Utopianarian

Zoomed in pic with heavy lighting

More pics

Pic

Another pic. It sort of does look painted on but not sure

Here are some side pictures. Let me know if these are ok or if you need any other info. Thank you Dale

Thank you Curran. I believe it

Thank you Curran. I am trying to learn as much as I can about it. Just wonder if it’s worth sending it to Shinsa

Here is the fuchi that it came with that doesn’t appear to match

None taken. I know very little and appreciate your take on it. Sorry I have a weird sense of humor. The gold trim looks sloppy compared to other Higo work just looking at other examples online but appear to be sort of the same style like this one for example

Thanks for your input Axel. It was on a WW2 Gunto and i thought it was worth looking into. I guess I know second to nothing then Axel!! Lol

I am trying to find out more about this Tsuba I recently aquired. It looks like Higo style but not sure. Help would be appreciated. I have limited knowledge in this area.

Very nice pictures Paul. I found it very difficult to obtain full sugata accurately as well. They look very good in my opinion. Lighting and contrast are key.

Sumigane is hard to get in pic. The blade is healthy with lots of meat (niku) no core steel showing. Here is the best I can get to show example of what I think may be sumigane

Here is about the best pics I can get at this present time

Last night finally got the chance to spend more time taking a closer look at blade. I turned the lights off and used a small penlight and saw a neat hologram like or 3D type of utsuri above Hamon. One type of utsuri appears and when I would move the angle of light source another would appear and the original one I was looking at would disappear depending on the angle I was moving. I looked it up and believe it’s called Dan utsuri. One utsuri layer looks darker and wavy or midare and the other is lighter misty white that looks more straight in appearance. It’s almost impossible to capture it in a picture. This is the only blade I’ve ever handled and owned that has this feature and very excited. I think I will use Jimmy Hayashi from SanFran for the full polish on this one. This blade does have all the features of an Aoe school blade.

Sumigane

Thank you Steve!! I will look into those options as well.

Measurements: Nagasa 69.3cm sori 1.6 cm moto-haba 3.17 cm saki-haba 2.22cm Kissaki width 2.22cm Kissaki length 4.13cm nakago nagasa 17.46cm moto-Kasane 0.67cm Saki-Kasane 0.47cm. Sugata koshi zori leaning toward tori zori. Hada tight forged crinkled texture with tightly forged mokume hada with some areas of sumi-hada, tight noi-guchi,nie-deki, ji-nie, utsuri, hoso saguha. Iori mune. Small area broken off tip. Hard to get visual of boshi and type of file marks on nakago. kaki-nagashi on both sides that run into the tang and runs up the blade and stops just before the yokote.The nakago is cut off missing some of mei. Signed katana mei side. It does appear to say Bitchu kuni junin mune probably missing tsugu. There was a Bitchu smith in the late 1500s that signed Bitchu kuni junin munetsugu but the sword seems to appear Aoe by the characteristics. They say first judge the sword before the signature. There was an Aoe smith in the Nanbokucho period named munetsugu but signed without junin on one of his signatures. Do you think it’s possible that smith’s sometimes signed differently with sometimes adding junin or slightly altering how they signed.

Sword just arrived in mail. The end of the mail tube the sword was in was destroyed. The only thing holding the sword from falling out was a piece of tape. Anyways I just snapped a quick picture before I left for work of the hada and grain of the sword. I think it does sort of have an Aoe school look to it. I will post more pics when I am off work and have more time. BTW we are being inundated with Covid pts here at the hospital (West Coast). Seems like cases are increasing on the West coast now.

Crickets... I think it’s time for me to exit stage left folks.

Not too good a pic but has that nie look on hada like the top of a lake that just froze over. Also the ha hada line. The seller sent me these pics so I’ll have to see when I receive it

I think the last character is 利 Toshi. Part of it looks shaved off on the end of the nakago mune side where it tapers thinner. So I am guessing Toshitsugu 利次. I actually purchased the blade off eBay. I will get a better idea when I can evaluate it in hand. I think it was worth the gamble for a possible Nanbokucho Aoe school blade.

Would you define this as Genroku-shintō-sugata or something more reminiscent of Nanbokucho or Muromachi

It caught my attention and wanted to learn more about it. I had the seller send me a few extra pics including the overall pic of sword I posted of bare blade. This seller doesn’t seem like the typical eBay monkey that pumps out junk buffed blades. The location shows Jacksonville Alabama. I live in a Southern California. Like many here on the board like to see what’s out there. As you all know 99% of eBay is junk sifting thru for something. Most know what they have if it’s significant and that reflects in the inflated prices you usually see. The occasional blade that’s interesting worth looking at which is rare does on occasion happen. We all know which ones to stay away from

HisaMune might fit too idk or munetsugu