Peter Bleed

Kirill said "A basic knowledge of either Continental Asian or European swords is probably absent from the community." And I would agreed strongly. "Japanese sword experts" know a great deal about Japanese swords, but they tend to have incomplete understanding of European and even East Asian swords. Peter

Thank you for the insights. I remain suspicious. These threads strike me as 1) regular, 2) fine, and 3) sharp in ways that I am not used to seeing on early Japanese fire arms. The apparent design of how the threaded tang was worked into the iron pommel strikes me as essentially unlike anything I have seen. I see nothing like this in Yukichi Iwata's volume on fasteners and guns. Peter

I am very suspicious. The x-ray showing regular threads does not look 17th century to me. Peter

I spent a part of this afternoon listening to CandRsenal’s summary of the Larry Wilson’s treatment of the Colt collections at the Connecticut State Library. Another good and brief treatment of this – ahhh -- crime is available at Forgotten Weapons https://www.forgottenweapons.com/ I assume that many of the serious members on NMB are at this point wondering what makes this material relevant to this community. It is NOT about Japanese swords, tutt-tutt. In fact, fakery and misrepresentation seem always to have been an integral part of Japanese sword consideration. Certainly, a key part of sword and koshirae assessment is identifying nasemono, gimei, and faked stuff. The question I bring to this community is, when does fakery become BAD and what should we do about it? To put that question in a form that makes it concrete, please let me re-present three tsubas that I showed this community a year or more ago. I MADE these mere discs out of an Edo-period saw blade. I learned a lot doing that and I shared that experience with this community a couple of times. ONCE after doing that, I was asked by one of the NMB readers if they were – ahhh – available for sale. I had not been as clear as I should have been. And this question pleased me – hell, I was honored - but it did not tempt me. . . very long. I didn’t make them to as fakes, but that is what they can and will become. I think the discerning expert will not be fooled, but not everyone is an expert. At the most concrete and personal level, should I throw these “to-sho tsuba” away? I am an archaeologist so I am sure that the STUFF will out last me. Even if I am not here to misrepresent them, they will have to rise – or fall – on their own. The most honest treatment might be to destroy them at this point – just throw them away. But this is an easy case. Okay, so you have a blade you submit to shinsa – twice – and two times you get pink slips, what should you do: 1) throw it away, 2) put it back in the katana tansu, or 3) sell it on eBay? Peter

I am interested in the flow of stuff thru society - call it collecting. When I started we could 1) "find" unassessed swords, - cheap! - 2) study them , 3) keep what we liked, 4) ditch the bad stuff, and 5) sell the rest -- ultimately to Japanese buyers. Apparently, the closets and attics of the WWII generation are empty now. That means that we trade stuff that was retained. The aura of quick riches still remains (even if the odds are now long) so that gun shows and flea markets are full of optimists who will buy Japanese swords in hopes of a great discovery. AND lots of the stuff we sold back to Japan have been assessed over there, rejected, and is now being marketed to the world - in large part thru the hustling sector of the US. Komonjo-sama is assisting us in this process. Arigato gozaimasu. It also looks like he is a full service provider, able to offer us excellent blades, junk blades and gendaito which mebbe are swordsmiths' "extras," modern blades made by smiths but in excess of their legal production limits - - can make'em, but can't register'em, so export'em. I am entirely non-judgemental in all of this. IMHO this is merely and aspect of the current state of sword collecting. Peter

Friends, I would truly like to know how Komonjo-sama operates. I THINK(!) that he somehow buys masses of blades that must have been sorted and assessed by sword-slicks in Japan. Boy would I love to see that action. I just assume that the system squeezes every yen out of anything in Japan so that whatever find its way to this side of the Ocean is just ain't worth anything over there. Once it gets here, however, the gunshow-hustler system seems willing to put some wind under its wings.Naive, third level hustlers are the target audience for these swords - BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! But let me go in another direction - which I assume will cause ME to be seriously criticized. PETER. GO AHEAD and knock the rust off this blade. You will NOT(!) ruin it. The tip is gone the red rust is (slowly) eating it up. GO AHEAD AND GET RID OF THE Rust. No POWER, of course, and no really coarse abrasive, BUT I think you will learn a lot of you go at the red rust with something like 320 or 400 Wet and Dry. As you develop skill, you will also want to explore that kissaki. Working there, you may discover that some of it is still there. Learn shape, learn hamon, and learn kissaki! Best of luck!

