The Blacksmith

Totally agree with bruce's post, nevr say never! Regardin you statment about fakes, I cant agree with this. fakes and copies can in themselves be extremelyinteresting, both to collect and to study, but of coures they must be kept as such and not mixed up with the originals. I have some very interesting bayonets in mycollection, bougt as fakes thankfully, and they are a very interesting adjunct to my main collection. I have also had nazi daggers, both genuine and fakes, again, the fakes are in themselves extremely interesting providing they are bought as such, or at least with that probabilty. BTW. for what it is worth, the saya at least looks genuine to me, so who knows, maybe, just maybe...............................

Please don't touch it. Definitely to be left alone. as it is a valuable relic of history, and should be left as it is IMHO.

It certanly has that apperance Brian, though it is rather sweet isnt it!

But Kev, I think that perhaps one should simply forget the mei and simply think of the blade as mumei, then the simple question is, is the blade then, as it stands, worth the money? If it is, then nobody loses out. That said, I must admith that them getting the smith wrong is very annoying and they should be more carful, but as ever with such things, caveat emptor. I bought a Tsuta Sukehiro wakizashi blade years ago, Obviously, it wasn't by Sukehiro, even with my limited knowledge, but the blade was simply gorgeous, so I was very happy to buy it. Some would decry the blade as it was gimei, but the blade was fantastic workmanship and in perfect polish, so to me, well worth the £700 that it cost me.

Thank you Benjamin, I'll try and do that! Something else that occurred to me was that with WWII swords, I wasn't woried about handling them, carefully of course! Some of the prettier swords with for example Goto fittings with gold, shakudo, shibuichi etc, actually scared me to pick them up and look at them, The WWII weapons were a little more robust and more of a pleasure, for me at anyrate, to handle, examne and care for. Interesting that as you say, very soon they will also be classed as antiques!

Very good question Benjamin, For myself, though it was far too many years ago when I collected Japanese antiques, there were certan things that motivated me........ I had collected edged weapons since I was a very small boy, and was always captivated by all things Japanese, especially the swords, which even though I knew very little about them at first, I knew that they were special. When I eventually started collecting them, they were really an adjunct to my general collection of swords, knives and bayonets, but the bug quickly consumed me! Probably possessed is a better word that consumed!. I quickly became obsessed with all things Japanese and sold my other collections to concentrate of Japan. Though I had several old swords and blades, my main focus was on swords from World War II. of which I had about thirty or so. The thought that a sword, possibly a treasured ancestral blade, still had a place in modern warfare fascinated me, and this was where I devoted most of my efforts to collecting. Of the World War II swords with older blades I had, a nice Osafune Sukesada, a Harima no Daijo Shigetaka, and an o suriage nambokucho tachi , with kiri komi. The thought that these ancient swords were still reverred and thought important on a modern battlefield was fascinating. I was already fascinated by Japanese tradition, culture and history, so learning about the swords and armour was immensely interesting. I was fortunate to know Ron Gregory, Basil Robinson, though only through frequent correspondence undfortunately. Ron I would always send oshigata whenever I acquired a new sword. Fortunately, however,I got to know the late Victor Harris at the british Museum quite well, and John Anderson, whose collection of Japanese armour had to be seen to be believed! So with their help and guidence, study and appreciation of the subject came quite naturally. Regretably, kno longer have that collection, but tmy interest in all things Japanese has never been far away, and hopefully, a sword or two, or three.... will before long once again be in my collection. Apologies for any spelling mistakes, but I have problems with my eyesight at present and cannot read or writ properly! Russ

I am pleased that I was not the only one that immediately thought of the top part of an NCO's blade. That said, the bohi seems to end a bit too far from the kissaki for that possibly? (We know what the kissaki is, but it the actual pointed tip of the blade still called the kissaki??). I do not think that the seppas is stamped, it seems a bit irregular for that IMHO. but it certainly doesn't look to have any age to it !

