DirkO

Some weird coincidence - just crossed these: The openings are described as being symbols of luck?

Regarding the tsuba, its condition prohibits seeing certain features, so although it might be one of the earlier generations , kodai is a safe bet. In any case, it seems a bit worse for wear, pity for what originally was quite a nice tsuba!

Could it be he meant Yatsushiro in Jingo? Indeed, looks like a genuine Jingo - late generation is the safe call, seeing we don't have a lot to go on. The iron suggests later generations, although the ana seems a throw back to earlier work. More pictures would help to narrow it down.

Thanks! Never saw it before!

You might have bought it from a serious collector, however everything points to the same conclusion Brian reached. Sorry for not having any better news for you.

I think Aoi would have all the necessary info in their listing?

I consider myself lucky to have held Ono Yoshimitsu's version of the Yamatorige, let alone the real deal! Contrary to what one might think, this piece is not that widely published. The only decent write-up I think is in Showa Dai Meito Zufu (hugely underappreciated book) If Sato Kanzan and Junji Honma think very highly of it, that's saying a lot seeing they were very discriminate about what they liked. Sorry about the picture quality, the book is larger than my scanner I'm afraid! However, it does show the hamon nicely!

Yoshiro tsuba

I used to own nr 1 - rare and nice suguta - clean signature - and an absolute steal at this price!

Markus Sesko is a translator and he did tremendous work for our collecting field: https://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?keyWords=markus+sesko&type=

Hi Wouter, The NBTHK Tokubetsu Kicho is indeed an older paper but especially for kodogu, still quite regularly encountered. The other paper is NTK and not NTHK Please see http://www.shibuiswords.com/papers1.htm for more details about the NTK papers.

Hi Neil and welcome! There were several swordsmiths with that name - here's an extract from Markus Sesko's book:

Some additional info about him can be found here http://www.ncjsc.org/item_ichinomiya_tsunenao_FK.htm

Ichinomiya school? And taking an even wilder guess Banryuken Sadanaka, student of Ichinomiya Nagatsune.

Hi Alex - this will provide some more insight on that: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/7699-nicks-on-tsuba-mimi/

But he's easily reachable through mail or phone. Pm me if you need his contact details.

This article might prove helpful. http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/4063-yokoyama-kzuke-daijo-fujiwara-sukesada

Just missed out on it, I had my eyes on it from day one. Dated 1762, it's not by the Hon'ami, but by someone from the Onakatomi (ancient royal family) who accompanied his master to the shogun for two years and was allowed to make a copy of the original Hon'ami scrolls. He also states this advanced his studies greatly. You can also see the water stains he faithfully copied. Not a bad study item, and I'm disappointed I didn't get it, due to being on holiday with limited connectivity. A big thank you to Marcus for helping with the translation!

Nice piece! I have a Shodai returning from Japan after papers and polish, they made some very good pieces and their best work in my opinion was in suguha.

Hi, As some of you will already know, the NBTHK is moving to a new location. This has a certain impact on NBTHK related events like shinsa. Please see below extract for more info (taken from Token Bujitsu)

The meeting was well attended as usual – I think on average 25-30 people are present in every Bonn meeting. We had a lot of ground to cover, seeing there was a ‘special’ kantei. One of the members had a small talk about the cutting tests that were performed by Suishinsi Masahide (more info see http://www.nihontocraft.com/Suishinshi_Masahide.html ) The nihon-to for kantei were: 1. Shinano no Daijo Tadakuni – one of the members prepared a very nice write up on this blade, and although it might not be the biggest name, it was very interesting 2. Hizen Tadahiro – early Tadayoshi piece, where we could see that the konuka hada was still developing and not there yet, which was very eductational 3. Iga no Kami Kinmichi – Nihon Kaji Sosho – recently Markus did an interesting article about this title: https://markussesko.com/2016/05/19/an-interesting-gassaku/ 4. Ichimonji Sukezane – a signed Sukezane that is, one of only 13. Archetypical Ichimonji, and a beauty to behold! Seeing the first bit went on for quite some time and Mr Kremers was a bit pressed for time, he saw himself faced with the challenge of going over the 17 generations of Goto in under an hour! He succeeded admirably, and was even able to get across some of the more peculiar details. The link with earlier Mino was well established through examples. Except for the last 2 generations, all generations were present in one form or another. Obviously an hour wasn’t nearly enough for this topic, so I for one hope we will revisit it in the future.

Kamakura, Dated, zaimei, ubu and Tokubetsu Juyo? seems about right

pm sent

Yep, best to contact him via his website, so you can avoid eBay fees. http://www.bushiart.com/shop/default.asp?page=9&cid=70&pid=2385&img=TS2385.jpg&menuName=Tsuba