Geraint

James, I think you should buy it and, just to help you out, you understand, I will take that boring Shinshinto Kaga blade of your hands. Seriously, why would you split up a blade like this from it's koshirae assuming the two belong together? Nice little piece assuming that the moshirae is sound. Have fun.

Hi Bob. Jussi is right that the wrap covers some sort of brocade but it is not necessarily Japanese, perhaps Chinese. As all the twists on the wrap go in the same direction rather than alternating you might be looking at a re wrap once the sword was out of Japan. I don't think we are in national treasure territory here, (unless, of course, Darcy can pin it down to Magoroku :D ). Have a browse on Ebay for what similar swords are fetching. Have fun.

Hi James. What makes you think that the blade is later? Just curious. All the best

Trying to convince myself that I can make it read Oei rather than Kanbun.............Help!

Hi Matt. Translate the date and then have a look at this. http://www.sho-shin.com/sanin3.htm (Oh, and can we see the whole sword please?) Of course none of this matters if Nikolas has got Kanbun right but I can't make out the nengo. Enjoy!

Hi James. You can always try Kevin at, http://www.ryujinswords.com/care.htm All the best

Hi Paul. Depends on what you are using for your kanji, online or a book. Some of the more useful books will show you several different ways of writing the same kanji. The first on your tsuba is Kuni, now we can see it, and this one has several styles. Just when you thought it couldn't get any harder! Cheers Stephen, our posts crossed. All the best.

Hi Paul. For the sword some dimensions would help. If you start to describe what you see it will help to learn about the sword. For instance the tang has one hole and is not shortened, the file marks seems to be straight, the colour is hard to tell because of the fresh rust. Please do nothing to the tang other than wipe with a little oil perhaps to remove the surface colouration. Your tsuba might be Kunihiro, hard to see at the moment.

Hi All. Bear in mind that the examples I have seen so far are all late koshirae judging by the kinko fittings. This makes imports from Indonesia more easily achieved. Definitive answers would come from an end grain micrograph but until then I'd be happy to go with Ogawa san. All the best.

And the sword?

Jean, you are right about it looking like wenge but it is usually suggested that these are made from Indonesian ironwood. Without having the timber in hand it is very hard to say but here is an example, http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot/ ... 77001&sid= There are one or two similar examples in the Boston Museum catalogue and they are described as either ironwood or red sandalwood. http://database.prota.org/PROTAhtml/Pte ... xii_En.htm Have fun.

Hi all. At about 6 o'clock, (make that 7), there are one or two missing sections of the inlay near the lower sukashi and as far as the image will let me enlarge I would say they indicate hira zogan. All the best.

Hi Ford. How's it going? The steam is formed by trapping damp material hard against the open top of the investment mould. Heat from the mould vapourises the water and the pressure forces metal; into the mould. Always frightened the life out of me as some pretty serious casting accidents happen if you don't unsure that all foundry tools are totally moisture free but I suppose the moisture in this case is not in contact with the molten metal. Here's a link. http://www.mindspring.com/~alshinn/SteamCasting2.html I can't find a reference to this process used for cast iron and being a cowardly woodworker by inclination I can't say that I would fancy having a go at those temperatures. You, of course, are quite happy to pour molten shibuichi into buckets of water so it might not have the same effect on you. Of course none of this makes a difference to the discussion unless we can find some evidence of early use of the technique by the Japanese. All the best.

Hi Bob. So far out you are in the bleachers. (Does that make sense?) Have a look at Hirata Hikozo tsuba and get a feel for them. This one is not a good fit when you see them, hard to use a written description. Are you sure that the edge of your tsuba has a fukurin or is it a part of the plate? Can't tell from the photos. All the best and have fun.

Hi Bob. As you will gather from David S the second isn't going to set the world on fire but I'm not so sure it's a modern cast, I think it is a well worn and probably mistreated one. You can't do it much harm so I would try really hot water and soap to remove the crud first off. If David N is right then you will end up with a shiny piece of junk, :D On the other hand give it some time and see what happens to the decoration, it might turn out OK but not a keeper. All the best

So we would like to see more pictures Alex, whole blade at least. All the best.

