Geraint

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.

Third theory, the owner wanted the nakago ana closed up but for whatever reason never went on to the stage of filing it to fit another nakago. The tagane ato show the rounded ends that you might expect when they were fresh but not yet filed to fit the nakago. All the best.

Dear Jonathan. Nice sword and thank you for sharing your excitement. Now comes the fun part, digging for information and looking for comparable Kunisada mei, learning to see what is in the hamon and so forth. Enjoy! All the best.

Dear Dale. Sweet! You are right, it's a ken koshirae, here's another one but in carved wood, the tsuba on this is a separate piece just as your example appears to be. Is it a tsuba? Well it's not a million miles away from a shitogi tsuba and a distinct component from the tsuka so I guess that would do it. All the best.

Dear Lee. As with any auction item, and indeed many from some dealers, you need to know what you are looking at unless you are going to adopt the blind squirrel approach. Very few auction houses have the expertise to make any sort of assessment about a Japanese sword, you will find many very recent reproductions listed and mis translations. In this case the position of the mei suggest that it is all that is left of a longer signature after the sword has been shortened, do they mention that? It is also the wrong side of the nakago for a date so where they got Bunmei from I don't know. The second kanji looks like the 'shu' normally used as the shortened form of a province name, have a look here, http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/kanji/prov.htm Also here if you want to check out Bunmei, http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/kanji/nengo.htm Have fun! All the best.

Dear Yves and Mauro. I must apologise for starting a hare. It may just be the colour balance on the photographs but the seppa dai seems to have a brownish cast to it. Now if we are going with Goto attribution then I would expect a lovely deep glossy black. Also flawless workmanship. Of course it is a copper alloy, (and not shibuichi), if you search for Mino Goto you will find a great range in the colour of the alloy used. Whatever these are they are very nice and I would be happy to own them, and yes I read your other thread so include all three tsuba in that. I hope that some of the Goto experts will chip in here. All the best.

Hi JMB. Others will pile in on this one but here's a start. http://www.nihontocraft.com/Mino_Gendai.html Some threads on NMB, From memory there was more than one so you will have to check that. All the best.

Hmm! Interesting bit in the catalogue notes from the museum, "This sword guard appears to have been made at the Soten School of tsuba making in Japan. The Soten school was created by one of Masamune's students named Kanemitsu who was one of a select group of ten pupils. Kanemitsu is usually credited with having started the Soden School, which successfully combined Bizen and Soshu forging techniques." ??!! Nice tsuba, Yves. What do you think the primary material is? All the best.

Daer Yves. I like it, particulalry the way the floral decoration tumbles over the inner edge of the mimi in places, that adds life to the design. Also like the way the nanako follows the mokko shape in the outer area and then becomes vertical in the centre. All the best.

Dear Richard. Welcome to NMB. Your sword has, as you suggest been 'cleaned' really badly. For examples of what they should look like have a look here, https://www.aoijapan.com/ There are many other sites in the links at the top of the page for you to explore. Please don't clean anything else, have a look in the FAQ for care guides. From what I can see this stands a very good chance of being a shingunto, in other words a sword made around WWII. I can see hamon in one of your pictures but it is probably not worth the cost of a proper restoration, you may wish to have it professionally polished for your own interst but it's an expensive undertaking. Depending on where you are one or other of the gang would be happy to have a look in person and give you some more hints. All the best.

Dear Bruno. As far as I can tell you have shown us three swords, the first two seem fine to me but the third, the one you describe as Navy, is a Chinese copy and not genuine. Hope that helps. All the best.

Dear Steve. As usual we are working from limited photographs but I'm puzzled as to what makes you think this is Koto. Hamon is pretty typical for Showa and it as suguha boshi, nakago is original and unaltered and is also what you would expect from Showa. Where are you getting that Koto vibe from? Interested to know. All the best.

