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Kirimon iron sukashi decorated with kin zogan. Amazingly it fits like a glove on a sword I have.

Back in 2017 there was a discovery by Yoshihara Hiromichi of the oldest sword book, the The Mei Zukushi from 1351, discovered in the Saga Prefecture Library. This book was discovered on some of the the back of the 277 pages from the Ryuzoji family Documents. In 2021 the documents were restored and put on display - the above video was released then. Here is the original article written by @Markus back in 2017: https://markussesko.com/2017/12/26/the-new-oldest-extant-sword-document/#:~:text=The Mei Zukushi is dated,to reward allies and vassals. The links to the documents and transcripts in the article no longer exist as such I have also included the link to the documents in the Saga Prefecture Library: https://www.sagalibdb.jp/komonjo/detail?id=60657 for future reference.

I’m not a fittings person so please forgive my lack of knowledge on the subject. I’ve had this Tsuba for 10+yrs could you please educate me about it.. Ian

I have one like this. Has seen better days.

Signed 濃州住大矢友信作 - Noshu ju Oya Tomonobu saku. From Marcus Sesko's book, Japanese Swordsmiths: TOMONOBU (友信), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Tomonobu” (友信), real name Ōya Kyōichi (大矢供一), born December 1st 1899, son of Kanenobu (兼信), he worked as guntō smith and died October 12th 1967

The second kanji is a mystery. I guess that the mei could be 兼裳 (a variation of 常) – Kanetsune.

We must distinguish between the oldest physical manuscript copy and the oldest content. The oldest manuscript copy of the Ki'ami Bon Mei Zukushi is from the early Muromachi period.

This month we have added a variety of very interesting pieces available in our inventory including a very large Naginata and a few different Muromachi Period Blades. Hozon Token — Kishū-jū Naotomo Naginata (Shinshinto Period) This is a substantial Shinshintō-period naginata signed Kishū-jū Naotomo. the blade is of exceptional size, condition, and form. Naginata of this length are extremely uncommon, particularly those made during the Edo period. Most surviving naginata typically have blade lengths in the range of 40–50 cm, whereas this example retains an impressive nagasa of 83.2 cm. 🔗 - https://www.toukentakarado.com/item-tkc027-kish-j-naotomo-naginata Tokubetsu Hozon Token - Bishu Osafune Arimitsu Katana (Consignment) Muromachi-Period Bizen Katate-Uchi Katana with Handachi Koshirae. his is a strong and honest example of a late-Muromachi Bizen katana, combining practical one-handed combat design with refined jigane and classical Osafune characteristics, making it an appealing piece for collectors seeking a historically authentic battlefield sword with genuine aesthetic quality. 🔗 - https://www.toukentakarado.com/tkc003-bishu-osafune-arimitsu-katana Hozon Token — Bishū Osafune Sukesada Katana (Consignment) Late Muromachi Sue Bizen Katana. 🔗 - https://www.toukentakarado.com/tkc004-bishu-osafune-sukesada-katana-1 Hozon Token — Mumei Taira Takada Katana (Consignment) A affordable Muromachi Takada School Katana 🔗 - https://www.toukentakarado.com/tkc005-taira-takada Mumei Shinshinto Wakizashi Katakiriha-zukuri Wakizashi with Double-Sided Horimono - Touken Takarado Hozon Guarantee 🔗 - https://www.toukentakarado.com/tkc027-mumei-shinshinto-wakizashi We hope you’ll take a moment to explore them on our website. We look forward to serving you. Warm regards, Nicholas Fu Touken Takarado 🌐 www.toukentakarado.com

An other unusual method of attaching the leather snap strap. It's under fuchi.

