KRM

Ford, thanks for the info and response. I was curious about the gold issue and it's good to get some info on it. Appreciate it, Kevin

(Just so that everyone knows, i will probably sell this kozuka, and while i will not directly quote anyone here, i may use some info in my sale page). Hello all! I recently picked up this kozuka at an antiques fair in Kobe. It's not anything fancy, but it caught my eye and i think it has a certain charm. I've been searching for info for about a week now, and thus far, have not had much luck. Most of what i've found applies to more valuable, soft metal kozukas. This one is iron, with some copper applied accents. On very close inspection (difficult to tell, even with a 10x loop), there is some sort of gold colored material applied in the joints of the plant. I can't determine if this material is the remains of what was originally a larger application or if it was originally intended to be this way. If anyone has any info about iron kozuka (or can point me in the right direction to look for myself) it would be greatly appreciated. I'm also wondering what variety of plant is represented here. Many Thanks, Kevin BTW: it's 3.75" in length. Additional photos can be seen here: http://www.marshalltradecorp.com/coDe/misc/kozuka_copper_and_iron.html

Is the edge of the blade actually resting on that granite counter top in that last photo? I don't even do that with my kitchen knives... Kevin

Understood. Thanks for the clarification. Kevin

Thanks to you both for your comments. They seem to make sense to me. I haven't found too many photos of his signature to compare with, but the odd shape of the nakago tip is different from the "confirmed" Tadahiro blades that i see online. I'll keep these comments in consideration when putting this one up for sale. Thanks again, Kevin

This is precisely the meaning i took from that line. From my reading, it would still appear that that is what that line is stating (reading it slowly or speedily, still reads the same to me unfortunately). So that i may keep this stuff straight in my head, can someone tell me to what the "it's", in the line "whether it's authentic (Shoshin 正真) or false (Gimei å½éŠ˜)" is referring? I'm a bit confused here. Many Thanks, Kevin

Hello all, the following is a link to a page of photographs of the Hizen wak that i recently acquired. First off, i do intend to resell this blade and am looking for opinions on the accuracy of the mei and so forth. I will not directly quote anyone here on my sales page however. The nakago is signed "Omi Daijo Fujiwara Tadahiro", that being the 2nd gen Tadayoshi. I do understand however that his signature was often copied in later years and that it was also copied by his students while he was still alive (dai-mei i believe it is called). I would like to know if the mei is accurate and to what degree would you label the swords current polish (i.e. 60% , 75% and so on). I understand that these are difficult things to determine with photos alone so any info you can offer up will be greatly appreciated. Also, if there is some part of the blade that i have not shown, that i should have, please let me know. I want any potential buyers to be as informed as possible (on a side note: i don't understand how people on eBay can pay a few thousand dollars for a sword that is only shown in five or six small, scratchy photos). The link below (just above the single photo) contains many photos of the sword. There is an abundance mostly because i am, by no means, an accomplished photographer, much less so with a difficult subject such as this. Sorry for the photo overload, but i figured the more photos i put up, the better chance that some of them may be of use in making a determination. Many Thanks, Kevin http://www.marshalltradecorp.com/coDe/tadahiro_wakizashi.html

That is correct, the blade must be "de-licensed" upon leaving Japan and the license paper will be confiscated. My understanding is that you have to pack the blade up in front of a customs official and then hand the package over so that they know for certain that it is leaving. If this is accurate, it kind of makes it a PITA, but i can understand their reasoning. If i were to ever import THIS particular blade back into Japan, i do not know if they would issue a new license or "reactivate" the old one. I would have to assume that a new license would be created. These things don't have serial numbers or anything (some WWII era habaki excluded here), so i would think that they would have a difficult time determining if the blade had been registered previously or not. Kevin

Thanks for the info guys. My wife will be pleased that i will stop pestering her to read the paper to me over and over again :D I had read that bit about the signature verification somewhere very recently, but as we all know, you can't believe a good deal of what is on the internet (although i have a certain degree of faith as to what i read on this particular forum). BTW: Brian, are you able to see the photos above? As i recall last time, there were some issues. I contacted my hosting provider to see if they were blocking requests from your part of the web and i received a somewhat ambiguous answer along with a request for the IP block from where you were coming. If it is working now, i suppose we can assume it to be a one time anomaly. If not, please inform me. Thanks again, Kevin

