D McCutcheon

gorgeous sword

yes sorry for you man but it is probably a good thing I really distrust ebay sellers, some are really on then up and up but very many are not and its almost impossible to tell.

I am myself fairly new to the board and nihonto collecting but from my understanding showato pretty much means non traditionaly made sword, that means as you said different steel and forming methods and quenching probably oil quenching, the seki mark and the fact its got a signature probably denotes that the smith took some care and pride in it so its likely to be a decent showato, it would all come down to the blade and the hamon hada etc how decent. May be worth checking through the military sword section of the forums.

hah yes I wish I was a better photographer or had better gear, I should do that try natural light and other light sources and just experiment

thanks grey good points those sadly the shirasaya that came with the swords been wraapped directly to the wood with gaffer tape that said at least its holding together so I can ship it safely, ill need to ask the polisher then about a new shirasaya and habaki at the time its polished, ill probably hold ontop the old one as its got the original ww11 surrender tags

Wow Jamie didnt realise id need to get a totally new shirasaya after a polish glad you said that and yes im planning to get this sword polished its actually not bad but it could do with a light polish. So it seems ill be waiting till the polishing to get new shirasaya but if I do that how will I post the sword to the maker of the shirasaya if I cant use the old one?

Thanks Peter so around 800 for both thats not too bad but still a decent chunk of change, as for what I want im torn I like the two part habaki with copper outer habaki with the gold washed inner habaki, but when you look around online theres some simply beautiful designs out there.

Thank you Hoanh Yeah I figured everything would have to be bespoke and ill probably need to send the sword too going to be a bit of a palaver to get it done I imagine. danny

Awesome my birthdays in september makes it more special Danny

hey thanks K Morita sama so the sellers translation is erroneous there no made for name of commisioner then swordsmiths signature, its just I shige fusa made this, then other side is the date year etc! Hah yes from the previous thread you translated nakago on this side to say - The mei says 'Aizu-ju Wakabayashi(family name) Shigefusa koreo kitau' the papers he sent were obviously without the first part of the family name and he made assumption it was the name of the swords buyer. Many thanks again Morita sama, it shows that you cant rely on just the dealers attempts at translation and the paperwork that comes with it Danny

hey thanks for quick reply Ill do that the old ones kept the blade in pretty good condition so why alter a winning combination just replace old one. I can always get the a koshirae set in bits and pieces over time if I want to . Thanks Jean and Ken. Danny

I have a lovely new sword and a partial translation of the nakago, I did a search and I believe the sword been discussed before on NMB. http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=14313&hilit=shigefusa. What I have so far is ni .oite - as for shige fusa kitavor.tan - forged kore.wo - this other side apparently says mid autumn 12th year showa 1937 Id really appreciate some guesses at least thats what the man sold me said itd be realy hard to get the neame of the person who commissioned the sword. I will try to post clearer pictures of the nakago though they may not be great.

I have a lovely new Gendaito its in reasonable polish but has a lot of surface markings and scratches probably come up well with a light polish. but the shirasaya while a historical artifact is cracked completely through the handle is too though somehow its still holding together. So I will need everything if I decide to go for koshirae including a habaki and its prettier than the shirasaya though im thinking shirasaya would be cheaper option just wondering what the prices of the work and the procedure would be for either option. Im in UK too so thats probably a big crimp on things too. Danny

I have just taken delivery of new nihonto its bright and shiny and I can clearly seem hamon my problem is the blades marred by what looks like water spills and blistering now the blades not oiled and the shirasaya is cracked on saya and hilt too. I do not feel comfortable holding the sword by the hilt because i am waiting for the thing to break, with the saya held together by gaffer tape Ill need to store the sword carefully to preserve the remaining polish and I notice that oil dries fast on my other swords. I have looked around at the various suggestions on oiling but im unsure if my oil drying up fast is usual and if not am I choosing too light an oil. Also the shirasaya is old and tired so whats the best way to go about getting new koshirae for the sword?

