EricM

hello Little question for the board, are mon on kai gunto always on menuki? Are the 2 menuki with mon or only one? I came accross 2 kai gunto, one had a mon on the kashira (like on shingunto) and one had only one menuki with a mon so i was wondering if there were any standards like on shingunto! thx eric

thx for your help on the translation any idea if it was for high ranking samurais? is it worth having it repaired due to the cost in your opinion? thx

Dear all, I came accross this nice omi-yari (80cm nagasa / 38 cm nakago - I guess the nakago as been cut a few centuries ago). As as I am not familiar with omi-yari, I did a few research on internet and you have 2 different schools, some say omi-yari were for high ranking samurais, other say it was for low ranking foot soldiers. What do you think? It is signed though I don't know if the signature is genuine and I would say beginning of 17th century. Would you say it is koto though? Do you think it is worth having it repolished or is it better keeping it like that? Due to its size, I guess repolishing + habaki + shirasaya will be in the $3000 range... Thx for your comments http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/7599/dsc0416mk.jpg http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/3706/dsc0413z.jpg http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/963/dsc0409a.jpg

very nice first buy tired blade but very nice mountings, I particularly like the kamon on the menuki

Very nice Guess it must be jabara ito in 1,5mm (I don't think 2mm exists) What about 4mm silk ito ? ;o)

Hi all Do you have examples of tsuka made with 4mm silk tsuka ito ? (I think it is not that common) I found a nice example at http://www.tsukamaki.net/gallery.htm# Would be great to see other examples. I have a few tsuka I would like to have repaired so well I am looking at the different possibilities. Jabara ito is really really nice as well. Thx in advance

Thx I know it is quite impossible to associate one mon with one family but the idea is to identify a few families that used these kamon

Thank you Tom Do you have any idea which family used the Go-Ka ni Katabami kamon ? Eric

Hi all, I have 3 kamon that i would like to identify but i was not able to find them. I searched in -Mon (the Japanese Family Crest - WM Hawley & Kei Kaneda Chappelear) -Japanisches Wappenbuch (nihon moncho - Hugo Gerard Strohl) -a Japanese book (cannot translate the name but looks like that are 1500 kamon in it) -http://www.samurai-archives.com/crest1.html -http://www.otomiya.com/kamon/index.htm (which is by far the best website I ever found on kamon - too bad it is not in English) -for the kamon on the left, I did not found any kamon with space between each leaf like that and with a circle around. The kamon I found with space between each leaf, have nothing inside the leaf. The kamons that look like the more are the Shinagawa and Satake ones. -for the kamon in the middle, the "seki" kamon looks a bit like it but I don't think it is the one -for the kamon on the right, I found one kamon (on the last website) which looks to be the good one but I am not able to translate Any help welcome to find these kamons !! If you know some comprehensive books on the kamon subject, I would be really interested as well thx in advance eric

thx reinhard

Thank you Moriyama-San and Reinhard. Kunishige was Jo-josaku and wazamono so I guess a lot of gimei exist ! I checked on the net and found another oshigata (mine is in the middle) The tricky thing is that both legitimate oshigatas are quite different !! any thoughts ?

Hi all I would like to get your help on this mei traduction (I am ashamed to be so bad at finding kanjis => would say the third one is SAKI and the last one TO) I believe the blade is shinto (straight blade and small kissaki - would be happy to have your comments) but was is common at that time to have such long blades ? The current nagasa is 68,5cm and the original one was 77cm !! Thx a lot for your help EM

thx for your advice

hi all I will go in Japan very soon for 10 days. I am wondering if you know nice places to see in Tokyo or Kyoto for nihonto ? For Tokyo, i have read that the sword museum and shops around seems to be a nice start. Furthermore do you know some shops with affordable prices (in the 1000-5000$ range)? What i have read so far is that the prices are very high as they only sell top quality swords! (cannot afford a juyo thanks in advance EM

thx for your answers not easy to be sure of the mei as the other mei are quite different ! the mekugi ana was drilled a bit larger to fit a gunto koshiare the blade is quite healthy and nicely balanced so guess the smith was quite good the interesting story about the blade is that it suffered a grenade impact from WW2 which damaged the scabbard and "only" create a hagiri (too bad...) do you know if i could get a NTBHK or NTHK paper if i have it polished ? (i think hagiri is not a good thing for that but perhaps if it appears not to be a gimei it could work) eric

hi would like to get your advice on a mei signed Echizen Kami Minamoto Rai Nobuyoshi who was O-Wazamono. http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/9162/pict0226it9.jpg http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/5927 ... tedho4.jpg In my opinion it really looks like an other mei validated by the nbthk http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/8871 ... thkdr3.jpg wondering why the mekugi-ana was placed in a way to damage the first kanji though Any thoughts are welcome thx eric

