Shugyosha

No, but some of the blades that show up on here have had a beating. Joking apart, I ultimately it’s your own blade, if it isn’t damaged by using it for Iaido, no harm done…but I wouldn’t risk it myself. Sorry Emil, your post arrived while I was replying to Nicolas.

Sorry, I didn’t follow the link - yes, that seems plausible and if it wasn’t made for use, it wouldn’t matter where the mekugi ana was placed. It’s certainly an oddity.

Maybe a suriage, re-mounted nagamaki? Placement of the mekugi-ana seems off for a sword. I agree, it seems suspicious.

Nah, you can hurt people really badly with a musical instrument. It must be true, no one hangs around when I play my guitar. I’m sorry but I’m in the do your sword practice with a replica blade camp. These threads crop up occasionally and the answer is always the same. Brian, if it isn’t there already, can we have something in a FAQ section that we can just link to save time? Maybe somewhere near the one that deals with polishing your own sword and using it to chop wood?

I drew a blank too...

Hi Ronald, What Charles said: hard to tell much from the photos, hang on to your money and spend it on something where you’ll know what you’re getting. Check out the sales section on here. Good hunting!

The Shoshin website suggests that the first Wakasa Fuyuhiro was the son of the second generation Soshu Hirotsugu and moved from Sagami to Wakasa but I don't know any more: https://www.sho-shin.com/soshu.html https://www.sho-shin.com/hoku.htm

Hi Bernard, Perhaps 相州住冬廣- Soshu ju Fuyuhiro. I'm not convinced about the "Fuyu" kanji though, so that's a bit of a a guess and hopefully someone else can either confirm or suggest a better match.

Hi Russ, At the level of your Sukehiro, I think you're absolutely right and I've done it myself at that level but for $6k you can get quite a lot of genuine, authenticated blades from decent schools. As a mumei katana the new owner is looking at having paid two to three times what the blade would be worth if he tried to re-sell it as-is. Maybe he thought it was a genuine signature and bought with a view to papering it or he got taken with auction fever, who knows? Everyone's a treasure hunter these days.

Hi Rob, Chikuzen ju something tsugu saku 筑前住囗次作 I couldn't spot a match for the first character of the name.

As has been said above, I think that if you are buying an unsigned, unpapered blade or one that is suriage/ o suriage then you are guessing at whether it was once a tachi or a katana unless there is something to suggest that the blade is sufficiently old to position it before the time when the katana became the weapon of choice. If you really want a tachi, then save the money and buy something where you know what you are getting, otherwise it's just speculation. Or as Francis suggests, bide your time and be lucky.

Hi Ronen. The length is one shaku PLUS a little under 7 sun so 54 and a bit cm in total(see my post above).

Hi Ronen, Sorry, I'll try to add a bit to what you've worked out, the numbers of the paragraphs below refer to those in your OP: 3. Length 長 - 1 shaku (尺)= 33cm, 7 sun (1 sun 寸= 3.03cm so) 21.21 cm, total = 54.21cm but, as you noted, 弱 means "a little less". Info here on traditional Japanese measurements: https://en.wikipedia...units_of_measurement 4. It means the (in this case) sword described on the right, so a mumei wakizashi attributed to Kanenori. 6. Yes it needs to be translated into the Western calendar, so to begin, you need to look up the relevant Nengo era (these track the reigns of the Japanese Emperors) and the current one is Reiwa which commenced on 1st May 2019, so the 6th year is 2024 (count on the number of years from the start of the era and then deduct one to change it into the Western calendar). This is the date the paper was issued. 8. 保存 = Hozon meaning "worthy of preservation" as opposed to 特別保存 tokubetsu hozon, especially worthy of preservation. Just so you know (and sorry if you already do), all of the information to the left of the first three columns is pretty much pro-forma and appears on every paper. Only the first three columns are specific to the blade appraised. I think you have a reasonable translation of the rest of it and I hope I haven't been teaching you to suck eggs. One more egg: this kanji for kane 兼 is the one used by smiths from Mino/ Seki province and related schools so that might point you towards some further research for the maker of your sword. I hope that has given you a bit to go on. *Edit: should have said, I gained most of my knowledge from the Nihontocraft website so please add salt to the above and season to your taste, I'd relied on it in the past and wasn't aware if the issues that Nobody san spotted.