Time for another sword crossword! Thanks to those who did the easier one posted on Izakaya. This one focuses on Nihonto and is a bit more challenging. Indeed, I suspect no one can complete the whole puzzle without looking up at least one of the answers (the gauntlet has been thrown). I'm also including a screenshot version for those who are leary of downloading stuff. Enjoy!!! John C. Sword Crossword_3_A.docx

@Amyjo47380 Hi Amy, What you have is Type 95 NCO sword from WW2. Your example looks to be in decent condition. The photo of serial number on the scabbard is unclear. It looks matching, but can you confirm if the number on the scabbard matches the number on the blade? These are highly collectible among collectors of WW2 Japanese swords. They are machine made and are not considered traditional Japanese swords. Condition dictates the value of these types of swords. If you look on eBay, you will see there is a wide-range of asking and selling prices. Maybe a moderator @Scogg can move this to the military section of the forum.

In case some folks are interested https://www.czernys.com/cat/Asta158/

Hizen is a good call, in my opinion.

Just added this great Japanese Cabinet to our collection. It is almost 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide. As with almost all shibayama items found it is missing some inlay. Does anyone know if anyone sells carved inlay items that maybe used to restore this? It is missing flowers, birds and a childs head. Howard Dennis

I forgot to upload the photo with Mei. 😀 I counted a total of six of these Hisakatsu tanto with wish jewels. There are certainly more of them.

It is a RJT blade and belongs to the initial Type 100 production run. These were made to the highest standards.

Colin (Matsunoki) is an expert in this field.

Yes, they like to run numbers in the 30,000, 40,000, and 50,000 range however those are also legitimate numbers. So it is just one of many points to consider for legitimacy.

昭和拾乙亥歲三月吉日 = on an auspicious day in March of Shōwa 10, year of the wood pig 渡邊來助所持 = owned by Watanabe Raisuke

Hi all, Just like to share my recent acquisition, a unique Mitokoro-mono by the 5th generation mainline head of the Goto school, Tokujo. He was the eldest son of Kujo, born in 1549 and passed away in 1631. After serving Oda Nobunaga, he became the court chisel master for Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Exhibited at the Tokyo National Museum. Enjoy!

Hello, It’s 100% genuine , nice and original…Small amount of tip damage wouldn’t bother me with a NCO sword….Good luck with the sale.. Regards, Paul.

Hi Howard, your cabinet is, as you say, Japanese and dating from the mid Meiji period when such things gained enormous popularity with both the gaijin in Japan and worldwide via a buoyant export market. Some can be mind boggling quality. Yes I have (now retired) spent years restoring such things (as a hobby, not a business) for some of the UK dealers. Missing inlay is obligatory on these! I used to actually carve whatever was necessary….be it shell or coral or ivory etc but it is very time consuming and therefore rather expensive. You need a specialist workshop set-up. I doubt you will find anyone to actually carve replacements nowadays but another trick is to search for simpler panels (made in their 1000s) and very often heavily damaged and thus very cheap. It is sometimes possible to “harvest” elements of inlay that can be adapted far more easily to either fit in or even stuck straight over the top of missing areas. Flowers, leaves etc are common and thus quite straightforward. Faces are a real pain, they hardly ever fit, usually looking the wrong way or the wrong size which usually means a lot of hard work or a vaguely acceptable compromise. The best advice I can offer is to look for panels (auctions etc) in the hope of “do it yourself” repairs.

I first was thinking the bling was hurting your eyes, as it does many...but still I enjoy Inside is a very sturdy nambokucho blade with a length just a hair short of katana. The nakago is a keisho style o-suriage.

Looks very Chinese from a distance.

My Tomita Sukehiro is a sword with a flamboyant hamon. It has some scratches and would benefit from a polish. However there is a lot to be enjoyed without. Date: koki ni sen roppyaku ni nen gatsu (1942) Nagasa: 68,58 cm Sori: 1,27 cm Sukehiro was trained by his grandfather Kato Sanekuni and worked as a Rikugun Jumei Tosho during WW2. He was rated 1 million yen. This sword is in need of a New home. It is priced at €2100,-

Vedran, The Showa stamp was used by the civilian Seki Cutlery Manufacturers Association on inspected blades between 1935 - 1942. Most dated blades were made in 1940 - 1941. The hamon (temper line) is quite flamboyant! I like it. Care and Cleaning: Japanese Sword Care - Japaneseswordindex.com

I think you'll be disappointed with the offerings at the V&A. Poorly illuminated cabinets and uninteresting specimens. I would skip unless you wanted to see something else eg ceramics, fabrics, Middle Eastern art etc.

