Ian B3HR2UH

I always enjoy reading your analysis Kirill . You might be right about this one . I know though , that if I had been fortunate enough to stumble across this piece , I wouldn't have parted with it so easily . Ian Brooks

Jacques , are you being serious ? Can't you see that the stamp has been removed ? Do you think that this blade is worthy of papers ? Ian Brooks

Simon , thank you for reposting that . It really makes you wonder how worthwhlie Hozon papers are when a piece like this can get them , I was stunned that it had papers . Ian Brooks

Hi Chris , I don't know if Mr Bowman is trying to imply that this sword was surrendered on the Missouri or not, but if he is ,then it is false as no swords were surrendered on the Missouri . If the mans grandfather was on the Missouri on the day of the surrrender then he was not in the Islands at the time and presumably wasn't in a position to pick up an Island made sword after the surrender . This is because he was in Japan not the islands where these monstrosities are said to come from . The story is rubbish as is the sword . Ian Brooks

We all owe a huge debt of gratitude to Willis Hawley . The second biggest advancement that I made in my collecting was when Hawleys Japanese Swordsmith books arrived in the mail. If you can get your hands on the Token society of Great Britain Progeramme No 78 there is an eleven page article , Willis Hawley Tells All . In the article Willis writes about his collecting journey and it is a fascinating read . In the same programmme there is an article by Graeme Curtis that describes his visit to Hawleys house . The JSSUS Newsletter of January 1988 has an obituary and early photograph of Willis . I have always kept a couple of letters that he wrote to me in about 1973- 1974 . Ian Brooks

Hi Sergio , just over a thousand . Jussi has the exact number in his writings .

Sham , we also know that industrious Australian troops were turning out " Japanese swords " to sell to the Americans . Other nationalities were probably doing this as well . I came across a fair number of jeep spring / island made swords that returned soldiers were selling in the 1970's. These were obviously genuine world war two artifacts but even then you could not tell what was Japanese made and what was made by others . The sword that is said to be made in New Guinea is not a type that I came across (( and I saw probably several thousand swords ). Given that there are a few of this type floating around out there I think it can safely be said that it was not made in New Guinea. As someone else commented elsewhere why bother about this junk when there are so many good interesting and genuine items to collect

I agree Colin . From memory it was given to someone during the occupation and his family still owns it . My friend who showed it to me is keeping that information pretty close to his chest . No one commented on the same which I think is the finest piece that I have ever seen . The largest nodule appears to be carved ivory but the rest looks to be the real thing and is fantastic .

I have posted this one before but since it fits in with the topic and I think it is fantastic, here it is again Ian Brooks

Junk is junk Tristan , The problem is that no one can tell what is island made and what is fake. Give this garbage a wide berth . Ian

Hi Chris , this is about the only overall shot of the mount that I have . Ian brooks

Hi Chris , in my experience swords with the flat wrap are much more likely to have quality blades in them . Ian Brooks

I came across photographs of a very fine tachi mount that I was shown some years ago and thought people may like to see it . The mount is on a tsunagi and nothing is signed. Apparently there was an accompanying blade in shira saya that was stolen !

Would my reading of this name as Shimafuku be correct ? Ian Brooks

Well here I go once again leaping to the defence of this sword and waiting for a kicking from the rest of you . I have only handled one genuine Naotane and the mei and nakago on that piece was a work of art in its own right . When I first saw the nakago on this piece I thought, what a disappointment ,the mei was badly cut and ugly. Despite this I photocopied the mei and took it home to study . There are a lot of Naotane mei out there to look at, however there were , on my very cursory examination , very few dated around the same era as this piece (1839 ) . Iimura and Kataoka have no mei for this period . In fact I only found one that was dated 1839 and that was a photograph of a nakago in one of Marcus Sesko's books . Guess what, it had the same coarse filemarks and badly cut looking mei as the ebay piece ! You have to be careful I think to compare this piece to others made years earlier or later . Bruce makes the point that it is missing a stroke on the Nao . True but that stroke is only present on pieces made before about 1830 . Looking at pieces made around 1839 the way the mei and the kakihan were cut didn't immediately disqualify it for me . I still think the mounts point to something good and I liked how the Hi ended . On the other hand Naotane is much faked and the mei on his katana/tachi are usually longer . My gut feel still says it is not right but I don't think that it ( or the buyer who is not me ) deserve the s**t being heaped on the sword and them . Ian Brooks