Do we have a smilie for, "Knuckles rapped"? Thank you for mediating the cultural differences on this little island John. So back to wakizashi. Kurt you may of course assume that the sword belonged to whoever you like but there are one or two things to consider. You mention that it was just a little longer than normal wakizashi length. What had you considered normal? I ask because I seem to have them in all sorts of lengths. As we have already established that some daisho occur with the dai below what we would call katana length it appears that the standard lengths we work with were at best disregarded by a lot of people. It is not too uncommon to find a sword mounted in a saya that is much longer than the blade length would dictate though I have usually seen this in wakizashi which have had a tanto blade mounted. I saw one of those recently and if I can find the link I will post it. I think that we are chasing moonbeams if we try to assign swords to a certain class of owner based on any of this. We know that daisho were the badge of office of the samurai, for at least most of the Edo period. We can guess that certain other koshirae were worn by samuari because of their good taste but as most of us really struggle to identify what good taste is now, never mind for a Japanese at any period of history, we are probably in the realms of fantasy. If you don't have it the catalogue of swords in the Tokugawa collection is interesting here, all sorts of mountings. If we say that significant numbers of high quality wakizashi were produced in a period of Japanese history because of the growing wealth of the merchant class then we are talking about the blades, and by the way commending them for their high quality. Really can't comment about ninja swords as I thought they were all black with dirty great big square tsuba to act as ladders and nearly straight. Hope you approve Stephen, now I'm diving for a nice comfortable hole in the ground. All the best.

Ah Gwyn. I'm afraid the Celtic connection does not stretch far enough for me to grasp your post. Do we need to move this to the translation section?

Ah Ron! Painful memory. Sadly no pictures. My father in law was a long time collector of vesta cases as we call them in the UK. He amassed a fine collection of several hundred, mostly silver and gold examples. The one that was the jewel in his collection was a fine iron case with the most stunning takazogan of two cranes besides some rocks and plants. At the time it was the finest work I had seen. Alas my hints were too subtle and when the time came for him to liquidate his assets he sent them to a London auction house, including the one I coveted. My only consolation is that somewhere a vesta collector has it in pride of place. I have no doubt that some out of work tsuba shi discovered a way of using his skills and produced this work of art after the haitorei. As an aside he was told that the work was called obi kirime, a term I have not heard elsewhere. All the best.

Hi Gary. Picture of your sword would help us a bit. If it is 60.6cms then most people would describe it as a wakizashi as it is just shy of the two shaku convention. However it is not uncommon to find daisho where the long sword is just short of the limit, practical considerations relating to use take precedence over notional limits here. You might chose to call your sword an o wakizashi, some people would go for chisa katana but that will ignite hot debate amongst some. In your original post you mention a swooping tip; not too sure what that means but are we talking shobu zukuri or naginata naoshi? I don't think we are going to get to a point where we can say who owned the sword based on length or the shape of the saya, the market dictates that anything under two shaku, or more usually 24 inches is a wakizashi and adjusts accordingly. As an example I have a wakizashi which is very long and very beefy, the saya has a rounded end and it is from around 1624. Can't say who owned it but it will always be a wakizashi. All the best.

Hi Caleb, Try a search for Niju habaki and you will get many images. Good habaki are works of art in their own right. Forgot to mention this recent thread, viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19561 Enjoy.

Obviously they take a little longer to arrive in these northern climes Jean!

Hi Dave. One swallow does not a summer make but just for interest here are some short wakizashi, two hira zukuri and one shinogi zukuri, all have rounded ends to the saya. All the best.

Unless the mei reads "Nobukuni Yoshi......" Hard to make out what the first part said but one of the Chikuzen Nobukuni school? And just to answer another question it is the smith who made the blade in this case. All the best.

Hi Shai. It is almost impossible to ascertain very much from your photographs, (Japanese swords are very hard to capture in the detail that would allow anyone to make much of an informed judgement). You have a katana in shirasaya, as you do not mention any papers from a Japanese sword organisation I assume it has none. You might find this thread useful, http://www.nihontomessageboard.com/nmb/ ... 5&p=136122 Just to be clear, at the end the quote makes reference to kazuuchimono, this is usually translated as mass produced and refers to the fact that during the period your sword was made large numbers were being made very quickly for war and therefore the quality is usually not very good. All this means that in spite of dating from around 1560 your sword is not a national treasure. One sold recently for $1700, I am not in the US and others may have a different view but I fear this is about what you could expect. All this assumes that there are no major flaws in the blade, something which can only really be seen with the sword in hand. It is an honourable old warrior and deserves to be taken care of, I hope you enjoy it for what it is. All the best.