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General In 1944 it was realized that the decisive battle of the mainland of Japan was soon to be fought. There was a call for complete national armament and because of the shortage of weapons the study and development of simple weapons began. The purpose was to arm everyone in Japan both military and civilian, with some type of fighting weapon. Research was started in the summer of 1944 and was nearly completed by the summer of 1945. WRF Simple Weapons. Pistol Included among the simple weapons was a pistol. An example of which can be seen below. RARE Japanese Civilian Defense Pistol

G'day Thomas, The photos aren't great, but almost certainly gimei. Cheers, Bryce

Izumi (no) kami Kanesada.

The inscription (or the last 4 characters) reads: "for protection: Samuhara". Samuhara is a word/phrase meant to provide the user/bearer with divine protection. See the following

Hi, For sale a excellent set, they are one of the best I have seen $200. OBO thanks for list of articles https://nihontoclub.com/articles/reference/list-of-articles-in-nihonto-newsletter

Wanted to share an Aikuchi koshirae, entrusted to me by a very good friend. I've held it in my collection a number of months now, so thought it was about time I put together a short post on the piece. The koshirae once housed a Sunobi-Tanto. It must have been a blade of spectacular quality, to be paired with such a koshirae. Visually, the fittings themselves these are quite interesting. Each piece of the set is colourfuly adorned with crabs and water plants, set against a soft background of Nanakoji. Upon closer inspection, I suspect these "waterplants" to be wild ginger, or hollyhock; as stylistically they are similar to the 'cloves' seen on certain Kamon. I thought that this may have been an intentional choice; perhaps to celebrate family ties/allegences of the original owner who commissioned the piece. I feel that these being in *gold* of all things is no coincidence. Now onto the saya... I'm especially fond of this style of urushi; I particularly enjoy the inclusions of aogai and flaxseed/rice husks within the lacquer- it gives the piece a very "three-dimensional" feel. It must take a great degree of skill to achieve such a finish. I do not believe the kozuka itself is original to the set, yet it's subject loosely follows the "aquatic theme" The kozuka shows good workmanship. We see "Omori-esque" beads of silver set into the base, which is a nice touch. The tsuka itself is neatly bound in Jabari maki, black silk over white samegawa. Several sizable 'emperor-nodes' are visible. The selection of samegawa is a telling sign of the overall quality. Again, we see the nautical/riverside theme continuing into the Menuki, with a singular crab peeking through the wrap.

Thanks for the response. Admittedly, I'm only starting out on the journey of Tosogu collecting- I'm still very much in the "honeymoon phase", which may come through somewhat in my writing. I have no doubt that more seasoned (and wealthier) collectors can aqquire much better. I know it's subjective, but for me this is among the nicest I've handled. Just wanted to offer something to the forum, other than my usual reel of questions.

Reminds me of Mr Pineapple head

The concept reminds me of the FP 45 pistol dropped to French resistance fighters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FP-45_Liberator John C.

Tranks for the info!! I like it even more now!

Thanks, Steve! 御守護 Go shugo = Protection, for your protection. From Wiki （サムハラ）[5][6]とは不思議の4文字で、身を守ると言われている。これは漢字のような文字であるが、神字であり漢字とは異なる、とされる。Unicodeには、一文字目と三文字目の「𪮷」、四文字目の「𪮇」[注 1]が収録されていて２文字目の「」のみが収録されておらず、活字変換は不可[注 2]。収録された文字は全てCJK統合漢字拡張Cに収録されている。 東大寺（印西東大寺）（千葉県印西市）、雷山千如寺大悲王院（清賀上人により十転化の功徳があるという）など各地の寺社のお守りの呪文に使用されている。

yoroi doshi

Smiths Use of different characters is quite common. Sometimes the use of a particular character was a personal choice to differentiate themselves and sometimes it was traditional. Style is also a clue. The way in which a character is written can point to a smith or particular school or time period. So look at all of it - what form of kanji is being used; does the overall style of writing match a particular school (in this case Mino) or time period; which Kaneyoshi used that type of character in that style? And just to gum up the works even further, smiths often changed their style (i.e., how they wrote a particular character). For example, Nakata Kanehide changed the way he wrote the "kane" character 4 times! Keep this mind as well as smiths that actually changed their artist name. John C.

yoroi doshi

Nice job Uwe In a perfect world we would have all the important blades processed like this Unfortunately for many of them there are very few photos or oshigata available

This is an example that you need to compare oshigata with photos. And the matching text. https://www.transfernow.net/dl/202602097pJBrlkZ

Hello Marcus, It honestly read a bit like an auction description — well written, so credit where it’s due. That said, I would consider this a decent koshirae rather than a “stunning” one. To my eye it’s mid-level work at best. The nanako, in particular, isn’t especially strong. Describing it as housing a spectacular quality blade feels a bit overstated. Just my two cents..

