Bryce

Yeah it definitely still had the tassel when it was surrendered. Couple of other interesting things, the tsuka was covered with the less common laced up leather wrap, which is still with the sword and General Uno was wearing spurs. Did he have a cavalry connection or was that standard dress for generals? Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, I visited the Jezzine Barracks Military Museum in Townsville yesterday. On display they have the sword of Major General Uno which was surrendered to Lt Col Ewan Robson in Banjarmasin, Kalimantan. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, Back in January I was lucky enough to visit Japan for a holiday with the family. I was planning on getting a nihonto fix while I was in Tokyo, but unfortunately I had to cut short my holiday to return home to prepare for a looming cyclone. As a result I only had one day in Tokyo, but I did get to visit the Tokyo Museum which had 11 blades on display. Obviously the blades were all behind glass, so it was a bit hard to see a lot of detail. I should have come prepared with a small telescope like I saw some of the locals using. Here are some photos of the blades which were on display. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, Here are some shots of the Gassan Sadayoshi yoroi-doshi tanto dated 1863. I believe the blade was made and signed by Sadakazu for his master. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, I pulled out my iphone to try and capture some good images of my mumei blade, attributed by the NTHK to the shodai Chounsai Tsunatoshi. What do you think? Cheers, Bryce

G'day Nicholas. I like it. I don't think the yasurime is sloppy. I think it may be early gendai. It almost reminds me of Gassan work. Do the numbers on the fittings correspond to those painted on the nakago? Cheers, Bryce

G'day John, Here are some shots of my 94. Cheers, Bryce

G'day David, The NTHK attribute it to the first generation. The sword was captured in New Guinea by an Australian army officer. There is a video of him online describing his encounter with the sword's former owner in the "Australians at war film archive". The Japanese officer (apparently a Major) was attempting to infiltrate an Australian position at night. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, I was recently tempted by this nice gunto. The type 94 koshirae has a sakura, chuso release button and mon on the menuki. The blade is mumei, shinshinto and attributed by the NTHK to Chounsai Tsunatoshi. The blade is a little unusual in that the nagasa is only 63.6cm, but it is very stout at the machi and tapers down to normal dimensions at the yokote. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Gary, Thanks for sharing this. Looking at the amount of work that must be involved in carving a nice horimono, I have often wondered how the addition of a horimono affects the value of a blade. Recently I came across an article by Markus Sesko where he addresses this question. He presents an invoice from the renowned shinshinto smith Chounsai Tsunatoshi where he charges more for the addition of horimono than he does for the forging of the blade. In this case the addition of horimono basically doubles the price of the blade. Cheers, Bryce Breakdown of price for sword blade | Markus Sesko

G'day Dan, The blade itself looks to be much better quality than the nakago suggests. Is it possible that the very crappy nakago has been welded on at a latter date? From the photos I can almost convince myself that this is the case. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, The small details on this just don't look right to me. I know that some of these details do vary, especially between different koshirae makers, but in this case, all the small details are different. I think it must be a repro as well. Cheers, Bryce

G'day John, So what are your conclusions on this? Is the sakura chuso button a feature of early 94's? Is it a favourite of a particular koshirae manufacturer? I just noticed that a lot of these examples also have a mon on the menuki, rather than the kabutogane. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, A little bit more about the evolution of the "Gassan" habaki. It looks like in the 1920's Gassan Sadakatsu was also keen on the "bamboo fence" style of habaki. So far I have come across 6 examples of his blades with this style of habaki. Below are solid silver gilt and gold foil examples. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, I called the above blade "Classic" Gassan School, but it is certainly not "average". Only around 1 in 20 of Sadakatsu's blades had a dragon horimono. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, If I was asked to close my eyes and picture a "classic" Gassan school katana, this is what I would imagine. It is a Gassan Sadakatsu done in ayasugi hada with bohi and dragon horimono, dated 1920. Cheers, Bryce

I have since discovered another three tanto and a katana dated 1865 - 1870 where Sadakazu used this technique. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, Here are some shots of a Gassan Sadakazu tanto dated 1867, which is very similar to the 1863 dated Sadayoshi tanto I posted earlier. It has very similar masame hada with the grain completely folded around on itself in the boshi, just like in the Sadayoshi signed example. Does anyone know the term for this? Cheers, Bryce

Here are another couple of examples of Sadakatsu boshi. The top one is a Bizen den blade dated Taisho 10 and the bottom is a Soshu den blade dated Showa 13. Cheers, Bryce

G'day Volker, That is a beautiful sword and is an example of a blade signed by Sadakatsu for his father. Cheers, Bryce

Thanks very much Moriyama san. Unfortunately the shot isn't really clear enough to draw any conclusions. Anybody else want to chip in? Cheers, Bryce

G'day David, The painted kanji are the numbers 9 2 4. Normally you would expect to see them repeated on all of the fittings. It looks like it may be a showato blade in type 98 gunto koshirae, with the saya missing a few bits and pieces. Cheers, Bryce

G'day David, It is possible that plays a part. It is very difficult to find good boshi shots, so I am dealing with a small sample size. What would be great is if members could post boshi photos of examples in their collections. You have got a couple David how about it? Cheers, Bryce

G'day Guys, Another interesting piece of Gassan trivia for you. I have noticed that Sadakazu and Sadakatsu seemed to have preferred different styles of Boshi. This is in no way meant to be a definitive difference between the works of father and son, but in general, Sadakatsu used a Hosho style boshi where the grain doesn't turn back from the tip and Sadakazu preferred a boshi with the grain wrapped around. I have seen examples of Sadakazu's work with the Hosho style boshi, but have not yet come across an example of Sadakatsu's with the wrap around boshi. Here is an example of what I mean. Sadakatsu on left and Sadakazu on right. Cheers, Bryce