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I was just at the 2nd phase of the Jubi exhibition at the NBTHK museum this week, and it was quite a treat to see so many Kamakura era ubu zaimei tachi. The standout to me was the 96.3cm signed Tomonari tachi below: There was also a Norishige tanto with a gorgeous jigane, but it was was odd that the mekugi ana were both punched straight through the characters of the mei: There was also a Tsunahiro hirazukuri wakizashi with a flamboyant hamon: And also a Masamune, which I honestly didn't find to be that outstanding: There were lots of koto blades with prominent utsuri, such as this Muneyoshi: And a few blades had the hamon on the kissaki running very close to the edge: One very interesting sword to me was a Kaneyoshi that was signed and dated both on the same side of the nakago:

Hi, Perhaps my perspective can help. I think the scientific perspective is a dead end. Why? Because controlled test conditions are impossible to create on historical swords ("too many variables that can't be systematically varied"). Research on Japanese steel and destructive testing on Google Scholar typically yield these ridiculously small sample studies, often with a no-big-deal Muromachi blade or two, sacrificed for metallurgic examination, which typically then leads the authors to make broad conclusions on Koto steel. This is over-generalization and unrigorous. At the other end of the spectrum, there is the folk-science of Masahide's testing - I am somewhat more sympathetic to his approach. Try to cut stuff, make notes. Again, very limited. End of the day, nobody is going to sacrifice a meito on the altar of a Kabuto test cutting. All in all, the fact that Shinto blades have a higher average carbon content leading to brittleness is well attested, and even today's centralized tatara process suffers from overcarbonisation, which is the most common complaint of modern smiths. But this is besides the point. If you want to understand the battle-worthiness of swords, you need to study the market, the method of warfare, and the needs of customers. This is fundamentally more interesting approach than attempting to misapply the scientific method: study the consumer demand profile and the market feedback mechanism. The market creates incentives, producers react to these incentives to make competitive products. Koto school that flourished produced in-demand swords. The main factor driving sword demand during the Koto period was battlefield feedback. Therefore, an efficient proxy for period-controlled, battle-worthiness is the popularity of certain Koto schools and maker that were in high-demand by the elite members of the bushi class. In other-words, if Oda Nobunaga or Toyotomi Hideyoshi took a liking to a certain smith, it's because the product got the job done, pretty was secondary, and they had nearly two centuries of accrued smith reputation to work with. Better, they either had first-hand experience, or second-hand experience from testimonials of their retainers or rivals. Nicknames at the time were simple and to the point: candlestand cutter, helmet cutter, etc. Collecting good swords as war booty, off the dead hands of rivals, was a competitive field at the time. What happens during Muromachi? Well, the demand profile changes. It's no longer about absolute battle effectiveness as it was during the Kamakura Golden Age, it's about getting production to be as cheap as possible to equip flocks of Ashigaru while maintaining a workable sidearm product that was used only in last resort. Different demand profile. That, and exporting swords to the mainland in high volume to quality-insensitive consumer to fund your armies. These were the early Toyotas, or the Shahed drones of today. It works and its cheap. And during Shinto time? Well, peace is upon the land, at long last. Sword smithing loses touch with battlefield reality. Imagine your arms industry producing weapons during peace time, without any adversary to provide feedback. And besides, all the people with money already have their ancestral collectible stashed away. But swords needed to be made in small quantities, this is where you start seeing hamons that feel extremely contrived, with painted tobiyaki and mount fuji impression rendered as hamon. Authorities knew this and of course a few swordsmith had access to their collections and tried making reproductions of Koto swords (Momoyama times, for instance), but it's a slow decline after that. By the middle Edo, the sword industry became so atrophied and the Shogun had to stimulate demand by providing honors and subsidies just to get some talented people moving into the field so it wouldn't completely die out, and a few talented smiths were found in Satsuma (Ippei Yasuo, etc) that genuinely stood out. Things got bad, and everyone knew it. Customers started asking for "proof that it cuts" and that spawned an entire test-cutting industry which was profoundly misguided as the test cutting was performed exclusively on naked or barely clothed static humans in a standardized posture across standardize cut angles with a strange and unrealistic weight attached on the tsuka. That certification industry became very profitable not because of the test-cutting per se, but the side-hustle of creating snake oil out out of harvested body parts. A grim and decadent practice. So Masahide walks into this dying field, realizes something is deeply wrong, and sets himself up on a journey to rectify it and go back to the "old ways". During the Bakumatsu period, one starts to see swords getting longer and more brutal looking. This was a thing in Japan, the closer to civil war, the longer and more brutal the swords got. Nobody wants to be the one with the tooth pick when all hell breaks loose. Kiyomaro cracks the Koto recipes and produce secretly Sunno-To for the Imperialist faction as a side hustle. Naotane cracks it on occasion as well, creating the closest Bizen-mono Utsushi ever made. There is a genuine effort in making functional swords again, and demand is met by the samurai population getting prepared for the inevitable showdown. Money flows into the underground markets and civil war brews. Nobody is looking for mount fuji as a hamon or a fancy Tadatsuna Horimono at that point. So what do we learn from all of this? Well, in the end, it is the desires of the customers that drive the market and product development, and the customer gets his desires from his current priorities. In the Kamakura period, this was about that solo duel on horseback against your sworn family enemy that you'd call out on the battlefield for a one on one in an effort to get his head and earn some glory for your clan. A blade severed by impact meant death and ridicule, and it made you and your entire clan look bad. And people watched and took notes. Battlefield effectiveness at whatever the cost was the goal. It was about having the ultimate weapon, the ultimate horse, the ultimate armor for those one-on-ones to grind up on the honor ladder and hopefully be rewarded by your Lord. I will skip the mongols and the effect it has on Bizen-mono, but things evolved quickly there as well as a result of pure feedback. During the Muromachi period, Ashigaru armies with cheap yari an arquebuses was the meta. No more heroic one-on-one for trophy hunting. Just bloody volleys, and once the Takeda Cavalry went down, it was the end of an era. War had forever changed its face, and demand would never be the same again. And yet, hard earned reputation during the Golden Age would persist to this day. I hope this helps, Hoshi

