Geraint

Dear Rodriguez. Commenting on all of your posts about this sword, first of all a ko wakizashi would typically have a nagasa of just over 30cms, as Jean pointed out in one of your threads we don't have a nagasa but it certainy seems well over 30 cms so just a wakizashi in this case. At first glance the tsuba appears to be shakudo and the fittings are pleasant and I would suggest mid range. Nice habaki, Bruce will want a photograph of that for sure. You do not suggest that the nakago is machi okuri so we assume ubu but the nakago is quite long. The low shinogi is a point but many swords would follow this form. Lastly there are quite a few smiths signing this way, both Koto and Shinto so pinning down the time frame would help but in order to get to the specifc smith you are probably going to have a struggle. All the best.

Dear John. It seems clear that this is orikaeshi mei, if the idea of tanzaku mei comes form the torokusho then I think we can safely ignore it. All the best.

Dear Chris. First off, this is a Japanese sword as opposed to a reproduction. You say 24" length, does that include the tang, the nakago? If so then it is a wakizashi, a katana if 24" from tip to the notch where the nakago starts. I can quite see why Grey suggests the Dremel as the picture does suggest that however having the luxury of a touch screen when I zoom in a little I would have to respectfully disagree and say that this has been cut with a chisel but the guy sure used a lot of hammer blows! None of this confirms your sword as a genuine mei by one of the many smiths who signed this way, bear in mind that there are quite few generations. Some members have devoted quite a lot of study time to this school and will be able to offer an informed opinion. Meanwhile can we have an overall shot of the entire blade please? All the best.

Dear John. Jussi is referring to the nakago jiri, a close look will confirm whether the signature is gaku mei, a separate piece of metal with the mei inlaid into the nakago, or orikaeshi mei, a thinned section with the mei folded over and inlaid. We have been referring to this as tanzaku mei which is usually a term that applies to small pieces of metal fixed into the back of menuki, it's not a usage I have come across with sword signatures. Gaku mei are very prone to be false signatures, arguably orikaeshi mei less so. I have convinced myself that this sword is orikaeshi mei and look forward to seeing where you go with this decision. All the best.

The one Dave.R posted is mine and both it and a similar kaigunto with a wakizashi blade are in the thread that Bruce linked. Both are early examples from shape and materials so it would seem that they were by choice rather than necessity. Keep 'em coming folks! All the best.

Dear Adam. Check out the website here, https://www.japanswordart.com/ While I have not dealt with him I seem to recall a sword with red lacquered hi a year or so back. Nice one. All the best.

Dear Dan. I would respectfully suggest that you are thinking of collecting swords from a particular smith or school, a perfectly valid collecting goal, rather than assembling a daisho. I confess that I get the same urge when I see another sword by a smith whose work I already own and admire though I do not have the means to pursue that idea in any meaningful way. It has all been said above but two swords by the same maker are not in any real sense a daisho unless specific evidence points to the fact that they were made that way. The same is true for tsuba, with some of the more commonplace designs it is relatively easy to find two very similar examples and, voila, they are a daisho. At that level the concept is meaningless, find a pair of kinko tsuba whose design might not be identical but were clearly made as a daisho pair from the start and we are talking a different ball game. If you like the work of the smith in question then buying the wakizashi will give you a basis for comparative study and a chance to start to get under the skin of the maker, who knows, perhaps that will start a collecting journey. Let us know how this turns out for you. All the best.

Dear Vladimir. Welcome to NMB! Your sword is a genuine Japanese wakizashi and the papers seem to be genuine also, though I'm afraid I cannot easily read them. Don't worry, someone will soon.. The mounts are reasonable, with a Namban tsuba. However, you say that you are seeking to use the sword for investment purposes, with this in mind most people will tell you that an unsigned wakizashi, even with papers, is not the way to go. This is a collectable sword but given past trends it will not likely increase very much in value over the short term. Others will advise you better on this but to get some idea of current prices look at the Dealer section of the forum and see what you could get for similar amounts of money. Others will add more information soon. All the best.

Dear Mojmir. There have been few responses to your post, partly because it is the holiday season and partly because there is very little that can be seen from this sword and your photographs. We can see that it is a wakizashi, genuine, in mounts. It seems to have a longer kissaki but even that is hard to see. To be able to say anything meaningful for an out of polish unsigned wakizashi is not possible. If the sword is yours and you can see anything of hamon or boshi then please do tell us, that might help. Happy New Year. All the best.

Dear Neil. I can't clearly make out the mei from your photographs but The last two kanji are the smiths name and that is Amahide, I think the rest will define him as this man, https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/AMA8 It's a nice thing, however, while as Bruce has said your intentions are admirable in wishing to return the sword to the family of it's owner two things stand in your way; firstly, there is no way of identifying the officer who carried it, and secondly even if you could find out who to return it to they would most likely not be interested. Your best course of action would be to make it the foundation of your own collection, you have already started on the research quest after all, or to pass it on to another collector who will care for it as it deserves. All the best. (George beat me to the punch but if you combine our posts you get most of it.)

