Shugyosha

Hi Gustavo, Like Ray says, you I think that you have to dip your toe in the water and practise - the more you do, the easier it gets. It also helps if you can get an idea of the nuts and bolts: learn how to identify the stroke counts for kanji or radicals and learn to spot radicals themselves as, armed with this knowledge, you can identify the various kanji and look them up. For me anyway, it's more about that - I'm probably never going to know more than a few of the more commonly used kanji off by heart but hopefully, even if I can't identify the entire kanji, I can turn to a dictionary or other reference. In my case it's often more of a problem-solving exercise than a linguistic one in that nibbling away at the pieces can often help solve the entire puzzle. These are useful references (apologies if you're aware of them): https://jisho.org/ https://markussesko....ntocompendium-e1.pdf http://www.jssus.org/nkp/

Bridge (橋) and [?] sukashi tsuba...?

Dee, If you have to scratch the 1% itch at some point, would it be worth considering the NTHK instead? Even if it gets pink slipped, unlike with the NBTHK, you'll generally get some information from the worksheet and that might give an idea as to whether or not it would be worth pursuing further i.e. go direct to NBTHK shinsa or have the signature taken off, tang re-patinated and resubmit either to the NTHK or NBTHK. Ultimately, it's whether or not you think its worth sinking more money into the blade - I don't know what the cost is in Japan, but the American branch is charging $250. You could also wait until you've seen the blade in hand and take a view then - there's normally an NTHK shinsa in the USA each year. https://nthkamerica.com/shinsa-faq

長州萩住人 - Choshu Hagi ju nin 友次 - Tomotsugu

Hi Kevin, Welcome to the forum. If you push the peg out of the handle, you'll be able slide it off of the tang along with the the guard, washers and collar. As Jedediah says, it's hard to give an opinion without some detail shots of the naked blade. Also, you might want to post pictures of the design on the leather cover as they seem unusual but I'm not a military swords guy and you will get some better opinions there.

Hi Bruce, Looks like トキク - Tokiku in katakana. I've no idea of what the significance of that is though.

I'll be your relative.

On the up-side, while these guys are spending their money on rubbish, there's more decent stuff for those with half an eye open.

Hi Steve, Namako ni kuruma sukashi - sea cucumber and wheel.

Logorrhea or something more vulgar. Fairly typical for the Lanes Armoury though - who could fail to be enchanted by the image of them pesky fireman ninja sneaking around in their black pyjamas, assassinating people, pausing briefly to put out some fires and then disappearing noislessly into the smoke. The Lanes Armoury - the place where they never let reality stand in the way of making a sale.

It's really hard to argue with spending that kind of money for that item. I doubt you could have got a basic shirasaya made for that price and this one is better quality than average so take that and throw in the cost of the polish too and someone is seriously out of pocket on this one. You have to think that they wouldn't have spent that kind of money if they didn't think there was a chance that it would paper as genuine so they must have felt there is some quality there and that shows through in the pictures. There's a lot of nice activity in the blade and you'll gain a lot of knowledge trying to work out who actually made it, so it's a pretty good investment all round I'd say.

That's lovely blade, congratulations!

Maybe it's the usual thing with hozon - if it's identifiable as a period piece and it's condition is adequate to make that decision then it gets papered irrespective of quality?

Hi Claus, See this thread which discusses how this is treated by the NBTHK in their paperwork (or recently at least) - I think that if they had thought your blade was a re-purposed pole arm then they would have said that on the paperwork, though perhaps as Naginata naoshi as the suggestion in the linked thread is that they no longer use the Nagamaki designation for blade types.

I think the answer is that we all eat cold, pureed food. No need for knives and no chance of getting a nasty burn whilst cooking or eating it. Problem solved.

No, providing they're made from an alloy of thistledown, spindrift and cottonwool and they're only driven by kittens and fluffy bunnies. It really is getting silly, there is practically nothing in this world that can't be used as a weapon or made into one by those so-inclined. Just ban everything now, it will save time.

一脇指 無名(高田) - One wakizashi, mumei (Takada).

Hi Dee, I think in this hobby you never say never, so it may be someone is faking his signature but there may be other reasons why his signature differs: There's a five year difference between the signatures and people's signatures change over time - this is the case with pen and paper so the difference may be more pronounced when using a hammer and chisel? Just guessing as I've never used one in this way; Something, maybe an injury or a significant life event made him change the style of his signature (Tsuda Sukehiro is famous for signing in grass script rather than the block style script later in his life) - in this case he's also changed the characters used for the province where he lives - Chikugo to Chikushu; The smith doesn't do his own caligraphy and the person used to sign the tangs changed for some reason; What do the two swords look like from the point of view of workmanship? If they look similar in terms of style and quality then there's probably an explanation other than forgery involved and do these swords come with any certification from the smith himself? I'm not talking NBTHK etc but modern smiths will often certify their work as genuinely made by them (it may even be a legal requirement that they do) so if these swords come with any paperwork, it might be possible to compare that too. There's an interesting thread here on comaring mei if you haven't read it:

The paper says it’s a wakizashi.

Hi Vincent, What a person appreciates as a collector, or just appreciates, is a completely personal thing. I think I veer more towards art than artefact in terms of what I enjoy so, for me, kitae ware and shintetsu showing are things that put me off. I quite like the idea that someone intended to make a weapon but also, whether through skill or a happy accident, created something beautiful. Fatal flaws are mostly a no go, though did once buy a cheap tanto with run off at the boshi because I liked the rest of it and it was, of course, cheap. So condition is a consideration for me but flashy shinto blades don’t do it for me much (even in polish) and an overdone hadori polish is probably worse than an out of polish blade showing some of it’s natural qualities (for me). Ultimately, I think for each of us, we have to work out for ourselves where the sweet spot lies between art, artefact, price and that undefinable something where an object just speaks to us and buy (or just admire) accordingly. That said, be prepared for your taste to change over time and perhaps on a case-by-case basis. The only rules are the ones you set for yourself. Apologies for the ramble. 😁

Hi Claus, My first impression matches that of Oli - a shin shinto piece, but it might also have been made around Keicho when the same sugata was popular. Could you post some detailed shots of the hamon, hada and boshi please? That might help with putting a date on it. A nice looking package though. 👍

Hi Bruce, It occurred to me that I could perhaps save a bit of time in future by knocking up a crib sheet for the alternative forms for numbers and I thought I may as well share. I got the information from Jisho, the on-line Japanese dictionary so it's as good as the information available there and may not be comprehensive: 1. - 壱 2. 弐 or 貮 or 貳 3. 参 or 弎 4. 肆 or 亖 5. 伍 6. 陸 7. 漆 or 柒 8. 捌 9. 玖 10. 拾 100. 陌 or 佰 1000. 阡 or 仟 10,000. 萬

Hi Bruce, What Chandler said and 拾 is a different way of writing the number 10 - there are variations in legal documents (and on swords) to make the number harder to alter. So the date is a lucky day in August in the 17th year of Showa.

I can make out 貞弘作 - Sadahiro saku or ??sada Hironari if the last kanji is part of the signature - the lighting on the first two kanji isn't clear enough for me to read.

Here you go Hamish: