Geraint

Dear Eric. I fear your translation may be an uphill struggle. From the images you provide the blade shows signs of being non Japanese. Best guess would be that it is a Chinese copy. Have a look at the quality of the tang on Japanese swords, ignore the signature for the moment, just look at the accuracy and quality of finish on genuine examples and you will see what I mean. For very good photographs have a look at some on this site; http://www.aoijapan.com/ Sorry to be the bearer of bad news for you. All the best.

Barry? And just to say that no attempt to polish the blade would be a good idea in any sense. No, no no.

Dear John. No answers but some thoughts. First, small yari on very short poles are usually called kago yari and reputed to have been for use in palanquin. There is a wealth of documentary evidence for naginata in use on the battlefield and surviving early naginata. I suspect that the tradition for them being women's weapons is an Edo development and even then not entirely the case. I have formed the opinion that the rather short and sharply curved blade with an enlarged tip, (Tomoe sugata?) is intended as a weapon for women but there are some quite late naginata, shinshinto, that were clearly never intended for this given their size. I suspect that for women the shaft would be a little shorter and possibly allow for their use indoors in certain buildings. I also recall a reference to polearms mounted over the door in a preserved samurai home. There is the Knutsen book available on polearms. It has much to say from a practical aspect regarding their use but is sometimes frustratingly short on the information that one would like. All the best.

Seems that someone did well on these two.

Looking forward to hearing how this one turns out Stephen! All the best

Hi Bruno. That is a really interesting tsuba. From your images it appears to be a shinchu plate with the Hoo bird inset into it and a fukurin, also in iron. Is that right? Not something I have seen before. Thanks for sharing it with us. All the best.

Hi Dennis. The feature you illustrate is to do with he cross section of the blade and is the result of a raised shinogi. Where the planes of the shinogi ji are parallel to each other this feature would be absent, where it is evident it reflects to fact that the back of the blade is thinner than the shinogi ji. This can be a point used to indicate the school or tradition of the swordsmith. For an extract see here. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zPyswmGDBFkC&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=raised+shinogi+schools&source=bl&ots=976zrb6SQc&sig=Z_6uq37CrDUg75pjWw7ocgJaoYI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=P6j-VL_KE5PvaJqYgZgL&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=raised%20shinogi%20schools&f=false Sorry about the length, Wow, neat! An extremely lengthy web address shortens automatically! All the best

Presumably a wife who does not read NMB?

Josh. If that was me all you would be hearing would be the patter of my little tiny feet as I rushed to the bank to get the cash. Enjoy! All the best.

Hi Jason. Curious to know what makes you say that the tsuka is incorrectly wrapped. Care to share? All the best

Hi All. To return once again to the original topic I have finally found the sources I was referring to for an Iron habaki. It featured in the Lazarnick collection sold by Sotheby's in 2000. The reference to Sasano gives, " In fact, the delicate iron habaki sometimes seen today and originally attached to tachi blades of these periods are extremely thin and resemble the Ko-tosho guards shown in this book. Possibly the thinness of the metal was a result of attempts to forge very keen blades. Furthermore, the quality of the iron in both the habaki and guards is very good and reminds one of the metal employed in both blades and tangs (nakago) of the same period. This seems to indicate that the swordsmiths used metal left over from the blade in the manufacture of mountings, and the similarities i appearance and material between guards and habaki suggest that the same swordsmiths used both." All the best

Bazza. You don't think the priming pan cover is a replacement? The other thing that comes to mind is that the length between stock and lock appears to be the same on both guns, one might suspect that shortening here would be useful for a boy's gun? All the best

Hi Howard. Try Kevin at, http://www.ryujinswords.com/armour.htm All the best

Are we assuming that this is Japanese? What happens at the breach end of the barrel and what features suggest that this is of Japanese manufacture? Personally I would like to be the guy that sold this 30 years ago for 5K. Or am I missing something here? All the best