I was wrong…..they did thank us!…..

This one sticks in the memory from a dealer’s fb page a few years ago. T’was beyond my means, but I still think about it occasionally. Hats off to whoever picked it up.

Hi Bruce, the full inscription reads 夛賀大明神 - Taga Daimyōjin and the blade was made in the mid 1930's by Kojima Kanetoki.

Has it really been over 15 years since I wrote that post?? Oh my gosh... :-D. Alex, you are very welcome, and thank you so much not only for acknowledging my post, but also sharing with me how it helped shape your perspective and drive you to continue your quest to study, learn, and *enjoy* this magnificent art form! I am *truly* touched by your post. You've made my week, and I am so happy for you. Sadly, the Nihonto community has lost every one of the folks you mentioned before; Guido, Ford, Keith, and Darcy, three of whom were very close personal friends to me, and while I could not presume to call Ford a friend in the truest sense of the word, I held deep respect for him as a craftsman. Friendships and relationships that were forged with shared enthusiasm and the joy within Nihonto. Herein lies the profound and salient point; the most precious of all things we collect in this wacky field is the friends, relationships, and experiences that stay with us forever while we help preserve the arts that brought us together in the first place. Thus in turn, these things can continue to do the same for future generations. Keep going. You're doing great, and it gets better. Cheers, Ted

As part of the Golden Week display of Sanchōmō they were running a shuttle bus today to the old Nakazaki-Tei in Fukuoka Village next to Osafuné. Spread over three rooms were a display of Koshiraé (no blades), a display of Tsuba, a case full of Tōsōgu, and a display of Bizen guns and accessories, etc. The latter was my alotted corner. Not expecting anyone to visit our humble exhibition, I was surprised to see more than fifty people come through during the day, from all over Japan. What pleased me particularly (apart from the obvious interest shown by the visitors) was that I was asked to provide some Koshiraé, and everything I had brought with me got added to the display. Seven Koshiraé! This is the very first time that my pieces have been considered worthy of their displays. No negative comments, all silently accepted. Made me all warm and fuzzy inside, it did.

Alex, I absolutely share your opinion. Coming back to the title of this thread, I am often more impressed by the inherent craft in a TSUBA than by its artistry. I can admire the work in a gorgeous and opulent 19th century KINKO TSUBA, but for owning one, I would choose a genuine KACHUSHI TSUBA with a well-made DOTE MIMI. But they are no longer underrated and now sold for big money!

