Geraint

Dear Jeff. Your deductions are, to say the least optimistic. For any quality sword everything will be quality, shape, hada, hamon and so on, including horimono. Have a look here, http://www.sho-shin.com/edo-shimosaka.html Look at the nakago, shape, file marks and so forth. Look at the horimono, quality of carving. look at the blade geometry. Train your eye to see the differences between your blade and those by great smiths. What you are doing at the moment is equivalent to saying, 'It's a painting of sunflowers so it must be by Van Gogh'. You are just starting on a long journey, keep looking. All the best.

Dear Leo. So this is a classic Satsuma rebellion koshirae, or okashito. Have a search here for these terms. Usually they have a simple iron washer as menuki, this one has little bits of metal of an indeterminate shape. On rotating your image of the tsuba I think it might be Kunihiro, a mei often found on plain iron tsuba thought the style of the mei is not the usual and I may be way off the mark. When you say you have this coming up for auction are you thinking of buying it or are you selling it? All the best.

Dear Ghoul414. Can we have your name please, so that we know how to address you? To answer some of your questions, and working solely from these photographs, the sword in question has a narrow suguha hamon with some edge nicks that would probably polish out leaving a really narrow suguha and a slender blade. It is presently out of polish so very little can be seen of the workmanship. The other flaws are from poor forging, it is hard to tell but the area around them suggest that there might be others lurking below the surface. You mention that you don't know how to fix these and that brings up the very serious issue that only a correct polish by a trained togishi should be contemplated, no DIY here. That would be expensive for this katana and might well reveal more faults. So what you have is a gamble, given the forging flaws this is unlikely to end up being a fine blade and to polish it correctly is going to cost a lot of money. If you want to hang this on your wall as is then why not? As a collectable sword a significant chunk of cash needs to be spent on it which might reveal some nasty surprises and render it virtually worthless. The koshirae looks pleasant so I would guess that this will either end up as a display piece, or it might resurface shortly on a dealer website with a considerably inflated price tag. Just some thoughts to be going on with. I'm sure others will add to this. All the best.

Dear Jonathan. A tempting dilemma! A lot of collectors will use certain rules to guide their pursuit, quite a few will recount how their initial collecting was haphazard and they were buying anything they came across and could afford. Sooner or later quite a few people decide that what they really want is good swords in good polish, preferably papered. However not everyone works this way and there is certainly no rule that you should. 'Rules' will be cited that say that nothing Shinto without a full mei and ubu should be considered, never buy mumei wakizashi and so forth. End of the day, it's up to you what you collect and what you do with your cash. So. If you buy these they are all going to need some work and you won't want to skimp on that and ruin the sword. This is going to involve some work and quite a bit of cash. Done well you will end up with some very nice looking swords which you will have the satisfaction of having rescued. You may break even in terms of value or you might not. You might have a nasty shock during polish that wipes out the value of the sword altogether. If you are up for it then have at it! What you are considering is no money and I'd be surprised if you get them for that but hey, things happen! If you do get them then there are some things to learn from handling them, a lot of people will say you can't learn anything from these but if you have some fellow collectors to show them to you will certainly pick up a thing or two. One of the rules that I do agree with is that you pay to learn, books of course but you need swords in hand to make sense of what you read. If you can't get to meetings and share with other collectors then that makes life difficult. (That last one has a mei and looks interesting.) Sorry, random thoughts that many will disagree with. If you ever get down to the far West look me up. All the best.

Dear Ian. When you say, 'they', does that mean you have a daisho set? All the best.

Dear Paz. What Stephen said, if it floats your boat go for it. One of my earliest and best is an ubu, mumei Shinshinto katana, subsequently papered. Let us know how it turns out. All the best.

Dear Phil. This seems to be simply a katana with a leather combat cover. Ito was much more varied than we generally see nowadays and I have seen similar ito before. I wouldn't jump to Satsuma rebellion/okashito as the style of wrap on those is usually quite different and the fittings much plainer. Worth going carefully with this one I think. All the best.

Aaaand the habaki is on the wrong way around! All the best.

Dear Jeremy. My apologies! Good observation on this tsuba I thought. All the best.

Dear Simon. I would add my vote to Grey's. Also the seppa dai is incomplete at 11 and 1 o'clock. All the best.

Dear Vitaly. Well, cast or not, this tsuba is probably dead to you now. It's easy to collect, or perhaps the word should be to amass tsuba but sooner or later you are going to find that some of what you have stops speaking to you. Carlos used the term muddy to describe this one and I have to agree, the bevels around the sukashi and the lack of surety in the design, cast or not, make this one problematic. As you hold this tsuba in your hand what do you feel? If you don't get a buzz then it's probably not worth keeping. I have taken a chance on some tsuba and as soon as they arrive I know I made a mistake and I am never going to love it. You asked for opinions and now you have them what do you feel when you hold this tsuba? Sorry, very random thoughts to do with as you please. All the best.

