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[sanjuro]

*deleted by admin*

[lazyasian]

Reinhard you are correct in that I am a novice and I DO need to learn the basics. I am sorry if I said anything brash and would gladly learn about sword care from you.You are no doubt a credit to collectors. However, your last statement is PATHETIC and surely beneath you. While I am forth generation American my Dad's side of the family remains very traditionally Japanese in many respects. My great uncle felt so guilty that he had helped convince his older brother that they needed to destroy the family swords when they were rounding up the Japanese Americans that he purchased an expensive wakizashi and in his will gave instructions it should go to my older brother and my grandfathers sword in my brothers possession to me rather than his own kids. My brother and I are the last heirs to my grandfathers name. My dad is the first son of my grandfather who was the first son of his father. While most of my ancestors were farmers in Japan there are still some from samurai class a notion of pride to my Dad. My dad has given me explicit instructions that this sword is to pass to my son and barring me having one to my brothers kids. I certainly am no Samurai nor Japanese and merely a beginner. But IF you cant understand that my Family tradition is not just sentimental crap than my sword has more meaning than your entire collection! And the desire to know value is just out of curiosity it is priceless to my family!

[lazyasian]

Keith thank you for your input I have been doing my own research however this is a site that is supposed to be for the learning about nihonto and I thought experts here could be of help. It is priceless to my family and its value is merely for my curiosity. I want to know anything and EVERYTHING I can about this sword as I stated in my original post by any means possible. Please If you have any information let me know.

[hybridfiat]

Id like to remind everyone here that the value of a sword is very important if you wish to have comprehensive house and contents insurance.

My insurance company is quite clear about that. I have to pay extra premiums for my firearms and swords.

[estcrh]

Cory, you have a great story to tell and I can assure you that 99.9% of forum members would not mind helping you find out more information about your swords if they can. As you can tell, experienced people on this forum take the subject of Japanese swords very seriously and they cringe at the thought of a sword being touched by bare hands or being placed on a surface that may damage it etc. Most forum members are very understanding of people who come into ownership of a Japanese sword with out the knowledge to proper take care of it and will be happy to give you some sword care advice. In order to help you, some better pictures are absolutely needed, take a look at some of the old posts and see how the swords are presented for viewing. It would help you to have some knowledge of Japanese sword terms so here is a link to a very good site by a forum member. http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/glossary.htm

 

If you learn some of the basic sword terms it will help you to communicate with other members a lot and show them that you are actually interested in learning. When you mention "value" here it can cause some members to assume that you might be using the forum to gain information in order to sell you sword for a higher value, I do not believe that is your intention but it has happened before. One more thing, You should add your name to your profile, there is a place to put it so that it will automatically show on all of your posts, it is a requirement of the forum and will allow people responding and reading your posts to know who you are.

[lazyasian]

Thank you for the suggestions Eric. I have posted a new topic (less ignorant inquiry) that hopefully has better pictures and more specific questions

 

Cory

[reinhard]

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