The study/collection of nihontō can be a slow-burn pursuit. Some of you with bear-trap memories may recall (though I concede, it may be unlikely) this blade I posted here, coming on seventeen years ago. At the time a recent graduate living in the UK with plenty of enthusiasm but very little knowledge and severely limited means, this board (and SFI) was effectively my only interactive window into the realm of nihontō. At this stage of my 'study', which I recall very clearly, I was not content in taking the very good advice to spend my hard-earned pennies on boring old books! I was keen to get my mitts on medieval Japanese steel, and was rather more inclined to trawl eBay looking for a deal than to drop my “first thousand dollars” on dusty tomes. (You gotta be kidding me!) I had three criteria for buying my first ebay sword: be sure it’s koto, thick, and not rusty. Eventually I settled on something I could be certain, I told myself, was genuinely old but still healthy, which to me meant thick. In my defense, I tried hard to be selective, gravitating towards something with an “obviously old” and active jihada. This sword represented my first foray into online auctions, and marked my first thousand dollars spent there. I always had faith that this sword was a bit special and unusual; however, try as I might, I could never confidently match it to any school. It seemed to my ignorant eyes to have the traits of several, all at once. I am pleased to finally and at long last be able to share a reliable update and judgement of this sword. The sword was examined by renowned expert Mike Yamasaki, who appraised it as the work of... More recently, I had the opportunity to exhibit the sword locally at a cultural arts festival in Orange County, alongside a few others. It was a small thing, but meaningful to me, and felt like a way of (finally) contributing something back to the wider “nihontō study and preservation” community. I wanted to return to this thread to close the loop, but more importantly to say thank you. A great deal of my interest in deeper study began right here - I was so determined to uncover the mystery of this blade's origin. The friendships, knowledge, and perspective that followed all trace back, in part, to those early exchanges. NMB has a lot to answer for. Over the years I’ve had the chance to meet and correspond with some of the people who replied here and elsewhere. That has been an honour, and always both enlightening and entertaining. I feel compelled to mention a few names in particular who I wish I could properly thank: Guido Schiller, Ford Hallam, Keith Larman and Darcy Brockbank, among others. Ted, I have been meaning to thank you for your responses to that original thread for a very long time. So, a belated thank you to Ted Tenold for such a detailed reply; it became, whether you realised it or not, a lens through which I’ve looked at sugata and three-dimensional blade geometry ever since. This post is not intended to resurrect an old thread but rather to close the loop on an earlier discussion, which I have always felt was left unresolved, and also to acknowledge the influence it had. My thanks to those who contributed their knowledge then and who continue to do so now.

Since we are showing off our early documented tsuba, here is one from the Mosle' collection. This one is described as number 804. TSUBA, thin iron, with two circular perforations, shigure-yasuri-me. Unsigned work of Prince Hosokawa Tadaoki (Sansai-Ko). 32. Higo province. Plates LX-LXIV Background on the Mosle Collection “Alexander Mosle’ (1862-1946) during several stays in Japan from 1884 to 1907 representing Gruson Werke, a subsidiary of Krupp, put together the core of his collection through Amiya with the advice and teachings of Akiyama Kyusaku. Back in Europe, he exhibits his collection in Berlin in 1909 (he will continue to buy until 1920). His collection was made of about 1600 pieces among which a unique group of some 300 Goto works, a number of which had the origami issued by Goto masters in works attributed to their ancestors before they were in the habit of signing. “(from 100 Selected Tsuba from European Public Collections, by Robert Haynes and Robert Burawoy)” Mentors of Mosle’ as listed in his 1914 catalog include: Paul Vautier (put together the Oeder collection) Wada Tsunahiro (put together the Furukawa collection) Akiyama Kyusaku Ogura Soemon (Amiya) “Mosle’ was one of the few devotees who actually lived in Japan (1884 -1907) during this historic period and had through his position as armament representative to Japan from the Gruson/Krupp company and as acting consul of Belgium to Japan access to experts in his fields of interest of the highest order. He counted as personal friends the likes of Tokugawa Iesato and General Nogi and mingled with the aristocracy of Japan. From this he was able to access information rarely accorded anyone, not to mention non-Japanese, and with his scholastic mind was able to document much research in these fields. (historic information has been taken from the catalog, ‘Japanese Sword Fittings from the Alexander G. Mosle’ Collection, Mosle’ and His Collection’, Sebastian Izzard LLC, 2004).

萬延元庚申年日 – Man’en 1st Kanoe-Saru year (1860) 鈴木鉄造典直迮之 – Suzuki Tetsuzo Norichika/Norinao made this.

Just a few pictures from the show. This was from Sunday. Saturday was much busier! As always, Mark and family put on a great show! Lots of great items to see and had the chance to meet up with old friends.

