Geraint

Dear Jan. I think Chris has it, it's a consequence of the polishing over time. On the positive side at least it narrows down the pool of Juyo swords for you to buy. On the negative side, now I've seen it I won't be able to get it out of my head! Thanks for that. All the best.

Dear Paz. Well no one else has jumped in so I will. Nice sword! And as it is papered to confirm the mei even better. As there is only the one man signing in this way you can pin it down fairly well, no worries about multiple generations in different areas. Do you have some information on him? If not then let me know and I will send you what I have but Sesko's Nihon Shinto Shi is your friend here. All the best.

Dear Jean-Sebastien. First of all thank you for sharing your sword. I like it. As the sword is papered we can assume that it is the smith you have identified. He is the only one of the Bitchu Mizuta school who signed in this way. Sesko identifies him as Ichizo, brother of Oyogo Kunishige and states that he ws awarded the title Yamashiro no Daijo in the second year of Shoho, 1645. Hope that helps a little. All the best.

Dear John. Forgive me if I state what is already obvious to you but here goes. When you say the blade length is 32" do you mean overall or the nagasa? If in doubt see here, http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/measure.htm Next, the nakago has had some very rough treatment, it looks as though someone has taken a grinder to it in places. For an idea about how it should look compare here, https://www.aoijapan.com/katanakashu-ju-ise-daijo-fujiwara-kaneshige/ For best hope of some good responses a picture of the whole blade with the habaki removed would be helpful. All the best.

Might also work with this idea, https://www.nihonto.com/8-12-21/ Perhaps a bit less intrusive than the buttons? All the best.

It still seems to be the case that the habaki is a good give away, as in this example, it's not Japanese. Best case scenario; a theatre made souvenir. All the best.

Dear Richard. Well, there's always something new! I think you are right, it is intended to protect the kinpun mei but rather than risk cutting away the bearing surfaces f the tsuka this way the mei can be viewed without removing the tsuka at all. (I see that Jon and I are thinking along the same lines. ) All the best.

Hi Pippo. Not a sword container but a quiver, check this one out, https://www.olympiaauctions.com/sales/arms-armour/as081221/view-lot/29/ All the best.

I think that it is the original edition, clearly there is a reprint available which would give you all the content but not the association with one of the great collectors. I feel that this must be a book collectors price. Suffice it to say that it is not in my collection! All the best.

So I was browsing a local auction house sale and saw something I would quite like, a catalogue of the Seymour-Trower collection, one of the early and influential collectors in the UK. As I have a book from his library I thought it would make a nice addition. The pre sale estimate was £30 -£40 so I had a go at £100. Well that was a waste of time! That's a lot of book! The only consolation is that mine might be worth a bit more than I thought. All the best.

Mike, if you search for "Inshu Kanesaki" you will get more results. Inaba being the province in which they worked and by the Shinto period schools are more diverse so province names are less sure as a guide. Found this one, http://www.users.on.net/~coxm/?page=oshigata_sword_s2 Plenty more to see but not a great deal more information as yet. Keep up the good work, this mountain has plenty of false summits but the climb is fascinating! All the best.

Dear Mike. Nice sword, thanks for sharing. Over the years I have kept an eye out for this school as I have a late generation katana. My notes contain the following, though I cannot tell you where I got the information from. "The first generation Inshu Kanesaki was a swordsmith in Yamato province. The second generation moved to Seki and learned under Kanemoto. The third moved to Bizen province and served the Ikeda family at the domain of Okayama. Following the master, the fifth moved to Inshu province in 1632. The Kanesaki clan prospered there as a retained swordsmith for generations." That pretty much echoes what Thomas has said. All the best.

Ah, Paz, if only things were that simple! I see Paul had beaten me to it and covered the ground. Many collectors are confident in announcing that a given wkizashi must have been a merchant's sword but if you look at some of the outstanding daisho koshirae, which by definition must have been owned by samurai, you can see some very spectacular mounts. All the best.

Dear John. Thank you for sharing this one, really nice koshirae. Really like the vajra shaped tsuba. I have a much plainer example which I have always associated with Meiji export work. I think aoi mon were scattered about pretty freely after the restoration, an extra selling point for the gaijin perhaps. Are the mounts silver plated brass do you think? If so then that would relate to some of the late tachi koshirae from the same period. Just for interests sake here's mine. All the best.

