ChrisW

I have a blade by the same maker in a nearly identical setup as yours!

I have a friend and fellow ITK member here by the name of Jim Tobin. He is not very tech savvy and has asked me to post this here on his behalf for a translation. Any opinions/translations are welcome. I believe the blade is a WWII blade judging by how chippy and rushed the signature looks. This is unfortunately the only picture he was able to get me. Thanks guys! ~Chris

Thanks for the education regarding these mass-produced/reproductions Dale!

If you get a chance Vu, join a local token kai and attend some meetings! There should be one in California.

It looks like a fairly nice package! (Even if it is a put-together.) I think the blade is fairly attractive and as the others have said, if you got it for a good price then all is well!

Clearly this is not THE Horikawa Kunihiro. But it may be A Horikawa Kunihiro... or it might just be an outright gimei. The only way to know is to stop quibbling, get a polisher to assess and polish it if it is deemed necessary, then put it in front of the NBTHK or possibly Tanobe-Sensei. They are the best judges of what is what when it comes to nihonto; anyone claiming otherwise is a fraud or a charlatan. And if you won't do that? Then I think you know deep down that it isn't worth being THIS excited over: you'd just be stirring the pot for other reasons. So the old adage goes: put your money where your mouth is. I know I'd be interested in seeing what it comes back as!

Were you successful in obtaining this piece? Its quite a looker!

No problem! Nice piece. Would go for it if I had money to burn.

Fairly certain it is forum policy to have a price posted on an item for sale. But it should also be in the 'for sale' section. Why not put up a post there?

Mourn not his passing, but celebrate his having been here. Rest in peace, you'll be missed Roger!

Generally lineage means a master-apprentice relationship; sometimes with them being related by blood, adopted, or sometimes neither. In the case of a lineage, they share the same name such as Kanesada (unless a successor earns a title or changes it later in their life). Your best bet would be to investigate these two smiths and see if one trained the other. You could check Hawleys for that. At the very least, they belong to the same school. Higaki yasurime is typically a trait of the Mino school.

The Indiana Token Kai's presentation on Japanese Swords went off very well at GenCon Indianapolis! Our next meeting date is Saturday, August 26th from 10 to 2PM at the Morgan County Public Library in Downtown Martinsville, IN. The topic of the meeting is tosogu! We will be bringing our favorite and most interesting tsuba and other fittings to share. All are welcome to attend. Contact me if you need more information and/or assistance with attending. We do offer Zoom attendance for those who cannot make it there in person.

That is pretty amazing. Not very often do you see something like this!

Well, there's always the Chicago Sword Show every April. As for clubs, there's the Indiana Token Kai (message me if you want more details). There's also several of us who buy and sell swords in the region.

Buy from known dealers listed up above in "nihonto info" under links -> commercial #1-4 or buy from fellow collectors here. It may also help to know what part of the country you're in so that you can reach out to nearby collectors or possible token kai (sword study) groups.

And the elder sages of this forum should have the patience to guide newcomers who may not know all the rules, etiquette, and quirks of this forum. Its a lot to take in for someone new. No sense trying to make them take it all in at once!

Remember to start your own thread to get the highest possible chance of a response! And so you're not hijacking another person's thread. BUT... This blade is a fake. They NEVER stamped serial numbers onto the habaki (that copper collar that slides up against the blade). The shape of the blade is all wrong, the tsuka (grip) is not correctly made and I don't see any legitimate parts on this. It is unfortunately a lower-end fake, probably from China.

Unfortunately, someone has greatly harmed the blade by cleaning the nakago (tang) of all black rust. This makes it both more difficult to date accurately and devalues it. It still looks nice over all! A good togishi should be able to repatinate it.

Late 70's green papers. I agree with Jesse here. If new papers? Then you could ask more.

Even without an obvious yokote, this most definitely displays prominent o-kissaki.

Looks good to me! I especially like the fuchi, kashira, and tsuba.

Simply put, there are two valid schools of thought on uchiko: 1. Don't use it at all, leave it to the professionals. 2. Careful and measured use of it, only on out-of-polish blades where the application may clean off grime and help arrest corrosion.

There is always a chance it is gimei; however, as Jan points out, Naotane was well known for rounding his age up. Several other smiths did this as well and the article by Markus Sesko should explain it nicely! It looks like a nice piece, would you mind showing the rest to us? I bet the workmanship matches to what Naotane did.

The steel looks like "anti-rust steel" but I am not sure that level of pitting could occur on such a blade if it were made of that material. Honestly, it just looks like someone ground the tang down with a buffing wheel.

Our last meeting was wonderful. We had a great time discussing the Chicago Show shinsa results and even had a member bring a Juyo blade! The meeting minutes are posted to the Indiana Token Kai website: https://indianatokenkai.wixsite.com/indiana-token-kai Our next meeting is July 15th (Saturday), 10 A.M. at the Morgan County Public Library. Any and all are welcome! The meeting topic is: Gokaden: Soshu Den. There will be a number of very nice Soshu pieces available to examine! DM me if you have questions about attending, etc.