truelotus

updating pictures yeah, I know, I only armed with phone cam ... and the picture did not do any justice to the real beauty of the blade. I have difficulties capturing the hada and the activities in the hamon as well as the boshi. The boshi formed with 2 bumps before turning into a nice jizo shape this blade is somewhat short for a tachi, nagasa only about 66 cm, and very beautiful funbari any comments ? or did I read the mei wrong ??

Hi just got a nice koto tachi ... it is ubu and signed niji mei Kane Moto ... see I am aware that Kanemoto is somewhat popular with sanbon sugi hamon. but this piece is better said as midare suguha hamon ... this blade is signed tachi mei, not katana mei or orikaeshi mei. The boshi is Jizo I owned another Kanemoto katana from later gen, and it shows the characteristics of Kanemoto School, robust and powerful blade with relatively shallow sori and the famous sanbon sugi hamon. but this tachi is different, deep sori, beautifully tapered blade and thinning toward kissaki ... tried to look elsewhere about any literature and could not find one ... pardon the quality of the pic, as I am only armed with phone camera I forgot to include the pic of the nakago and mei. I will try to post clearer pic tomorrow. any idea ?? thanks in advance Donny

octopus ?? it does look like one ... how about amaryuu ??

woah !! thank you all ... this is overwhelming ... I did not expect it will be correctly known on 1st try ... will now search more on the Amaryuu subject I will post the sword on the nihonto forum as I need more information on the smith once more, thank you very much ... Donny

Hi I recently got this koto tachi with so called "elephant" ornament on the handle ... upon seeing it, I believe this was a makara (mythical creature) with form of dragon equipped with elephant trunk the problem is I cannot find any literature of such creature in Japanese mythology ... as the Japanese version of Makara (makatsu) is somehow depicted like a fish, and lack elephant trunk similar creature is well known in asia .... but not in Japan any thoughts ?? or perhaps I was mistaken and this was part of Spongebob Squarepants koshirae depicting Squidward tentacles ?? thanks in advance Donny

have anyone tried evapo-rust ?? chelate based rust remover is considerably safer, as it will only reacts with rust and will not eat away any metal. The problem is after the rust has been removed, the blade will be patinated ... well I tried on rusty steel bar and it really only eats the rust. patina is easy to remove by rubbing it using pumice or black iron oxide powder + choji oil

got a nice koto katana from ebay seller : sreisel some other day ... graceful, slender, but have one "rather large" kitae kizu on one side but apart from that, a very beautiful blade with suguha hamon

no worries at all as I wont sell it anyhow. Got it for free as token of friendship thank you, chris donny

it sure looked similar, Chris this one had a beautiful sanbon sugi hamon and jizo / o maru boshi any idea on Masao's characteristics ? thanks for the help donny

hi all just got a very nice blade from a friend. Tried to read the mei but having difficulties counting the strokes as it looked cursive is it kane moto? thanks in advance donny

woah many thanks !!!

Been out of town and offered this one could anyone help ? as I cannot check the kanji pages due to limited time online here is it FUJI (like Fujiwara) XXX XXX kore ?? thanks in advance Donny

yes, it is very rare to see a sword without mekugi ana :D only seen one before, and it was unfinished sword

thank you very much, Stephen I have couple of books, but as usual, kanji thing is a bit hard for me. the problem is I never carry my books with me ... thank you very much if you have more, I will gladly accept (with many thanks) Donny

dang !! you're right ... stupid me, I only count the kanji and try to remember. It was my connection here that suck !! now back online thanks

I tried and tried and tried today but cannot open the kanji pages could someone confirm whether the page is down or not now in the meantime, could someone help with mei translation ? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I am only able to read 2 word TOMO YUKI thanks in advance Donny

Thank you, Moriyama-sama "tenshozan tanrenjo kitae kore" clear enough, so the blade is probably Sabinaito, no wonder the hamon fades when we tried to repolish it regards Donny

friend of mine just got offered a rusty blade, supposedly gunto and asked me to decipher the mei ... however, the mei turned to be difficult to decipher, even with kanji pages I can only read TEN XXX YAMA TETSU ? XXXX XXXX ... I gave up after 45 mins looks like the mei is done hastily and not a good one. Wondering if this was fake sword or perhaps someone can help me read it ?? thanks in advance regards Donny

Donny, If you can find the Board, you can find the kanji pages, the link is at the top of the page .... dam* ... I visit this board many many times and never realized that there was the link on top of it @all ... thank you very much Donny

well call me lazy this time, but sorry as I am now at another island (we have 17,000 islands here) and bring nothing but a phone, and a friend asked me about mei and I forgot the link on the kanji page could someone help ? thanks in advance Donny

Looks more like KANMURI OTOSHI ZUKURI. probably ... but with the naginata hi ?? sometimes learning about Japanese sword is blurry for me but never stop amusing me

I am now asking the owner about the nagasa ... as pictures can be deceiving ... I believe this should be wakizashi, but my eyes can be wrong without a ruler

thank you very much, Patrick really appreciate it

Hi this was my friend's wakizashi - I believe this is a nagamaki naoshi style can someone help me read the mei and estimate the age ? thanks in advance regards donny

hi anyone could help reading this mei ?? first character are beyond recognition, in my opinion thanks in advance