Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini

It has been so easy... Indeed...

@ Malcom. Effectively, the material doesn't fix the use. So is a wooden sword either it is meant to be a teatrical replica or a tool for training. The difference is into details. I totally agree with you.

...and both opponents with saya *and* swords, possibly real. No mock-up, cause you've to perform the action without having the sword leaving the saya. That's the difficulty, difficulty evidently abolished by a mock-up sword.

Pictorial evidences would be highly appreciated. Anyway I suspect these iron truncheons weren't laquered...

Right. It's intended to resemble a sword.

IMHO... Start assumptions from this mount will lead you to wrong results. You're not going to the battlefield with an unwrapped, all-urushi slippy tsuka and no Tsuba. Yoroidoshi weren't meant to pierce (non-chain) metal armors but to pass thru the scales/elements of armor or its leather if made this way. Yes, you need a strong cross section to (try to) pierce chainmail and heavy silk/leather, but it have to be thin enough to pass thru scales/elements of armor and to not have to displace too much (hardened) leather in order to pass-thru deeply. This blade seems to have a too large cross section to pass thru such elements as an hand-weapon. What is usually forgot about the cross section of blades (Tanto, Wakizashi and Yari) is the damage to flesh they gives. It's much harder to seam together a wound with 3 borders than one with only two (such a wound was also much harder to heal back then). That's why Yari blades have all 3 sides sharpened and sometimes hardened, as in the blade in topic. Doesn't look to me a battlefield weapon. It seems just a dwarfed Kogarasumaru, or a curved and short version of a straight early Edo Naginata in Knutsen's collection. Short nakago and blade lengths looks balanced but not intended for a shafted weapon. Two edged swords can clash with some uses of Wakizashi. If it's in this lenght range means it was probably made for show.

An evergreen...

hehehe, you're trying to beat Rick Barrett Sakabatou ? A really hard task... BTW, shape shouldn't be your focus. If the most appealing thing of your blades is the shape, in the long run you'll end-up smithing fantasy pieces.

Yamato battleship got her name from Yamato region (as her hull sisters Shinano and Musashi did from respective regions). Her Myth begun only after Ten-ichi-gō mission, at the end of the war. I'm not aware of any use of her steel for "celebration blades" as made for the Mikasa's guns. She had 2 3x155 mm secondary guns turrets removed in 1944, but they were already recycled from a cruiser class that refitted to 2x203 mm turrets. Not sure they've enough appeal to be used for celebration swords. Spare 460 mm gun barrels have been said to be around but I can't just now find their fate for sure. Most likely melt to lay down the Shinano. Methink the caption might translate into "Steel from Yamato region". Other explanation is that Yamato is also the poetic name of Japan. "Made of homeland/high quality steel".

Chinese style, indeed. Might be this is relevant to the topic :

What's in the background ? "Lone Wolf and cub"'s baby carriage ? :lol:

Refurbished as Iaito ? Nakago kirijiri, half-thru-drilled mekugiana, english caption added by the Iaidoka, possibly...

As suggested, Scott, you should get in touch with Bob Benson. The sword seems indeed worthy to be properly examined by a professional. With a little patience you'll have all the answers you need in a much precise and professional way than any picture or measurement would allow here. In the meantime you should check Rich's site to get familiar with terms and schools and swords should be handled . My warning was due to the fact that any attempt to have a better view of the blade's detail most likely will result in a damage not easy (and expensive) to fix. You're lucky. Please let us know what mr. Benson says.

Methink yes Might be Koto (quiet old), you should post measurements http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/measure.htm You should contact a study group and likely a polisher to have right answers. Are you from Hawaii ? Please do nothing to the blade on your own.

Matt, his signature is just above the song :D . Koichi Moriyama,to which most if not all of us owe more than a favour.

Claims with no reliable documentation aren't worth the cyberpaper they'r written on. Half of e-bay's Shingunto are from Iwojima, the other half from Okinawa and a good thousand belonged to Kuribayashi...

May I highlight that there is people that don't share our specifics for collecting ? Just now there is a WWII sword with a non standard metal saya-cap to protect the inside from rain for sale and I bet it's very sought off by specialists and might be it reaches this price. Price paied doesn't mean the item is suitable for the standards this board is (or should be) intended for. It simply says that the buyer has both the money and the will to purchase it.

NAG 289 ? 長光 Nah, the Naga is surely the other one (永)... That darn Ju 住.. This signature seems not listed in Hawley.

Ok, there's no Mon (nor apparently a retention system...). Thanks Solomon.

Solomon, sorry to be blunt but this is not artwork. Might be the horimono has been added later to hide flaws. Would you like to post a closer pic of the suspension cords ? The tsuba has a retention-system hole that is puzzling me...

Have I made the conversion wrong ? Should be Katana lenght....

"25 3/8" CUTTING EDGE" means that before Haitōrei such a "blade" could have been carried by a samurai only, and I can't see even the most drunk Samurai to walk around with this, nor to have it resting on a Katanakake. IMHO could have been made only for export, likely in Meiji,as already suggested. Not commenting all the rest, Hamachi and Munemachi seems to me too low to belong to a Nihonto.

Rob, I've little merit here as most of the work was already done by Jacques.

IMHO Jacques is right on the Kanji "Masa". However it might be a different smith than Masayuki. The Mei has deteriorated in the ending part and pics are...poor... however with a stretch of imagination I would read them 豊　BunGo 後　 高　Takada 田 住　Ju 藤　Fuji 原　Wara 正　Masa 友　Tomo　(MAS 996) 次 Tsugu　(MAS 1112) 綱 Tsuna (MAS 1206) Hawley 1981 edition. My bet is on the second one, i.e. Masatsugu cause of the shape of what is visible of the last kanji and blade dimensions that fit the smith's period. Might be that with better pics I'll be proven badly wrong.

Guess you're right : hehehe... It's either made for a) votive resons b) like an army standard c) to show the skill of the maker (possibly together with one of the previous options).