Hmmm. It's always tricky from images especially when we don't have the shot we want, nor any dimensions which would really help here. It is generally suggested that for a Sue koto sword from Bizen then the Bishu derivative suggests kazuuchi mono, however that assumes that this is Sue koto, unusual to find tachi from this period, no? And just for added fun almost all the Norimitsu lineage from the first/second generation are known to have signed Bishu Osafune. As you say, Hamfish, it appers to be ubu so what is it? I'm afraid that Imgur is playing hard to get at the moment for me but does the mei look too new compared to the rest of the sword? If so then possibly a late blade with gimei. Or just possibly something quite a bit earlier. Nick, is there not a New York based sword society you could show this to? Let us know how it turns out. All the best.

Welcome, Lee! All the best.

I'm guessing this one, https://nihontoantiques.com/ Yes? All the best.

Hi Henry. Welcome to NMB! Others here are much better at this than I am but so far I think your sword is signed 'Okada Kanesada saku', which means made by Okada Kanesada. Do you see any signs of smaller stamped marks anywhere on the nakago, sorry, the tang? The sword is in Shingunto mounts and was made and carried during WWII. Feel free to ask any more questions and to post some more photographs. All the best from another Celt.

Dear Paz. Just to clarify, the description that accompanies the sword is, "Shape : Wide and thick Katana with deep Sori, longer Kissaki. The blade is nice shape. Jigane : Itame Hada well grained with Jinbe attach. visible to see the texture. Hamon : Nie Deki, Gunome midare with thick Nioikuchi and many Ashi to the Kissaki. In the Ha, there are Sunagashi and Kinsuji from the Monouchi part. Boshi is Midarekomi style". (Excuse the profusion of capital letters, I copied and pasted the original!) This would not be a description of a Showato but it might describe a Gendai blade. All the best.

Dear Paz. These are long odds! Basically you are hoping to buy a sword by a well regarded maker from a very experienced dealer in Japan, without papers and with his express opinion that it is not genuine, and indeed his educated guess as to who might have made it. Yes? Then you are asking us to hazard a guess to support your endeavour. If you want to find out have a look at what a papered Kiyondo katana would fetch and then think how easy it would be for Tsuruta san to submit this for papers and how much he would make if it passed. It's a nice sword and if you like it buy it, but buy it as what it is being sold as. All the best.

Dear Paz. As regards shinsa standards this might help. http://nihontocraft.com/2015_NBTHK_Nionto_Tosogu_Shinsa_Standards.html Also if you have not already found it or bought the book this might be useful, https://studyingjapaneseswords.com/ The author is a member here. Of course in the 80 odd years of the Shinshinto period there would have been opportunity for someone to have suriage done on a sword from the same period but there are many reasons why you might find them. Some years ago there was an exhibition in London with a catalogue called, "The Beauty of Shinsakuto", while not specifically your period of interest there were several swords which were utsushi mono, copies of earlier msterpieces. Some of these were copied complete with suriage nakago and multiple mekugi ana. These were not meant to deceive of course, but in the Shinshinto period the same is possible. Add to that the possibility of passing off a Shinshinto sword as something older and more valuable by removing the nakago with the mei... I'm sure there are many other reasons as well. All the best.

Dear Alex. No guesses regarding papers but the top row, extreme right represents wakamizu, the first drawing of the well water at the NewYear. All the best. .

Dear Ron. The only question is why did you pick it up? All the best.

DearJack. Welcome to NMB. I am sure many people will offer suggestions but just for starters here are a couple. First off, information, https://www.shibuiswords.com/ Lots of good stuff here but as you will quickly see there are few if any rules in play and it is hard to understand just who made a tsuba without a lot of practice. Of course signed ones help and there are many for sale which have papers which attribute them to a school or indeed a maker. If you go to the Nihonto Info tab at the top of the page and then to Links you wil find a ready stock of usefull resources. Check out the For Sale section here and have a look at a couple of websites such as, https://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/Tsuba-&-Kodogu and http://www.nihonto.us/ As I said, many more to choose from in the links. Enjoy the journey! All the best. Geraint