Geraint

Dear Howard. It doesn't matter how cheap it was, you could have left it! Now you are stuck with it so yes, it is modern, see here for the theme, https://collections....aka-unknown-Japanese I see that Mauro has got there before me. All the best.

Hi Nathan. These are Chinese, paired swords are a thing. I'm sure that a search will throw up quite a few. All the best.

Dear Adam. It is perhaps the polish that has changed this from osoraku zukuri to something else, I think I can see a spot on the shinogi where the yokote ought to be but it's clearly been ignored by the polisher. Some swords do have hamon that can be labelled as one thing or another, many have hamon that can best be described as a combination of features. Here is one from Aoi Art. "Nie Deki, wide Suguha, deep Nioikuchi. In Ha, there are many Sunagashi, Kinsuji and Yo. Boshi is Midarekomi Hakikake style." All the best.

Dear Shaun. The date for this tsuba is approximately 2022, it's a brand new Chinese fake! Keep looking but best avoid Ebay until you are really sure what you are getting. Edit to add: Sorry Shaun, a bit more time now. Just to give you something to go on here are some of the signs. The overall shape is poor, not regular, the seppa dai, the oval in the middle is irregular and the tang hole is bad, on these fakes it is usually rounded off rather than the shape of the tang. The design is poorly defined, muddy if you like, and the patina corresponds to the typical three colour attempt that seem to be the norm for these, quite unlike Japanese patina. The signature is very poorly done, normally these would be chased into the metal, these are cast in along with the rest of the tsuba. If you are interested then have a look at some of the commercial sites, here are a couple to start with, https://www.Japanese...tegory/tsuba-kodogu/ and http://www.nihonto.us/TSUBA 1.htm For educational reading you could also have a look here, https://www.shibuiswords.com/tsuba.htm Feel free to ask about any of the above. All the best.

Dear Mario. A very minor typo on Jean's part, search for Jakushi tsuba, one example here, https://www.Japanese...hi-tsuba-quite-nice/ And another here, All the best.

And just a little from the Naunton Collection. " The Mitsuhiro family of Yagami in Hizen specialised in designs of the Hundred monkeys, Hundred horses, "Hundred anything", class, often very minutely and finely chased, the work of the first dating from the middle to the end of the Eighteenth Century, but that of the second Mitsuhiro being the more delicate of the two. That style was also followed by one Taira Hattori Yoshitsugu of Nagasaki, a specimen of whose work in my possession dates from 1756. Although less involved groups of animals had been made at a much earlier date, these three workers brought the style to an analytical perfection of technique quite peculiar to them, and the dated piece is mentioned above because some writers have placed Mitsuhiro I. circa 1800 whereas the probability is that he worked circa 1750 -1770." All the best.

Dear Luca. Have a look in your messages. All the best.

Yep! I think we can tell that you are excited! Remember, whatever the outcome this is a genuine Japanese sword and there is nothing like having your own example to research to get you in the groove. For starters have a look here, First step, what do the characters actually say? Second step what shape is the nakago/tang, is the mei in the usual place for this smith, are the file marks correct? Third step how does the handwriting compare to known examples? (For good reasons most people will look at the overall shape of the blade first, then perhaps the hamon, the design of the hardened edge, next the grain of the metal and finally the nakago/tang. So far all we have to go on is the mei. Enjoy the journey. All the best.

Dear Nathan. I understand your excitement and there is no question that this is a real Japanese sword, rest easy. There is however a long tradition in Japan of adding false signatures to swords to increase their value, obviously the better the swordsmith the more likely this is to happen. That's why I cautioned that the registration card describes the sword as with a signature...... I haven't had time to compare the signature yet but will do so, meanwhile you could start looking for swords by this man which have NBTHK or NTHK papers. These are more of a guarantee that it really is by him. While you are at it an overall photograph of the whole blade, without the habaki if possible, would be useful to us. All the best.

Hi Nathan. Just to note that the registration card records what the sword is, hence signed Nagamichi, it is not a guarantee that the signature is correct. Look forward to seeing some more pictures. All the best.

