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Hi, in case you want to know the smith, it´s "Hoshu Ju Fujiwara Masayuki", Bungo province, Bungo Takada school, 1st or 2nd generation, between 1624 and 1687. Regards, Martin S

Hi, Eric, according to the work and signature it should be a late Muromachi blade. There are a couple of Dotanuki who worked in the school between 1570 and 1600 and signed that way but I am pretty shure it´s the one in Hawley (DO-1). Martin

Hi, there are also yari katana as you can see on these pictures! In this case it´s a 73cm long sankaku yari signed Kyushu Higo Dotanuki with Hozon Paper, cut above the mei and mounted as a katana. A very solid piece! Regards, Martin

Dear All! After so many contributed to these 2 threads and 6 Pages i cannot spare you my post. After this some merciful moderator will hopefully terminate this discussion . Todd, nobody hates you, exept if you repeat this about the debts of a family member . People here on the board like to be sqeezed for information if its done moderately and they eagerly give this info but giving and receiving should be in a balance. If somebody is not sensitive enough to understand, he must be man enough(your username!) to suffer some criticism and not wailing about people hating him. After all this is not Google but a board of collectors and friends of the Nihonto! You are neither one, still members have been very patient with you. Eric, you seem to be a very nice person! Why don´t you open a PM chat with Todd and generously share your knowledge with him what many other already did! Absolutely no bad feelings, Martin

Hi, unfortunately this kozuka seems to a be modern reproduction! The blade with its typical brass inlaid mei of famous smiths is a 100% repro. I used to order these blades in Japan in the sixties and seventies as replacement blades for my old kozuka handles. The kozuka handle is more difficult to judge because of the condition, but I wouldn´t trust it either. Regards, Martin

Hi, Stevel! I am not a superexpert, but as far as I can see, it has a nice wild midare hamon and looks worth polishing. Not much more to tell from the photos. The nakago looks Shinshinto to me. There are several smiths from this period who signed Tadayoshi that way, even though the 2 character signature is unusual! There are two who might come close, one from Satsuma and one from Mino. Right now I am not near my oshigata books, but if I find something I`ll let you know. Best regards, Martin

Congrats, Dirk. This is indeed the most significant difference between the Kyo- and Osaka Tanba signatures(besides the kiku, if it´s there). You have a sharp eye and researched well, but if you had googled Tanba no kami Yoshimichi you would have found this characteristic mentioned in a couple of articles and books dealing with Mishina school or the Yoshimichi clans(also Afu Watson - Shinto volume). Best Regards, Martin

I am surprised at the more and more refined methods of the fakers to convert a new sword into a surprisingly antique looking item. Still the riddle remains to be solved, how it found its way from Shanghai into a grain bin in upper Michigan! Seriously - Lee is right. it actually seems to be a china fake which is supposed to resemble a shingunto with leather combat cover and antique tsuba. Preservation or restoration will not increase value. If you continue to visit this board and follow up all the useful threads and links you will in time be able to see the difference! Best Regards, Martin

Dear Mark, unfortunately this tsuka wrapping is not only in a miserable condition, it is also not 2-coloured but "discoloured". This usually happens when the natural dye of the ito has been exposed to sunlight for some time. In this case the tsuka was exposed to sunlight coming just from one side. Some stingy fellow took of the the band then tried to rewrap the handle with the already messy ito, hence the strange pattern. Make your sword look good again and simply rebind the tsuka with new tsuka- ito. Also to my knowledge a 2-colour tsuka is no sign of a particular status but rather a matter of taste. All the Best, Martin

Hmm, interesting term that, to "bungo someone´s blade". Was new to me. Thank you, Mark Green, it might come handy someday, as so many "Bungos" were made. Martin

From what the picture shows, the polisher has to remove a lot of steel to repair this kissaki and it seems possible, but the polish looks in no way decent, so be prepared to have the whole blade polished. Regards, Martin

Dear Mark! Blade looks a bit like Bungo Takada school, late Shinto,. After polish there will be a few openings visible, so I seriously question a new polish which exceeds 500 bucks. Mounting looks entirely homemade. Brian is right. Save your money and rather invest in a nice polished katana, maybe with papers, starting at roughly 3000,-. With what you paid for your blade you did not lose money - not yet! All the Best Martin

Sorry, was feeding my dogs and missed page 2. Realized now that you were far beyond the Yoshimichi theme. The new photos look different. Martin

Osaka Tamba you can probably rule out because neither tang nor mei looks like 17thcent. There were several Kyo Tamba though working in the 19th cent. but I do not know them well and indeed the hamon does not look like sudare-ba to me. Mei looks abit strange, too. Imho blade is earlier than Showa(sorry to contradict you there, Brian), so everything, including shortening and resigning is possible. Greetings to all, Martin