A client recently bought a hamidashi into the office for me to have a look at . The mei had me tossed but with the assistance of Steve I now think it means Long life sword . The mounts are interesting . The tsuba , fuchi and kashira are all gilded copper ( ? ) engraved with both Kiri and kiku mon . Usually the combination of these would point to an Imperial connection . The menuki , kodzuka and Kogai all depict cranes which are symbolic of long life . The blade is a real one of uncertain age and properly tempered . With the long life and Imperial family connection I wonder if the piece was produced ( as a souvenir ) to celebrate the Emperors birthday or a milestone number of years on the throne . Has anyone seen anything similar or have any thoughts on what it might be? Ian Brooks

Thanks Steve , much appreciated . Ian

An inscription on a tanto that I was recently shown has me stumped . I think that the first two characters read Fukuju which translates to long life and happiness . The third character is badly written but the left hand part appears to be number 167 in Nelson, however the right hand section doesn't match up with any of the characters that he lists . Does anyone have any ideas ? Ian brooks

Low end fittings , give it a miss . It is about two steps above junk level. Ian brooks

You all pile onto this sword however it is clearly a superior item and way better than most of the stuff that is posted here . Did anyone look at the quality of the lacquer or notice that it had a kogai with it . When did you last see a katana with a kogai ?. This is usually a good sign . The fittings look to be of good quality . Buying this sword would be a really intelligent gamble . If the Aussie dollar was not so low I would shut up about the sword and have a bid myself . Ian brooks

Hi Gary , you really need to have just one closeup photo showing all of the characters in the one photo and orient this from top to bottom and not sideways . The strokes look well cut which is a good sign . I had a quick look a few nights ago and thought that the placement of the mekugi ana was wrong for the 8th generation ,based on the few examples that I looked at. Ian Brooks

I think these fittings and the swords that they come on are about as low quality as you can get . I say this as the owner of a kogai in this style . They are said to have been made by poor samurai from Sendai and are called yamazashi koshirae . Ian Brooks

Wow , so this might be a Gendaito and worth even more than a genuine old piece !! Ian Brooks

Congratulatios Ron , fantastic news . Ian Brooks

That is an interesting question John . In 1719 the Shogun had the Honami family prepare a catalogue of famous swords . This is the Kyoho Meibutsu Cho . The book Zusetsu Token Meibutsu Cho ( Tsujimoto 1970 ) is an illustrated version of this . The Kyoho Meibutsu Cho lists about 38 swords that are by Masamune ( including three long blades ) together with a further eighteen blades ( two of which are long blades ) that have been through fires . None of these five long swords are signed . The leading sword scholar Albert Yamanaka wrote that " there are no long swords known to exist today that are signed " . Yamanaka wrote that only three of the short swords had signatures that were considered " to be the true inscription of this smith " . Niel probably wonders why people piled onto his sword . This is the main reason , there are NO known long swords signed by Masamune that are genuine, nor were there any in 1719 so far as the Honami were concerned !! Not all Masamune swords are however listed in the Meibutsu Cho. If you wanted an accurate answer to your question you would need to go through the lists of National Treasure, Juyo Bunkazai and Juyo Bijutsuhin swords and extract all of the Masamune listed there . Jussi Ekholm has published these listings in the articles section . You would also need to extract all of the Masamune that are either Tokubetsu Juyo or Juyo rated . Again Jussi has provided an index to all of the Juyo volumes . I am not aware of an index to the Tokubetsu Juyo swords . Once you did all of this the problem would arise that the National treasure , Juyo Bunkazai and Juyo Bijutsuhin classifications are Government rankings wheras the Juyo and Tokubetsu Juyo classifications are NBTHK rankings . Some swords will double up and be say both Juyo Bijutsuhin and Tokubetsu Juyo at the same time . You will also have a further complication where the sword is Den Masamune ( see Darcy's article on this problem ) . It would be a big task. So far as I am aware the only missing Masamune, other than some of those that went through fires , is the Honjo Masamune .This sword was a pre war National treasure and is now Juyo Bunkazai . Ian Brooks