Geraint

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.

Dear Okan. The box is genuine in that it is Japanese lacquer, the use of hinges and lock confirm that it is late19th or early 20th century, made for export to the West. The symbols for the card suites confirm this. Whist is a card game where you try to win tricks from your oponent, easy to look up. The Mother of Pearl counters are almost certainly Chinese in origin. Nice find, looks like it could do with some gentle cleaning. All the best.

Dear Dan, no you can't. What is much more likely is that someone took a fairly low level koshire with a nice tsuba, swiped the tsuba to sell separately and stuck this one onto the koshirae. It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that whoever buys this sword will swap out the tsuba again for something better and the offending cast Namban goes back into the bits box and so on. This happens all the time. All the best.

Dear Jon. The essential difference is in the way the sword was worn. Katana and so forth, edge upward and so the design of the tsuba is read in this position. Tachi, edge downward and so read in that position. The most often encountered style is something like the one shown here, http://www.ricecracker.com/japanese_swords/katana/ms11_tachi_kiyomitsu.html They feature on tachi koshirae and often in handachi koshirae. There are many which are esentially plain with the decoration provided by o seppa, see here and scroll down. http://www.samuraisword.com/nihonto_c/SOLD/Juyo/Fukuoka_Ichimonji_kiku/index.htm You will quickly see the inspiration behind the koshirae of shin and kai gunto koshirae. Sometimes the tsuba and the o seppa are riveted together, the two rivets often being quite visble. Add to this other archaic styles such as shitogi tsuba. How's that for starters? All the best.

Well, thank you Stephen, I enjoyed that. Though I have to confess that I was expecting something about tsuba. All the best.

Dear Tony. Not cast, perfectly OK. Though someone was a little unkind to the nakago ana on the back. Do my eyes deceive or are there two colours of gold on the foliage? All the best.

Dear Tony. Us guys this side of the pond are watching as well! All the best.

Dear Juan. While I am not familiar with the pecadilloes of the French aristocracy I think the short answer to your question is no. There is an excellent description of the process of awarding such titles here, https://markussesko.com/2013/02/19/how-honorary-titles-were-conferred/ All the best.

Gentlemen. I think we are making heavy weather of this. As I understand Yanchen's point it is that Noshu ju or Seki ju mean the smith was working in that province while Mino no Kami is an honorary title and could be awarded to a smith working anywhere in Japan. A smith signing Mino no ju would not need any permission to so sign, one signing Mino no Kami would need permission. As the sword we are discussing has the honorific Mino no Kami it is not pretending to be by one of the Seki Kanesada smiths at all. As such it is not a gimei for any of the Mino Kanesada smiths. All the best.