Thank you for that, much appreciated. Indeed, not what I was thinking of at all! $108k ? I was thinking along the lines of something nice..... like koto Juyo........... I wonder what made someone pay that much for those all those years ago?

I needed an armour catalogue a few years back, one from the 1990', and Christies were extremely helpful and supplied a copy. I wonder what lot #67 was ?

Alex, go and stand in the corner facing the wall........... I have seen recently an aluminium hilted NCO's katana with a rivet instead of the normal screw. Possibly, a field repair, but perhaps not and added later. As Aaron has explained, removing the rivet wouldn't be a problem, but to be honest, it probably isn't worth it, even for curiosity's sake. Perhaps just think of it as a 'battlefield' repair? Which it may even be.

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I have so greatly enjoyed reading through this wonderful and fascinating thread ! It would have been mouthwatering to have actually seen it. Thank you for all the contribtions.

Did the Myochin smiths not always sign Myochin? Certainly a kabuto that I owned was signed Myochin Ujiiye, and dated Eisho 18, (1521). I also had some kote, also signed Myochin, but I do not recall the actual smiths name.

I would like to see pictures of the whole sword please. I could be wrong of course, and hopefully am, but to my eyes this seems more like a Chinese copy than a genuine Japanese blade.The shape and finish of the nakago, the very badly written and lightly inscribed kanji, the megugi ana etc. Several things do not seem right to me.

I envy you Piers, as probably you can still obtain nice woodblock prints at reasonable prices in Japan. I did have a few years ago, but alas they were destroyed in a fire along with my library. There used to be a shop in Camden Passage in London that sold prints, and where I bought a few. Unfortunately the lady who owned the shop was from Nagasaki, and wouldn't have anything sword related in the shop. Nice frames gents! Well done!

Unfortunately, there are not too many English ciders available over here, usually Blackthorn or Bulmers Hereford cider. Though admittedly, the Blackthorn wasn't as it was when I was living in the UK. The local cider here is really just a sort of fruity, fizzy drink, with such delicacies as , rhubarb, lime, raspbery, chilli, and god knows what other abominations that the locals call 'cider'! As for the possibility of import, well our tax systrem would obliterate that possibility. A friend was sent a bottle of whisky as a birthday present, and the customs kindly charged him £75 import fee ! I have had some nice Kentish ciders too.

Unfortunately these marks have been awfully done, possibly not even in China, let alone Japan! (?). A very bad copy I am sorry to say.

Wow, an absolutely amazing and extremely thoughtful birthday present! Congratulations. It was my birthday a couple of weeks back.........I got a bottle of cider! Mind you , it was Dry Blackthorn English cider!

So it didn't 'looked exactly like the item in question' then! Sorry Michael, but I just couldn't resist it! I have had a few of the American M1 helmets with their fibre or plastic type liners. I am pretty certain that the item in the original post is a fibreglass copy of a shield boss. The dimensions and form are correct for this, possibly even the embossed decoration if it it supposedly Celtic.

I used to use bamboo chopsticks. Easily and cheaply available. They are tapered and easily cut to size. Just slightly round off the ends and there you have it, and they make quick good mekugi.

It looks to me more like a poor copy of an old Celtic, or possibly Roman, shield boss (Umbo). As Sam says, fibreglass in all likelyhood.

No doubt the personal sword of Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, which he used to commit seppuku !

Perhaps it was cobbled together as the first habaki fitted tighter on the blade, where there is almost no discernable ha-machi or mune-machi.

And different prices too! I have noticed some flamenco guitar sellers with multiple listings for the same guitar, but again with some quite different prices.

I was 18 or 19, a copper hilted NCO's katana, bought from Rob Taylor when he was in Queens Road, Peckham. Price £65 ! Though I started collecting edged weapons when I was just six, and when I couldn't obtain anything new for my collection, I read everything that I could find on the subject.Though I was already fascinated by Japanese history and culture, I quickly realised that Japanese weapons were the ultimate edged weapons, and they became a sort of obsession, and I'd even get books just because they had a picture of a Japanese sword in it!