Today I had a chance to see it again, luckily at a time when there were fewer visitors, so I tried some different shots. A B

蓋同銘中・無出典在者 Not sure of the red, but my guess is that the meaning is "The meaning of the phrase on the tsuba (also noted on the lid) is unknown" (not listed in any published resources). Edit: Hmm, rethinking this, at least the 2nd part. The phrase 忠則盡命 is known (devoting your life to your lord). A reference to a Chinese classic, Thousand Character Essay (孝當竭力，忠則盡命).

And D E F

bit better image from Brit Museum Find it here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1952-0211-42 One for sale with papers? https://world-seiyudo.com/product/tu-070924/ The rotund guy has a slightly terrified look. May have sold? https://www.seiyudo.com/tu-070924.htm One "tsuba?" from the British Museum that probably shouldn't be there! https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_2003-0909-2

Just a short follow up, I agreed with Samurai Museum Berlin to display the blade for two more years (until June 2028) in there so that you all have the chance to see it .

Suishinshi Masahide had a message - Edo period and everything associated with it was bad, it was better before and way better in late Kamakura. That was not unusual thinking towards Bakumatsu, whether the subject was economy, governance or sex life. How realistic is it when applied to swords is difficult to say. Overall Japanese ones are much harder than European and conversely are very prone to chipping. Great cutters with exceptionally short lifetime. You can chop a dozen iron nails with a saber and all you are going to get is the edge being shinier in places. But saber is not going to do nearly the same damage as Japanese sword. If what you want is a cut from above against say human target, I would go with shinto. More consistent steel content and grain size distribution. More weight for the same size is not going to hurt you but makes the technique more forgiving. Will shinto be more prone to fatal damage under such conditions - this is not my experience and I have an issue finding any concrete evidence confirming it is so. Early soshu is just as hard at the edge as Sukehiro. But early Soshu was battle proven... Its a big statement with not a lot of known quantities. Battle proven (very) often means we have X money, Y people and therefore we are going to make the weapons to fit the bill, nevermind all other considerations. Or it can mean we have one guy who survived a famous encounter 20 years ago and we continue making weapons according to his vision, until 20 years later people start believing in something else... And if you are an actual weapon designer, being guided by soldiers is not going to yield a fantastic weapon. There are many reasons, including soldiers not realizing the tradeoffs between performance, reliability, cost and manufacturability, while navigating those is the key to being great weapon designer. A LOT of them will have memories of the fighting itself distorted to the point of being completely unrealistic. Or driven by a single event which drove them nuts. So you are looking for a feedback of someone experienced, intelligent, calm minded, objective with knowledge of how the technology works. How many such people exist, especially since everyone who really fights rather than participates runs the risk of being killed which if not 50% then at least 10% Back to swords, frankly speaking they all have nearly the same effectiveness, +/- 15%. Its not the kind of technology or environment where you kill 100 people and then elaborate on how it felt with say Bizen versus Soshu. In this case, "fashion" becomes important. Somebody with influence likes o-kissaki - everyone tries to copy and be cool. Then another guy says - its all hubris, traditional sugata is better, and in 10 years - nothing changed on the battlefield but we are back to shapes from 100 years ago.

It’s signed Nobumasa and dated October 1943. There is a stamped “80” and also potentially a “na” stamp on the mei side. You should add "NLF" to your username - "NLF Swords.” You still throw that term around in literally every translation request you post even though it’s incorrect. These are Army swords….

Great show and thanks for organizing it! I have not been able to participate for two years and the experience was exhilarating. I hope everyone in the field gets to enjoy a show like this at least once.

Kudos to you Colin, and to them for actually listening. A small victory, but a victory none the less.

I like this one. mei Ichiiriuku Hisamitsu

Whenever you need a good laugh, heading to the lanes armoury site and reading the latest high fantasy they've dreamed up never disappoints. Hollywood could take some notes on the cultivation of sheer suspension of disbelief these fellows pull off.

This is from my file that I did about year ago

@Bruce Pennington @Kiipu You guys might find this interesting. Through a discussion with a dealer, I commented on showato getting torokusho. I was told that this dealer was commisioned to gather swords to be sent to Japan for resale. The Japanese dealer had several shops and would ask the swords be sent to his Osaka location and not his Tokyo location because the regulations were less strict (or at least less enforced) in Osaka and getting a torokusho for gunto was easier. I bring this up because I was thinking about...gulp...doing some research on registered gunto by location and frequency - unless you guys have done that already. John C.

