Geraint

Dear Jeff. Look again at the habaki. It is most likely silver foiled which would make the silver much thinner than the body but folded around the body and overlapping it. Most habaki are copper but brass is not impossible and is more common on Showa swords. All the best.

Dear Bruce. I think the Yoshikatsu was an illustration of Gerry's point that he could buy a papereed and mounted katana for the same price as the Mantetsu.............. Appreciate that you are a bit Mantetsu focused. All the best

Dear Kramer. So you have a nice wakizashi in mounts. The seppa/washers are gold foiled which is a nice touch, I would guess that the habaki/blade collar is silver foiled, have a close look at the back where it meets the seppa to see if this is right. The tsuba is a Namban style piece and on the whole the mounts are quite nice. Enjoy the research journey! All the best.

And at least two fan paintings. All the best.

Dear Ryan. The blade is in what is known as shirasaya, a plain wood resting mount. This is a mount made to protect and preserve the blade much later than the date of the blade itself but dating the shirasaya is almost impossible, for waht it's orth I would think this one is more recent than the 1940s. You have an interesting piece and it is worth looking after. Have a read of the Care and Maintenance link under the FAQ tab at the top of the page. All the best.

Dear Paul. That's quite a sword you have there. As Aoi say, 'It is a wonderful and rare Koshirae with a high degree of perfection.' so I would suggest that you leave it exactly like it is and resist the urge to change anything. As I understand it early nerikawa tsuba were often of three layer construction so this follows in a long tradition. Enjoy! All the best.

Dear Daniel. Sooooo! Thetsuba or guard is genuine and I think interesting, perhaps post a photo of it in the Tosogu section for more opinions. The habaki is a recent refit as I think is the fuchi. The menuki are not but rather one is a ltae pressing of a type turned out in the hundreds for export, one is perhaps a bonsai tree in a pot and the other a root vegetable, possibly a daikon, there might be a head between the legs of the daikon adding an erotic suggestion to it. At 555mm this is a wakizashi, assuming that you measured from the tip to the notch at the start of the tang. You have some choices to make but don't be in a rush. If you do a search and find similar swords that are papered you will start to see how this could look but it is going to need a proper Japanese polish and be guided by those here who might know of trained polishers in Europe, please don't let anyone work on it who does not come with a a recommendation from members here. For now wipe it down with a lint free cloth and a little light oil, watch your fingers! Don't work on the tang, just you handling that will work. So much more to discover, enjoy the journey! All the best.

Dear Daniel. Welcome to NMB! Your sword is probably a wakizashi, if the length from the tip or kissaki to the notch on the back of the blade is less than 600mms, signed Echizen ju Shimoska Kanehiro, or 'made by Kanehiro in Echizen'. Compare here, https://sword-auction.com/en/product/12328/as22091-脇差：越前国下坂兼廣（保存刀剣）/ This is a genuine Japanese sword, though the signature may be fake but in this case I doubt that, but it is in poor condition at the moment but whatever you do do nothing more than wipe it with some light oil at the moment, this will stabilise the sword and allow you to make good choices regarding restoration. Better photographs of the fittings will help us, particularly both front and back of the menuki, the tsuba or sword guard and the habaki or blade collar. From what we can see so far this is a sword that has had a hard life and someone has attempted to refit it so that it is a complete sword, it is missing a few fittings and some of what is there is questionable, more photographs will help us give you more information. Looking forward to seeing some more of it. All the best.

