63Busman Posted June 29, 2011 Report Posted June 29, 2011 http://s420.photobucket.com/albums/pp28 ... e%20Sword/ I'm told that it's a forgery by a couple of different people (and I'm OK with that) but I'd like to know why and what gives it away. I can take better pictures if you tell me what you're looking for. It does scream super old to me and I can vouch for it's location back to WW2 but have no clue how it was obtained. Thanks! Andy Quote
kusunokimasahige Posted June 30, 2011 Report Posted June 30, 2011 A forgery in what sense ? the signature ? KM Quote
63Busman Posted June 30, 2011 Author Report Posted June 30, 2011 Yes. The signature is apparently an issue. Quote
Toryu2020 Posted June 30, 2011 Report Posted June 30, 2011 Andy - The signature is one of a very important smith and does not look good on first inspection. You will need to post close ups of the individual characters of the signature, you'll want strong lighting and no flash. The nakago (tang) and the horimono (carving) are also atypical of this artist (in my mind anyway). If you can do close-ups of the temper-line and grain pattern in the side metal that too will help folks answer your questions, -t Quote
63Busman Posted June 30, 2011 Author Report Posted June 30, 2011 I'll try to get better pictures at work tomorrow. Thanks for the help! Andy Quote
Grey Doffin Posted June 30, 2011 Report Posted June 30, 2011 Andy, What jumps out at me are the doctored patina on the nakago (it doesn't look natural; looks chemical), the sloppy yasurime, and the harsh clumsiness of the mei. Even if I didn't know what the mei says and without looking at a book I would guess gimei; it just looks gimei. Do you have a reference with lots of oshigata of true mei? If so please try this. Take some time and go through the book page by page and take a close look at each and every mei; study them. Then look at the sword in question and see what you think. A long time collector in Japan told me once that you don't need references to tell if a mei is right; if it's wrong it just looks wrong. This isn't true in all cases but if you spend a lot of time looking at good swords the bad ones stick out. Grey Quote
63Busman Posted June 30, 2011 Author Report Posted June 30, 2011 More pictures ...... http://s420.photobucket.com/albums/pp28 ... Sword%202/ I have the large resolution pics as well. Quote
63Busman Posted August 14, 2011 Author Report Posted August 14, 2011 I've been looking at pictures of blades that are conformed as being made by Nagasone Kotetsu and I'm not sure that I see a bunch of differences. For example: http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Zoom ... 4/D5078430 http://world.choshuya.co.jp/sale/sword/0504/kotetsu/ http://www.nihonto.com.au/html/kotetsu_.html Others that I looked at: http://s420.photobucket.com/albums/pp28 ... 20Kotetsu/ The top character on all of these appears to be the same one and the style of writing is very close as well. The one from the Samurai Swords book is the closest of them all though and shows the same style of writing. The distinctive pointed end to the characters seems to be a characteristic of this maker. Thoughts? Quote
cabowen Posted August 14, 2011 Report Posted August 14, 2011 I think this is an obvious fake and not well done at that..... Quote
Jacques Posted August 15, 2011 Report Posted August 15, 2011 Hi, Horimono is talkative enough. Fake. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.