Dear Franco. I think perhaps the yokote is at the point where both the ha and the shogi change direction, most visible in the first photograph. You are right, the usual clearly defined line is not evident in the photographs but the change in angle is there. All the best

Dear Steve. Well it's a nice package, good condition Kai gunto with the better lacquered same saya. The seller calls it a wakizashi so we will have to take his word on that. Not sure how much you know about Japanese swords so please forgive me if I state the obvious. Straight hamon,known as suguha, is relatively common. In Mino swords it is often accompanied by fushi or thickets, little protrusions above the habuchi, almost as if the smith can't quite get sambonsugi out of his system even when doing suguha. However, the pictures don't show enough to base any opinion on. The seller describes it as awesome, that might be because he's a fan of suguha. It might also be that the hamon is masked by a heavy hadori, which would account for the width. I would guess that some of the work on the nakago was done when the sword was mounted in this koshirae. So what you have is an unpapered wakizashi with a hamon that you can't see, coming out of Japan in very nice Kaigunto mounts. Hope that helps a little. All the best.

Slightly distorted because the page curves little. Hope that helps. All the best.

Ah! I hadn't even noticed that they were part of the same sale. So, Lot 181. "A Shimotsuke kinko fuchi kashira and a Hamano school fuchi kashira. The shibuichi migaki-ji base metal depicting chidori over waves in takabori, gold, silver and copper zogan, signed Kozan sanjin Keigyoku zo, late Edo period (19th century) with a wood box." The footnotes for this one read, "Lundgren Collection no. 281. Keigyoku was the son of Kamiyama Chido (Yoshimichi). The fact that this piece is reminiscent of later Yasuchika style is because Chigyoku (yoshimichi) studied under Yasuchika V." All the best.

Hi Kyle. I have the catalogue but there is a small problem, the lot numbers start at 300! Also at the time Christie's seemed to favour selling huge lots of fittings, examples are, "Twenty kozuka", and Thirty five tsuba and four fuchi kashira", so not that helpfull, sorry. The link that Dale found sounds more hopeful but there isn't an apparent connection between what is listed there and the catalogue................. All the best.

Dear Bob. 221 are Echizen Kinai saku and absolutely typical for the school, one of their cassic designs. All the best.

Welcome Colin. Far away from you in UK terms but if you ever get this far West then let me know. All the best.

Dear George. I have a suspicion that your desire for a neat and confimed description of this feature as either a, or b will never be satisfied. The texts that we all use tend to show, forgive me, textbook examples of features. In most descriptions of swords we see many qualifiers applied to such features, for example, " scattered sunagashi crossing the tani of the hamon, more evident towards the monouchi". As what you illustrate seems to be a feature of the group of smiths you might end up with something like this: "Following his teacher this smith tempered a hamon in which sunagashi concentrate into a dense cluster forming a defined line running more or less parallel with the ha and typically crossing the ashi below the habuchi". Following Jacque's suggestion you might add, " This feature may be a product of the honsanmai tsukuri construction used by smiths of this group". If you think about this in art terms impasto is an easily defined feature of painting but the way in which each artist uses it is distinctive and requires some qualification. I know, not the clarity you were seeking. Sorry about that. All the best.

Dear Bob. If only things were that simple! It is actually quite rare to find a sword and the koshirae that was originally made specifically for it. Given that we could be sure of the age of the tsuba then it still would not add anything to your knowlegdege of the blade as it is very common for koshirae to be replaced and/or modified throughout the swords life. Sometimes this is the result of changes made while the sword was still in Japan, sometimes later by dealers and collectors. It is very rare to find a koshirae of any great age though a tsuba from an earlier period added to a new sword is quite common. For what it's worth I have personally always thought of sanmai tsuba as earlier rather than later but I can provide no evidence to back up my hunch, perhaps others have a more informed view on this. Your best hope of getting some thoughts about the age of the blade would be to post some overall shots of the whole blade without any fittings in the Nihonto section. Given the condition the sugata is about all we have to go on as details of hamon and boshi will be hard to see. All the best.

Come on Mark, show us the rest of it! All the best.

Dear Bob. As a starting point have a look here, http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/tsuba/sanmai.htm All the best.