Hi Forrest, welcome to the forum! Unfortunately I have to agree with everyone else, this does look like either a homemade blade, or one built to intentionally deceive. Quite a few of us started the same way, buying a fake and then getting introduced to the world of Nihonto and wartime blades the hard way, do so don't give up hope - they are out there! Hopefully you didn't pay too much for it... I'd heavily advise reading up on as many threads in the forum as you can - you'll be able to train your eye pretty quickly about what a type 95 or type 98 etc should look like. Also, did you remove the tsuka wrap? Hopefully not something you'd do on a real ww2 relic 😅

Sorry, it is a Chinese reproduction. Probably made within the last thirty years.

蓋同銘中無出其右者 (Kedashi domeichu sono migini derumono nashi.) – Perhaps, among the works with the same mei, it is second to none. As for “盡忠則命” on the box, I think that we do not have to be too bound by the word on the box. I guess that the order of the kanji was Kanzan’s own understanding only because he did not know the original four-character idiom 忠則盡命. The attached article was written on the premise that the word was 忠則盡命. Ref. 忠則藎命図鐔　銘　三信家

Some general shots of the place. A B C

Alex, I absolutely share your opinion. I am an 'iron guy', but to my surprise, in some cases, a little gold does not hurt. The below shown typical TEIMEI TSUBA (one of the "underrated" styles/schools) has a fine gold decoration which is rarely seen on these. How do you find that?

As per previous advice, kick up a HUGE storm. Email everyone from the CEO down. Emphasize that this is a unique, one of a kind item and is a cultural item, and that you are going to have to warn Japanese dealers against using USPS. Ask them who you put down as the person to contact since you will be opening a case with the police. Remind them that the Nihonto community is close, and that there have been a spate of these lately. Really go all out. It is my personal experience that the more you shake up the guys at top, the more change the item is "suddenly found" You have nothing to lose.

Thanks for your articles Alexander . The thought that items that I now own have passed through the hands of previous collectors ,who have also treasured them , has always interested me . One minor correction. In your article on Walter Behrens you perpetuate the myth that Henri Joly was Belgian . He was born on the 24th of Feb 1878 at Chartres France . His 1901 and 1911 census entries confim that he was French . The attached tsuba is one of two I have that were once part of Henri Joly's collection .

#1) Bushu - there is a lot of low end Bushu, hiding the fact that there are some very high end Bushu #2) Ko-kinko - same as above. There are low end ko-kinko worth $100, on up to high end ko-kinko worth $45k The wide spread in values of certain large groups results in a propensity to value some exceptionally fine tsuba downwards towards the center of the bell curve.

This example from a still active company with hundreds of faked/copied designs, operating out of Osaka https://www.jauce.com/user/9sBuThXpTqPVk2Hk6fEs19XhMiFkU?&search=tsuba&n=100&page=1 I did toy with the idea of doing a catalogue with the fakes and the original piece they are based on - but it might end up being a very very thick book!

Just having a beer and got a link to this through email. Sounds interesting but for some reason im getting lost reading through it. Sure someone here will fathom it out, cheers. 2nd one down. https://thelanesarmoury.co.uk/shop.php Price on request, must be special.

I am unsure about the second line. It might be an address? 祈願武運長久 – Pray for continued luck in the fortunes of war □□□□□□□ 谷口幸雄 – Taniguchi Yukio 二十二才 – 22 year old

59th Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival - sword display

...and yet, a dozen folks on Ebay, icluding some of our own unfortunately, call ANY dagger a kamikaze suicide dagger. In my opinion, it really gives the hobby a black eye, particularly when perpetuated by folks who know better but just want to make a buck. John C.

The same ones from 2024 ??

