Xander Chia

The only painter I could find with this signature is Ogata Gessan (尾形月山), who was the son of Ogata Gekko (尾形月耕). Will update later on if I can find anything else.

I bought a kakejiku several months ago when I was searching for a painting of a kabuto. It caught my eye as it had more detail than the other paintings despite being less vibrant in colour. But before making the decision to get this one over the others, I took a closer look and was surprised to find that it was signed 月山. I’m not too sure if this has any relation to the Dewa Gassan school but I just thought it was interesting and wanted to share. Anyways, here are a couple of pics of the only Gassan I can afford: (Side note: Can you find the hidden critter? Didn’t realise he was even there till I reexamined my own close up pictures.)

Looks like Seki Kanemune (関兼宗). Possibly Fukumoto Kanemune?

Looks like it… The character looks similar to the 綱 found here: https://www.reddit.c...terday_a_shin_gunto/ Don’t think the maker is the same though. The “handwriting” looks different.

Can’t tell what the second character is but the first one is definitely 忠. As for the date it says, 昭和十九年三月, Showa era 19th year 3rd month.

Looks like 以群水鋼. http://ohmura-study.net/208.html

Hi Mark, welcome to the board! Before I attempt to answer your questions, I would like to preface that these are my own opinions (that of a beginner) and you should wait for others to chime in. Answer 1: You will find differing opinions on this matter. I will let the more experienced members of the board answer this one. Answer 2: The WW2 mounts/koshirae can be referred to as gunto koshirae and there are several variants. It is fine to mount gunto in traditional koshirae. For long term storage it would be best to leave them in shirasaya. The latter provides better protection from the elements. Where do you usually look for nihonto? You should be able to find gunto in their original mountings within the USD3k-5k range with no issues. This forum has quite a number of links to commercial sites. Under the drop down menu, go to Nihonto Info > Links.

But why would rust only start to form after 180 days?

I would assume that the acid would have been wiped away or at least neutralised by this point no? “Wipe off old oil using tissues and .99 isopropyl, then use tissues and Kurobara oil to coat the blade.”, “Did not change anything to my maintenance schedule.”

Appears to be 義明, Yoshiaki. Possibly Mishina Yoshiaki? Would wait for someone more experienced and reliable to confirm this. Showa era. Are there any other stamps?

Looks like it.

Possibly 九行?

Is this the page you’re looking for? https://www.sho-shin.com/tokai8.htm

Thanks Collin. While I do like the ones I currently have I sometimes find others I’m more interested in.

I’m not gonna lie I have no idea if they’re mass produced or unique items. Neither do I know when they were made. At which point in time does an item become ‘second hand’ rather than ‘vintage’? Here’s a bowl I got last year.