The Blacksmith

No it didn't sell. Nice sword though.

Indeed, that link is now working for me again. Thank you Brian. It is appreciated as ever.

I usually log in on nihontomessageboard.com, but this hasn't worked for me since Friday. I have just logged via militaria.co.za. I thought that the board was down, but thankfully not, but nihontomessageboard.com doesn't work for me now.

I had a katana with the same mon, and which was also embossed on the leather combat cover of the saya. No doubt used by several families, Victor Harris at the British Museum suggested that it was possibly the Sakai family mon. The sword that I had had a blade signed by Asano Kanezane complete with his kakihan. I do not recall if the blade was dated unfortunately. However, the blade though bearing his mei, I do not think was made by Kanezane, I think it was actually made by one of his students. I have had a couple of really beautiful blades by Kanezane, and this wasn't one of them.

It is certainly a nightmare Colin! But the really stupid thing is that some UK dealers are able to ship absolutely anywhere, some will only ship within the Uk, some won't ship at all, and others will only ship outside of the EU ! I have had a nightmare week trying to buy items, and had all these scenarios and barriers, all in one week! I jokingly said I'd stop collecting edged weapons and collect coins instead. That came back to bite me, as I found two commemorative coins that I wanted from 1915, only for the dealer to tell me that he couldn't ship within the EU! Fortunately, in this case it worked in my favour as I was able to point out that Norway isn't in the EU, so they are on their way. But I have missed out on an extremely rare bayonet that I tried to buy in France. As you say, a nightmare, in all directions! Good luck Jason. The Republic is probably a bit more enlightened than the UK post office etc., so you may be in luck.

I am certainly no expert, and extremely rusty anyway, but my reading of this mei is Nobukuni YoshiShige. Hopefully, I am correct, but then again................?

If not a clearer picture, then perhaps an oshigata may be clearer?

If you enlarge the picture greatly, I think it shows sunagashi too?

Unfortunately not, it would have been interesting if it had been!

John said that one of the owners made him feel extremely uneasy around him. It is an absolutely beautiful collection though.

As a fellow metalworker Marjus, I applaud your skill, it is awesome. I have often thought about trying my hand at okimono, but so haven't done so. I rememeber Mike Dean showing me a beautiful Myochin Munesuke crab, it was simply exquisite. he also showed me a beetle, which when you peeleed back the shell, two lacquer wings popped out! Again, absoluteley exquisite. I did see the collection at Chiddingstone, but was overawed it must be said by the armour! John Anderson told me that when he was organising the armour gallery, he felt every awkward and uneasy staying there, and had a chair up against the door!

As Ed has said, it looks much better in the later picture....................but, my feeeling is that it is a later casting, taken from an original and altered. Several things don't seem to add up to me. The lack of crispness in the casting. Not proof of any sort, but a classic sign when you take a copy from an original, you usually lose a little bit of the crisp detail. The hitsu ana has what appears to be a drill mark in the bottom right hand corner. Perhaps it was slightly misplaced and then stopped and the hole then filed out. The burrs on both sides of the round hole are puzzling me too, and I cannot quite figure out why. Finally, the colour, which whilst looking much better in the last photograph, still appears to be a bit wrong to me, though the colours do vary a bit on originals it must be said. To my mind too many red flags make me think that it is a copy, though perhaps an old one. My only explanation for the round hole is that this was made in the original pattern for the casting mould to save time, and then the hole would be quickly filed out to a rectangle to a size and shape as required when assembled on a sword. This would be a quick job, and would account for the various differences in the shape of the holes. So, if that is the case, two possibilities spring to mind, either the original tsuba that this was copied from was an unfinished casting, or, that this is an original unfinished tsuba and presumably a late one, hence the slight lack of detail. Hope you are all still awake, and that this makes some sense.........

Is it just me, or does the tsuba not seem to have the crispness of the casting that we would normally expect?

I would definitely class this as a wakizashi. And a rather nice and decent one.

Thank you Bruce. I had wondered about officers using civilian mounted katana in combat, other than the so called tank officers wazizashi that we sometimes see. That said, I did have, as mentioned elsewhere, an Echizen Ju Harima no Daijo Shigetaka katana that was in civilian mounts that belonged to the officer commanding a prisoner of war camp during WWII. Thanks again.