Dear Nike. It depends on what you mean by civilian, as John says this is a Showato and it seems rather a lot of money for what it is. All the best.

Hi Grev. Bizen no kuni Osafune ju Kawachi no Kami Sukesada saku? Compare here, https://www.aoijapan...wachi-kami-sukesada/ So not a WWII arsenal blade I would think. No guarantee of it being shoshin. All the best.

Dear Teddy. You have taken an unusual decision in having a significant proportion of the major design element, the bird, obscured by the seppa when mounted. Was that a conscious choice? All the best.

Dear Ron. What follows is purely personal observation, take it with a pinch of salt. There are quite a few Shigetaka blades available to check this with. As I understand it we are essentially looking at first and second generation Shigetaka, sources mention that the Harima Daijo title lasted to the third but I have not come across this third generation. The mei of the shodai is described as wide, in other words the kanji are rather spreading sideways, whereas the nidai is described as more vertical. Both have distinctive 'handwriting', I find the nidai especially notable in this case. So, to your sword. First off we don't have the whole sword or even the whole nakago to work with so any clues from them are absent. First observation, the nakago appears to have quite a bit of age to it and the mei seems rather faint in its cutting, I can't see any tagane makura. There may be yasurime but I can't make them out. Second, as you look at papered mei note that they seem to be pretty uniform in starting just next to the mekugi ana, some swords exist with rather a lot of information on the nakago but in your case I would expect to see the mei starting just to the lower right of the mekugi ana. Third, the handwriting. Yours certainly does not look like the nidai to my eye. I am looking particularly at the Taka kanji as it's the one I can see clearly. The lower section is quite distinctive in the ni dai with a consistent curve to the stroke at the right; this as absent in yours. The shodai tends to have a very straight horizontal stroke here, again yours does not. My conclusion, and please remember it is only mine, would be that this is not what it purports to be. As always this does not mean it is not a good sword. I am sure that others will chime in here and of course the ultimate test would be to send it for shinsa, personally I would save my money on that idea with this sword. All the best.

Dear Ray. Gene is the guy who wrote the letter, Rob is the owner of the sword. All the best.

Dear JJV. Welcome to NMB! Can we have a first name so that we can address you properly? The menuki on your sword are supposed to represent a kabuto and tachi, helmet and slung sword. The detail is not clear which suggests that they are low quality pressings rather than hand carved. If you look at the back of the habaki you should be able to tell if it is silver foiled or not, look for a copper core with thin foil folded over the back edge. Underneath the wrap on the tsuka your sword has silk rather than the more usual same, this does happen so no worries. In your research try to focus on swords that have NBTHK papers, these are pretty reliable opinions as to the authenticity of the sword and the signature. There are many swords with fake signatures called gimei so checking papered examples is the best route. Start to get s feel for the handwriting style and the shape of the nakago or tang. Above all look at the FAQs and search how to care for your sword, don't be tempted to clean anything. Enjoy the journey. All the best.

Ah. well that's better! My first thought was Sendai but I couldn't reference it, after a search finally found this which was from a post by Rich S. Just needed to cement the facts into my brain. All the best.

Dear Jon. An interesting question. Most sources take a slightly different approach in that sugata, including width, sori, fumbari if there is any, taper, size of kissaki and so forth, are all used to indicate the time of the blades production rather than the individual school or style. Having said that there are some distinguishing features such as koshi sori which might lead to a specific school. Descriptions sometimes refer to a specific smith doing something which is out of character for the time in which they are working, bucking the trend as it were. Sori on its own is a problem as it clearly would relate to the length of the blade so a number on its own would not help. For example a sori of 9mms would look very different on a kowakizashi than it would on a katana. Also any suriage would tend to change things. Add to that the various waves of revival where swords were made to represent swords from an earlier period. Most of the basic texts have some diagrams of the basics with regard to sugata, those at least are a starting point but they are intended to get you to a time period by and large. It would be lovely if one could say that a small number of specifics could tell you who the blade was by but the situation is much more complex than that which is why the subject is so fascinating, so frustrating and so never endingly involved. (That is also why any mumei sword shown here tends to get a pretty wide range of suggestions as to its age.) Years ago I used a system for identifying timbers that involved a set of A5, (or the foolscap equivalent), cards with perforations around all the edges. The idea was that you clipped out the perforation next to a particular feature of the timber so each card might have twenty or thirty gaps. When you wanted to know what you had got you stuck a knitting needle into the hole for a certain feature in the sample and lifted, all the ones with that feature fell out of the pack and by the time you had done that several times you would be left with the answer. Wouldn't it be lovely if such a thing existed for us? All the best.