James, minor points compared to the excitement. The menuki are usually described as crayfish and the tsuba is not cast but has suffered a bit from rust. I think it will be quite nice when you have found out how to clean it. Enjoy it all! Oh and is the habaki gold foil or plated? If you have a look at the base you will see where the foil has been folded over the edge of the copper base

Hi Jason. Looking forward to seeing some pictures when you have the sword in hand. If you are anywhere near one of the sword organisations that meet it would be worth taking it along for some advice, It looks as though some very careful restoration could improve this one a lot. Strongly advise you not to attempt anything until you have had some advice, ask around here for suggestions about who to use and what to do when you have had a chance to look at your purchase. Welcome to this fascinating world. All the best.

Hi Brandon. If the tsuba is sanmai then it should be possible to tell by examining the inside of the hitsu ana and nakago ana. All the best.

Hi Jeff. I'm curious as to why you think the sword is not suriage, what are you expecting to see that is not present? If we compare yours to one or two nakago that are ubu ......? All the best.

Hi Ken. I am sure that you have already come across this link but just in case.....http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/shingane.html It might be interesting to correlate schools whose blades are regarded as being "thin skinned" with wazamono rankings. All the best

Hi Eric. What you call Linden and I call Lime, Tilia Vulgaris from memory, makes a reasonable substitute for Honoki. You want to select a nice clear piece, it is very easy to work and a joy to carve. If you don't have "The Craft of the Japanese Sword", by Kapp and Yoshihara it is well worth investing before you start work. Looking forward to seeing the results. All the best.

Dear Eric. I was using the term koshirae to refer to the whole mounts of a sword as opposed to shirasaya. Brian is right silver is seldom used, though I do have a wkizashi with solid silver habaki. Silver and gold foil jackets are often used for swords in shirasaya as are copper. All the best.

Hi Eric. Assuming that you refer to koshirae then the vast majority are copper, they may be silver or gold plated, silver, gold or shakudo foiled but the base material is copper. I have read of a saying that goes, "Gold for koto, silver for shinto," but I can't recall where. Early habaki were also made of iron, I have only seen one that had been converted into a netsuke. I have also very rarely seen shakudo habaki with inlay and there are some scarce variations. Hope this is what you were looking for. All the best.

Hi Peter, And also the time of course. All the best.

Hi Hamish. I can't help with the sword bag but what a find! Interesting that the mon is the same as the blossom decoration on the sword. Fuller and Gregory ('96) assert that the plum blossom is found on swords, "associated with Manchukoan and Chinese Republican and Nationalist swords and dirks but not used on Japanese military swords." They warn that it is easily confused with a double cherry blossom but from what I can see yours is not the later. The blade is in kogarasumaru sugata which is out of the ordinary. Again, Fuller and Gregory describe them as rare and speculate that they are associated with Imperial Guard or household swords as wellas gensui to. They also note that they are usually found with habaki. As with almost everything there are exceptions to this and the sparse engraving on the backstrap suggest that this is not the case for yours. I attach, (or at least I think I do?) an image of a kyugunto with a kogarsaumaru blade, also with a silver foil habaki, but clearly not belonging to a high ranking officer. Perhaps it is the case that a well to do family commissioned your sword for one of their own and added special features to the standard pattern. Whatever the case yours is a very nice find. All the best.

Dear Jason. "No offense intended but UK standards are a complete joke as far as I'm concerned. It seems to be drastically overpriced for anything of remote quality on one hand and a lot of ignorance whereby a decent nihonto can be next to a generic showato and be equally priced on the other. But enough venting about my disdain for the UK sword market," Well I suppose that if you are buying from a general militaria dealer who has no specific knowledge of Nihonto then you might well find a genuine sword next to a run of the mill shingunto, and if you know what you are doing you might make a good buy. On the other hand if you were to look at the website of a well known dealer you might fall off your perch at the prices asked. However Peter's advice was sound and based on his experience as a collector which was surely what you were asking for. Probably too late to suggest his now but if you are not clear about what flaws would make the blade valueless then some research is in order. Let us know how this turns out. All the best.