C0D

天上天下唯我独尊 I am the only master above and below the Heaven

“Arinari” (有成), son or student of Sanjō Munechika (三条宗近), a tradition says that he was a student of the Ōshū smith Arimasa (有正), his early smith name was supposedly Arimori (有盛), it is said that he signed with the name Tametoshi (為利) during his stay in Kyōto and that he made there the sword Ishikiri (石切, lit. “stone cutter”) for Akugenta Yoshihira (悪源太義平, 1141-1160), but this would mean that his active period has to be moved up for about 150 years, other sources date him to the Heiji era (平治, 1159-1160) which seems more correct. It's a big name, kinda legendary, so most likely the kinzogan mei is fake. But the Shippo koshirae is nice

ARINARI (有成)

Yes, Hizen school if not gimei

近江大掾藤原忠(*) Omi (no) Daijo Fujiwara Tada(missing)

Bushu Edo ju Nagakuni saku NAGAKUNI (永国), 2nd gen., Genroku (元禄, 1688-1704), Musashi/Dewa – “Hōjōji Tachibana Nagakuni” (法城寺橘永国), “Bushū Edo-jū Nagakuni saku” (武州江戸住永国作), real name Umeyama Kanbei (梅山勘兵衛), he is also listed with the first name Kan´emon (勘右衛門), student of the 1st gen. Hōjōji Kunimasa (国正), he moved later to Akita (秋田)

it was just the tester, so the kao is the one of the tester, here's an example If there's a mei it's on the other side

貳ツ胴 Futatsu do ( two torso ) 山野勘十郎久英 Yamano Kanjūrō Hisahide + Kao Should be this if i'm not wrong Yamano Kanjūrō Hisahide is a quite famous tester

Here's a previous topic with a tsuba signed shigetsugu and similar design http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/21236-two-mei-help/page-1

Tosho tsuba originally it's thought they were actually made by swordsmith, in Edo period still some swordshimth made some tsuba but mainly those in "tosho style" were made by tsubashi

The design is more refined and also older pieces were not signed

It's a nice tosho tsuba from Edo period, the mei seems to me to be Shigetsugu 重次 (btw the picture is upside down)

500€ plus shipping

Size and also style, since I have several bigger than 8 cm, but most of them are pre-Edo

I got a big Saotome tsuba, 99mm diameter, not cheap tho

Looks like Moriiki saku 盛粋作 Never heard and can't find any record

Just open the link i added in my first post http://japaneseswordindex.com/teruhide.htm

No problem, I translated another of his blades before and I remembered him ????

Ishido Teruhide + kao http://japaneseswordindex.com/teruhide.htm

Thank you Kirill, for sure your inputs make sense, that's why i ruled out almost immediately all most famous schools since this didn't seem to fit in any of those, so i was looking for "zebras", those schools that are out of the main lines, but seems there's so little info about them also in Japanese books

Hosho, Tegai, Kanabo, Rai, Awataguchi, Hasebe, Nobukuni, Heianjo Nagayoshi, Bizen Osafune, Shintogo Kunimitsu, Shizu, Masamune, Sadamune, Mino, Aoe, Shimada, Takagi Sadamune, Norishige, Uda, Fujishima Tomoshige, Sengo, Chikuzen Sa,Ryosai,Ryokai, probably even more so doesn't narrows down much

Well mitsu-mune was quite popular in pre-muromachi tanto and still used in muromachi by several, so not really a kantei point here i'm afraid

I thought it might be a "Rai utsushi" which was a popular among Mino smiths of late Muromachi, but still some things doesn't end up. Uda usually have a darker steel i think and have long kaeri, which this hasn't

Here's my last purchase. Mei is Kunimitsu, obviously not one of the famous ones, but the blade looks pretty interesting to me. It's a pretty classic sugata with uchizori and mitsu-mune. There's a clear utsuri, looks whitish so would be probably classified as shirake, but unless other shirake this one is not dull and appears at the same angle as a "Bizen utsuri" would appear. I'm having trouble to point out a school or even the exact period, probably is a Muromachi revival, tho the nakago sori would point to older. Anyway here's the measures and the pictures, thanks to anyone will give an input. nagasa 25.7 cm kasane 6.5 mm motohaba 24.4 mm nakago sori 1 mm nakago nagasa 11.3 cm

Yes seems pretty decent quality too, despite the unknown maker