noneed2hate

Excellent display! I'll need to make my way up north one of these days for the next time.

Could also be someone was bidding simply to drive the price up rather than a collector who wanted this piece, just my .02 Not sure if I'd personally be willing to spend that much on something online sight unseen in person but to each their own. It is a good looking sword nonetheless from what I can see.

Just ordered my copy, I look forward to reading this! Thank you for bringing this book to our attention!

I actually just posted about this sword not too long ago- reads as 筑州福岡 Chikushu Fukuoka (assuming I got the syntax correct) this is not the smiths name as that portion of the signature seemed to have been cut off but rather the province/town in which the blade was created I believe. I do agree though that something does seem off about the signature etc, seems crude/muddy to my novice eye but hard to definitively say based on a picture online -

Beautiful looking sword. Well executed Suguha always gives me the fizz. Does the hamon get slightly wider around the monouchi leading towards the kissaki? Or is that just the angle of the photo playing tricks on me.

Looks great! The $25 chisels from Japan are a pretty good deal compared to the $180+ Kawasei saya nomi that are floating around, you'd just need to buy a bunch assuming you find exactly what you want/need to justify the shipping cost I suppose. I'm not a huge fan of the $180 option as the neck of the chisel is made out of particularly soft metal and bent rather easily. This was corrected by zip tying a chop stick to add rigidity but still I felt I should not have needed to do that given the price point. I suppose I should reach out to see if this is just a fluke, I assume the company would back up their product. My biggest learning point was taking off the majority of the scabbards meat prior to gluing it together so I won't have to worry about sanding/planing the exterior too deeply when it's glued together and I cannot reference the internal cutout. Poplar has been my go to as well in lieu of more traditional Hinoki wood, the process of selecting appropriate wood in of itself is pretty fun. I try to find pieces with the straightest grain possible. Here's a saya I've been slowly but surely working on. The outer shape is a bit unorthodox but I'm attempting to replicate (albeit poorly) a scabbard I have with a rounded kojiri Habaki fitment is something I still struggle with, the koiguchi of my saya is typically a bit wider at points more than necessary.

Greetings Grey, I used the waybackmachine website and was able to find an archived file of the site: https://web.archive.org/web/20190905190540/http://www.n-p-s.net/musubi4.htm (It seems Mark beat me to the punch and I had neglected to read)

aha, that makes a lot more sense, thank you!

Very hard to read, perhaps Kaneyuki 兼行? Or perhaps Kanemori 兼守?

Greetings all, trying my hand at translating a listing on Ebay I saw out of curiosity I think I nailed it for the most part but wanted a second set of eyes to have a look. Omote side - 筑州福岡　Chikushu Fukuoka (the rest sadly appears to have been cut off) Ura side - 祭無八幡 Matsuru Mu Hachiman? not to sure if I got the this one correct, modern derivatives of the first character show as "offering", and the second character as "nothing" - so "offer nothing to Hachiman?" "Hachiman offers nothing?" I may be confused as to what the proper syntax/grammar is for this. Is it odd for Chikuchu Fukoka to be referenced without any other descriptors in between the province and city? (I.E. some extant examples with both of this province and city referenced would be 筑前国福岡住, but none with just 筑州福岡) It also does look like the overall signature and horimono are pretty muddy as best I can tell from the photos which immediately makes me suspect. Appreciate any input

I do appreciate everyone's enthusiasm on steering me in the proper direct, thank you very much. Regarding Togishi, I am in contact with Woody Hall and so far it has been a pleasant experience with another blade I'm having polished by him. He appears to come highly recommended based on previous posts and by Mike Y for the blades I have in my possession. Once I have this other blade in hand I may float the question if he'd be willing to do a window polish on this one so I can at least study the piece a bit more accurately cost effectively. I'm not too concerned of hidden damage, as most of the scale rust was removed revealing the metal underneath showing just a few minor ware and some slight discoloration from the rust. I'm not really looking to make money off of the blades I acquire, I simply want to study and learn as much as possible while doing them as much justice as I can feasibly do (and afford) Absolutely, my apologies about that, I may just post the actual album links itself instead of loading my original posts with photos going forward (unfortunately I cannot edit the post due to be over 12 hours since posting). Thank you for pointing that out for my awareness, it will not happen again. I'm not too certain, the Tsuka is of pretty standard size as far as I'm aware at about 5" / 12.7cm. Machi-okuri I believe is the term for this, but the blade is already fairly short as is. Perhaps an effort to hide a poorly executed re-tempering in the event that was needed with this blade (can't tell at all due to patina in that general area) but that's just a shot in the dark guess. Very curious indeed

Very curious indeed, I wonder if it was drilled to verify it wasn't a plated piece of brass or something to that affect (in lieu of just using a magnet).

Fascinating sword, would really love to see this one cleaned up. The nakago is particularly interesting in that it seems to have been filed down pretty crudely, perhaps in order to fit the wartime tsuka fast and quick, but anyone's guess is as good as mine. Nihonto aside for a moment: Regarding the Marine Service dress jacket you were unsure of in the video, that patch is for 2nd Marine Division, and the cord is called a French Fourragere which was awarded to 2nd Marine Division, 6th regiment, as well as the 1st Marine Divisions 5th regiment to recognize their efforts in Belleau wood during World War 1. The French Fourragere is still in use today by units that have not since been disbanded. Stripes on the sleeve signify the rank of Corporal. Back to the sword, if you are having a difficult time holding it by just the tang, you can use a soft cloth (or a tissue) to hold it so your fingers are not in direct contact with the blade, would recommend cleaning the blade with denatured alcohol to remove any acidic oils such as those from fingers that may be present and re-oiling with a protective coat of a non-chemical oil (such as mineral oil)

A few more photos for you, alas my photo skills do not do these fittings the justice they deserve.