Peter, You are on a learning curve and that is good. Welcome aboard, buckle up. The good news is that you have lost - well spent - only a hundred bucks so your babies will not starve. You may also learn some things from owning this little sword , but I seriously doubt that you will make any financial gain out of this sorry dung-ball. Stuff wears out and this sword looks to me like a legitimate old sword that passed it spend down phase a couple of times. I bet it was made before 1596 and it certainly was a katana that passed thru a couple of phases before it was cut down to what a commoner could carry and then was kind of smushed down so it would go in a sword cane or something like that. It may even have been some manner of gunto. But then it ended in is a scrap pile that Japanese dealers sorted and inspected AND REJECTED. Since ti was valueless in the Land of the Rising Yen, it was exported and TA-DAAH you got it. Welcome aboard, buckled up. Peter

This "inscription" looks very poorly cut - - and therefore suspicious. There was a time when American "collectors" tried to enhance mumei blades.

I don't think this was Paul's sword. Peter

I'm still having fun with this sword. Thank you Jim! and I also appreciate the oshigata presented by Jussi and Michael. They convince me of the unusualness of Jim, Kunikane.It just ain't right IMHO But yes, it is proudly presented. And yes it has all the bells and whistles. And there are stories about the Kunikane smiths working closely please the Date daimyo.... And there sure seems to be lots of evidence that late KKs were involved in - ahhh - dressing up swords by their ancestors. To put all this together, I have to wonder IF (!) somebody like the 13th generation (it look pretty fresh to my eye) could have signed this sword - which had been made, then tested and dolled up with that great habaki - years earlier. It might even be by the sho-dai and family records might have let the carver really know that the crest and the full titles signature were "right" for this sword. The question I'd ask, is whether or not the tameshigiri-mei would survive that kind of "ato mei." What an interesting sword! Peter

Its one of the Date crests. P

Well gee. The NMB is working its magic!. Jim has given us a really interesting sword to discuss and a range of 1) ideas, and 2) information has been presented. I will say once again that this is a great sword. I like it and would gladly have it in my collection. (hint hint) But, I just can't see this as shoshin. I'm not at all trying to criticize the piece. It is very good, It presents the signature of the first Kunikane (who WAS, IS, and has to BE(!) considered one of the great swordsmiths of the earliest portion of the Shinto period - Michael, do your own history don't simply follow the Higo/Kansai doctrine). And it looks like - and by recollection IS - a really well- made sword. In fact, it is kind of 'over the top.' It looks very fresh and new. It has that 8&1 and all of the sho-dai's bells and whistles. And to my eye it looks kind pf new. I find it interesting to compare the "feel" of this signature to one on the blade that Jussi got us to look at (kiitos ystävä!).tachi-katana-mei aside, this swords just looks new to me... And I hate it when our evaluations come down to 'penmanship' but this signature looks off to me And then there is all that stuff about on the other side. - a 13 year old boy cuts a hanging body in two - no date... And if that ain't enough, there is that WORLD CLASS! habaki. This sword presents so many angles that it is hard to discuss. It doesn't slip easily into any category, but it is far too fabulous to be a "wrong." It has to be viewed as art - and great art at that. Peter P.S. I was trying to be positive, here becasue I didn't want to be negative. As I re-read this, it strikes me as - ahhh - mebbe a bit too positive.

James, Thanks very much for posting this blade. I remember it well and have thought of it often. It is a wonderful sword and certainly a document about sword use and treatment during the Edo period. I hope you will let me post some musings in a bit. Peter

This thread has wandered a bit, but there seems to be some interested in very early swords, so please let me show a blade that may fit in that category. This blade was discovered in the US as a bare blade and was a Post-War bring back -- apparently from Japan, but the history is uncertain. A previous owner sent it to the NBTHK where it spent a couple of years. When asked what was going on, they said it needed to be brought down to Nara for assessment, but that seems not to have happened and it was returned later on without papers - but with some hard feelings (I hate it when that happens). A previous owner had it polished (oh, and there were some hard feelings about that, too). I had it dropped into a shirasaya. This looks like a very old blade. It is laminated and edge tempered.It has iori-mune now, but I never saw it before polish so this may have been enhanced... The nakago looks to me like it was attached with peining. Peter

