Bugyotsuji

There are other expressions out there in use and waiting to be discovered, such as chiisagatana.

“The exception proves the rule.” Really interesting subject, and there is much more to it, but Jean and Tcat above have just about deconfused it for us. (Traditional Nihontō classification and modern education committee bureaucratic classifications do not always agree on the fine detail. The latter is based more on mathematics. Most Japanese seem to ride with it when there are two answers.)

Aikuchi Koshiraé = Lip-kissing sword furniture.

K Morita San is not one in ten thousand, but one in a hundred thousand, or even a million!

Perhaps one in ten thousand or even fewer native Japanese could read that script.

Member of NBTHK National, and local branch for maybe 15 years, also UK Tōken Society.

The top two are front and back of a Japanese regional mandatory registration card from Aichi Prefecture for a Mumei wakizashi. This card has to be surrendered if the blade is ever sent abroad. (The older scrap of paper is beyond me.)

Do some of you have a magnetic personality?

Kunitomo Tōbei, famous line of Kunitomo gunsmiths. 藤兵衛 Unable to get anything legible from the lower lettering… イ　十　生　ル　当 (曲)?

Mmm, good solid tsuba by the way, and as Dale said the octagonal shape is nice. Oh and Joyeux Noel, Yves!

Generally one associates this Mon with the Ogasawara Daimyō family. My gripe with the Matsudaira is that being closely related to the Tokugawa, and thus superior to everyone else, they moved in and took over various fiefdoms throughout Japan, using the regional Kamon as their own. Like cuckoos taking over other birds’ nests and eggs. Tell me I am wrong, please!

記念 Often expressed in the word Kinen, memorial, to mark some worthy or notable event. 記念館 Memorial Hall Kinenkan. 記念日 anniversary, observed day, etc. Kinenbi

Maybe Akimaro 昭麿

It looks in good condition, Gary.

Now I am confused. Which photos are we supposed to be comparing?

The 岡 part of tsuna　綱 is completely different.

For the Yasutsugu, first gen.(?)

Sometimes words have the power to lift a poor person high! PS At an antiques fair today I heard a voice beside me, “Did you buy that tsuba and the set of Fuchi/kashira?” It was K sensei, the sword practitioner. I turned around, astonished that he could have known, and somewhat jokingly denied any knowledge of the matter. ”I was just going back to buy them,” he said, but they had gone. “You bought them, didn’t you!?!?” Eventually I pulled them out and he fondled them lovingly. Quickly I grabbed them back. “Why didn’t you buy them when you had the chance?” I wondered to myself. Secretly though, I was happy that we had both seen and liked exactly the same things in a huge outdoor antiques fair!

Last night I took this to the local NBTHK sword meeting but quickly warned them it was going to be a detective story. The blade was reckoned to be ShinShinTō, of indeterminate regional manufacture. The saya they liked, perhaps original to the blade. The tsuka has most probably been changed at some point. It was pointed out that this was not necessarily ‘wrong’ or uncommon, even in times past, as quite a bit of crossover took place. (Mix ‘n match?) No one gave any suggestions as to how to move this one forward. The silence spoke about not sending good money after it. So, possibly I should just release it back into the stream, where someone else might choose to either enjoy it as is, or improve it, or break it up and sell the tōsōgu separately.(?)

Ronald, John has kindly posted it the right way up.

越前安継 Echizen Yasutsugu 南蛮鐵? Nanban tetsu?

Thanks for the updates Brian. You are constantly there for us in the cloud, even though you have this personal pain to bear for a little while yet. And the way you describe it, the NMB sounds like a carefully tended and well-oiled machine, when everyone plays whatever part they can.

The Ikeda Daimyō family used a version of this Gion Mamori as one of their Mon; this is still said to be a link to their Sengoku time as Christians. As with many of these things it contains lashings of deniability, though.

So what is the depiction?

As John says above, it’s the Jinshin registration number from the great roundup in early Meiji. 2,979 It says 入間県 Iruma Ken, a prefecture set up in 1871 and dissolved in 1873, corresponding to the west of Saitama today. https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/入間県 PS The gun is therefore older than that, certainly early to mid 1800s. It is hard to give precise dates for Tanegashima, but little things give us indications.