Geraint

Hi keith. The mei on your sword would read Fujiwara followed by the smiths name so the little bit left of the kanji is the start of the wara kanji. Pewrsonally I don't think this is quite the handwriting style of the Shigetaka smiths but I'm still looking. All the best.

Dear Keith. Love the koshirae, I can see why you bought this one. This is not exhaustive but generally speaking the Shigetaka lineage signs with Echizen ju as a prefix, often signing the first three kanji on the other side of the nakago to the mei. Noting on yours I suppose? A side by side comparison looking at the kanji in detail might help but if this were mine I wouldn't jump to the conclusion just yet. Let us know what you find and, once again, a very nice sword. All the best.

Dear Noah. Really hoping you've orderd Dawson and not Dawkins! You have a ton of reading ahead of you! Enjoy. All the best.

Dear Antonio. I reply just to get the thread picked up by others. Could we see a shot of the bare blade, the whole thing? So far my money is on late Koto, pre 1600. Others will chime in here. All the best.

Dear Darryl. In all our commenting about the sword we have omitted to mention that you have done an amazing thing for your son, a true Nihonto, in polish, with koshirae and papers. That's quite a start and I hope he appreciates what you have done. You don't mention his age but please do point him to the information on care and handling, and if possible get in touch with a Japanese sword society near you where he can see many others and learn. In this sword he already has a lead into a significant group of swordsmiths which in turn will move to a grasp of Shinto v Koto and also a signed tsuba which can generate another line of interest. He's going to have lots of exploring to do which hopefully he will love. He doesn't need all the answers and as Steve says it's where we are with the information. First and foremost it is the feeling when you hold the sword in your hand. All the best.

Dear Keith. The ones who spring immeditely to mind are the Shigetaka smiths but....... If you have a look here, https://markussesko.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/nihontocompendium-e1.pdf scroll down to page 83. The list is fortunatley npt that long for this specific title. Just down to searching for oshigata and matching. ( In this case the word 'just' should be understood in the context of nihonto where its meaning is ' endless hours of trawling the internet and all available books whose results will be deeply contradictory and prove to have a reliability factor of plus or minus 80% only to find that when you have convinced yourself of an outcome everyone you show it to will profoundly disagree with your conclusion'.) Have fun! All the best.

Dear Noah. For my money the short answer is no. However it's your money we are talking about so here's the thing. Let's say you get it for $120 and then put a whole lot of time and effort into it, and let's say you are really good and the blade has not been attacked by an angle grinder. If you do a really good job you are going to end up with a heavily restored version of this type which nobody much is going to want to buy. This one's gone. All the best.

Thanks both. Those are some lovely examples! All the best.

Dear Gary. I think Ed might have mixed up your blade and the wakizashi that you illustrated for comparison. I assume that yours does not have date on the nakago? All the best.

Dear RB. Could we have your name please? The mei on your sword is Kaneyoshi. All the best.

Dear Robert. I would say that your translation is correct, as is your observation about the number of smiths. Just a suggestion but assuming the sword is ubu the nakago jiri is a big clue. All the best.

Dear Ronnie. I do not think the silver mon is worn, I think the ground was gilt and the polished silver surface has tarnished a little, that's all. All the best.

Hi Grev. Are you referencing the original post or the idea of mounting a real tsuba on an iaito? All the best.

Dear Arnaud. John has covered a lot of very good points. However I wil share with you that some years ago I was looking at a tsuba when the fancy came upon me to see what it would look like mounted. As a more general collector than some I have swords that I was able to use and the transformation was extrordinary! I must confess that I have not done this with every tsuba, especially not kinko, but the concept did change my understanding. The seppa dai is a significant area of metal and while of course it can tell us some things about the tsuba it is a dark mass in the centre of the design. A sukashi tsuba, when mounted has a lightness that the seppa dai can obscure somewhat when viewing in hand. I know it doesn't make sense, after all the tsuka and saya are even larger, yet................ Give it a try if you have koshirae to hand, if not make up a short length of dummy saya and tsuka just for the purpose. All the best.

