John C

One obvious possibility is that, since the war did not end for another month, any remaining undamaged parts and equipment from Toyokawa could have been moved to Tenshozan to continue war production. John C.

Just curious if there is a similar address on a parallel street where you live? I have had packages delivered to a house with the same house numbers one street over from ours on several occasions. Fortunately, those folks are honest. But I certainly would not put it past a crooked USPS employee either. I would also contact the postal inspector and file a report. John C.

Bruce: I just want to thank you for all of your hard work and diligence with keeping these records. Still waiting for the book to come out, though... John C.

Josh: I can't say much about the blade, although the horimono has been almost polished away. The blade seems to have been "authenticated" by Hakusui Inami in 1952. He was a well known dealer who once made swords for US Marines. If you search for him on the site, you'll find a couple of articles. He also wrote a sword book that was popular with GI's in Japan. John C.

Just my two cents, however I think the answer to your question is no. The condition (state of the rust, shape, number and style of nakago-ana, file marks, etc.) will tell you much more than a nakago just being original and mumei. John C.

A Christmas present? John C.

@Bruce Pennington Black fittings and saya... John C.

Steve: I believe the name of the company is Senkichi. A set of 6 on their website is 270 dollars. As a woodworker myself, I would say these are good, however you would need to be careful not to chip them. John C.

Piers: Please correct me if I'm wrong, however I was under the impression that overt sexuality and nudity was not really common; that it was much more subtle. John C.

Beautiful gendaito. But you could be right. This looks like it may have been a seki stamp. John C.

William: Here is at least one explanation: "The reason for the larger hole in the netsuke was that once the cord had been threaded through the inro (or Sagemono) and ojime (the netsuke would then have been threaded on last) it was possible to completely hide the one and only cord knot inside the larger hole." https://www.jncohen....Netsuke/Cordhole.htm John C.

Personally, I agree with you Scott. I bought a star stamped Kanenobu gendaito from him. It needs a lot of TLC, however it was complete, legit, and half what others were asking. Caveat emptor is the right philosophy with any seller. I have bought blades from folks here and ended up with undesirable outcomes once researched. John C.

I just wonder how much the individual units (pilot in this case) customize their swords as an identifier. In my army unit, we wore Kelly green hats as a unit identifier; the special forces once had green berets, and air force units had distinctive patches. Maybe others in his particular unit had the same? John C.

If that screw is all that is there, then yes, the chuso is missing. There were, however, different designs for the sakura flower depending on the manufacturer. John C.

I use a food grade mineral oil. It's cheap, readily available, and can be used on kitchen knife handles and other wood products that require a food safe product. It is also preservative free and won't stain the blade. John C.

Glad you followed up. I sent him a message yesterday and he never responded. John C.

This area appears to have some activity along the hamon, which would not be typical if it were a showa-to. John C.

Here is a better example of martensite crystals (nie) formed with water quenching. John C.

Since you have the sword in hand, here is a chart to help you out. The key would be to look for activity in the hamon. The more activity, the more likely it is water quenched. John C

Just my two cents - I think AI can eventually be useful in Nihonto identification, however similar to the way it is trained to spot cancer, known valid examples will have to be offered so it can "learn" what to look for. In breast cancer, for example, thousands of scans that were identified by the doctor as normal but where cancer was later identified in the individual, were used to train the AI. Currently, it can identify cancer not identifiable to the radiology technician (I forget what the accuracy rate is). I think an area where it could be most useful would be in mei authentication. If it can be shown enough scans of legitimate mei for a given smith, it could learn the subtleties of his chisel marks or whatever. Access to this program could be used by shinsa or by sword buyers just wanting to confirm a signature. The problem will always be garbage in; garbage out. There would need to be certainty that the mei used to train the AI are legitimate. John C.

You end up with a statue of the Lawgiver. John C.

I'm a little surprised there hasn't been more emphasis placed on simple demand or provenance. There are a multitude of factors that can determine whether or not a particular sword appeals to someone. But unless you have multiple people interested, it won't carry much value. A simple steel dagger may not fetch much, however King Tut's meteorite dagger might realize millions due to simple demand and provenance. Likewise, two equally rated Masamune may fetch premiums, however if one had been owned by an emperor, I suspect it would be worth more to someone. John C.

For Jon's blade, I believe Bruce was correct - showa 16 = 1941. John C.

Thomas - thanks for the heads up. Just bought Swordsmiths of Japan and the books on identifying Japanese cursive and seal script. John C.

Marion: Here is a link to more info on sword papers. http://www.nihontocr...se_sword_papers.html John C.