Dear Marcus. Welcome to NMB and to the wonderful world of Japanese swords. Forgive me if anything I say is already well known to you but here goes with a few thoughts. Alex is quite right about auction houses in general, read the conditions of sale and they are very cleverly hedged about with caveats, reasonable from one point of view in that they are generalists and rarely have the detailed expertise that is available to you on this board for example. From the buyers point of view it is really caveat emptor and there is no substitute for seeing the lot in hand. Once you bid then you're in! Personally I would resist the urge to try to negotiate this one back, you may strike lucky but you may not and,'my mate on the internet tells me it's fake' will not cut much ice. Whatever you decide let us know how it goes. From the photographs this one came from Japan and it has become a commonplace that if a sword of any quality comes out of Japan it will have authentication papers from one of the organisations that everybody trusts or it is assumed that it failed to get that authentication. The auction house correctly identified the paperwork as registration documents, nothing more, these are not authentication papers, some of which can be found here, https://shibuiswords.com/papers1.htm Many will advise you to buy only papered swords both for the security of your investment, (if any such can be claimed), and so that you will learn from known examples. In short collecting can be rather like paying your dues to earn the knowledge What you do have is a genuine Japanese sword in koshirae, to start with I am sure you will want to compare the mei with other examples, of which one here, https://www.e-nihont...products/detail/1471 See if you can get a sense of the 'handwriting' of the smiths. What gave it away to Alex so quickly? Following that you will probably dive into the Sukesada lineage and Bizen swords in general and that is before you start to understand what you can see in the sword itself. If you do not yet have some of the basic books then buy a couple and start to understand what the terms mean, it's fascinating. Lastly there is the Token Society, https://to-ken.uk/ Hope some of that helps a bit. All the best.

Just to add to Peter's observation it seems that whoever did the tsuka ito was not experienced as the wrap appears to be all one way rather than alternating. An easy thing to have rectified. All the best

Perhaps they have changed the entry but it is now described as masame. On the face of it this does seem like a lot of money, not forgetting the additional charges payable should you succeed in buying it. Be interesting to see what happens. All the best.

Dear Andy. I'm sure you have already tried this but just in case....... https://www.bonhams....e-art-part-i/?page=8 All the best.

Dear Bruno. Thank you for sharing this tsuba. While researching a somewhat similar tsuba I came across this, “Shigure-tei” was the mountain retreat of Fujiwara Teika, where he compiled the anthology “Hyakunin Isshu”, and there is a Noh programme titled “Teika”. A traveller monk took shelter from the rain in an abandoned cottage. A lady appeared and guided him to a tombstone coiled up with creepers. It was her grave and she was the princess Noriko, whom Teika loved and grieved her death. The cottage was Shigure-tei and Teika’s soul dwelt in the creepers. The monk recited a sutra for them, which let their soul rest in peace, and they were able to depart for the travel to heaven." All the best.

Dear All. Minh posted this sword in an earlier thread where he got some feedback, hence his remark about information from members. Be a real shame if someone believed the translation provided by the auction house and thought they were getting a Masayoshi! All the best.

Dear All. Some really lovely things, thank you for sharing, please keep them coming. One more in iron with silver and gold nunome. Shishi and peony themed. All the best.

Dear All. A late iron one. All the best.

And just to add, the first two examples that Dale has provided are illustrative but in both cases it is the sword blades that are papered, not the koshirae so we would reasonably assume that they are later than the blades. (Unusually the first has both kodzuka and kogai and the second has very late mounts, have a look at the sarute.) In the original post the o seppa are cast integrally with the tsuba and this is very late and poor quality, the second o seppa has at least signs of having been part of a koshirae. All the best.

Dear Mick. I'm slipping, here's the sword from the Festing collection. Not Tadayoshi at all. Description: 'A Shinshinto Bizen Yokoyama Katana by Sukenaga, dated 1850. The blade of deep koshizori, shinogi-zukuri with chu-kissaki, gunomr-midare hamon of nioi and ko-nie with yakidashi, midare-komi boshi, ko-itame-hada, ubu-nakago with kiri-yasuri, mei Kiku-mon Ichi, Biyo Osafune Kyo, Yokoyama Kage (no) Suke Fujiwara Sukenaga, dated Kaei 3rd year (1850), 8th month; length 70.5cm, curve 2.4cms, in army mounts, inscribed MAde by John Latham F.S.A. Sword Cutler. Maj-General F.W.Festing, June, 1950, with a chrome and leather scabbard.' All the best.

