Geraint

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.

Dear Eric. Your brother found a good match, BUT..... you are right to say that the koshirae is the same, the blade in it is what gives the value so don't let him plan that trip to the Bahamas just yet. All the best.

There is also the possibility that it might have travelled and acquired the decoration in the process. Hence possibly a Shoami plate with added nunome zogan. Have a look here for an example of this argument. https://www.facebook.com/564035753684007/photos/a.564041667016749/2068458839908350/ All the best.

Dear Yves. The Namban flavour to the outline of the seppa dai and the nunome zogan might lead to Hizen, at least for the decoration. All the best.

Come on, Piers. Play fair! You can't just tease us with that description and then not show us! All the best.

Dear Eric. When you look at a mei it is a bit like someone's handwriting, the kanji are all there but the style in which they have been written is also quite distinctive in some smiths/schools. Please bear in mind that I am far from expert in this but to my eye the way in which your mei is chiselled looks a little forced and heavy handed, the kind of effect you might get if you were trying hard to copy someone else's writing. Caveat: That's just a first impression and you shouldn't put any weight on it. However the Yasutsugu line split into two and there are quite a few generations, generally the earlier ones are well regarded and hence most of the illustrations that I have seen are of those. It may be that if you investigate the later generations you might find a really good match for your sword. Depending on where you are there might be member here who would be happy to have a look at your sword in person and that might throw some extra light on it. Ultimately, if you really want to know then submitting the sword to shinsa, a panel of Japanese experts, would be the way to go. There are sometimes held in the US otherwise there are folk here who can assist you in getting the sword sent to Japan and examined there. As I said, regardless of all this it's a really nice sword. All the best.

Dear Mason. Welcome to NMB! You have obviously done quite a bit of research which is very refreshing, keep it up. Your comments about the mei are spot on, this has nothing to do with the great Rai Kuniyuki. Just to add to your observations the position of the mei on the nakago is wrong as well. The seller states that this is a shortened tachi ,I see nothing in the photographs would support that, although the photographs are not great and do not show you all that you need to see. The nakago jiri and overall shape of the nakago do not suggest that it is suriage, but rather an ubu wakizashi. It looks as though whoever added the mei mucked about with the nakago a great deal. I'm sure others will chime in with more but it's great to see someone who has done their research. All the best.

Ironically it's not Magaroku but Magoroku.................... Slip of the keyboard I'm sure. All the best.

Dear Eric. First of all, this looks like a really nice sword so whatever you conclude about the mei it is still a lovely thing to have. (I'd love to see some more detailed shots of the koshirae if you wouldn't mind sharing). I am by no means an expert and I am sure that others will add to what I am saying on this one. I think you are wise to be suspicious about that mon, the cutting, even allowing for a little distortion from that dent on the edge of the nakago, looks feeble. So that introduces two possibilities; is the mei also wrong and the sword therefore gimei, or is there a possibility that the mei is right but someone felt the need to add the mon? Personally I'm not convinced by the calligraphy, but all the oshigata I have seen have been by the early generations. If you have not already come across it this is a useful article, https://www.nihonto.com/the-yasutsugu-school-康継系/ Towards the end there is a diagram of many of the different generation's mei which I find useful. You might like to take a close look at the mei in the bottom right, it's as close as I can get to yours. Ultimately our opinions are just that, the decision will be whether you chose to send this for shinsa or not. As a starting point some more pictures of the blade might help, as would a good clear shot of the entire nakago, sans habaki. I look forward to what others have to say on this one but, as I said, either way it is a very nice sword. All the best.

Dear Tony. I really like that koshirae!. All the best.

Dear Steve. As regards the 'original polish', when a blade is polished the nakago is left as is, in other words not polished at all. As all polishes remove metal then this can often be seen in older swords where the thickness of the back of the blade changes just above the nakago. Metal has been removed from the blade, not the nakago, and so the blade thins noticeably just above the nakago. In this case the idea that the polish is original means that you are seeing the sword as it was made, everything will be healthy rather than tired. A blade that has seen several polishes is thinner, narrower, may have changed its curvature and may reveal core steel. As for the hamon, you are right, this is what the smith chose to do. There are a huge variety of hamon patterns, easy to look up. Many smiths are known for a particular style, others will produce work in a variety of styles. If you have a look at the thread Ray linked, specifically his description of the hamon, you will see that in the case of that sword the hamon contains a mixture of features. By the by, also have a look at the photograph that shows ubu ba, an unsharpened section a few centimetres from the ha machi. If your sword is in original polish then it is quite likely that it will also have this feature. All the best.

Dear Mark. That's really nice koshirae, the texturing of the iron and gold detailing it very pleasant. It does qualify as handachi though in rather refined form compared to the usual. The menuki, I think, are kylin and there is a lot of information here, https://www.mandarinmansion.com/article/nanban-tsuba about Namban tsuba. Your tsuba references the theme discussed here, All the best.

Dear Jeff. Where to start? If nothing else then you are going to gain a whole new respect for the craftsmen that make koshirae by going through this process. As with any craft doing it is not what counts, doing it well is a different ball game. If your wakizashi is 27" nagasa then it's a katana, nagasa is from the kissaki or point, to the hamachi, the step on the back of the blade against which the habaki sits. If your blade came in proper shirasaya then a simple comparison with the size of the tsuka would show up any issues, but the first photo seems to show an awful big aperture for the nakago! If you are going for a full same wrap then the difference between the size of the fuchi and the tsuka core needs to allow for the same, the shims that define the finished shape of the tsuka and the ito, and you are right, that sometimes makes the tsuka very thin. Last point for now, the shitodome in your kashira are upside down at the moment, but I'm sure you knew that. All the best.