A sword signed by a smith in the school I collect showed up on a well-visited auction this this morning at a low open that is hard to ignore, BUT with clear reservation about the legitimacy of the signature. The blade looks so-so at best in terms of quality, but it probably has to be "of the school." It is right for this school. I see no reason why this would NOT have been made by one or another of the guys who worked in this style. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the available literature could not be used to prove this sword "bad." But nobody - including the dealer - wants to say it is "good." Is a sword like this at all collectible? Peter

Hard to say any anything based on what you have shown us, but this does NOT look like a Wartime blade - and the nakago certainly has been altered. Peter

https://www.nwaonline.com/obituaries/2020/nov/27/paul-davidson-2020-11-27/ A few details and a wonderful image here P

Interesting sword, Wayne. Thanks for sharing. Swords exactly like this should make up at least half of a Sendai Shinto collection - at least they form about HALF of my collection: nicely mounted. very well-made masame, unsigned short swords. There seems to have been a very serious market for these swords - which I assume means that they were what Sendai Samurai wore when they were out and around. It also means that smiths in Sendai worked very routinely and with good discipline. These were guys who did NOT wish to stand out. They were NOT showy. They knew their role and they gave a good product - thank you! As I said, I have a couple of these and I love them, but they also raise some questions in my (collector's) mind. 1. Who made them? There were 13 (or 14) generations in the KK line and they all had apprentices so assigning them to the "School" is as far as the "experts" will go. 2. Why are they unsigned? This is a good question. Maybe guys in Sendai just sort of figured...isn't it obvious who made this... 3. Why are unsigned wakizashis common? Maybe lots were made that way - BUT I also have to suspect that unsigned katanas were liable to having had a GIMEI signature added to them. Tut-tut All this to say, THANK YOU WAYNE. Peter

Jonas, I am NOT about to say that I am jealous of anybody, but I do have to tell you that I think being a "sword" collector in China today would HAVE to be a great adventure. And, yes, I suppose that there must be both a market for and a reservoir of "Japanese" sword in China. But the real potential that I see is in "Chinese swords". There MUST be huge numbers of old Chinese weaponry, but it sure looks like it is poorly organized and poorly exploited. Books on Chinese edge weaponry - in any language - seem scant. If I were in the Peoples Paradise I would search flea markets and friendship stores. The Cultural Revolution could NOT have destroyed it all. Good hunting! Peter

I am completely agnostic about whether or not this community should have an "in memorium" section, But... expecting sword collectors to be responsible with regard to "practical or efficient use of space" seems wide of logic. Peter

Paul's passing is a tragedy. I will miss him personally as dependable friend and wise advisor. We worked together on a couple of adventures that I recall with fondness. He had a wonderful manner and a common touch but Paul was also a deep and real expert. His collection is amazing and his library without par. A sword visit to Paul involved systematic presentation of pieces arranged and curated to address the topic at hand. Paul responsibly supported sword collecting in ways that will be hard to replace. He was advisor to the JSSUS and was also, of course, President of the NBTHK-AB. He was also the rarest kind of serious collectors. He built an amazing collection of high quality blades, fittings, and armor. And he did so at the highest level. Everything in Paul's collection was just right, fully documented, and appropriately preserved. His contributions to sword appreciation absolutely need documentation. He was also hale and dynamic and the exact image of someone who would last forever. We all assumed that Paul would be there when we would need him. I truly can't understand what American Japanese sword collecting will be like without him. Peter

interesting little rig - good koto Mino, when guys needed them

The satisfaction of owning a sword you like and know is "good" is undeniable. BUT for many of us poor vulgarians there is also a great deal of satisfaction to be realized in "finding" a sword, "cleaning it up", "researching" it, discussing it with a crew, investing a lot of dough in it, and waiting for the system to poop out a result. That can be the hobby. Peter

matsuda Kanetaka 1935 Hmmmm? Peter

Truly a virtuous piece and Geraint's assessment was wonderful. Peter