Dear Mark. I suppose it depends on what you think you are buying and you can't tell much from these can you? We can see that it's out of polish and you are going to want to get it polished so the cost is a big factor. Question is, do you see something here that is going to make a polish worthwhile? The nakago is badly rusted, and that won't change with a polish. I think I can see some questionable damage to the edge up in the monuchi. Of course ask for more photograph but don't expect to see much more from them, you might ask for one with the habaki off but it doesn't look like that will be forthcoming. Your money, your call but this one looks like it's going to be a money pit. Let us know how it turns out and have a wonderful Christmas. All the best.

Dear Dale. My suggestion was not entirely fanciful, though unlikely. Have a look here, https://www.aoijapan.com/kenmumei-monju/ All the best.

Surely more ovoid simply because it's ko-wakizashi/tanto size. All the best.

Tsuba for a ken. All the best.

It's always the debate, do you spend the money on what is after all another work of art or save it for swords and stick them on anything you can. Some beautiful examples on this thread which make the point. Personally I don't think the one on Yamazakura is expensive but if you are looking for cheaper then here's one. All the best.

Dear George. Do you not think the blade is machi okuri? If so then the nagasa would have been around 30cms originally which changes things. Of course it will have lost a little length from the kissaki through polishes so what it would have originally looked like would be a straight, rather wide and thick blade. Enjoy the puzzle! All the best.

Dear Brian. In this context a window is a small portion of the blade polished to reveal what the blade would look like if given a full polish. The theory is you pay for a little work so that you can judge weather or not the blade deserves, and will take a full polish. All the best.

Good spot, Tony! All the best.

Hi David. Sweet yari! I can't get you very much further except to say that the first two kanji are Bizen. I don't think there would be a kanji under the mekugi ana as it is original so my guess would be a five character mei, something like, Bizen ju Tomokuni. There are just a few here, https://nihontoclub.com/view/smiths/meisearch?page=43&order=field_smith_id_value&sort=desc Given the shape of the yari I would be inclined to go for the Keicho guy, all this assumes that Tomo is indeed the kanji. I'm sure others will chime in and get you the right answer. Love the yari. All the best.

Hello Moto! Sorry Luke, couldn't resist. Your sword is a Shingunto and the blade seems to be contemporary with the mount so a WWII blade and mounts. Have a good look at the tang, see if you can see a small stamped mark anywhere, I can't from the photographs you have given so far. Somewhat unusually it is signed tachi mei, this is not unheard of but is a little out of the ordinary. The two kanji are the smiths name and the other side has the date. I think the smith is Kinmichi. I have taken the liberty of posting the photographs right way up. The blade is clean but has had some rusting which someone has removed, essentially that will make all the details very hard to see. Others will chime in but depending on where in the UK you are I am sure one of our members would be happy to take a look for you and offer some more information. All the best.

Dear M Hermes. Don't place too much weight on that statement about a screwdriver, I suspect that the person who suggested it might want to reconsider after seeing the enlargements. I think the nakago, or tang, has seen some bad treatment which makes the mei seem weak. Mei are inscribed with a small triangular chisel which tends to produce recognisable stepped marks, have a look under a magnifying glass and see what you can make out. All the best. All the best.

Dear Chris. I would be thrilled to bits if I had found this! Time to go carefully with this one. If you look at the orikaeshi mei you can, I think, see the small gap under the fold where the original mei was carefully thinned, folded over and inlaid on the other side of the nakago. This looks right. Just on the edge of the fold I think I can see what is left of the original mekugi ana. If so then with a bit of approximation you should be able to work out what the original nagasa of this blade was, that's going to matter for a time period. If you can take a better photo of the mei and move it to the Nihonto section I'm sure you will get a ton off feedback. Looks like Sukesada to me. Just for starters we seem to have a rather short katana with narrow shinogi and an o kissaki, the hi run past the yokote, all of which suggest a Koto blade. If I am seeing straight, (more of a challenge than I care to admit!) this was signed as a katana and depending on the length might indicate late Koto. The other, slightly less likely from my point of view is Nambokucho but the rest of the sugata and the mei, combined with the modest length tends to rule this last idea out. Oh, and the leather retainer through the tsuba is not uncommon, especially for swords which were originally intended to have a combat cover.. Looking forward to where this is going! All the best. P.S. I just converted that price into Sterling, can you hear the sound of groaning from where you are?

Dear Mike, welcome to NMB! Great to see that you have done some research on your swords and frankly I think we would all like to have such an inheritance. Regarding the sword in civil mounts, you are absolutely right, that's a post war Western fix and is going to need to come out. It should be a fairly simple matter to carefully drill that rivet out, if you know what you are doing then go for it, if not then it shouldn't be too hard to find someone who can do it for you. Just be clear that you don't want any marks on the tang! Looking forward to seeing some more of this one and the Yukihide. All the best.

Dear Grev. Apply your knowledge of tsuba to this piece, particularly technique and patination. What do you come up with? All the best.

Dear Simon. There was another link to this site where all the descriptions were weird, to say the least. Not to defend the expertise or lack thereof but I wondered if the original was catalogued in French and what we see is the result of a dodgy translation. I could not otherwise account for descriptions that proudly stated tsuba were cast iron , rather like this menpo. All the best.