thx guys for your answer what about the kogatana? real or fake? eric

hi all wondering what you think of this set ? believed to be silver my guess is that it is a chinese copy perhaps at best end of 19th beginning of 20th made for a tourist? what do you think of the kagatana as well ? looks like it is signed on the wrong side ? thx eric http://img460.imageshack.us/img460/3784/pict0049ym8.jpg http://img451.imageshack.us/img451/608/pict0048po8.jpg http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/6638/pict0054zb5.jpg

hi all wondering if some of you have already found a blade with such a big mei saying it was a copy of an old smith ? shinshinto smiths did copy old koto blades but i never came across a blade saying which smith it was eric http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/482/pict0064gz9.jpg http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/7504/pict0060cn9.jpg http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/6455/pict0058ly8.jpg

thx all lots of book to read !!

Hi all I am wondering where i can find a book filled with oshigata (from koto to now) ?? i have a nice book for shinto blade with many oshigata but only for the top smith of the period with their school. The thing is that i have a sword signed from a lower shinto smith (but not a bad one!!!) and i would like to check if it looks like genuine first step for identification I guess a lot of books exist on the subject but perhaps only for the best ones, so would really be interested to find other books thx a lot eric (on the long path of knowledge!!!) This one could be my smith! Kanenori (III) Shinto, Echizen no kuni (Teikyo:1684) Jo saku KAN257 (25pts) TTp61, Â¥3M 1661-84,Later in Edo. Yamato Daijo Fujiwara Kanenori 大和大掾藤原包則 http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/2858/pict1157ug3.jpg

thx for your advice too bad i can't get a paper so i'll leave it like that it is the sharpest blade i collected so far as tadahiro was a o wazamono smith

hi all i have a blade 72 cm nagasa signed and hamon suguha "nobody" did the great job (as usual to identify it as either hizen kuni no ju omi daijo fujiwara tadahiro (nidai) or hizen kuni omi daijo fujiwara tadayoshi (yondai) (or eventually gimei)! i compared the mei with a few oshigata and tadahiro's signature is exactly the same (for the 7 first kanji as the other ones are not that clear). this smith used to do suguha as well as choji. this blade belonged to a field officier during WWII and the tsuka fittings were amazingly corroded (guess because of salt+humidity for 50 years) so the tang looks older than a shinto piece the blade is is good shape, but is stained with what i believe is blood and received a massive shock which created a hagire (too bad!!!!!!!!!!!) so i am wondering if it is a good idea to have it polished (down to earth question as it is expensive ? if we consider it is not gimei, would it get a paper from the NTHK or NTBHK with a hagire? financially speaking, i paid the blade in the $1000 range but what would be the approximative value with a polish and paper if it not gimei ? i know that a hagire is not a good news on a blade so even if it is a big smith what could i get if i need to sell it (considering that polish and paper would be in the $2000 range) anyway i like it so could enjoy it like that with its new - 1700 century fittings thx for your answers eric http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/5839/tachimq3.jpg http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/8060 ... gs2va9.jpg http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/356/ ... meiax5.jpg Nagasa : 72 cm nakago : 21 cm kasane habaki : 0,7 cm kasane yokote : 0,5 cm mihaba habaki : 2,9 cm mihaba yokote : 2,1 cm Motohada : 2,5 cm http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/403/hamon1ph1.jpg http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/7836/hamon2kn0.jpg http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/9779/hagireyj0.jpg reference oshigata http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/7668 ... iroel1.jpg http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/2140 ... rcykc7.jpg http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/3272 ... ai2ki8.jpg http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/9091 ... daicq2.jpg

hi all i am wondering if some of you could help me to identify 2 mei as far as i know one is a hizen tachi (early shinto nagasa of 72 cm) but wondering which smith it is!! the second one is believed to be by tango no kami kanemichi, i had a look on http://www.jssus.org/nkb/ and only 2 smith are matching so wondering which smith it is!! thx a lot ericM Kanemichi (II) Shinto, Settsu no kuni (Genroku:1688) Mishina , Chu-jo saku KAN1404 TTp132 nidai, a.k.a. "mishina zenpeiji", kikusui, sudareba, 'mishina boshi', S69, TK132 tango kami kanemichi inarimaru kanemichi Kanemichi (III) Shinto, Settsu no kuni (Shotoku:1711) Chu-jo saku KAN1406 (15pts) TTp132, ¥2M tango (no) kami kanemichi