Geraint

Dear Martin. Thank you for this interesting article. I look forward to seeing more of this fascinating sword when you have the time. More recently Field Marshal Sir Francis Festing had a Katana mounted as his General Officers sabre in the UK following WWII. I am sure that there are other examples where European officers had Japanese blades mounted in appropriate style for their own military use. All the best.

Dear Emil. As no one else has answered you I will offer my thoughts. I have not been able to find this idea in Nagayama so I may have misunderstood your question. The mitsukado is not generally considered to be an indication of the smith's skill or lack of it, the boshi most certainly is. During yakiire the smith is controlling a sometimes very long blade and controlling the temperature in the boshi is a very skillful thing to do. Hence a well done boshi, one which demonstrates the smith's control, is indicative of a high level of skill. (See page 108 in Nagayama) The smith is responsible for the sugata of the sword and in this case forges the kissaki to shape and then the polisher is the one who finally defines the precise shape of the blade though in theory the polish will remove very little metal and the polisher will have a high regard for the intentions of the smith. It is conceivable that a poor polish might result in the mitsukado not being geometrically correct, the three lines that meet here are the result of three surfaces and poor shaping could result in the lines not meeting here. I have seen polishes where the yokote has been poorly applied and seems to miss the junction, for example. You would not expect to see such things from a properly trained togishi. Hope this helps. All the best.

Dear Bruno. I wonder if the first kanji is not ryo? (150 in Self and Hirose) All the best.

Dear Mick. I always feel that this school has quite distinctive handwriting. If you compare here, (From Aoi Art), of note are that your example has a downwards slope to the left, the papered one is very straight, individual kanji are looser and, of course not a Bizen nakago shape. So, good call. All the best.

I knew you could do it Dale! Yes indeed that is the very one, several other guards from that lot are on sale from the same vendor that I bought this one from. The V&A example is an interesting comparison too. Thanks for sharing yours Steve, the observation about Hizen tendrils is very interesting. That will give me something to get my teeth into. All the best.

Just for fun, this sweet little Namban just came home and I thought some of you might like it. It's just 61mms by 53mms and in a form that I've never seen but I'm sure Dale can come up with one. All the best.

Dear John. Just to add, this is potentially a very restorable mounting and if the tsuba is carved wood to match the hilt then the crack is not such a problem. If the blade is less than 12" from the tip to the notches then it is a tanto, these are sometimes fitted with mounts that are rather longer than the blade. As long as the blade fits well in the mounts then all good. Looking forward to seeing the next ones. All the best.

Dear Cornelius. I think Yoon has suggested that the signature may bee Nobumitsu rather than Nobuiye. All the best.

Dear All. Just out of interest I checked the sale catalogues and there were three Kanemitsu, one in each part of the sale; one is a tanto, one has kinzogan mei and Juyo certificate and the last is a very different sword to this one. All the best.

Dear Daws. As you will see from the link the two kanji above Kaboku are Ohmura, Now comes the challenge of seeing if you can find papered examples to compare. All the best.

Dear Jake. I promise I'm not stalking you but I think that in this case you got away with it. My observations would be that the posture of the shishi is stiff and not naturalistic, the katakiri is rough and the tsub looks as though it might have been polished at first and then an amateur has gone over it with a punch, possibly to obscure damage. Notice how the ground texturing covers the seppa dai and also goes over at least one of the copper sekigane. oh, and I think the eyes are gilt rather than stones. All the best.

Dear Jake. Just for comparison. https://www.japanszwaard.nl/zs-t7.html All the best.

Dear Lukas. In agreement with the comments so far posted but just out of interest if you compare yours with the two examples that Steve helpfully posted you might find the exercise instructive. Of the three I would pick yours. All the best.

My family and I are deeply shocked by this news. We managed to spend some time with Ford many years ago when he was down this way, a truly great artist craftsman with a thirst for knowledge and understanding. He has left us too soon and will be greatly missed. Our condolences to his family.

Dear Jeremy. Just to back up a little, and forgive me if I over simplify but you did say you knew nothing about the sword. This is a sword in Shingunto mounts designed and carried by officers during WWII. It has a pierced tsuba/guard which is a nice sign as most are not cut through, the mounts are in generally good condition and it has an unusual black lacquered saya. As is often the case it has been fitted with an earlier blade, you know all about the signature. These are often described as familyy blades but that is known not always to have been the case as desperate measures meant that there was a call up for blades to equip officers later in the war. At the base of the blade is the habaki/blade collar which is unusual in being silver foiled and with the marks that Maxime mentioned. Gimei means that the signature is not by the smith that it claims to be. I can't see much detail of the blade and some of the marks suggest that a previous owner may have polished the blade, bad news and please don't clean or polish anything, just a wipe with light oil will do. I see that someone else has replied while I am typing so all of the above may already have been covered. Ah, not all but John's a specialist so his words are to be taken seriously. All the best.

Dear Paris. You may have somewhat missed the point. Finding tsuba labelled as tachi tsuba is not hard but for various reasons these descriptions are not always accurate. Example 1 Clearly the design works the way it is displayed, ie for a katana, so more properly described as tachi shaped. Example 2 Never described as a tachi tsuba, and for good reason. The hitsu ana are clearly original to the design so this would be for a handachi koshirae. Example 3 A recent tsuba of tachi form, most likely for handachi koshirae. Once again more properly described as tachi shaped, Example 4 The most interesting because it is made by tachikanagushi and the question is was it made as it is now or were the ryo hitsu added at a later date. (This site is worth visiting often if you want to learn about tsuba.) Worth noting that tachikanagushi is a group of makers most of whose output comes from the Muromachi period. You may find this thread interesting. All the best.

Dear Paris. When did you see a tachi with kozuka and kogai? All the best.

Dear Eric. For what it's worth I think the idea that this tsuba is cast is a misleading suggestion. There is nothing to suggest this. All the best.

Dear Jean. Just to add to your post and referencing the oshigata provided by Jacques, as I understand it tachi mei is often seen in katana but not usually for wakizashi and tanto. All the best.

Dear Florian. This may not be what you are seeing but have a look at the last line of the description of this tsuba, http://www.nihonto.us/KO KATCHUSHI RM.htm Whatever you are seeing that's a lovely tsuba. All the best.

Dear Francois. You may find the information you seek here, https://shibuiswords.com/papers1.htm and here, https://nihontocraft...hinsa_Standards.html All the best.

Dear Maurice. I shouldn't bother if I were you. From what we have seen so far this is a recent reproduction. It is possible that better pictures may prove otherwise, but................ All the best.

Dear All. Good spot Dale. Jay and Stephen are almost certainly correct about the use of a lost wax process for this tsuba, however the range of metals now used in additive manufacturing is immense at this point, from one reference, Aluminium alloys Cobalt-base alloys Tool steels Nickel-base alloys Stainless steels Titanium alloys Precious metal alloys Copper alloys Processes used include electron beam and laser fusing, though the properties of the finished component need some working out. (I think that this level of processing would be far too expensive to make it worth the effort for this type of tsuba.) It gets more and more interesting as the days go by! All the best.

Dear Sam. Compare here, https://www.ima-usa....riant=40001105690693 All the best