Promo

Re Saturday: great to have had the chance to also see faces behind nicknames, despite I sometimes felt misplaced among so many knowledgeable people.

Yeah, Ian was already at my home filming stuff from my collection in the past, I know him well. If there is any chance to make it to your museum I‘ll PM you and maybe we can also meet in person!

Just a very wild hint, are you aware that the royal house of Salm-Reifferscheidt, having their home in Schloss Steyregg, just north of the Danube, close to Linz, and therefore about two hours drive from Blatná, have had a Japanese ancestor? Aoki Shūzō started studying at Berlin University back in 1869 and later was Japanese Foreign Minister and was the great-grandfather of the current head of the family. They still have a few items from him in their castle, but of course some stuff disappeared over the decades too. Some links on this (sorry, they are German, you can try Google Translator): https://oag.jp/event...m-privaten-nachlass/ https://www.nachrich...2-Jahren;art4,575690 https://oag.jp/event...1844-1914-im-profil/ It may also have been a potential connection. One would need to research if any of the Salm-Reifferscheidt family has had a Naval function in WWI to see if this theory makes sense. PS: I love your museums website, especially all the very cool and rare weapons (for me: especially firearms) you have displayed there! Thanks for doing this stuff, despite I can't speak Czech! I hope to one day make it there and get to see at least some of them in person.

Bringing it up a last time - hope to see all NBTHK Europe members from this forum in Manching (in Germany) in exactly one week, next Saturday. I'll bring this Masayuki along so that all of you can inspect it in person. Highly looking forward to it!

If there is anything needed to be done in place, then let me know. This is approximately 1.5 hours drive from my home and I go there from time to time anyway. Could check if still there and try to take some pictures. Edit: dug out the old newspaper article on them .. basically it seems they are property of Anton Petermandl, meaning this person seemingly inherited the collection. It is claimed they are all from the estate of medical doctor Albrecht von Loretz, who lived from 1847 to 1884, and had worked in Japan and brought these blades from Japan to Steyr. If this person then handed them over to the museum, idk. I'd assume they did about zero with these blades since 1884, so they indeed have handling issues and maybe are out of polish. If this adds to the provenance .. idk. Judge yourself. https://www.nachrichten.at/oberoesterreich/weihnachten/Schwerter-der-Samurais-zum-Advent;art115283,1244441

Thank you! Spoke with Markus on this signature too, he mentioned that at best the second name was 9 years old when this was a collaboration work, so bit unusual and maybe to help the younger of the two? Unfortunately I only pictured the Mei when I saw this blade at a friends place, so cannot provide additional pictures. Edit, to make it clear: he said the two smiths are Yokoyama Kōzuke Daijō Fujiwara Sukesada (1633–1721) and Genpachirō Sukesada (1712–1743).

I‘d appreciate assistance in deciphering this Mei. Thank you!

I'd need to add to this, attending to this meeting is only possible for NBTHK (Europe) members. But fortunately there is plenty time left to join . https://www.nbthk.net/news

Long time no post .. sorry to bring it up again. I'm planning to attend the NBHTK Europe meeting in Manching in Germany on 28th September 2024, mainly to bring the blade along for anyone interested to take a look at it. For what I was able to understand it will start at 14:00 local time. Would be great to see faces behind nicknames.

@Sutraken I thought your blade deserves a better side by side so I did the attached "enhaced version" of the previous image better (but still a bit "quick'n'dirty" since a bit of the red background is still visible) in Photoshop. Thought you may appreciate it:

Thanks for providing additional pictures! I've did my best in a quick and dirty method and tried to match your two pictures to a single one. The hamon is quite high up in the blade, except for a part of the front half of the blade starting around the middle. @Ray Singer did you actually have the blade with you personally when you sold it, meaning you have had it in hands?

Actually I was thinking the same, even for being a beginner I thought the actual angle and picture size used makes it tough to be able to tell anything. But this should be rather easily solved, maybe Stefan could try and do a few pictures and post those here? Thanks!

Do you really feel the necessity to call someone a nasty moron, just because he told you that in his opinion the hamon towards the edge is usually different for Kiyomaro, as well as speaking on the jigane? From a third party view this is a really harsh and not needed personal attack I would neither do online nor offline. If you feel he is wrong, then directly address his critics and point out why you think he is wrong with what he says. But please do not use words like this. You are otherwise risking ot ruin your own thread on a marvellous blade with expressions like this. Be polite, accept that there are different opinions than yours, and wait for the day you might get papered assistance from Japan which supports your opinion. Just like I did.

We are looking at a truly marvellous blade. It shows a it was done by a skilled smith with plenty of details to be found. Your posts though tend to focus on who made the blade, not this much on what it actually is and what you can see in it. And if I may allow myself to tell from a more neutral view, you seem to react very sensitive to comments regarding who made the sword. Since you'll submit it to Shinsa you'll find out. I had accepted different opinions for my blade as well, based on them you actually can learn a lot. If you for example use Kirill's comment and leave out the part where he speaks on your blade, I personally consider it extremely interesting since they mention particular details and aspects of a specific smith in a way you will not be able to find them in a book or elsewhere online. So just keep open minded - at worst you have a super nice Wakizashi which in that quality could get a very interesting attribution you may had never considered, at best your suspicion even gets confirmed. After all a win anyway.

Keep us updated when you know what the experts in Japan are thinking. Good luck - keen to find out if they think.