Bugyotsuji

Why? What is it about this sword that attracts you? The Mei screams ‘fake’!

Interesting idea, Chris!

This is such a huge subject that I am reluctant to get involved. Suffice it to say that the Mongols collected every last scrap of iron from their battlefields. Bushi would often leave money inside their armour to help pay for disposal and funerary rites, etc. if they were killed in battle. The problem in Japan was that battlefield weaponry might find its way into the hands of the peasantry. Feudal lords would designate merchants to clean up the battlefield, and to sort out what could be salvaged and what could be scrapped. Conversely, merchants would vie to get such contracts from the Daimyo. Cheaply-mended weapons were then sold on cheaply to the less wealthy Daimyo. Hideyoshi ordered huge national round-ups of weapons, in order to keep them from anyone who might be tempted to revolt. There were continued round-ups through Tokugawa times and on into Meiji. Essentially, Japan's governing bodies wished to maintain tight control over possible causes of unrest. Unlike in the west, battlefield clean-ups were the norm, and cleanliness and detailed bureaucracy still generally rule today.

Please do not measure your abilities with that signature! Very, very few Japanese could read that, let alone non-Japanese.

Aoi Art usually does a much better translation than that. Surely that must have been done by some early Google-type of mechanical translator. Normally 平 is read Taira here, I believe. Nice package. Good luck!

The Shimosaka smiths moved to northern Kyushu in preparation for the invasion of Korea by Hideyoshi. Would this Mei indicate the Yari as being pre 1590? Although one of these spears in full polish is potentially worth decent money, a polishing by a proper Japanese Togishi would be very expensive, even if you could find one willing to undertake such a difficult task as a Jumonji polish. And you would need to source an iron neck ring and appropriate saya sheath.

Had this one Alex, but there are two problems with it. 1. I may have sold it to a friend. 2. The Kaneie Mei is probably not legit. Someone told me Kaneie tsuba do not have fukurin. 3. The pine tree is on the reverse, with some flying Daruma figure on the front.

Check out: Kaseiin Kanjaku Nikko Shinji is the kaimyô or posthumous buddhist name of this actor. Mortuary poem: In the sky of the second month the sadness of the sparrow's flight remains https://jpsearch.go.jp/item/arc_nishikie-JA13029 https://www.bing.com/search?q=歌成院光信士&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&lq=0&pq=歌成院光信士&sc=0-6&sk=&cvid=D54E03FAACC24C8187EBE0448FBCD1C6&ajf=10

What size, Alex?

If I can find the photographs, here are two more examples of Tessen-guruma, clematis wheel kamon, one as an iron tsuba, and one in the sliver fittings of an amber netsuke.

Did you choose the frame, Jason? A page out of a book? Famous Kabuki actors? A winter (February) scene of a 55-yr-old travelling samurai wearing a cloak. In a shop? (Just guessing from circumstantial evidence!)

And a ‘nikuhitsu’ painting by the hand of (Isoda) Masakatsu, Hōbashi Koryūsai, active 1776-82. Kadomatsu with wrapped roots

My Kozuka shows nematsu or nebikimatsu with orizuru paper crane. (Shakudo gold and silver. Mei: Nagamine or Eiho. 永峯)

He can open a gentle 'window' in the blade to see what is under the rust there, and whether your blade contains potential for moving the process forward.

There is a polisher of Japanese swords in Scotland called Les, a good man. I'd advise showing it to him before any local restorer, if only for some sound advice and direction.

Check a list of Kinko artisans under Toshinaga, but if not, then try Toshihisa, Riju, etc., to find a reading that fits, as each one will have had a personal preferred reading.

Maybe the proposed Tsuka already had a deep and wide slot in it.

Conversely, it has been said that an excellent hadori will allow you to see all of the hataraki contained within it, a kind of ‘best of both worlds’.

Thank you, Moriyama San!

Loving the dark patina on this one. A trusty Ashigaru battlefield gun. Possibly Inatomi-Ryū school of gunnery, and possibly made in Kunitomo. Also I have a special attraction to the 鉄線 Tessen clematis Mon. Yours is Tessen-guruma or ‘clematis wheel’ design. Congratulations! Looking forward to your updates.

Thank you Uwe!!!

In my case, the Togishi told me he could reduce the blade to sashikomi, so I asked him to do just the one side. At the NBTHK local meeting we brought the blade for everyone to see, and among the members there was a more ‘senior’ Togishi whom he respectfully consulted for advice. When everyone finally recommended the sashikomi side (for Sue Bizen), then he was happy to go with that, especially to bring out the characteristic Sukesada Hamon.

The seller says alongside ‘Nakago’: 付け足し茎 Tsuke-ashi Nakago = added-leg tang (Nothing otherwise)

Hoping that anyone new to Netsuke here may get some idea of the variety there really was out there, throughout the Edo period and across all social strata.

大日本 Dai Nippon 吉田造 Yoshida zō/dzukuri 京都 Kyoto