Shugyosha

I suspect because some people rocked up and thought that they knew better than a guy who'd studied his craft in Japan and had been an artist and fittings maker for a long time. They didn't appreciate it when Ford gave them an opinion that they disagreed with and weren't able to refute - it probably goes back to the thread on whether or not tsuba were made using cast iron in the Edo period.

I think it's always wise to view tameshi mei with a degree of scepticism due to their elevating effect on the price of blades. Things that arouse suspicion for me: The mei is in not carved into the tang but just painted on so if done in kinpun rather than kinzogan or just carved; The test is not signed or is not signed by a member of one of the families authorised to do test cuts; Discrepancies between the date of the blade and the dates of the recorded working period of the person signing as having tested the blade; Swords that have supposedly cut an unfeasible quantity of bodies or the test cut was through parts of the body hardest to cut and doubly so if wakizashi rather than long swords. I suspect that owners of koto blades were less likely to bother with having their swords tested and inscribed as they were more likely to be battle-proven, also, the guys that hung around cross roads cutting down passers by probably didn't bother recording how they did so . So yes, there may well be "tested" blades out there without that ever having been recorded on the tang.

Hi Adam, I don't think that the tachi had to be worn as a katana, I think that a tachi worn edge down slung from a belt and tanto still makes a daisho. If you're in the market for a daisho, I think that you have to be careful to avoid "put together" sets of koshirae that look similar but don't match as the price will always be elevated to take account of the "matching" koshirae. Other than that, as has been said above, any samurai lucky or wealthy enough to own two blades had a daisho. Some even had a dai dai - there is a list of some of the swords carried by the 47 ronin and a number of the short swords are over what we think of as katana length.

Hi Evan, I happened across this one: https://www.touken-m...uct/shousai/TSU-2896

You're bang on Mark. Is there the top two strokes of the last kanji showing or am I imagining something that isn't there?

Maybe some work with the uchiko ball would bring out the hamon and reduce some of the black rust, but I don't think it would be worth investing much more in it. I think it's a nice little piece for the money though.

Don’t know, do the dodgy green papers apply to swords only? It would be interesting to see if it would receive papers if re-submitted.

Hi Bruce, It might be from the Chinese sexagenary calendar: 1836 was hinoe saru - 丙申 Year of the fire tiger/ monkey. Second kanji matches, first one not so much for me so a bit of a stab in the dark.

Hi Deanna, The swirl effect is called mokume gane and is a product of folding the metal as used in the manufacture of sword blades but it's not a process confined to any one group or school of makers so it's hard to kantei it based on that alone, however, this type of tsuba are quite desireable and I think you've got an attractive piece there. You could try sprinkling a little talcum powder over the signature to see if that highlights any of the strokes, but without something to make it a little clearer it's too vague for me.

Sorry Lukrez, it was a joke comment - there are very many Bizen Sukesada so I thought the odds were in favour of the sword being by one of them.

Definitely Sukesada.

For the hamon, as you say, suguba, then I think: 砂流-へる - tsunagashii heru. I’m in guessing territory here though and I’m sure I’ll be corrected soon.

For the boshi, maybe hakikete kaeru? 掃けて返る Indicating a brushed effect to the turn back.

Hi Peter, To get things going: 板目流れる - Itame nagareru, flowing itame.

I may be wrong but that looks more like a kinpun mei than kinzogan: I can’t see any evidence that the gold was inlaid rather than “painted” on and I think that reduces the likely veracity of the attribution. There have been a lot of these on the Japanese auction sites lately with a fanciful attribution painted on in gold to lend the air of an authoritative judgement - generally without papers of course.