Kobe area I believe.... little inland I think from that northern setonaikai coast..... East of the bridge though... Welcome Kevin... I have an office in Sakai.. not too far away from you, however I only get down there about once a year! ... where are you from originally? I'll give you a shout when i am next in town and we can go get a pint at the Pig and Whistle pub in Osaka! Cheers! Najio is close to Takarazuka (~20 minutes away). My home is about 10 minutes away from Arima Onsen (semi-famous hot springs). Wish i could give you guys a better idea of where i am in relation to Osaka/Kobe, but i'm not yet familiar with the area outside of my immediate neighborhood. Takes me about 45 minutes to drive to Osaka, assuming traffic isn't ridiculous. I grew up in rural Texas, but have been in Miami since '89, so i guess you would say i am from Miami. I'm always down for a beer, so feel free to contact me when in town (that goes for anyone here). If anyone here needs a place to crash for a few nights while in Japan, and they are in the area, we've got an extra washitsu room that can be cleared out with no problems. I occasionally travel back to the US for a few weeks but more often than not, i'm in Japan, so feel free to contact me at kevin at pipeline.com Thanks to all for the warm welcome. Kevin

I understand that it is in no way the same as a shinsa paper, but i've read that the license paper that is kept with all registered nihonto in Japan, contains some indication of whether or not it is gimei or true. Is this accurate? If so, how reliable would that indication be? I have looked over the license paper for the wak that i recently acquired and i do see the signature and so forth on there, but i do not see any indication of weather or not the signature is accurate. Any thoughts? Many Thanks, Kevin PS: I didn't tape the license to the shirasaya. It was like that when i received it

Hi Hermes, thanks for chiming in. I had hoped to get full photos of my recent acquisition up today, but it looks like they'll be delayed a day or two. They'll be up in a few days though i can assure you (still setting up my photo equipment here in my new home). Glad to hear there's someone else new here along with me. Kevin

Mariuszk: Kitae-ware was my best guess, but i wasn't certain by a long shot. Thanks for the link, i had checked there previously, but as a result of me checking again, i noticed a good bit more info on another page on the same site. Thanks (you might want to edit the post and change "htm" to "html", just encase someone references this post in the future, "htm" 404s). Brian: I'm not sure why my links aren't working for you. I've sent an email asking if they filter traffic from certain countries. I would assume not since it is a commercial web hosting company, but you never know. I'll let you know what comes of my contact with them. If anyone else is having an issue with them, by all means, please let me know. Sorry for the difficulties Brian. Jean and Remzy: If i understand correctly, you are saying that this is a common occurrence with masame-hada and that some consider it not to be a flaw in that particular style? Would it still be termed kitae-ware? Common or otherwise, plentiful is an understatement on this blade. The photos only show a portion, they exist on the other side and there is a small one on the mune just above the habaki as well. I will definitely make mention (and show photos) of the presence of them in my description when it is sold. They all seem to be going lengthwise with the blade, not across. In general, is a blade with this type of flaw/sudo-flaw still structurally sound? Many Thanks to all, Kevin

Thank you for the warm welcome. I wasn't aware of the DTI event. It would be great to make it there, but with my budget at the moment, traveling to and staying in Tokyo might not be in the cards (i live in Kansai). That's #$%* shame though as it sounds like a lot of fun (read some of the posts relating to last years event). Maybe i can scrape together some extra cash and make it and if not this year, then definitely the next. Kevin

FYI: I do plan to resell this blade in the near future, however the only info i would use from this question would be the name of the type of faults (so that any potential buyer doesn't end up surprised like i was). I purchased this blade via online auction. Once i received it i was surprised by the number of kizu on the blade. In retrospect, the seller didn't mention the damage, but he had shown them in the photos, i just didn't recognize them as such at the time. My mistake. My question is: What type of blemishes are these? Are they forging faults, possibly brought to lite after a few polishes? Are the tempering cracks or something else? I've looked at several "flaw example" sites and have some idea, but it's tough to nail it down just going by the examples online. Any pointers here would be greatly appreciated. Further, higher res photos can be seen here: http://www.marshalltradecorp.com/coDe/hizen_kizu.html Kevin