Shugyosha

It’s very clean, absolutely no stains and the colour of the meatball is very red and the ink is very black…could have been made yesterday.

Hi Piers and Jean, Sorry, I'm late to this but my interest was piqued. So a related question for Jean, we are always told that a punched mekugi ana is an indicator of an older blade and that of a "drilled" peg hole is suggestive of a later blade but I've never really known where the cut-off point was and in my head (more than likely incorrectly) had it down as later koto period because: I'm pretty sure that I've seen "drilled" mekugi ana on shinto blades (but I'm working from memory, so I may have that wrong); and I recall Darcy writing that the scratchy signatures on later Bizen blades were done in that way to avoid work-hardening the tang, which would (I assume) be done if the mekugi ana was punched - and I guess that might be applicable to armour plates too and perhaps make them too brittle (again beyond my metallurgical knowledge so nothing I can back up with evidence); also I recall Ford saying that sukashi work was done by drilling a hole or holes and then joining them up with a file or saw. On earlier katchushi/ tosho tsuba there is often very fine sukashi - I had what I believe was a ko katchushi dragonfly tsuba (I have an old photo which is too high resolotion to upload) and there are others out there where the delineation between the wings and the design of the head is very finely done (in the sense of it is small) and would have been hard to achieve by punchwork rather than drilling and cutting. With regard to swords, I guess that it would be possible for the peg-hole to be created by punching prior to final hardening and tempering of the blade but there is the risk that the work would be wasted if the blade cracked on the quench? So, I don't know what the answer is, I'm just throwing stuff out for discussion and I don't want to get down to the level of the cast tsuba/ moldings debate but it's certainly interesting to discuss and any insights would be welcome.

Hi Peter, The title of the first one is tricky due to the position of the mekugi ana. It’s (?) (no) Suke but there wasn’t a Yoshimasa with this title relating to Kazusa or Kozuke which are the province names starting with the 上 kanji - so I think you’ll need to wait for better help there. The title of the second one is Izumi (no) kami.

Hi Zachary, I don’t think that old papers attributing a tsuba to a generic school are a problem. The issue was with old papers and swords being attributed to big-name sword smiths. In this case it would probably cost close to or more than the value of the tsuba to re-submit to shinsa so that bit isn’t a concern - it’s the multiple listings that might be a problem.

Again, don’t know - I’d steer clear if you have doubts: it doesn’t sound like a legitimate seller to me.

Oh - sorry, posts crossed. Don’t know because I don’t do internet auctions. If it helps, the tsuba and papers match and the papers are old but look legitimate. I don’t think there’s much point in faking papers to Shoami but that’s my opinion.

I think worth the price? An unsigned, papered tsuba to a fairly generic school, at USD 369 - yes it’s probably worth that and shouldn’t lose money if the OP sells it on.

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.