Dear Curran. Thank you for posting that one, I love it. On this koshirae the slot for the mechanism is well outside both fuchi and seppa, unlike the one that John posted. You don't, by any chance, happen to have photographs of a similar mechanism but inside operating inside the seppa dai, do you? If so then that would answer a lot off questions. It is a little frustrating that we can put together so many images of tsuba with this feature but not the koshirae that would account for it. All the best.

Dear All. While agreeing that the sword in question is junk I would simply point out that the current RN officers sword is straight, having recently bought one for my son. https://pooleysword.com/en/Royal_Navy_Officers'_Sword Still the 1827 pattern I believe. Or are we perhaps just focussing on IJN swords? All the best.

Dear Jonathan. Just to add the theme is a Portugese with a hunting dog, very similar to the one Bob posted in this thread, item 278. All the best.

Hi Simon. Memories indeed! The last time I heard from Chris was a few yers ago now and he had indeed stopped this part of his business life, I managed to but some of his books. I understand that he became a war correspondent but when we lst spoke he remembered the swords I had bought from him many years before, I still have two of them. I don't know if you were ever on his mailing list, pre internet of course. I still have some of the typed lists and they were quite a delight when they arrived. More memories to come I'm sure. All the best.

Dear Arnaud. You probably know it already but there is some useful information here. https://www.shibuiswords.com/tsuba.htm Also the book, Tosogu: Treasures of the Samurai has an interesting article on Muromachi tsuba as well as quite a bit of eye candy. I would certrainly take up Jean's offer and try to see examples where you can. All the best.

Dear Anthony. Yes please, more pictures. However have a look here, http://www.sho-shin.com/titles.htm You will have to scroll right to the bottom of the left hand column but............... All the best.

Dear Grev. This is one of a range of fittings all made to the same design, compare here, https://www.lot-art.com/auction-lots/Beautiful-silver-inlay-bamboo-motif-kojirikoeguchi-tsuba-fuchi-kashira-set-copper-brass-Japan-Late-Edo-period/46045499-beautiful_silver-13.3.21-catawiki I have a feeling that I read somewhere that they were made in one particular area of Japan but have failed to find the reference, I'm sure someone will jump in with it. All the best.

Dear Brian. Not specifically Japanese but here is a link to some info about making files by hand. All the best.

Looks remarkably like the full naginata rather than naginata naoshi. I wish I kept finding things like that in my workshop! All I get is spiders and dust. All the best.

Dear Piers. Some interesting things here on these items. https://tsubakansho.com/2020/06/26/yanigata/ All the best.

Dear Matthew. Welcome to NMB. Chris has given you a very condensed answer so let me unpack it a bit for you. Most swords carried during WWII are known as Shingunto, type 98 refers to a specific variant of these mounts. They are not mass produced in the conventional sense but they are all made to a specification. However it is often the case that older blades were remounted to carry to war, it used to be assumed that these were family blades given to the son to carry, in fact many of them were used to save on manufacturing and resources. Much less romantic and of course, impossible to say which applies to your sword. It is impossible to give you much information about the blade from photograps but if I had to guess I would suggest that it might be a Koto blade, which means from before 1600 Yours also has an older tsuba, the guard. A decent shot of this posted in the Tosogu section might attract some information. (Tosogu means fittings and a lot of collectors specialise in this.) Another intteresting feature is the hanger on the scabbard which is somewhat unusual and may suggest that the original scabbard was used under the leather combat cover. Any cleaning that you do should only ammount to wiping the blade with a light oil and perhaps some leather cream on the combat cover, anything else will harm the sword. If you do decide to do a full restoration then brace yourself, it's an expensive process. You may wish to preserve as is. It's an important link to your Grandfather and what he did. For a lot more information you might like to have a look here, http://ohmura-study.net/900.html Grab a coffee, there's a lot to go through! Feel free to ask further questions. All the best.