reinhard

A general advice for all newbies on NMB would be: Don't go public with your e-mail address from the very beginning. Allowing easy contact with perfect strangers makes you an easy prey. Once you're familiar with the darker side of the sword-world you can still lift your visor and laugh at the usual suspects. reinhard

Could you explain on this, please? Telling from the pictures, it looks like perfect utsuri to me. What makes you think so? reinhard

It is not a date. It is a writing in hiragana, starting "sa.......". reinhard

Congratulations Curran, This kake seems to be a very rare and special object. Take good care of it (and of yourself). reinhard

This tsuka (including Fuchi and Kashira) was made for a Showa-To during the 1920-1930ies. No need to search for any particular school, for there weren't any. Workmanship is very poor BTW. reinhard

I wonder about this particular mistake Moriyama-san presented, for "shu" is including the meaning of "kuni"(province) and there are no mei "Bishu (no) Kuni" at all as far as I know. This should ring a bell in any case, but then: The mei is quite deteriorated, the blade is a poor shadow of its former self and the guy writing the origami was eventually left to be the last man to turn off the lights. Who knows. Not much harm was done in this particular case. reinhard

Hi Curran, After a quick look the column top right is a date: Ho-Reki yon'nen (Horeki era 4th year) equivalent of 1754 AD. The column on the left continues: "... a day in sixth month" and probably ends with the name of the maker, who created this (kake), but this is beyond me without doing any further research. This might be of some help to you anyway. reinhard

The pibe d'oro shall live forever. reinhard

If you say so. reinhard

I wonder who that strange creature in the back may be? It looks like a bald, giant lady in an old-fashioned swimming-suit. Any explanations? reinhard

Agree reinhard

Lee, There was no "official tatara tamahagane" used, when Ko-Hoki YASUTSUNA made his swords, but they are genuine NipponTo beyond all doubt. There was no "official tatara tamahagane" used, when Echizen YASUTSUGU smiths experimented with namban tetsu, but their swords are genuine NipponTo without question. There was no "offficial tatara tamahagane" used, when Suishinshi MASAHIDE made a sword out of links from the anchor-chain of a Russian ship, but he created a real NipponTo. There is "official tatara tamahagane" used, when Gassan SADATOSHI forges a blade by mixing tamahagane with old iron from Meiji-time teapots and the like. Their swords are all genuine NipponTo, because they were/are made by THE traditional technique (see: "the craft of the Japanese sword"). Raw material is judged by its quality only, not by its origin, and the place of manufacture is of no importance. The sword made by Gassan SADAICHI and his students in Boston's museum of fine arts in 1982 is a NipponTo at its best, no matter where it was made. On the other hand: Just taking any kind of steel and shaping it into a "traditional Japanese-looking blade" the easy way is not NipponTo. No matter if it was done by a Japanese person or not and no matter if it was done within the actual boundaries of Japan or not. The result was, is and will be just a poor look-a-like. Collectibles for lovers of militaria without any deeper sense for the unique quality of real NipponTo. ShinSakuTo made by licensed smiths therefore ARE real NipponTo. Much more than any Koa Isshin "katana", made and used for decapitating prisoners of war or any other oil-quenched hook made in Japan dating from the 1940ies. reinhard

To speak it out loud: Rust and patina of the nakago are overlapping the freshly polished area of this blade. Old swords polished anew don't look like this. Meaning: This is probably a brand new sword not much older than its polish, but it was made to look much older. - I wonder what you have been told when buying. reinhard

Agree. It was most often Fudo Myo-O invocated by bonji on Japanese sword-blades and this might be the case here as well. But what a poor attempt it was. For consideration: reinhard

Don't worry. It says "Fune" for sure. reinhard

From a distance this hori-mono looks like a (naga-) bonji, but which deity is meant here? - Guido's other examples are quite clear and easy to understand in contrast to this one. reinhard

I can't see any kind of bonji here, not even a stylized one. reinhard

mei on a yari reinhard

According to Iimura's ShinTo Meikan there was a TADAMITSU working in Hizen during Kambun-era, but I agree with Paul: Nakago and mei are looking bad and unlike Hizen-style. reinhard

No, it's not. Jacques gave you the hint, but you wouldn't listen: KAGEMITSU never signed his blades on tachi-ura. Your "bargain" is just a waste of money. You might learn something about very poor gimei though. reinhard

I don't have an agenda. I'm watching and laughing from a distance by now. You are trying to put me in the elitist cache for reasons I can only guess, but you are wrong. How to oil a NihonTo properly is not an advanced subject, but some outrageous advice has been given in the past (probably by militaria collectors still guessing if the yakiba on their ShinGunTo is oil-quenched or traditionally hardened). You are right: It's not rocket science. But it isn't anything goes either when it comes to genuine NihonTo. Helping beginners (with non-commercial intentions) is about the only thing I have ever cared about on NMB, for advanced discussions are not taking place on public fora anyway and I have stopped searching for them years ago. It is your job to protect beginners from sharks, vultures and silly advice. Can you? Almost everything beginners need to know can be found in two or three good books. They will cost them a small fracture of the amount of money some of them are willing to spend on ugly junk they find in the bay or elsewhere and these books can be delivered almost all over the world. What do you do with people acting against all friendly advice? Exactly. You give them comfort and solace, discussing their mistreated katana-like objects at length on the basis of a few bad pics. reinhard

This came to my mind as well, but then: There are different answers to the same questions in different threads. Some of these answers, though utterly wrong, have never been contradicted yet. - Who's going to supervise the self-declared "experts" and their "universal and final advice" on NMB? With all due respect, NMB's collective knowledge is far from being capable of establishing reliable guidelines and this is not necessary either. Most of what beginners must know has been written down before and/or can be found on decent sites. If someone's not willing to spend a minimal amount of money on a few good books and time to read them, he should be left by himself (and the bay) and learn it the hard way. These books and sites should be recommended, but this is where problems already start: Some of us are recommending certain books and others are contradicting. - Even if we were able to agree on reliable sources of information (which we are obviously not) differences of interpreting them will remain. Establishing a lighthouse, containing the "collected wisdom" of NMB, would just lead to more confusion and to a false feeling of safety for newbies. Better leave it as it is and try to hire the best mods you can get. reinhard

It's MASAHIRO actually, but it doesn't really matter anymore. reinhard

It says: Showa meibutsu (as in: "meibutsucho") Whatever that's supposed to mean here. reinhard

"Gorin" is not a name but part of the measurement. Rin is the tenth part of bu and "go rin" therefore meaning: "five rin" (in length). I've never heard of a Japanese family punished with a name like that. reinhard