Shugyosha

Hi Petro, It's probably going to be hard to pin it down without more detailed photographs. By where was it made, do you mean is it Japanese or are you looking for a particular school or province within Japan? At first blush it looks (to me) to be a genuine Japanese sword but I might change my mind on that if I saw some close-up shots - that might give a more precise idea of where it was made, but may not. Assuming that it is a genuine Japanese sword then, unfortunately, there's no signature on the tang so, without more detail, dating it comes down to the colour of the patina on the tang (which might be unreliable) and I'd stick my finger in the air and say anything from 1900 up to World War 2. The long, slanting file marks on the tang are common to a wide range of periods so they don't really help with dating it. The tsuba looks like it might be OK (i.e. a genuine period piece) from the photographs and the design of the scabbard is one found on genuine Japanese swords but it may not be original to the blade as it looks a little too long. Sorry, it's hard to say much more without some better pictures - if you can post some you'll get some better opinions. If this is something you're looking at buying rather than something you've bought already, I'd say doing so isn't without some risk so proceed with caution unless it's very cheap.

I just don't want to get drawn into a thread started by Jacques because they invariably follow a predictable path. It has been this way for a while now and it seems to be getting worse rather than better.

Hi Gareth, Ive had a bit of a look on-line but there isn’t much by way of comparison for the mei. That said, my gut feeling is that this smith would be an unlikely target for fakery as he isn’t well known, but you never know. You could try photographing with a single point of light in a darkened room to see if that brings out any details but I suspect that, due to the state of polish, you’ll find it hard going. If you have no joy on here, there’s a Token Society meeting in Birmingham next month and also the Birmingham arms fair - you could walk it in to one of those and see if someone will look at it for you.

Yeah, Jacques' military-grade hair-splitting and obfuscation would have made the Wehrmacht think twice.

I would say that might be flawed reasoning: it is possible that the other parts of the koshirae (or some of those parts) are modern - it isn't unusual for antique metal fittings to be added to a modern saya for example. I'm sorry Stefano, I'm not sure what you're saying with the part in bold?

No problem at all. The signatures on the blades of kogatana are normally not those of the smith that made them - for some reason there was a thing about putting the names of famous swordsmiths on these little blades and it's the accepted thing that the signatures are not very often those of the maker. The kozuka would have been made by one of the sword fittings artists working in soft metals rather than a swordsmith and it is absolutely normal for the two pieces to be made by different craftsmen and put together - it could have been done when the fittings were made or recently by a dealer wishing to make up the set.

Ooh I like those! - any signature on the fuchi?

Hi Steven, I was hoping that one of the brighter lights would have solved this one for you (and to satisfy my curiosity). All I can give you is (presumably) the name of the soldier who carried it - the two kanji on the right read 佐藤 - Satō, a fairly common Japanese surname.

Hi Stefano, On the kozuka: 吉岡因幡介 - Yoshioka Inaba (no) Suke On the kogatana: 河内守国助 - Kawachi (no) kami Kunisuke

Hi Peter, Yes - Yokoyama Sukenaga: 横山加賀介藤原朝臣祐永 - Yokoyama Kaga (no) suke Fujiwara ason Sukenaga 天保十二年二月日 - Tenpo juni nen, ni gatsu hi - a day in February in the 12th year of Tenpo (1841) 備前長船住 - Bizen Osafune ju - residing at Osafune in Bizen 友成五十六代孫 - Tomonari gojuroku dai mago - 56th generation grandchild of Tomonari

Sorry, yes it does - my error. 👍

Rotated the picture for you as it'll be easier for anyone coming along after (Jean Colin, this means you) to read.

Hi Dave, You have the first one - Minamoto Yoshichika saku kore - 源良近作之 - "Minamoto Yoshichika made this". Second one reads Kanefusa - 兼房 - being the smith's name. From the condition of the tang and the short signature I'm guessing this is a koto blade and the "kane" used is the form normally associated with swordsmiths from Mino province.

Hi Dee, Yes I think it expresses some of those kind of sentiments but one of the better linguists will have to tell you exactly what it says. In the first picture there's a reference to the Empire, something I can't make out and then "no bones": 皇口無骨 - the swordsmith's name follows that. On the other side, something about (my paraphrasing) the Imperial declaration of war against the USA and England and a wish for good luck - perhaps wishing the owner of the sword good luck in the war against the allies.

Start with 1868, add on 20, take one off? I thought that there was always a year lost when converting to the western calendar so Dan would be correct with 1887, but I always stand ready to be corrected...

