celt72

Wayne, Congratulations on scoring such a nice Nagamitsu. I have one that is in almost perfect type 3 mounts like yours, but the blade on mine has a suguha hamon instead. Mine also has the "saka" Osaka arsenal stamp on the nakago mune like yours to. Have fun enjoying it!

Bruce - I've been using my "Japanese Art Signatures" book for several months trying to figure it out. I can't seem to come up with anything that makes sense. I'll keep plugging away at it though!

Here is my Kawashima Tadayoshi. It has a field grade officer's tassel, family mon, sukashi tsuba and very rare leather covered saya. Sorry the pix aren't that great.

Glad I could help!

Here is my Emura that I bought from Aoi about a year and a half ago. Needless to say the pix are from them...

That is a beautiful blade!

Looks like a great package. Very nice!

Arnold - Here is what I believe you were thinking of. I believe Konno sensei brought him to Seattle back around 2005. I went to the Seattle Cherry Blossom Festival in 2005 I think, and there was Yoshindo Yoshihara there making a tanto. I was quite surprised and spent a couple of hours watching him work. Konno sensei's website has offered some of his swords for sale in the past. http://www.japaneseartswords.com/

Hi Kenneth. I have a blade by Isshin that is also dated March of Showa 18. It has a suguha hamon and two Nagoya arsenal stamps on it, one above the mei and the other on the mune. Cheers! -Martin

Aoi-Art post posted a shinsakuto today with a kamasu kissaki also. I had never seen one before. Very interesting. http://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mo-todai ... toshi-saku

Thanks for the clarification Chris. I appreciate it. I haven't seen a lot of swords with a hamon that looks like this one does with jagged "teeth". Is it particular to Kanehide or his line of smiths?

Thanks Alex. I appreciate it.

After buying an Emura last month, I thought I was done buying swords for a while, but then I got a great deal on this Kanehide that I couldn't pass up. I've always really wanted a Kanehide. It has a star stamp on the omote, a "Na" stamp on the ura and is dated Dec '43. The nagasa is 26.75". I love the hamon, but can't figure out what you call it. Can somebody please enlighten me? Unfortunately, I can't make out the hada. Here is a link to some pix of it. I'm still trying to improve me nihonto photographing skills. Thanks for your understanding. http://s762.photobucket.com/user/celt72 ... y/Kanehide

Beautiful! Definitely something to be proud of and I'm sure it made the wait worthwhile!

Thank you Stephen. I appreciate it.

Well, after what seemed like forever, my new Emura finally arrived today. Of course I think it is amazing and I really like it. It is not as beefy as my Nagamitsu and feels more refined in my hand. Here is a link to the pix I took today along with the original pix from Aoi-Art. http://s762.photobucket.com/user/celt72/library/Emura

Hi Ed. I would be inclined to agree with you. Hopefully a custom ordered blade would have the yasuri done by the smith himself. Of course, I would like to think that my new blade was done by Emura himself, and that he was left handed, but that is just wishful thinking on my part. Either way, I really like the blade I bought and won't loose any sleep over it. Of course, from an academic view it would be nice to be able to decide the issue one way or the other. I'd love to see pix of your old Emura if you still have them. I'll post pix of mine as soon as I receive it in the mail.

Hi Stephen. As of today, it was released from customs in San Francisco, so hopefully I will have it here in Seattle on Monday. I've got my fingers crossed!

When I receive the blade I'll take some pictures and post them. What a long wait its going to be!

I had not noticed that. Googling Emura, I found another one that has the same mei as mine, and the yasuri mei on that one slants down to the left also. http://www.samuraisword.com/nihonto_c/g ... /index.htm Looking at the Emura oshigata on Richard Stein's site, I see examples that slant both ways. I assume that it depended on if he did the yasurimei or one of the prisoners. At this point I guess it would be impossible to know whether Emura was left-handed.

Thanks for the confirmation Gray. If it won't help with customs, then there is no reason to do it. I'm happy to hear that because it will be in my hands that much quicker.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. I had thought about having them submit it to shinsa for me, but I did not know if it would be worth it. But if it might help with customs, I'll have to think about it. I'll email them to see what the cost is now and then make a decision.

I had been wanting to get an Emura for a while now, and when I saw this one on Aoi-Art, I just had to have it. It is the nicest Emura that I have seen. I won the auction today for it, and am now the proud owner. Now comes the hard part; waiting for it to be shipped to me! Here is a link to the site, and I will post pictures when I receive it. http://www.aoijapan.com/guntokatana-emura-saku

Thanks for the clarification Chris. I appreciate it.

I won this chart on ebay a while back for less than $20. I thought it would be a great way for me to practice translating kanji. While I have not started to do that, I thought I would go ahead and post it here. I thought some other members might find it interesting. I was told that it is from 1938 and lists all of the army swordsmiths. Is this true? I don't know. Anyway, I couldn't pass it up for the price. It is double-sided and measures 55x79 cm. http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx26 ... 381763.jpg http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx26 ... 06a011.jpg http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx26 ... ddaa8d.jpg http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx26 ... 5eb4f3.jpg