ROKUJURO

....all except the TACHI.

James, we have a special TRANSLATION section. If you post there, you will likely get the best help as the NIHONGO experts will look there. It is very probably not a signature, so no relation to the smith - in most cases.

I have made the best experience with Kelly Schmidt: kschmidt1127@gmail.com

These are exclusively TACHI?

Piers, that one looks really early! These are mostly called SAOTOME style, but perhaps made by the BUSHU ITO school.

Justyn, I did not find much in Klimt's biography, except a mention that he might have been influenced by works of OGATA KORIN.

I can understand that. The question is, how much Klimt was influenced (like the impressionists) by Japanese art.

Dean, KANEMOTO does indeed look much different when printed: 兼 元

Colin, unfortunately, this world is not perfect. But we can strive to make it better! Collecting TSUBA looks like a good way!

Juan, welcome to the NMB forum! YARI are thrusting weapons. Cuts and sweeps are done with a NAGINATA.

The Dutch archer is signed YOSHIKAWA I think.

No, it is quite slender. This is the MIHABA if I understood correctly.

Hi Miranda, this thread is in the wrong place. It should appear in the military section.

Possibly or even likely.

Brian, we have to imagine that a traditionally made sword-blade is basically a bonded sandwich construction in cross-section. The outer layers (= KAWAGANE) are high-carbon steel (hard, but not elastic), the inner part (= SHINGANE) is not hard but more elastic. If such a workpiece is bent, it will be stretched on the outer side of the bend, and the inner side will be compressed. The SHINGANE as the "neutral" phase of the construction will stay in place under 'normal' conditions unless the item is broken. In a technical context, the phenomenon is well-known (tension side/compression side) and used in construction not only with metals but also with other materials like carbon fibre and wood. Just think of archery bows, boat and plane construction, race-cars and even modern bridges building. However, the necessary forces to stretch the metal are lower than to compress it, so long before compression ripples can occur, we will se microscopic rupture cracks in the stretched surface steel (= SHINAE). Now if we remember how we broke a piece of steel-wire as boys without appropriate tools ( perhaps old pliers ), we experienced that bending it back and forth weakend the structural integrity so much that it broke eventually. Using more speed, we even felt the generated heat in the wire! So bending back a bent blade could remain without visible and practical damage in case the bend was rather shallow. Also, depending on the physical features of and the steels used in a blade, a bend might occur at lower or higher stress impact. Thus, correcting a bend might have quite different results, and in case we see SHINAE, there will most likely remain a weaker spot in the blade even if the SHINAE could be ground out! My explanation for ripples in a BOHI or on a SHINOGI-JI is, as explained above, probably caused by a narrow MIGAKI-BO working on a not perfectly fine ground surface. If MIGAKI-JI is carefully executed in several steps, this could be avoided, I think, as we see on many blades. I would not consider the ripples as KIZU.

Jeremy, you may believe what you like, but in this case, the KASHINA sisters are plain wrong. SHINAE in whatever form are structural damage in the KAWAGANE.

Lou, as far as I know, there is no SASANO Museum, but a SANO Museum. Are you looking for this book: https://japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/store/book/fittings-books/b759-chic-sukashi-akasaka-tsuba-by-sano-museum/

Jeremy, MUKADE SHINAE are only a special form of massive SHINAE. In this case above, we don't see cracks but ripples.

Jeff, traditionally, when a sword suffered damage from use as on your blade, it was never left in that state for long! So if this happened in Japan, a TOGISHI was around the corner for a fast (and cheap) repair. We can assume this worked well until WWII. On the other hand, it is realistic (but admittedly not so romantic) to see the damage happen long after WWII simply because Japanese don't play with swords in such a way. Your TSUBA photo is upside-down.

From the scratch marks on the blade, I think it is quite obvious that they were not caused by "professional" TAMESHIGIRI (which is not executed on TATAMI but on TATAMI OMOTE which is a very different thing). These marks look - at least to me - as if they were inflicted to the blade by chopping or hacking green wood, possibly even green bamboo. I have only limited experience with classic TAMESHIGIRI, but I have seen comparable marks on machetes, KOSHI-NATA, Swiss "Gertel", and similar agricultural cutting tools after their use in the above described way.

No, they are close to the tip of the blade. The "end" is the NAKAGO.

As explained above, these ripples are not stress cracks, so not SHINAE.

Yes, KUNIYUKI. What is "old" in your opinion?

A "steal" band would not help, even not a steel band. As I wrote above, it is called KUCHI GANE (not fuchi gane), and it is made of brass.