Lol soo true though at least you get to handle swords some dates dont get that far

Heya thanks for the reply Daniel, well I posted a ton of pics of my own wakizashi and chris and a few others chimed in and pretty much told me it was a kazu-uchi mono of the bizen swordsmiths around 16th century. Im trying to post the link below to the prior post. http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20367 I am asking the question about dating as Im reading and every so often something seems off to me so since this bears on a sword I have an example of Im looking for enlightenment :?

heya folks new question, I been reading my new, book Facts and fundamentals of Japanese swords a collectors guide by Nobuo Nakahara. Now he states that, "during the period leading up to the shinto period 1596 to 1781 swords became broad with sizable point sections and the area between the ridgeline and shinogi-ji became narrower, in the same period high demand resulted in many mass produced swords Kazu-uchi mono. In this period not many hon-zukuri wakizashi were produced, Hira Zukuri wakizashi similar to enbun-joji tanto were more popular and numbers of wakizashi produced isnt as great as previously thought". Now if this is true what does it mean for my own wakizashi as its ridgeline construction? its mei and shape of nakago suggest bizen and kazu-uchi mono, could it be a later period sword or a later sword faked up with gimei. Or am I reading too much into a few lines of text though it seems clear enough?

I am a newbie to forum and Nihonto collecting but I think the guide of if it looks too good to be true it is! pretty much is the best rule of thumb, the chrysanthemum doesnt look like examples I have seen, the handle appears to be a an upmarket officers, the saya is from whats visible a poor example of an officers gunto saya, the papers with this seems genuine but again I could run off a few genuine looking papers from my own printer. I am myself very wary nowadays I am a collector of old military medals and from ebay I have acquired a large collection of fakes, some of them indistinguishable from the real thing but still fakes, a fake in that good is a replica sold from a reputable rteplacement medal manufacturer with replica marks removed, since the medals made to spec you dont get the usual shifts or size mismatches. I am fairly sure those tricks are employed with all antiques nowadays though so be careful.

Oh hey yeah its pretty awesome to think that a fragile rust prone object has lasted for 500 or so years, From what I can make out from that discussion thread is that my wakizashi is probably a chu saku made for lower ranked samurai since theres a two character signature. I didnt think when I bought it and I was very careful about buying in the first place that it was a rare masterpiece I was looking for a nice example of a wakizashi well within my price range that I could research and enjoy. I will seriously consider getting a shirasaya made for it and having the blade polished. I think its a lovely little thing and ill probably end up with a few more but its my first real nihonto so its always going to be a bit special to me anyway.

Here are some additional photos of my wakizashi I was quite disapointed in the qaulity sadly being able to go in close with a macro and still get light to take the photograph is a problem Im sure I can get my brother in law to do some if I ply him with whisky lol. I mainly focused on rust spots and on the nakago and kissaki If bro in law helps I may be able to get a decent view of the mune which also has suffered from rust with a few areas of pitting, theses give a decent view of the tang shape and the shape of the kissaki and ridgeline.

sure here you go a close up of the nakago

Found a picture of a sword with signature marks similar to those on mine and I agree its sukesada not sukemasa from comparison with those marks. Also the smith name being the only marks on the nakago does suggest its likely a kazu-uchi mono sword. Well feel im making progress

Yes pictures were posted more as a general overall picture of sword is there specific areas would be good to get closeups of?

Thanks again guys for the translation help :D I have looked at the sword used my books and my miniscule knowledge to compile a profile of the sword that I hope is not totally inaccurate. All spelling mistakes are of course my fault The point is fukuri - tsuka the tip is 0 kissaki boshi is not visible ridgeline is shinogi takashi ridgeline is narrow mune is low curvature is deep (possibly Bizen-zori) tang shape is ha-hagari kuri jiro file marks are slightly slanting left katte-sagari blade shape is shinogi zukuri no hamon visible and a fair amoung of rust, scratches and dings on blade and edge the sword looks to have been handled roughly and put away wet or damp a few times over the years. I am hoping that some of the features here will help me get a rough date on the sword and help me narrow down the likeliest smith as I have two possibilities for a smiths name sukemasa and sukesada im hoping it will help there too. The saya is rayskin over wood and lacquered or painted black,its cracked lacquer is flaked off and to be honest I cant understand why anyone would waste a nice piece of shagreen by obscuring it under thick black paint, a light die job and a nice clear lacquer would have been much better, the other fittings are in the same state tsuka is wrapped well but fraying the wood seems sound but the shagreen has areas missing and appears to be made from patches rather than one skin cut to size and the tsuba is an unsigned iron or steel job with a fair patination of old rust.

hello all, I am danny and im new to the Japanese sword collectors community, I currently have a wakizashi im researching and an NCO shin gunto thats had the original Japanese army fittings removed and its saya painted black its got tsuba and fittings but they seem fairly low quality reproductions. that said its a nice blade though id say the tangs been recently cleaned and theres only a faint what looks like a chrysanthemum low down on the tang. Im on the lookout for a prettier katana in polish that wont break my bank but thats for later for now im going to focus on the wakizashi and increasing my knowledge base. Hope I wont be a total pain to all you old hands too:)