ChrisW

Authentic but it has been messed with by someone who thought to 'improve' the sharpness or appearance of the blade by treating it like a western sword and grinding it. The nice habaki and decent mounts suggest it could be worth putting it in front of a professionally trained Japanese polisher (togishi). Do not let anyone who isn't trained as a togishi touch it for that purpose.

The intention was to deceive a potential buyer for profit. Don't worry! You've not wasted anyone's time if you're learning from this.

A Chinese fake, there is nothing here to suggest it is of Japanese craftsmanship.

Almost certainly Chinese fakery. The mei is complete jibberish. The nakago treatment is all wrong, the machi do not line up, etc etc. Edit: also looking at pictures of the 'hada' suggest this is some kind of Damascus/etched metal, which is not how the Japanese did theirs. Stay far away from this one. Start with some books and attend some local sword club meetings/shows if possible!

Tokio Takahara is the owner's name I believe. I haven't been able to find any information on him yet, so I believe I'll need to reach out to the Japanese Consulate in Chicago. Something to the effect of "For the frontline of the Asian holy war of Unification" I believe.

And a few more (we're still working on the photography):

@KungFooey As promised, here are some photos of my Yasuhiro after polish. This blade has both the smith's name, a patriotic quote inferring a year, as well as the owner's name.

I have one of his blades. Our token kai meeting is this Saturday, so I will hopefully have some nice pictures to post soon. Freshly polished!

I never once indicated that there were not artisans capable of such work in China. My phrasing was to indicate that the vast majority of nihonto-like items that come out of China are of generally low quality and typically carry many obvious identifiers of fakery and deception. The above item, regardless of its origin, it is a nice piece of work. The issue with said item above would be when an owner would attempt to sell and pass it off as a genuine article (as was probably the case with the tachi you mentioned -- until it was discovered by someone there at Sotheby's). You are making an assumption of someone whom you do not know and it isn't very flattering I'm afraid. And usually, folk here are quite upfront about giving at least a few reasons why something might be considered a fraudulent item; unless the fear of improving the fakery is a substantial issue. I would just take the compliment for your acquisition of an interesting curio piece, which is what the original comment was meant to be for.

Regardless of it being Chinese, the work is quite nice. I like it!

Nakago looks way too long for a tanto. The bohi is running through the boshi which suggests that this is the bottom half of a broken blade. And lastly, with the scrubbed nakago, there isn't much left of this piece. And as Ray points out with the tsuba, this makes me feel that there isn't much of value here in my eyes. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

We all chuckle at this, but a known member here got yelled at by a polisher for doing this to a few blades at the Indiana Token Kai section of the Chicago Show a few years ago (said person shall remain unnamed, but they know who they are). I was about to say something halfway across the table aisle before said polisher got to him. Seems like etiquette can never be taught and enforced enough!

How is it dead Jacques? It is certainly tired and overpolished, but I don't see any apparent fatal flaws. I suppose unless you count core steel as fatal.

Yikes. That's all I've got to say on it.

I'll also add that at any given time, many of our Indiana members have swords for sale as well. Just let us know what you're looking for and we'll do our best to steer you in the right direction.

Muromachi or not, this has a lot of ware which are concerningly large. The mei looks spurious. The sword is so over-oiled that you can't really see any hada. The mounts are very recently restored. You can probably find better. What are they asking? I suppose that is the clincher.

Buy the blade for what it is, not the name it purports to be. If it is good workmanship, then the signature matters little. If the blade is not good workmanship, then there will be another that does speak to you eventually.

I would reserve any judgement on the value / restore-ability for a togishi's (a sword polisher trained to handle Japanese blades) opinion. They are going to be the final say on any nihonto in my humble opinion. Seek one before deciding what to do with this item. I would not sell this item before you know that opinion.

As I recall, Japanese netsuke are entirely legal to own and sell in the US (IN MOST STATES) as long as they are under 200 grams, are older than 100 years of age, and you must be able to reasonably prove their age. I can't remember the laws on import/export.. I want to say neither is allowed. That being said, I doubt that Chinese made ones would past muster for legal standards. I have a friend who is not on this board, but collects netsuke in addition to nihonto and he has quite a lot of them.

I highly doubt the bohi termination point has much to do with how much boshi you have left. If on a sword with regular bohi, the kissaki has to be reshaped and includes the bohi, then you'd probably lost all tempering in the point anyways. But I could be very mistaken also.

I would also check the inside of the nakago-ana and see if you can see casting seam lines. Often, the fit and finish on fakes/reproductions is such that they didn't bother to clean up casting seam lines.

Not offended at all. People are aware if their photos are poor quality. Not all of us can afford or desire the latest crap. My phone is about six years old at this point. You can ask kindly if they can furnish better photos, or you (as you do) can come off as rude and pretentious in the request. Perhaps it is a cultural thing? Perhaps it is just you. And I am fully aware that your canned response to photos you don't like comes as a result of Brian getting after you for your 'personalized' responses. That all being said, when I do get a better setup, I'll try again.

This is all Brian will let you say now, eh?

Here is what I believe to be a Ko-tosho tsuba from one of my blades, came mounted on a 29.5" Sukesada. Interestingly, it has a very prominent kirikomi on the rim to the side of the sukashi cutout. It is a superbly thin piece, barely a few millimeters in thickness, but 3.5" across!

@O koumori This is the topic, check it out Dan! To the others, Dan just had a blade polished that is signed/dated to Naotane, but it might be a Kajihei blade.