mdiddy

I see a Shinto wakizashi with maybe a reshaped nakago or slightly machi okuri. Not much makes me think of Shitahara though. How about Bungo?

Here are a couple of scans of oshigata to help. Nihon Toko Jiten: Nihonto Zuikan:

Yes - the blade is Showato and oil-quenched, but not machine made. A swordsmith constructed it but with mill steel and oil-quenching instead of tamahagane and water-quenching. If you search the forum for Showato vs. Gendaito you can find a lot more information on the difference between the two. Most blades made in Seki were Showato. The Seki stamp is an indicator. Also, oil-quenched blades with gunome hamon show hard dark spots at the top of the gunome peaks. In the photo of the blade you shared, I circled what look like some of these hard dark spots.

Chuck, You are correct that your sword is an IJA sword with a Seki stamp. It would likely have been carried by an officer of company rank or higher. The mei says "Noshu Seki ju Kojima Yoshimasa Saku". Loosely translated that means Kojima Yoshimasa of Seki made this. Here is a link that explains a lot about IJA swords: http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~t-ohmura/gunto_002.htm Best, Matt

It is the nature of swords as art instead of weapon. Modern togishi are in the 'image enhancement' business. I have heard anecdotally that some can indeed be miracle workers and breath life into tired blades, that hada can change from masame to muji, that certain attributes can be enhanced to change and improve average Shinsa results. Frankly, I see no problem with this. Sword appraisal is not an exact science and we are all operating on incomplete information. If the difference between an 'Enju' appraisal and a 'Ko-Uda' appraisal is a skilled togishi then so be it. My own first-hand experience with properly trained togishi are that they are highly skilled craftsmen that significantly enhance and bring out those aspects of nihonto that we appreciate. It is up to them to decide their methods. Enju vs. Ko-Uda may influence price, but from an appreciation standpoint, the important takeaway from Tsuruta-san's write-up was this:

The few kanji in the pictures look to be 'Osafune Suke__'. I think the truncated kanji at the end of the tang might be 'Yoshi'. You may find the characters for 'Bishu' above what is in the pictures.

Dave, The Kai Gunto fittings may be great and the blade may be in great condition, but from what I see of the boshi I expect this to be an oil-tempered Showato. Matt

The sword is not fake but the signature is not of Masakiyo. It does not look that badly damaged by the flood and I would recommend leaving as is.

I recommend shipping USPS Express (EMS) but USPS Priority works too. More important is to know the vagaries of your local customs and tax and to communicate any needed work-arounds to your shipper.

Not too long ago I had a Shinshinto copy of Soden Bizen work. It was large, straighter sugata, wide mihaba and sakihaba, o-kissaki, and a billowing gunome midare hamon. It was mumei, kiri nakagojiri, with yasurime and three mekugi-ana to make it look o-suriage. However, the hada was tight almost muji. The nakago was hardly aged and the steel very bright. I concluded Shinshinto and NTHK Shinsa agreed however I struggled to understand the attribution to Hosokawa Masachika. I gave up trying to find info and concluded that it must be a 'catch-all' for the Shinsa. I'm pleasantly surprised to read the attribution was probably fairly accurate.

Tony - thanks for sharing. Please post more pics - show us the sugata, hada, and hamon if you can. My shikkake has a gunome hamon very similar to the oshigata here: http://www007.upp.so-net.ne.jp/m-kenji/ ... oto11.html. There is sunagashi throughout the hamon coinciding with masame hada that rises into the ji. It is Tokubetsu Hozon with sayagaki by Tanobe dating it to late Nambokucho. It was not directly attributed to Norinaga though. I will see if I can get photos of the hamon. In the mean time, share some more pics, please!

It is hasty to say all WWII star-stamped blades are traditionally made and worthy of preservation because a few have NBTHK papers. Do WWII star-stamped blades have a 100% pass rate with NBTHK? How many WWII star-stamped blades have been submitted and rejected? For those rejected, what were the reasons? Do they align with Jacques concerns or different reasons? We need these answers before we can conclusively say that all WWII star-stamped blades are traditionally made and worthy of preservation. Is it expecting too much that the most learned about WWII star-stamped blades would have these statistics and be willing to share?

Well done! I think it looks really good in the 'new' tsuka and saya. I hope you treasure it for many years.

Tobias, Besides looking at the hamachi you can also compare the width of the nakago mune to the width of the mune above the munemachi. A tired blade - or at least a blade that has experienced previous polishes - will show a larger width of the nakago mune in comparison to the mune above the munemachi. As blades are polished down the width of the hamon will decrease as the ha is taken down to remove damage like hakobure (nicks). Hamon running off the blade can be an indicator of tiredness. So can a greatly reduced hamon if you observe this in a blade from a swordsmith or school where you expect different. Considering the shape can also be an indicator of tiredness. Nakahara considers uchizori in tanto the result of reshaping and tiredness rather than by design. I recommend picking up a copy of his book if you want more insight into assessing tiredness, as well as other aspects of a blade: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/4770031300. Besides shintetsu, prevalent ware can be a sign of tiredness. I may have pictures of a good example of this if I can dig them up. Those are a few thoughts on the subject from my perspective. Hope they help. Matt

Looks like a standard showato. Someone has removed the hatome for the kabutogane/sarute. I recommend trying to translate this one - it is not too hard and another example from the smith can be found in Stein's showa oshigata database: http://home.earthlink.net/~ttstein/index.htm.

I agree the nakago mune looks altered. Consider the awkward angle as the nakago meets the munemachi.

Here are two military mounted wakizashi and an uchigatana that I have had over the years. The saya were all customized.

The kozuka looks like shibuichi with carving in katakiri bori. Would you post a few more pictures of it including the backside? You may also want to check for a small signature there. Would love to see more pics of the blade and nakago too. Nice find!

I have had several shorter swords in military mounts that were customized for their length. The military mounts included Shin Gunto, Kai Gunto, and Kyu Gunto fittings and the swords included Mizuta Kunishige, Hoshu Muneyuki, Sakushu Munemitsu, Bizen Sukesada, etc. In all cases they were either Edo period wakizashis or later Muromachi period uchigatana. They were all nicer than average WWII-era swords. I will see if I can dig up some pics. One of the Kyu Gunto mounts showed extensive decoration. From the looks of your sword, I would say it is likely an Edo period wakizashi. Please keep us posted with better pics of the sword and mounts when you have them. Matt

A very large katana attributed to Shodai Kunisada from the recent Bonham's sale showed a nakago extension (http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20503/l ... 6b1%3Dlist). It was a very long sword - 2 shaku, 9 sun - and I wonder if the extension had to do with practical usage. Having a longer nakago would mean impact force distributed over a greater length I think.

Wim, Here is the mei from a Zenjo Yoshitoki I had at one time that you can also compare to. I remember it has a wild gunome temper that reached the shinogi in places. Best, Matt

It is faint, but I recommend inspecting this area closer for a hairline crack just to be sure.

I give a WTF to the Minamoto Yoshichika.

http://jssus.org/nkp/fake_japanese_swords.html and http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/repro.htm

Now that it is over I will say I was most impressed with the Yamato Shizu katana. Remarkable hada.