Maybe it's just me, but one particular tsuba of mine always gives me a bit of a laugh. It's this little shrimp/prawn and the way it's little mouth is rendered just is quite humorous to me. What do you think...does it qualify for the laugh if the day? Damon

Same guy, named changed over time? If they were different guys, I wonder about the kao. One is really blurry, but they seem to be the same.

Hi Oli, You’re absolutely right, and I must apologise for my previous oversight: I had initially conflated the 7th and 8th generations as they both practiced during the Showa era. However, looking at the verified timeline, the 2nd Gen was active between 1801 and 1848 (though died in 1858, while the 8th Gen’s career spanned from 1956 to 1989. This leaves a gap of roughly 188 years to be shared among 7 generations. This averages out to about 27 years per generation. See https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/MAS1402 https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/MAS1416

To address Oli's point about the number of generations: in the Japanese Shūmei tradition, the 'Family' functions simultaneously as a bloodline and a professional School. When a highly skilled apprentice is chosen to succeed the master, they are often formally adopted into the family (a practice known as Yoshi-engumi). Therefore, the name 'Hosokawa' represents a continuous professional lineage where the 'surname' acts as a brand of the school. Spanning five generations (from the 2nd to the 7th) over roughly 150 years is mathematically sound, averaging 30 years per successor. This allows the lineage to maintain its identity and 'Seal' even when there is no direct biological heir.

Hi Bruce, I totally understand the confusion! It does look like a wild coincidence, but in the Japanese sword-making tradition, this is actually a very structured practice called Shūmei (襲名, Succession of Names). It wasn’t a coincidence that two guys named Hosokawa used the same name/seal; it’s because they belonged to the same lineage. The WWII smith (7th Gen) was the direct professional descendant of the 1800s smith (1st/2nd Gen). In this culture, inheriting the "Brand Name" (Masayoshi) and the family "Seal" (Kokuin) was a way to show legitimacy and honor the founder. As for your question regarding the specific Kanji in the Kokuin: as a native Chinese speaker, I would describe this as a highly stylised or artistic form of Zhuanshu (Seal Script). It is quite difficult to pinpoint the exact character it originates from just by looking at the strokes, though I suspect it could be "義" (Sometime the '我' part was written in a separate way, as the picture below shows). However, based on my experience with Chinese seal carving, the minor variations in detail you pointed out don't necessarily constitute a different character or identity. In this context, they are effectively the same Kokuin. Given that this functioned much like a Family Crest, it is not surprising at all that Masamori would use it even before officially inheriting the Masayoshi name. Regarding the different form of writing the first Kanja of Hosokawa, the one has a '糸' on its side is a very ancient way of writing it in China. The '小' part was simplified into three dots sometimes, so it was consequently written as '細'. Therefore, they are the same Kanja in fact. However, when Japanese was being standardised during the Meiji Restoration, the '糸' version was designated as the sole official form, which is likely what caused this distinction. Lastly, I've sent some messages to your facebook account about the Mantetsu survey (it was that survey led me to this post in fact), I'd appreciate it if you can have look whenever you are available. https://meitou.info/index.php/細川正義#i8e2d584 https://tokka.biz/sword/masamori.html

Woke up to a handful of replies here. Interesting insights. I’m not sure I would agree it lacks refinement but I get how the design looks a bit plain. Since I’ve been looking around for an Ikkin I’ve seen some mind blowing pieces and some relatively simple ones. Considering Ikkin’s son used the same kao it certainly makes it challenging to identify shoshin or gimei or just the son. Either way I took some photos of the nakago ana but with the quality limit they might be hard to discern any details.

I don't see any issues with the sekigane; everything looks good here. But the work itself differs from most of Ikkin's works, in my opinion, it lacks refinement. It's very interesting that kao is written in the sekigane. So, it seems the master was fitting the tsuba to the sword…

Those actually look really good though...

Gerry, the confirmation certificate you need for the possession and trade of ivory is not from City, Citizen, or Cities - it is CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). And MEIJI era is not "very old" or "old" in the context of Japanese history, culture and arts, it is recent. You may get information and help from Deutsches Elfenbeinmuseum (https://www.erbach.de/tourismus-freizeit/ausflugsziele/deutsches-elfenbeinmuseum/ )

Hi Gerry I know very little about this subject but have owned a few ivory okimono. I tend to agree with Colin about quality. Hands and feet are a good indicator. The standing gent is poor quality and made from odd bits fitted together. The kneeling man speaks for himself.

Not only that but blades owned by more prosperous samurai often had multiple koshirae at the same time (e.g. one for ceremonial duties, one for casual use, one for battlefield use). Check out this Hokke sword that just sold on the forum: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/53726-nbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-hokke-katana-w-2-koshirae/