Do not worry, John, as the pictures are indeed confusing and we are getting into a process of hairsplitting right now. Lets simply not mix 2 different questions. 1.What defines a nagamaki(naginata)? 2.What makes a sword blade nagamaki(naginata) naoshi? All the blades shown by Franco were made as sword blades. The 2 swords with grooves could as well both be called "nagamaki naoshi" The absence of grooves does not define a nagamaki, because any engraver could have added grooves to a nagamaki in order to add to its beauty. IMHO I would say a unokubi zukuri shape with its typical hi rather defines a Naginata naoshi sword and a rather shinogi zukuri type blade with long kissaki where motohaba and sakihaba are roughly the same and thickness towards the mune is strongly reduced. The difference between naginata and nagamaki polearms is easier to define: Naginata: usually shorter, more sori, nakago long in relation to blade, unokubi zukuri shape is most common, poles are long, up to 4meters. Nagamaki: longer and therefore straighter looking blades, nakago shorter in relation to blade, usually kanmuri otoshi, honzukuri, shobu zukuri, poles are much shorter and wrapped with band like a extremely long tsuka. Hence the name "Nagamaki" This is a rather simple definition and there are plenty of exeptions. But in order to stay sane, I rather would not start asking: what is the difference between a long naginata and a short nagamaki? Good luck, Martin In order http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/naginata.html

Hi, Brian! Interesting blade to be found in a military koshirae! A good buy! It looks indeed like a Shinshinto copy of a late Nambokuchyo Yamato Shizu blade. The pictures do not show enough details to tell the date of manufacture precisely. Judging from the style it could have been a much longer blade which was cut off considerably 200 years ago and then had the Sa-character scratched in. It was then shortend again during the Showa period to fit the military scabbard. Regards, Martin

Hi, All! John, the matter of rareness is irrelevant, if you have sufficient funds. The really nice old unshortened Koto nagamaki you showed us, are of course extant , especially in Japan, but still hard to come by and quite expensive. Gilles, there are three types of nagamaki blades found today: 1. Unshortened Originals, forged as polearms like the ones John showed us. 2. Nagamaki forged as polearms, but shortened later for use as tachi, katana or wakizashi. 3. Nagamaki style blades already forged as a sword No. 2. and 3. became fashionable during the Nanbokuchyo period and eventually nagamaki naoshi sword blades were made througout the Muromachi and Edo periods. They are frequently found. To order a sword blade in the nagamaki style was probably first of all a matter of fashion and personal taste, but off course these wide and long kissaki must have been very effective in combat, too. I did not refer to Naginata, because they are not very rare and were made as polearms until the end of Edo. They were also usually not suitable to being converted into long swords. By the way, most early nagamaki are usually moroha zukuri or shobu zukuri, so if you find a Koto nagamaki naoshi sword with a yokote or in the unokubi zuki shape, it was most probably made as a sword, not as a polearm, even if they are o-suriage. Off course there are exemptions. Regards, Martin

Hi Vell! The blade just has complete yakiba, but as you have already realized, another polish would convert your blade into a "study piece". Your friend is right, this blade has lost more than 2 or 3 mm. The healthiest old Tegai blades (usually end of Kamakura or Nanbokuchyo) I have seen had about 5 to 6mm yakiba. If you add 2mm for previous reduction, you end up with about 8mm original yakiba. This is a rough estimate, but probably comes close. This means suguha, with notare or midare draw your own conclusions. I include a picture of a nice end-of-Kamakura Yamato Tegai tachi. Regards, Martin

Hi, looks like a Momoyama or early Shinto blade. Hamon seems gunome w. choji, everything else is obscured. Blade itself seems healthy, but the crucial point is the kissaki. Looks bad from here, but pic is unsufficient to tell exactly. Nakago does´nt look very virginal to me. Sori on a wakizashi must not necessarily tell you where it was made. Regards, Martin

Hi and welcome to the board, though it would have been nice to know your name. Unfortunately for you your sword seems to be chinese scrap, so it would be useless to translate the mei. You will find a useful link at the top of this page. All the Best, Martin

Hi! The company who issued the origami calls itself JTKK (JUYO TOKEN KENKYUKAI). Regards, Martin

Hi! Here is a suriage wakizashi signed Echizen Ju Kanenori and just for comparison I include a pic of the nakago and blade. The smith worked in Echizen and Mino in the 1590s around Momoyama, no one famous though. Regards, Martin

Hi, Larry! To give you some basics about the content of both types of papers see this link: http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/origami.htm Thanks to Richard Stein a very helpful information for beginners. As you will see NBTHK Hozon and Tokubetsu Hozon Papers give you (except basical data about blade and tang) smiths name and/or school, province and sometimes (in brackets) whether its the shinto or shinshinto generation. NTHK papers provide the same data and additionally the nengo(year name) As many smiths signed with the same same throughout several generations, it is usually up to the expertise of the owner to judge by himself which generation made the sword.(smart sellers usually name the smith with the highest rank ). Hence the comments that you mentioned. Best advice is to seek assistance by more experienced collectors, aquire as many books as you can and read them before you start buying. all the best, Martin

Hi, All! I think, Brian is right. Blade is new off course, handle seems to be late 19th Cent. export work(shiriimono). Regards, Martin

Hi, forgot the blade picture, Martin