Nihonto Chicken

No W stamp. I think the white paint 247 number may be the forerunner of the later stamped (assembly?) numbers.

Yoshiharu has shown up here a few times in the past. Seems to ever be suguha hamon and muji hada. My 1942 example below, looks like he was taking a bit more time on his mei then:

I'll probably drop by on Sunday for a quick pass through, too poor now for serious looking.

Thanks, Steve! The "Red Fuji" print origin is just a minor curiosity of mine, it is just a nice, modern woodblock reprint of no real collector value. OTOH the Rainstorm variation is old and may have some collector interest despite its iffy condition. Will check your lead as well as some others to try to get a fix on it.

I only wish my "Red Fuji" (colloquially known) print were an original ($100k+ ?). Just wondering when this repro was made and by whom as indicated by the seals. OTOH, I understand my earlier, unique variant of "Rainstorm Beneath The Summit", to which someone decided to add the pine trees at the bottom, has some collector interest. I remember decades ago contacting a small mom and pop shop (forget the name) dealing in on-line auctions of consigned ukiyoe. After seeing a photo of this print, they indicated interest in placing it and told me to insure it for $2k when sending it. Well, I sat on my thumbs, and before getting around to posting it to them they retired or otherwise went out of biz. Some time later I contacted a bigger auction house, I think Butterfield, and they responded that they weren't interested in presenting it. Sooooooo, any recs for turning this over? TIA!

Here's another repro of the same subject, newer and in better shape, currently hanging on the wall just above me: Any ideas as to the date and source? I bought this years ago as a nicely framed print.

Here's an older repro of some note: BTW, is there a method to remove or reduce the foxing without altering the image? Inquiring minds!

See page 40 of The Samurai Sword by Yumoto for a comparison. Note he translated the mei as Fukumoto Kumemune. I happen to have such a signed sword in my motley collection.

Thanks, now I know what my menuki represent.

Sorry I can't answer your inquiry directly. Will mention that one of my two great attic finds is a kanmuri otoshi katana (not a naginata oroshi) that was papered by the NBTHK in Japan and authenticated as by Norimitsu in Eisho. I can now rest assured that it has passed its 500th birthday.

I still have an incandescent light on my bedroom nightstand and have more spare bulbs for it than I'll ever use. But, hey, I've also torn off all the tags on my living room sofa cushions, just living on the wild side.

They keep turning up! Link below to an old Yoshiharu thread, FWIW.

Too late for this year, I'll consider it for next Halloween.

Dare I say it again? "The first thousand dollars you spend on nihonto should for books."

Well, in a few billion years our sun will balloon into a red giant and turn the entire earth's surface into lava and perhaps after that subsume the planet, dissociating it entirely to the atomic level. Maybe before then a few humanoids may escape to other planets or their moons and then on to other solar systems, but likely will be taking few nihonto along for the ride. So we cannot avoid the inevitable end, only perhaps delay it for some amount of time. That said, it would seem esthetically advantageous to keep good blades out of pawn shops, also financially responsible to obtain decent monetary return upon transfer for the sake of one's heirs. So, make arrangements for a knowledgeable and (hopefully) trustworthy entity to sell the items after your passing, or sell them yourself beforehand, risking selling them too soon or leaving it until too late. Well, life is a non-reproducible experiment. Or, if you prefer, life's a bitch and then you die. Whatever, you won't get out of it alive. Take care, choose wisely.

FWIW, link to another Yoshiharu thread including other embedded links plus the mei on my blade. Looks like this smith liked suguha hamon. However, as has been noted already, the kissaki on the OP's example is a big red flag. https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/9552-translation-help-please/#comment-97421

They certainly look like ware repairs. They beat the traditional umegane repairs all to hell, IMO. They probably should be explicitly disclosed up front, but perhaps in time they will be as obviously recognized as the traditional repairs. I have a nice wak with gold foil habaki that would be a great candidate for this, if cost effective and without much risk.

Love that kashira, reminds me of Natsuo.

I had gotten most of the basic texts up to Nagayama's Connoisseur's Book and was considering "getting serious", which for me meant purchasing Fujishiro’s two volume set of Nihon Toko Jiten as well as Harry AFU Watson's translations. Waiting for good deals at the time would have run about $800 total for the four books. This is where I ran out of gas, both due to intellectual lethargy and being downsized into (very!) early retirement that severely limited discretionary spending. And so I shook my accumulation lust and became content with my existing motley low end collection. I appreciate the good stuff vicariously such as by visiting this site. I am now more concerned with eventually offloading my swords as opposed to acquiring more. Such is the nihonto wheel of life, I guess. It's been fun and rewarding, no regrets.

I suppose it bears repeating one more time, "The first thousand dollars you spend on nihonto should be on books." But, yeah, as a neophyte I didn't take the advice and bought a few losers before I wised up and no longer the king of battered and butchered bungo.

Probably true for the most part on behalf of nihonto true believers, but then there is the military collectible crowd that is not under the magnetic spell of hamon and hada. Even serial numbered Japanese NCO swords bring serious coin nowadays. Wish I still had the 90% and 98% examples I sold off many years ago for about one Benjamin each.

Personally interested in responses to this inquiry as I have a smith signed gunto with no Seki or Showa stamp that I suspect may be non-tamahagane.

Coincidentally I just got through viewing a half dozen of Ian's Forgotten Weapons videos before coming directly to this forum and opening this thread. Are the spirits trying to tell me something? Will have to consider this book, though my interest is mostly limited to just the Pacific War patterns.

Okay, I bit for the B&N hardback. I'm pretty much out of the market now, but still enjoy a good read, though I kinda feel like the little kids with their faces smeared up against the department store window looking at the Christmas display.

Checking in late, sorry. No star stamp on my blade.