Geraint

Dear Franco. "Looms to me yo be purely decorative." Without auto correct comes out to be, "Seems to me to be purely decorative." Hope that helps. Al the best.

Thank you Jacques. All the best.

Dear Karusk. One of the interesting features of the board is that you can see quite a lot about individual members, for instance you can see that Barry has been a member here for quite a few years, that his rank is Juyo, that he has quite a number of posts to his name and quite a number of positive responses. From this you might conclude that he knows a thing or two. You might also notice that he did not call anyone dishonest, he simple reported in brief that his experiences with this seller were not positive and that he would not do business with him. It is hardly worth mentioning that in spite of you posting the seller's returns policy Barry states that he had agreed the returns with the seller and so much of what you wrote can not be said to apply. Food for thought? All the best.

Hi Jeremy. Glad it worked, by shinae I meant the bamboo swords used for kendo, much straighter, hence if you practise with that you need a similarly shaped katana, or o the theory goes. All the best.

Dear Jeremy. Apart from the very early chokuto the orthodoxy is that swords with such shallow sori, assuming they are ubu, developed during early to mid Shinto as a response to changing demands in time of relative peace and the rise of schools of swordsmanship using shinae. In this context they re not symbolic but associated with a style of swordsmanship. As you suggest the sugata was revived at various times subsequently, including the so called royalist swords of the Shinshinto period. Once again this was connected to swordsmanship rather than being symbolic, the political allegiance of the domain where the style was popular leads to the connection. Sori alone is not a reliable guide to period as other factors in the shape of the blade are significant; kissaki, taper and so on. I am not sure that any of this answers your question but I am sure that others will add to this. All the best.

Dear Piotr. Welcome to NMB! At first sight your sword does look like a reproduction. The tell tales are the shape of the kissaki, the tip, and the way the sword seems to narrow down towards the tsuka, the hilt. It looks as if it might snap off as it is so narrow. At the top of the page you will find a link called 'Nihonto info', under that you will find FAQ and in there you will find some help about taking the hilt off your sword. If you can do that and let us see pictures then we can confirm for you. All the best.

Dear Johan. Perhaps this is Japanese honeysuckle? All the best.

Dear Johan. Welcome to NMB! It is really going to help if you post a picture of the nakago. To post pictures go to 'Reply to this topic', click in the text box and the reply box will open. Then to the bottom left you will see an option to 'Chose files'. Locate the file and then click on the + sign to add it to your post. Looking forward to it. All the best.

Dear Phil and Bruno. Three, five, three versus five, seven, five. All the best.

Dear Chris. Well if, as you say it's not to your taste....................... None of us would want you to suffer aesthetically for no good reason. All the best.

Dear John. I think you can safely say that both are from the same stable and time. Yours would have been quite spectacular when made and, I think is still a stunning display piece. I would expect it to have the mei of famous smith to add to its value though it is a shame at this remove that we cannot credit the craftsman who really made it. It might have come with a set of carved wooden mounts, either archaic or in the form of a dragon. Here is another example though nothing like as splendid as yours. All the best.

Dear John. Found the reference after a bit of head scratching. Christie's, June '95. The lot numbering is a bit hay wire for these lots but it is lot294. Signed Masamune and dated 1329. They describe the habaki as, ".. carved with clouds and integral to the blade", which I presume means they couldn't get it off. The listing goes on to say, "Pseudo archaic blades were not uncommon in the Meiji period......made by smiths such as Miyamoto Kanenori and Hayama Enshin among others." All the best.

Dear Jon. I agree that it's Japanese and that it was an awesome piece of metalwork. However I suggest that it is a late Shinshinto revivalist piece that has had a very hard 100 years or so. I have seen similar nakago somewhere but the reference escapes me at the moment. I'll work on it! All the best.

In this case are the designs inside the shell not Genji chapter mon? All the best.

Dear Ed. For what it is worth I do not think researching Hirata school will get you very far with these. Its a go to guess whenever enamel is associated with tosogu but you will soon see that they do not resemble this school's work. Cloisonné is the name for the technique of soldering fine wires onto a base then filling the enclosed spaces with enamel. Japanese cloisonné can be extraordinarily fine, look closely at the shaping and joining of the individual wires on your examples. In any event you will enjoy looking at some fabulous things once you start researching both Hirata and Japanese cloisonné. Enjoy! All the best.

Dear Peter. Thank you for the photographs. I am no further forward with this idea and none else has chimed in so perhaps I am barking up the wrong tree with this idea. All the best.

Dear Dan. How about sunagashi crossing the tani of the gunome? In this case they continue the linearity of the sunagashi and do not resemble crescent moons. As with all things in this area exact terminology does not survive first contact with an actual hamon unless it is a textbook example of a smith's work. All the best

Dear Cerjak. I presume that you know this to be a jingasa, some information here, All the best.

Thanks for sharing, Chris, a beautiful sword altogether. Enjoy! (I'm sure you do!) All the best.

Dear Bjorn. The tsuba is signed Hirado Kunishige and it's a nice example. His work is heavily influenced by Namban style, a topic of much discussion in recent years. The Roman lettering is applied to indicate this influence but they are a random decorative device, don't stress over any meaning. Tsuba are more often seen than fuchi kashira and I have to say I really like that mount. All the best.

Dear Gordon. What can you tell us about the boshi? I think I can see higaki yasurime which would accord with Mino den. Does what you see confirm that this is a Mino den wakizashi? The mei does not look very well done and for all the work of putting this through shinsa you might only end up with, at best a certificate that confirms it as signed by Kanesada. What will that tell you? I am sure others will make suggestions but in this case I don't think I would trouble. All the best.

Dear Peter. Yes this is cool! Something about the style of decoration and the cross hatched ground preparation for the nunome suggests to me that this is not entirely Japanese. Is this an isolated piece or does it form part of koshirae? All the best.

Dear Oleg. Welcome to NMB! As Grey says, a nice find. If you would like a guide price then a lot depends on the condition of the blade. Can you show us pictures of the bare blade and give us the dimensions? All the best.

Dear Thomas. Hirazogan would suggest a depression cut into the plate and the design inserted into it, no signs of that here, especially if you look at the areas where mon have been lost or removed. I believe the signs you are seeing are the edge of whatever adhesive was used to affix the mon. As Ford points out there are no signs of the ground preparation for nunome zogan either. The plate itself is probably a perfectly normal tsuba made more saleable by the application of a few mon. If these are brass then cutting them with a CNC machine is not a problem, cutting them by hand would be tricky to say the least. This is something to look out for but it is a simple case of adding detail and hopefully value to a run of the mill tsuba. All the best.

That curve never gets flatter! All the best.