Steffieeee

Very nice. So I've only just realised that all those ww2 and similar military mounts are directly copying these very early sword mounts. The end cap of the kashira with the ring through the hole etc

amazing. shame no pic of the pommel ( unsure of Japanese word).

Ah ok I thought I could see the swirl of the the hamon going up at the boshi.

I put some oil on it for a few days. Can see a faint line on the kissaki, is this the boshi do you think?

The same surely

Extremely cool ty for posting ????

Does anyone have any examples of old hilts, fittings that would have been used muromachi and earlier. I think the style of handle was very different but it's really hard to see any examples of originals. Old fuschi , i guess they are extremely rare because of the successive remounting of these things through the generations

Thanks for all these comments, it's incredibly interesting.But did the bizen osufune school generally use a tip like that. If it didn't then it does throw the signature into question right..?

Some more pics.

How can you tell that? Is it the length? Can post a pic from the top if that helps

I can understand all of that.... Erm. As with anything half decent handling lots and lots of good quality original things is probably the only way to be sure. At least that's what it sounds like. Some of these subtleties seem fairly subjective ie. Camera shot moved 10cms etc.

I guess considering the signature fake opens up another can of worms. Quite honestly I know a fair bit about old metal and to my eyes the chiselling is clearly ancient, but I guess adding Mei to tangs is another artform of long tradition. Reading isn't helping me really... So I've been reading that the mid later muromachi blades of this one handed size had much shorter nakago, whereas the earlier ones retained longer ones. This has the bottom peghole which also ties into the earlier style hilt fittings. Probably wrong on both of those counts..

So if the signature is 'mitsuhisa'.. I found 8 guys with that name from 1342-1469... 120 years span. Is there no better way of dating it? Although when I look again at ones in Bizen? That's 1342-68 Another question (please bear with me for being annoying) . Where can I get really good quality handle wrapping. The one I have is clearly some polyester hideous fabric and I would like to redo it with traditional natural fabric.

So if it's late muromachi is there a problem with that? Wouldn't the signature support that? Or is there some fakery going on? As I said before I was sold it as a 13th century sword so I have my own axe to grind with a dealer, but if it's a 15th /16th century sword that's fair enough. Here are some hopefully clearer pics of the shape, pretty much directly overhead. Another discovery from these pictures is that my phone camera is clearly appalling

What is inconsistent in the nakago for this date? Sori is 2.6 cms btw. Finally armed with my connoisseurs book of jap sword to try to spot these subtle differences...

So apart from all the other features that are visible here, would the blade steel itself be able to date it or give any more information to solve the puzzle as it appears to be. As I understand that is only possible with a proper polish

Regardless of opinions on age and style my main interest is; is this a genuine blade from the period it's from. Is this not fake, or pretending to be something it's not.? I realise even this statement is not straight forward but coming from a background of non Japanese swords it should be meaningful

Blimey. Not easy for a beginner that's for sure

Thanks Jacques but I have no idea what any of that means

Thanks very much Ray!

Thanks so much for your knowledge and time btw. Am I right that this is a small Tachi from my reading..? Carried edge down, Mei signature facing outwards?

That's cool, so it could be any of those mentioned smiths? It's an education for me especially in regards to what I'm told on a subject I don't know much about, especially from the seller... Is there anything I can tell about the sword itself from the condition? As I mentioned the hamon? Is this typical for this period? This smith? Can anyone suggest a good book which covers early swords .. that isn't in Japanese...

Yes pretty light but I've nothing really to compare it with. Compared to other Indian and Islamic swords I have it's light and one handed use.. total blade length from point to end of tang is 79.5cms

I was told it was a sadahisa sword when I bought it late Kamakura. I know there's also a sadahisa in the 15thc as well as two in the 13thc. But I have no idea more than that could be incorrect. 13-15thc is good enough for me. Would be nice to get it really nailed down. Would the habaki be an original fitting or something done later to fit the blade? It's Gilt copper

Could it be sadahisa?