Dear Stephen. You might well be right especially as the fuchi is fitted for the spring clip but the combat cover has the stud for the leather strap. Hard to tell quality of fit from pictures unless it's obviously way off. Habaki looks good and for the sword, apart from that we don't know. Eathen, does the blade fit really well into the saya? The blade should slide in smoothly resting the back edge on the saya and the habaki should fit nicely at the mouth. And does the tsuka fit equally well to the nakago? All the best.

Dear Eathen. The sword clearly has a blade older than WWII. The tsuba looks as though it is made of shakudo, an alloy of copper and small amounts of gold, don't attempt to clean that, the black is the correct patina. The copper coloured collar, the fuchi, has a hole for the spring catch that would have held the sword in the scabbard but the tsuba does not have the corresponding slot and so is a replacement. (Or maybe the hilt is the replacement?) The black oval collar around the blade next to the habaki is nothing to do with the sword and probably is there to take up the slack in the fittings caused by the lack of seppa. There would have been a Gunto tsuba and anything between two and four pairs of seppa. Have a look in the mouth of the scabbard and see if there is a slot that would have accepted the spring catch, if it's not there then perhaps it is the tsuka, the hilt, that has been replaced. I'll attach a picture of the fittings as they might have looked. If you can get that black collar off the sword and the habaki next to it then a photograph of the whole blade, point upward and the dimensions would be interesting. Take it slow, don't attempt to clean more than a light oiling of the blade, leave the tang, the nakago, alone. Others will add their thoughts as we go along. All the best.

Ha! I shall immediately turn mine over in its box! All the best.

Hi Dale. That one is indeed signed Echizen ju Kinai. One of mine. This one attributed to Shoami and came with a story from the previous owner. "About a week after I’d purchased it, I went on a trip to Kumamoto to visit s resident swordsmith, Matsunaga Kiyotsugu. We started out in his forge, where he demonstrated the fundamentals of sword forging, and after we went to another building which is used for iaido training and tameshigiri. Displayed on the wall was a massive Tachibana kamon and when I enquired was told that the iaido club he belongs to was granted the use of the kamon by the descendant of the last Tachibana daimyo. I then showed him a picture of the Tachibana tsuba and his response was, “I’m jealous, I want it.” As is so often the case the design seems to crop up in more than one school, rule of thumb might be Shoami unless signed Echizen. I have seen the design elsewhere attributed to Northern Shoami. All the best.

Hi Gordon. I bought a nice wakizashi in rather special koshirae but missing kozuka, tried one or two I already had and realised that the slot was quite narrow. Took a while to find one that suited and was the right width but managed eventually from Aoi Art. A lot of people don't give dimensions when selling but thankfully they did. Take your time. All the best.

Dear Vitaly. I think you made a good call on this one. Kick me when it turns up papered but I wouldn't have gone for this one. In the end you are training your eye and while a few years from now you will wonder about how little you knew way back then right now this doesn't feel right to you. Good call. All the best.

Dear Gordon. Just some thoughts. The tang of the kogatana can be/is often wrapped in paper to adjust the fit in the kodzuka. You are right to note that the saya pocket for the kodzuka is not a standard size. When searching for a kodzuka to complete a koshirae it took me some time to find one of the correct width for the pocket in the saya. Found a suitable one eventually and it looks good. Length is, from my limited experience not so critical. Let us know how it goes for you. All the best.