That is truly a mighty naginata!

I don't know. Anything is possible in the world of nihonto. 😀

昭和拾乙亥歳三月吉日 渡邊来助所持 There must be a smith signature at the other side.

Might be KANESADA. It seems as if the NAKAGO had been "cleened" (= sandpapered) which is really very sad as the patina is gone. Big value loss! Is the blade longer than 303 mm (measured from the notch on the back just above the HABAKI to thr tip) ?

Ref. Swordsmith Index | Nihonto Club

Someone will have a better notion than me - but the shape of the seppa-dai suggests Hizen? Namban influence but made in Japan. Seriously nice piece!

I have a tsuba that I have been curious about as the original collector not only had a cedar storage box made, but that also fits inside another larger box. It has a silver Hosokawa mon on one side and a silver Ashigaga mon on the other. It also has a horizontal three kanji mei. Jason

@Amyjo47380 You could try to sell it in the For Sale or Trade section of this forum that way you could avoid eBay fees and taxes. See the link below. You would want to put it in the Swords and Edged Weapons section. https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/forum/6-for-sale-or-trade/

Happy New Year everyone, I just wanted to share an update that I have started to post new video content after taking a long break from filming. Please do check my channels below in the coming days for updates and new videos. https://youtube.com/@swordsofjapan https://www.instagram.com/swordsofjapan Please email me with any questions, or for videos you might like to see in the future. Best regards, Ray

That's also an option

There are many ways that kanji are expressed in mei. They not aways executed in a rigid exact way and strokes do not always connect with one another.

@Curran: following your kind advice. After a Light cleansing....

Hello! I would assume Mito school The shape, the non-standard holes of the hitsu-ana, and, of course, one of the favorite themes of the Mito school - dragons and tigers.

Many other good reads like this can be found. It seems to boil down to superstition, and the practical side of my brain agrees that especially during a time of ongoing war, swordsmiths probably didn't suspend production of blades from March through July because they weren't "lucky" months. The overall distribution of nengo on blades does show spikes in February and August and I'd suspect it was more to do with lucky numbers and superstition than when the blade was actually quenched. You'll rarely see a blade with the 4th month on the nengo written 四 because of its connection with the word for death. You will see 二二 instead in many cases.

Good evening everyone I hope everyone had an amazing christmas and got safely into the new year. Since my last post in october of last year, I was sort off burnt out on the topic of Nihonto. Probably trying to learn everything at once over the past year was not the right choice, like it is with university exams. Now, since a good 2 month break I finally have motiavation to dive back in. Over the past few days I reread all of the comments below my last post about photographing Nihonto as well as Darcy´s guide to find out what the most key points to improve are. But as last time, the results this time are far from perfect, although a good bit better than last time in my eyes. Setup For the setup I tried to copy Darcy´s guide as much as possible, using a glass floor from a shelf as the display base, with a warm white LED bar as the light source laying on it to provide equal lighting over the full lenght of the blade. Also, I covered the floor below it with near black (a very dark blue) cloth and had the glass panel a bit above it to create a sort of clean blackground. This enabled me to move the sword across rather than moving the camera. Speaking of the camera, it is still a Sony A6400, although this time fitted with a cheap makro lens I picked up not too long ago, namely the Peargear 60mm f2.8 MK2. I have been using it for nature photography over the last week and for the low price I am quite happy with this lens. I also got myself a tripod, giving me more freedom and flexibility in positioning the camera; especially compared to the music stand I had it strapped to last time. The Nihonto is still my Tensho era Wakizashi attributed to Noshu den Kanesaki. It is unsigned and not a masterpiece by any means, but it is fun to experiment and study with. This time, I mainly focused on the flaws of this blade. I was aware of all of those as I was informed by the seller during my visit at their shop as well as in our email converstations prior to the appointment, so there weren´t any bad surprises (fortunately). It is mainly a bunch of inactive rust and lots of little scratches. Although, there is what I think is a big scratch along the hamon on one side, please let me know if it is something else. Also, while reviewing the pictures in Lightroom, I noticed those little blue streaks, which I have never seen before, but I think they are longitudinal chromatic aberrations and not a flaw in the blade. I will try to fix those in the future. I will leave pictures of the flaws (and some features ) of the blade down below. If you have tips on what to further improve, I am looking forward to any kind of feedback :D Best Regards Erik