Dear Ste. To add a little to that Nakahara lists two reasons in 'Facts and Fundamentals'; first that Daimyo conforming to rules laid down about the wearing of daisho yet still wanting to be known as carrying a great blade would shorten earlier masterpieces for such use, second that the Tokugawa, seeking to reward someone, took to giving swords instead of land and running out of great names shortened lesser swords and had them attributed to a great smith by the Honami. A form of social agreement enters into this, something along the lines of, 'Your actions deserve a Norishige but I don't have one so this shortened Uda tachi with a Honami attribution will do instead.' Followed by, 'Thank you for recognising the magnitude of my service with this magnificent sword.' I have also often heard swords described as, 'the top of an old tachi.' The suggestion here is that at some point an old sword was damaged and rather than waste it someone turned it into a wakizashi. In most cases this applies to a rather skinny blade which has seen a lot of polishes and is inelegantly shortened. I think the change from mounted to dismounted fighting has more to do with the sugata of the sword as made, though I also think that the shorter samurai argument holds water. The last point I would make is that deliberate fakes abound and some smiths were known to work in a style so close to a great but early smith that it was quite the thing to take one of their swords and either shorten it or remove the mei to pass it off as the work of the earlier smith. As to the Shinto/Shinshinto question collectors seem to work to the rule that these swords are relatively plentiful so if you want a Tadatsuna katana it is possible to find one with an untouched nakago so that you can appreciate the sword in its original form, why would you settle for osuriage and lose the original sugata and nakago complete with mei? Because of this a mumei Shinto begs the question as to why it was not signed, and there are reasons offered for this happening, However a mumei Shinto which might be papered to a certain smith would be less attractive than a signed example also papered. Forgive the lengthy ramble and I hope I have answered some of your questions. Others will add to this perhaps. All the best.

Dear Mick. I have a copy and will look it out. From memory it was a Hizen Tadayoshi blade. All the best.

Dear Martin. Thank you for this interesting article. I look forward to seeing more of this fascinating sword when you have the time. More recently Field Marshal Sir Francis Festing had a Katana mounted as his General Officers sabre in the UK following WWII. I am sure that there are other examples where European officers had Japanese blades mounted in appropriate style for their own military use. All the best.

Dear Emil. As no one else has answered you I will offer my thoughts. I have not been able to find this idea in Nagayama so I may have misunderstood your question. The mitsukado is not generally considered to be an indication of the smith's skill or lack of it, the boshi most certainly is. During yakiire the smith is controlling a sometimes very long blade and controlling the temperature in the boshi is a very skillful thing to do. Hence a well done boshi, one which demonstrates the smith's control, is indicative of a high level of skill. (See page 108 in Nagayama) The smith is responsible for the sugata of the sword and in this case forges the kissaki to shape and then the polisher is the one who finally defines the precise shape of the blade though in theory the polish will remove very little metal and the polisher will have a high regard for the intentions of the smith. It is conceivable that a poor polish might result in the mitsukado not being geometrically correct, the three lines that meet here are the result of three surfaces and poor shaping could result in the lines not meeting here. I have seen polishes where the yokote has been poorly applied and seems to miss the junction, for example. You would not expect to see such things from a properly trained togishi. Hope this helps. All the best.

Dear Bruno. I wonder if the first kanji is not ryo? (150 in Self and Hirose) All the best.

Dear Mick. I always feel that this school has quite distinctive handwriting. If you compare here, (From Aoi Art), of note are that your example has a downwards slope to the left, the papered one is very straight, individual kanji are looser and, of course not a Bizen nakago shape. So, good call. All the best.

I knew you could do it Dale! Yes indeed that is the very one, several other guards from that lot are on sale from the same vendor that I bought this one from. The V&A example is an interesting comparison too. Thanks for sharing yours Steve, the observation about Hizen tendrils is very interesting. That will give me something to get my teeth into. All the best.