I wouldn't say it's badly damaged, the scale rust cleaned up pretty nicely, though there are a few ware and a few very minor chips along the blade edge and kissaki. Though you are quite right, it will be expensive to see this blade properly polished/restored either way. Regarding the signature just more so wanting to identify which generation of Uda Kunimune it most likely is that said it seems the number of signature examples and correlation to generation is somewhat limited. I believe it could be produced by the 4th generation Uda Kunimune simply based on the mention is Seskos book he was known to produce Hira-zukuri Ko-wakizashi. The signature though quite muddy and degraded does seem to compare well overall with extent examples in Fujishiros and Markus Seskos books, but there is no clear delineation on which generation these respective signatures belong to. Window polish will likely be necessary going forward to correlate the other characteristics with a given generation. To my eye it compares best to the example in Fujishiros Nihon Toko Jiten Koto book on Page 318 on the left hand side which I think may be the 4th Generation due to the mention of Jo-Saku. Unfortunately it is unsigned, I'll grab a few more pictures for you when I have an opportunity. The other side of the fuchi shows what I can only assume to be seagulls. Also I just realized I had used the wrong Kanji for his name in my initial description - should read as 國宗 instead of 国宗

Just wanted to share my latest acquisition that was cheap enough to warrant picking up. Signed - Uda Kunimune 宇多国宗 Wakizashi As far as I can tell through the rust/patina, seems to have a chu-suguha hamon at face value Unfortunately due to it’s current state I am unable to discern much regarding the hada and boshi, the blade has a few typical ware about midway through the blade closer to the mune than the hasaki, but otherwise seems to be in descent shape. Most of the scale rust was cleaned off carefully/little by little with an old copper penny which revealed the mentioned ware but not much else. Looking at the nagako, it does appear hamachi and munemachi may have been moved up approximately 1”. Hira-zukuri blade. The fuchi and kashira specifically drew me to this sword as I really liked the chisel work done on both pieces. Seems to be missing a menuki unfortunately and saya itself is not in the best shape. Basic Measurements: Nagasa – 13.75”/35cm/1shaku1sun5bu Nakago – seems to have Katte Sagari yasurime/Kurijiri end Sori – has only the slightest sori, appears to be saki-sori Iori-Mune Motokasane and Sakikasane are ~4.9mm and ~3.9mm respectively Motohaba and Sakihaba are ~27.4mm and ~22.9mm respectively Haven't had an opportunity to sit down and compare signatures to known Kunimune works deeply and the characteristics that I am able to discern, but will do so when the opportunity arises, may also send this in for a window polish when funds permit. Pictures as follows: Pre-Copper Penny light rubbing to remove scale rust Post-Copper Penny usage with majority of scale rust removed: Mei side of the Nagako, edited slightly for better legibility for the signature

I will have 2 or 3 I may bring for Shinsa if it will be happening this year. Email sent. Thanks! -George

Window polish is complete as of right now, these are the pictures I received from Woody. He and Mike Y. conferred a bit and do believe it to be an O-suriage shinshinto blade with a fake signature I do rather like the blade and now even more so, I'll be pursuing a full polish through Woody and a shirasaya through Mike Virgadamo. Pictures below for your viewing pleasure though they are quite compressed.

Ebay has been getting rather aggressive with their sellers fees over the last year, additionally they did start reporting all sales to the IRS and are issuing 1099 forms to sellers. That said 20-30% seems a bit high, depending on the item it should be right around 12 or 13 % roughly.

The Encyclopedia is an excellent supplemental book, glad I picked up a copy myself, but I would go with what the others have recommended first. I find myself using the Connoisseurs Book of Japanese Swords more than most of the books I've purchased in the last year and fully recommend it.

That looks rather nice! Did you make this one yourself?

Hi Bruce, Coincidentally this was posted Yesterday on one of the Facebook groups. Habaki was mounted on a Seki made Showato blade by Inoue Suketsugu. I'll ask the original poster if I can get a clearer photo for you.

In my novice opinion, I believe it to primarily be Itame hada with some interspersed mokume variation perhaps or even a very fine ko-mokume with chu-mokume variations, based on this, perhaps a school of or derived from Soshu-den?

If a random smith uses the name of another smith on a sword that was not produced by the smith named, I think that would qualify as gimei (not saying concretely that is the case for this particular blade, just generally speaking) would it not? It does beg the question why it was signed with Mino as opposed to Noshu (i.e. if Gimei, was the individual who put the signature confused between the 2 or was there high tolerance on liberties taken with choosing between the 2), they are one in the same according to references Mino (美濃 = Nōshū 濃州) and from what I can tell in my books is that Kanesada (depends on which as there are many) had the honorary of Noshu-ju (at least in part) among a few generations. To list a few from Seskos books: Kanesada 2nd Generation, Eisho 1504-1521 - Noshu seki-ju Kanesada saku (signature does not compare well to his given example in the book) Kanesada 3rd Generation, Tenbun 1532-1555 - Noshu seki-ju Kanesada saku (signature does not compare well to his given example in the book) Kanesada (student of 2nd, assistant of 3rd Gen), Koji 1555-1558 Noshu seki-ju Kanesada Kanesada (son of 3rd Generation), Tensho 1573-1592, Noshu-ju Kanesada Thanks for sharing pictures and observations about your sword, Juan! The Habaki is certainly a good fit for today.

I appreciate the observation, what characteristics about the nakago are you observing that would indicate this?