5-3 Kiri Mon. After derusting I discovered that each paulownia ‘imprint’ is carved out in fine detail, not merely stamped. Three on front, two behind. Detail

And some more

Here are some more pictures. The big rust spot is below the Habaki.

That picture of yours is stunning Kirill. When you combine high quality sword and high quality photography the result is amazing. I've been on a good roll on NBTHK monthly kantei but I must admit my real kantei skills suck. As I've been doing it for several years it is easy to catch some pointers that they sometimes use, had to check that I got that one correct. For example "The hada is visible and is a unique hada" in their English description points to zanguri. Usually that is pushing it to Horikawa and for 2 character signature I think Kunihiro is the logical answer. For me this is book knowledge that I have, in real life I could not say what is zanguri hada, as I don't have too high real life kantei skills. I saw this ōdachi at Nagoya Tōken World last summer, and it is my favorite Owari sword: https://www.touken-world.jp/search/127485/ maybe massive kissaki and strong width might hint that sword in OP could have been originally a big one like this one. Of course as I like ōdachi that would be my wishful thinking. I have seen the even larger 1620 dated Kanetake ōdachi at Atsuta Jingū few times but I don't like that much maybe as much. So far I have not yet seen the shorter Kanetake ōdachi of Atsuta Jingū, maybe some day I will. Of course NBTHK might have more than likely the most probable outcome. I just personally would wish they might have had more general attribution, like mumei Owari - Keichō-Shintō etc. Of course that is their style to go for direct attributions for specific smiths, I don't personally like that but I understand how that is what people actually want. Most would be probably very disappointed in just general attributions that would state roughly province and time period. Big thanks of all the comments and discussion, it is really much more fun to have discussion than just think about all the things alone.

We've all seen the swords tightly covered in leather, head to toe, but spotted this one in the hands of a pilot in this photo. Interesting to see one "out in the wild" so to speak:

I first met Richard at the 2nd KTK convention in Tokyo in 2006 (as well as George Gaucys) and the three of us have been close friends ever since. We have been in contact pretty much on a daily basis for the last 19 years so needless to say Richard's passing has hit us very hard and we miss him dearly. We did a couple of trips in Japan and several road trips in the US after KTK conventions and we had a lot of laughs along the way. As people have already mentioned, Richard was an excellent photographer who put everything he had to getting the perfect image. He was a true scholar of nihonto and tosogu and a beacon in those fields. Richard was an engineer and his memory for detail and his intellect always impressed me but what I will always remember him for is that he was a genuinely nice guy; a fine upstanding guy who always cared about other people over himself to a fault. He was always happy to help someone out and give his advice and opinions which were worth hearing. The last three years of his treatment for myeloma has been a rollercoaster and he has been through hell with good days and bad. Richard is one person who absolutely did not deserve this but he maintained a stoic and strong attitude while not knowing how much longer he had until the very end. We had a FaceTime call shortly before he passed and he seemed chipper and coherent but the cancer won and his passing came as a shock. Richard was a few months younger than me at a young 66 years old. My deepest condolences to his wife, daughter, family and anyone else who knew him well enough to be saddened by his untimely passing. Andrew Amble Sydney, Australia

For the love of the KIRI