Tensho

Here's one on mine. Never noticed until this thread.

You are correct. https://www.warrelic...-1871-1945-a-708090/

Tsuka, Tsuba etc.. all look army to me Bruce.

Ahh, I see the "black" piece is solid like Bruce said. Without messing with it all in hand its hard to say what's what. But, I see the sheath isn't notched out for the locking latch. I'm thinking the handle is not original to this.. Is the handle "sloppy" when you put it on the sword? And does the hole in the handle line up perfectly with the tang hole? Handle would be much easier to fit to the blade than the sheath.

Whats this piece? Doesn't look like the same Fuchi with hole in it? Perhaps for the sheath? This is an idea of what everything should look like when together. Does your sheath have a "square" cutout? To add, the tsuba(handguard) isn't for this(no cutout for latch mechanism) Or, it is for this and the handle isn't.

This is just speculation on my part i guess. But IMO, if the original owner of the tsuka went out of their way to have a matching bamboo theme fuchi and kashira they would get the tsuba as well. This is OPs tsuka.

Someone mounted the fuchi under the habaki instead of on the tsuka. And yes, it looks like it has a hole for the Chuso. I'm with everyone else, more pictures of the mounts would be nice.

I would double check that the tsuka is original to this. Seller had tons of gunto parts, not sure why he never "completed" this. This is the correct tsuba for this:

I asked seller when this first popped up about a star stamp. He said there are no stamps?

Its Showato. Seki Smith.

Maybe of interest. Not sure if there is a term for them in Japanese. I have seen them pop up a few times for sell.

As was stated by everyone else. Looks to be from Daimyou54eb, and that they polished out the surface rust that was on it. A common practice by them. Not sure why they keep doing it, as it is much better to neutralize the rust than to scratch the whole blade up.

Good luck with that one. I asked about what looked like scratches all over the blade when this was first listed. Seller replied with no clue what I was talking about and that the blade is in nice shape. I then sent the picture below from the listing. And mentioned polishing etc.. and I was looking for one in good shape. The reply I received was "Getting this polished will ruin all the Patina it has" I stepped away after that.

Its in Australia, already up to $375usd.

Tsuka is legit. I have seen them a few times. It may have had a leather cover at one time also.

Well, I stand corrected. So, is the "hada" chemically etched on these blades? Essentially just fake.

The pattern is all over the blade, and visible through the hamon area. I originally thought Han-Tanren. But the geometry just seems really bad to me. I want to believe its genuine, just because everything fits so well..but... It is too heavy to be Zohei-to imo. At least it is much heavier than mine. The bare blade weighs 728g. My Zohei-to completely mounted(with tsuka etc) weighs 757g.

My thoughts as well Grey...

Koshirae is definitely genuine. Blade is a whole different story. I want to say its an obvious fake, but it fits the tsuka and wood liner in saya perfectly. Habaki is copper with gold wash and is traditionally made and fits perfectly. And I can't see any evidence of it being fitted after. The blade looks to have been abraided and acid etched. Steel looks damascus like and I can see a hamon in the right light although dead looking. Shinogi looks horrible on one side. Nakago and fittings are punched with all the same 三五ハマ markings. I have seen references of western steel etc used, but I don't know about this. Thoughts?

Saya is strange to me. Looks to have a koiguchi of sorts? The haikan looks to be the kind that are usually found under leather combat covers(picture attached) so not sure what the zip ties are accomplishing?? The Semegane looks iron and is not one I'd associate with gunto mounts(there are exceptions usually on higher class ones) The ishizuke seems like a weird addition as well if it had a combat cover originally. Also, has 3 seppa for sure, maybe 4. An odd amount for something like this. I'm usually skeptical of people who sell several WWII mounted blades(If wanting it to be all original is a big deal for you) I would price it on the blade(which I like) more than the mounts. Just my 2 cents.

Be careful of tokyosword. A lot of his blades have hidden flaws. If something looks suspicious in the photos it usually is.

1) 2) 3)

Looks like the only thing he left original is the tsuka, blade and saya. The chuso, seppa, habaki(poorly fit)and even tsuba are added. His shill bidders must have forgot to bid on it for him.