Brian

Looks like the nakago was scrubbed of anything that was there and a new mei added. Or a Komonjo special.

Assisting an old collector to sell his 3 papered swords that he has owned for while. He is not confident enough to do the listing and asked me to assist. He got into it during Covid, purchased them in 2021 and is no longer collecting. All 3 were imported from Japan, purchased from Samuraimuseum, with a lot invested in the shipping, vat, duties etc etc. He is in Basingstoke, and would prefer to keep the sale within the UK for now. All 3 in polish, and papered Toku Hozon. He has upgraded the fittings on some with papered tosogu, that were purchased from dealers, and had professional rewraps done on some. All the details are in the sales flyers below. If anyone has any interest, you can comment and I'll put you in touch. I am sure he's a little negotiable, but is already selling at quite a loss, so within reason. Izumi no Kami Rai Kinmichi - (Still as purchased) - £5,700 Mutsu no Kami Fujiwara Toshinaga - (Upgraded to papered tsuba and better tosogu and rewrap. Comes with the original tsuba) - £4,500 Tango no Kami Kanemichi - (With additional papered tsuba) This sword has a stunning sudare-ba hamon and lovely fittings - £8,800 See pics and details in the pdf's attached. Izumi no Kami Rai Kinmichi.pdf Mutsu no kami Fujiwara Toshinaga.pdf Tango no Kami Kanemichi.pdf

Thanks Michael, appreciate the support. Nice tsuba that should be worth several times the starting price. His work really does fetch good money out there. If I may make a suggestion for the auction, perhaps a link to his Katsuhira's Tiger Youtube video for those looking at the auction, to get an idea of what he was about and what he could do?

Thanks Chandler. Have added that one to the links list above.

I do that because true handmade swords can also be discussed in the Nihonto section since they do belong there too. As do military swords with older blades. It's worked ok for many years, I think we're good leaving it as is, and leaving the mods to make the call if something should be moved.

Did you not bother reading the post he just pointed you to? (Still waiting for that forum support/membership you said you'd be glad to do)

Very, very bad Chinese fakes. There is nothing here really resmbling a real Japanese sword, sorry. Check out the fake Japanese sword link above and you'll get an idea why.

Thanks for the punt Mal After just having to sort out a few hundred for the Japanese Sword Index hosting to continue it in Rich's name, really could use the promo. Thanks for all the info you provide so freely.

Thanks Mauro and Ed. For Tadahisa, Haynes has this to say: F: Shoami W: Kyoto D: ca. 1700 NTs: a classic Kyoto Shoami sukashi style iron plate tsuba with leaf, ink stick, and two brushes in the round, with gold nunome inlay. SCE. R.E. Haynes collection, 1947 So seems to be a tsuba with the same theme by him.

Thanks guys, and thanks Hamish. They/he really did this design very nicely. Nice to see something not gimei for a change. At about $60 each, I figured I was doing ok :-) The other 2 I posted in Tosogu are also nice, I like them and always nice to get new items when your collecting is stagnating a bit

Thanks Tom, appreciate it

Steve, I have NO idea how you do it, but thank you very much :-)

Very lightly done...seems typical of the school. Can anyone make it out or should I try better pics?

Some stunning Japanese art there. @Bugyotsuji Check out some of the netsuke.

I helped someone local here in SA to move a project Koto katana in out of polish condition, and my part of the deal was I kept the spare tsuba that it had, which didn't belong to that sword. It's an average piece...I would say in the "Nobiue style" although obviously not even close in quality. But nice tortoise geometric design. Don't have the size on hand. Pattern is clearer on one side, the other side looks purposefully obscured a bit with hammer marks. Nice glossy patina. Anyways, just a cute tsuba. Then he offered me 2 tsuba for sale at very modest pricing, so figured I'd pick them up since stuff like this hardly ever comes up for sale in SA. Can anyone assist with the translation on the signed one? Very lightly signed, nice little tsuba...I like it. 70mm x 73mm, edges taper slightly to about 3mm from about 4mm. The other I like a lot too. Seems to have a kinpun? mei. Brushes, a leaf and not sure what the other oval emblem is. Can't tell if that is a Tadahisa or..? 75mm Round, about 5mm thick. Just sharing in case anyone has any info on them. Yes...I played with the colours a little but to show the features. All have a decent deep patina with very little wear.

But nice shape and very popular style. Would need to be examined carefully for quality and workmanship. Could still be a nice sword even if gimei.

Look at the mei and the shinogi line in the nakago. I would still call fake. If not...then the whole nakago was ground down poorly and a new poor mei added. Not something anyone would want to own.

Fake junk

Fake

Probably real wartime mass produced...buffed to hell. With terrible fittings. Bleh. Probably amateur restoration

Real, antique but nothing special. Poor condition with lots of grain openings. Nothing worth grabbing unless it's dirt cheap

Blade is either chromed or buffed within an inch of its life. Hard pass.

Mostly wartime swords. But I think #2 and #5, and most likely #4 too...are Chinese fakes.

Well, not a lot can be said from those pics, but it's definitely real, way before WW2 and traditionally forged. Does appear to be an early sword, but the nakago has some unusual wear and missing material. Can't really decide what's going on there. Needs a decent in-person examination. What is the nagasa?

Have one almost the same. I can't remember if Ford said it would be Bushu or Choshu. There is a lot of overlap. One of them tends to repeat the design on the other side. I think this may be Choshu....iirc they tend to repeat the design on both sides?