Ray Singer

My replies overlapped with Klaus. Here is the correctly oriented Sadayasu.

Sakakura Gonnoshin Terukane

Yukimitsu

This appears to be a replacement juyo certificate, after the original was lost.

Excellent osuriage mumei wakizashi in suguha with a deep sori. From this week's shinsa the judgement was Hizen Yoshisada. In beautiful bukezukuri koshirae, now available from the new consignments I returned with. Further details and dimensions shortly. $2,500+ shipping & PP

Offering a very nice deal on a long ubu, zaimei shinshinto katana by Choshu Kiyoshige. In shirasaya with hatomei. In excellent polish, and current NBTHK Hozon kanteisho. Josun length: 2 shaku 3 sun. $2,950 + shipping & PP

Signed Kunihiro

I am sorry for the bad news. Please see below. http://www.jssus.org...japanese_swords.html

This specific example looks to read Hidezane.

https://www.Japanese...dindex.com/emura.htm

Sagami no kuni junin Hiromitsu The inscribed date is Joji 2

Settsū Ikutama Tadashige

I replied to the owner of this one a month or so back. I was not aware it had been posted again, perhaps to a different group. Please drop in a link here.

伊豫掾源宗次 - Iyojō Minamoto Munetsugu Looks like the nakago shape used by the shodai.

因幡國住藤原兼先 - Inaba (no) kuni ju Fujiwara Kanesaki

同田貫兵部 - Dotanuki Hyōbu https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/HYO2

I wouid consider that this might not be a kamon, and is instead a surname. Naka___ (reading of the second kanji is unclear).

Myles, the reading should be 藤原綱行 - Fujiwara Tsunayuki. This is a Bungo Takada (Fujiwara Takada) blade, and is a suriage (shortened) blade from Shinto times (early part of the Edo period). Unsure what is mean by this: "an element of the translation saying Kanji"

This mei is for the smith Tsunemitsu. Record below from Markus Sesko. TSUNEMITSU (常光), Keian (慶安, 1648-1652), Musashi – “Tsushima no Jō Tachibana Tsunemitsu” (対馬掾橘常光), “Bushū-jū Tsushima no Kami Tachibana Tsunemitsu” (武州住対馬守常光), “Tsushima no Kami Tachibana Tsunemitsu” (対馬守橘常光), “Tsushima no Kami Tachibana Nyūdō Tsunemitsu” (対馬守橘入道常光), “Chikyū Tsunemitsu Nyūdō” (知休常光入道), “Heki Ippō” (日置一法), “Heki Tsushima no Kami Tsunemitsu Nyūdō” (日置対馬守常光入道), “Tsushima Nyūdō Tsunemitsu” (対馬入道常光), real name Heki Ichinojō (日置市之丞), he changed his first name later to Saburōzaemon (三郎左衛門) and Hachizaemon (八左衛門), there exist also blades which are signed with the characters (恒光) for Tsunemitsu, he was the younger brother of Heki Mitsuhira (光平) and he used the gō Chikyū (知休) and Ippō (一法), there is also the theory that the latter was not the gō of Tsunemitsu – see also “IPPŌ (一法), Genroku (元禄, 1688-1704), Musashi” – however, Tsunemitsu came originally from Ōmi´s Gamō district (蒲生) and moved via a stopover in Yamashiro province to Edo where he settled in the Yotsuya district (四谷), he and other Edo-based Ishidō smiths are referred to as Edo-Ishidō, his works remind of kotō-Ichimonji masterpieces and show an ōbusa-chōji-midare but there appears masame at the Edo-Ishidō smiths and the utsuri is “too regular” for a kotō work, there exists a blade with the date signature of the 13th year of Genroku (元禄, 1700) and the information “made at the age of 73,” that means he was born in the third year of Kan´ei (寛永, 1626), we know date signatures from the first year of Keian (慶安, 1648-1652) to the 16th year of Genroku (1703), it is assumed that he died shortly after Genroku 16, because of his quite long active period the theory was forwarded that there were two generations Tsunemitsu, he signed the character for “Tsu” (対) in the old version (對), ryō-wazamono, jō-saku

Please more clearly show the nakago (even if unsigned). You occasionally see over-the-top Soshu style works from shinshinto smiths. Late Edo interpretation of hitatsura is what comes to mind.

Best guess is 島田住助定 - Shimada ju Sukesada

No it would not be the case of a smith or horimono-shi intentionally running past the ko-shinogi. There's no reason to do that, and it's not something that would happen by accident. The kissaki has been lowered to a degree where the bo-hi runs into the kissaki itself.

This.

Yes, the kissaki has clearly been reduced. This is not how the kissaki was originally structured, however it is also not a very significant problem in terms of the importance of a sword. You can see a similar feature in the tokuju Enju Kunitoki from the Compton collection.

I have a photo of one sword from my archives of Darcy's website