JT, why not go the whole hog and commission a wakizashi with horimono? That way it will stand the test of time and you will have something really special. All the best.

Dear Nikolai. Welcome to NMB. While this may not be a great sword it needs relatively little to turn it into an attractive memento. I would respectfully disagree with Brian that this is an amateur restoration, ditch the nail and get a chopstick to shape a new mekugi. There is a small piece of horn missing from the slot in the scabbard, (saya), for the by knife, (kozuka). Not hard for a skilled person to replace. You need a pair of menuki, the ornaments that go under the hilt wrap, and a new wrap. Probably not worth it to have the blade professionally polished, and certainly not a good idea to get anything else done to the blade, wipe with a clean cloth and some light oil several times and keep as is. It is not too far off looking like a nice sword, nice to see two pairs of seppa, the washers either side of the tsuba, and all in all this will look good and be a great reminder of your family. Let us know how it goes. All the best.

Ah, so from these pictures the habaki is gilt rather than foiled. There is a special oil which I like because it has a little clove oil in it and I always associate the smell with Japanese swords but any light oil will work perfectly well. All the best.

Dear Tom. While doing a bit of digging I came across your post in another forum where the NTHK paper is illustrated, I think you can take that as pretty definitive, especially as the sword has a mei. It is unlikely that NTHK would paper a blade that had such issues as your second authority described so perhaps not someone to rely on too much in the future. By the way, NTHK certificates usually come with a work sheet, did you get one of those? Enjoy the sword. All the best.

Dear Joel. Just to add a little to what you already know, the habaki, (blade collar), is a two piece type which is slightly unusual and the seppa, (washers), look to be gold foiled, an expensive thing to do. (The one on the tsuba is back to front). There is a possibility that the habaki is also foiled, have a close look at the back edge. You might be able to see it looking something like this. , Don't get excited, it's going to be low carat but it does suggest that this was a well mounted and well thought of sword in it's heyday. Light oil and a clean cloth, quite a bit of dirt will come off so keep renewing the cloth. Very un likely that anyone can tell you who made it in its current condition but it gets more interesting as you go along. Enjoy! All the best.

Dear Volker. Not sure what you have already but Higo no Kuni Hagi Jiuemon Munekage. Another thread here. Your search will be complicated by the fact that someone has chosen to copy one of his swords for modern reproduction but others are, http://www.ricecracker.com/japanese_swords/past_swords/s2/s2_dotanuki_munekage.htm and a little here, http://www.sho-shin.com/4munekag.pdf Inevitably I am going to ask if we can see the whole blade please? All the best.

Dear Weston. Well, looks like you did alright with this one, barring unseen condition issues. This is a genuine Japanese sword made quite some time before WWII and modified to be carried in that conflict. The pale space in the scabbard is where the kurikata, the protrusion that has the sageo threaded through it, would fit but a hanger has been added and it would probably have had a leather combat cover fitted. The tsuba is signed Seiryuken Eiju, a recent discussion here, I would guess that it is a katana, if the length from the tip to the shoulder of the tang is 60cms then it is. Go slow, just wipe with a little light oil for the moment. Others will chime in with more detailed advice but above all resit that urge to clean anything. Welcome and all the best. (Just crossed posts with Brian!)

And fresh paint! All the best.

Dear Brian. It's all down to personal taste but I'd be looking at No. 1, carving seems to go over the mimi, No. 3 looks rather fine and No. 14, theme of Shiguretei, that slightly attenuated interpretation is often seen in Akasaka. Enjoy! All the best.

Dear Edward. Hawley does list one, 4th generation who signs this way, MAS176. Worth a look perhaps. All the best.

I think bottom right of the top mekugi ana I can see one of the little feet. All the best.

Dear George. Well, from these pictures we can tell that is is a tanto, given the nakago probably not Gendai. Sizes might help but there is not a lot to be said from out of focus and out of polish pictures other than that you probably did OK. At any rate for that money you can afford to get it polished and in shirasaya. All the best.

Dear BaZZa. I believe in his first post Nick told us there was no tsuka, well he said handle but that bit is missing either way. Absolutely agree with everything else you said and the extra missing bits just make it more of a quest. All the best.

Dear Jean. First picture, the iron plate with applied Aoi mon signed Kunihiro. One or two unusual ones here. All the best.