Hi Dan, Top one is a registration number - 4 10 6 100 8 10 1 - last kanji is 番 ban being "number". Middle one: Yes, I think you have this right. Last one, maybe Okayama ken: 岡山縣 - this version of "ken" is the old kanji for "prefecture". I'm not confident about the "Oka" as the kanji on the gun looks like it is the complete enclosure but it might just be that the enclosed part is dropped down to make it look like that.

In a word no: absolutely the norm rather than the exception. If there are no delaminations lurking in the hi then nothing to worry about, though these are ugly rather than fatal. Crisp, fresh hi on a koto blade should be the thing putting you on your guard , though ato hi were often cut for reasons other than to conceal flaws. Been shopping? 🤣

Hi Jacob, I’m going to contradict Dee and hope to not get flamed. 😳 If you’re going to eat an elephant, you can’t do it in a single sitting. You don’t have to commit full-on to this, you can hang around, learn some stuff and take whatever routes your interest leads you down. It isn’t necessary to buy stuff to be interested in the subject and learn about it and it’s probably better that you don’t for a while. It may seem pretty daunting now, given what looks like an enormous task, but none of us know everything and most of us (me) even after a number of years, only know a little and I certainly display my ignorance here fairly regularly. So I’d say, drop in as often as you like, have a bite of the elephant and see what happens.

Hi Jacob, You’re the only one who can answer that. I’m sure your friend would be impressed and the only thing you need to remember is that slow and steady wins the race. To me it doesn’t look too bad - there’s a patch on the edge that might need some work with a piece of wood or bone but I think the remainder is fairly light from what I can see in the photos. You could try wrapping it in a rag and putting it in your pocket for the day - as you move around there’ll be a certain amount of friction and that might deal with some of the more trivial rust. Give it a few days of that and see what it looks like. Also you could try rubbing it between the palms of your hands two or three times per day or whilst watching TV to get some oil from your skin on it as that will help with the rust and to restore the patina. It’s just small stuff but it will help and you do have a little piece of history there…

Hi Jacob, No, the rust isn't something that you want on your tsuba. There are threads on the forum regarding dealing with rust on tsuba/ tsuba "fussing", here's one to get you going: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/44342-tsuba-rust-removal/ The key is to take your time, be gentle and avoid anything abrasive.

Hi Lewis, It might be my eyes, but there seems to be something odd about this mei: all of the characters, including the kao are combinations of both kinpun and kinzogan methods. This seems strange to me as it's not something I've ever noticed elsewhere - I've only ever known them to be one thing or the other but, again, that might just be me. If one were to adopt a suspicious view of this, it looks like someone has chiselled some strokes and left them unfilled to suggest that its an old attribution and that the gold has been lost and then added in the other strokes with a brush. If this is a sword you're thinking of buying, I think I'd be treating this attribution with a good deal of circumspection - the "kao" seems to be a combination of half a kanji and half seal which again just seems odd to me - looking at the Hon'ami kao that Bruce has posted, they may be derived from kanji, but tend not to be direct reproductions of them and I'm sure that the top half of the kao is part of a kanji but I can't pin down which one. Again, this might be my ignorance leading me down a certain route but there are some warning signs there for me and I'm not convinced that the patina on the tang is genuine either, but that might just be the photos. @PNSSHOGUN Hi John, these really tidy gold attributions are kinpun rather than kinzogan mei and a bunch of them have cropped up on swords recently and I feel that they are someone getting creative by suggesting that a mumei blade is perhaps something it isn't - I suspect that they are relatively easily applied by painting over a template or are some kind of transfer and the gold attributions usually aren't supported by papers. Edit: the "fusa" doesn't look very much like the actual kanji either - 房 - it lacks the horizontal stroke at the top and has a vertical one instead, it might be a variation but it would be another thing that would point me towards disregarding this mei.

My first thought was Kyo Shoami as the style of carving reminded me of a tsuba that I once had but maybe that’s too specific.

I can’t tell - for me it doesn’t seem to fit easily with either Osaka or Kyoto styles of yakidashi.

Thanks Colin, I suspected as much. Yes, I find it very appealing but, put in the context of what else you can get for £1k, I can't quite bring myself to spend the money...for now.

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for this motif. Ford Hallam did one that I nearly bought but talked myself out of and I have kicked myself ever after. Anyway, that's by the by but I came upon this one on Aoi that I quite like and nearly reached for the wallet, but then saw the price. It's a large tsuba and looks nicely done but is unsigned, unpapered and otherwise unattributed - is it only the motif (which I know is fairly rare) that creates the premium or is there something that I'm missing? https://www.aoijapan.jp/鍔：-無銘-20/