Hi, i am reducing my collection and selling now a nice Tanto from Gassan Sadayoshi. Nagasa is about 19,5 cm. It comes in Shirasaya, a Box and NBTHK Hozon papers. A nice package I think. Price is 3000 Euro (including shipping inside EU) About the smith (from Markus Seiko books): SADAYOSHI (貞吉), Bunkyū (文久, 1861-1864), Settsu – “Ushū Murayama-gun no jū Gassan Sadayoshi Sesshū Ōsaka ni oite kore o saku” (羽州村山郡住月山貞吉於摂州大坂作之, “made by Gassan Sadayoshi from the Mura- yama district of Dewa province in Ōsaka in Settsu province”), “Naniwa ni oite Gassan Yahachirō Sadayoshi” (於浪花月 山弥八郎貞吉), “Naniwa Kinpō-jōhen ni oite Gassan Yahachirō Sadayoshi kore o tsukuru” (於浪花金宝城辺月山 弥八郎貞吉), “Naniwa-jū Gassan Sadayoshi” (浪華住月山貞吉), “Gassan Sadayoshi kore o tsukuru” (月山貞吉造之), “Sesshū ni oite Ikutama-jū Gassan Sadayoshi kore o tsukuru” (於摂州住生玉月山貞吉造之), real name Gassan Yahachirō (月山弥八郎), he was born in the first year of Tenmei (天明, 1781) in Takegawa (竹川) in the Murayama district (村山郡) of Dewa province as oldest son of the local swordsmith Okuyama Yasaburō Sadachika (奥山弥三郎 貞近) who is regarded as reviver of the kotō-era Gassan school, at the beginning of the Bunsei era (文政, 1818-1830) he moved to Edo and studied there under Suishinshi Masahide (水心子正秀), later, in the fourth year of Tenpō (天保, 1833), he moved to Ōsaka, he died on the 19th day of the second month Meiji three (1870) at the age of 90, we know blades from the Bunsei to the end of the Keiō era (慶応, 1865-1868), the jigane is the Gassan-typical ayasugi-hada, a masame in the Yamato tradition, or a dense mokume, the hamon can appear as suguha in nie-deki, as small dimensioned choji- midare, or as koshi-no-hiraita midare, traditions say that his adopted son Sadakazu made some daisaku-daimei works when Sadayoshi was in his later years, – The handed-down dates are somewhat uncertain. When Sadayoshi was allegedly born in Tenmei one (1781), his father Sadachika was only ten years old. A theory says that Sadayoshi died not at the age of 90 but of 71 in Meiji three (1870) what would calculate his year of birth as Kansei two (寛政, 1800). Sadachika was then 30 years old and this seems to be more plausible. So maybe this all goes back to a wrong quotation of his age when he died and the year of birth had never been transmitted and always just calculated back from Meiji three. jō-saku For any questions or offers, write me pleas a PM, Thanks Oliver

Sold

Oof, seems like Lanes Armory won the Knutsen auction for this item. Well it is good to know for the future that the item resides with them. However unfortunately I don't think I can ever afford to buy it from them. It seems it was 3,400 GBP at auction, don't even want to ask what the price is now...

An auspicious day in the fifth month of Genji 2 (1865).

Funnily enough, that's also how I found the sword initially; I had been searching for an iaito online for my own practice, and because the story about the iaido sensei was in the seller's description, the listing showed up in my search results. The koshirae is very nice for a fatally flawed blade, albeit rather low-key, which lends some credence to this story (as does the blade being extremely thin and light due to having taken so many polishes - suitable indeed for an elderly practitioner). I was particularly fond of the tsuba, which has some subtle detailing reminiscent of Kagamishi school work. At any rate, I am pleased that both you and the previous owner were both upfront and well-informed about the blade's condition, and that it has found its way to someone who can appreciate it for what it is and the centuries of history behind it.

Hi, yes, took screen shots, cropped them, turned them upright and saved them. The first is a Settsu (Osaka) gun made by a smith (name obliterated) working for the House of Enamiya. 摂州住榎並屋ｘｘｘ衛作 The second has stuff I need to double-check on. The date at top is fuzzy but looks like 萬延 Man-en Gannen (1860). The Mei 鈴木鉄造　典直　作之 Suzuki Tetsuzo (?) Norinao Saku Kore, = made by Suzuki Tetsuzo Norichika/Norinao (not sure about how he wanted those characters read!) but no place of manufacture is indicated. NB I did find a record of another gun made by this second smith above Nick, dated Bunkyu Gannen (1861), which does put yours inside the ballpark.

@Bruce Pennington From the auction posted above: I know you have Masahide's kokuin listed in the stamps doc, however this may be a slightly clearer pic. John C.

That’s why it is confusing CET vs CEST. Midnight CET is 01 am CEST so bidding could be like last minute snipe. But yeah lets go with first bid with 20$ and I will add another 5$ so We get same amount and no dissapointment on any side. Especially first bid was made at 14th. @Marius 35$ from me. Donation already made via paypal. @Brian paypal gives you Rands? I exchanged for 600 R and paypal took 35$ so I have 17,48 R left. Do You have something like revolut? great multi currency account. So simple cheap wire transfer.

The only Yoshimochis of note are Fukuoka Ichimonji so it doesn't need to be qualified here. If they thought the mei was legit but belonged to some other, less well-known Yoshimochi, then they would add a qualifier in brackets.

It was sold for 4.2 million yen, or roughly $26,000.