Have a look down this page, there should be some help: http://www.nihontocr...se_sword_papers.html

Hi Gareth, Looks like a great find. I've had a bit of a play and come up with: 以囗囗盛岡住山内藤原国多作 Motte ... Morioka ju Yamauchi Fujiwara Kunimasa saku with the red squares being the kanji I couldn't make out. "Motte" = by means of and the following kanji often refer to steel from a particular source or a particular forging method. After that I believe there is a reference to the where the smith was living when he made the sword "Morioka". The "Oka" doesn't look quite right so Ray or one of the other brighter lights might be able to chip in on that and then the smith's names - Yamauchi Fujiwara Kunimasa and then saku for "made [this]". He's certainly not a smith well known to the internet - this form of "Masa" is quite rare and I had thought that it would show up in an Google search but I found no smith signing this way...but better researchers are also available...

Hi George, I once had a tanto koshirae where the mekugi metal and was in two halves that slotted together through the mekugi ana and the tops were decorated and formed the menuki. That might be the case here, or it might be more permanent that that.

Hi Ronen, I'd delete the invoice with all of your personal details on it if I were you. You don't want that stuff on the internet these days.

I made the mistake of buying my first sword from there many moons ago, so you can imagine that I have little sympathy for their business model and do whatever I can to deter anyone else from spending money there. With regard to the Japanese stuff, I heard (I think from Peter Yorke who fed them some of his rejects) that most of it came/ comes from bulk buys of low-grade stuff from the art auctions in Japan via an agent. They then tried to match blades with koshirae and sent some blades for an acid polish (a guy called John Bolton used to do them in the UK). The blade I bought was in koshirae that didn't belong to it and the whole thing had a very odd chemical smell to it that (I later reasoned) was due to how it had been "tidied up". Anyhow, you live and learn. I can't imagine that I'm their only dissatisfied customer, but then, if they'd not ripped me and cultivated me as someone new to collecting, they might have made more money from me. That said, they've been around for a long time doing the same thing so a degree of dishonesty clearly pays unfortunately.

They've been full of this kind of rubbish since forever. It's always stuff that is short on detail or authentication and long on Samurai fantasy. This does get dangerously close to fraud though so maybe business isn't so good - perhaps they're suffering with import issues too?

Dunno...

Not true - they’ve just released 1,500 murderers and rapists to make room for those adjudged guilty of “thought crime”.

So, as usual, you’re the one who’s right and everyone else is wrong. Thank God you’re here Jacques, where would we be otherwise?

Sorry, one further thing: is the blade unsigned? I would expect a Japanese made gendaito to carry the smith's signature (in fact I think it may be a legal requirement) so if that is not the case then that's another pointer towards it not being a Japanse made blade.

Hi Stefano, I don't know that you can distinguish a blade made from tamahagane from one made of say, orishigane or nambantetsu just by the look. Blades made from nambantetsu in the 17th century look no different to blades of that period made with Japanese steel to my eye though it's possible that there is a more uniform distribution of carbon in modern steel. Jean may say different, but he's a bladesmith and I would respect his opinion on the matter. There is some hada there, so it's possible to say that the steel has been folded but it's hard to say more. As regards the hamon, the darker areas at the peak of each of the highest parts of the hamon (yahazu, arrow nock shape?) are the indicator that it has not been quenched in water but in oil. My understaning is that quenching in oil requires far less skill than using water as there as a water quench creates greater stress in the blade with a tendency for cracks to form in the edge so, having gone to the effort of folding the steel, there would be no point in taking the risk of ruining all that work by quenching with water. With regard to the photographs that you have just posted of the tang, I woud suggest that the patina looks odd and looks like it has been applied to give the blade an aged look. Also the ha and mune machi are off, they are always at 90 degrees to the blade on traditionally made Japanese swords and not with that chamfered kind of look. I'm sorry Stefano but I think that this is a modern Chinese copy (albeit much better than most) and I hope that you didn't pay too much for it.

It depends on where you live: if your climate isn’t humid or otherwise damp and you don’t live by the sea then you may not need to oil. For example in the middle of the UK… Choji oil can stain a blade so I would only oil if nervous of moisture. I’ve not used other types of oil other than this.