nulldevice

The blade was also a part o the Walter Compton collection but yes it seems it passed based on the explanation due to its signature and ubu status rather than sporting a healthy ji and ha. The video could have been great, but I found myself uninterested mid-way through. It seems like they have some real gems in their collection and could put out some wonderful quality videos with a bit more effort.

I just wanted to add some clarity to the above statement. I found this clarification by Honma Junji regarding Kunimitsu and his tachi to be enlightening to highlight what Shintogo Kunimitsu's "inferior tachi" really means.

Shinano no Kami Nobuyoshi

Ishido Teruhide

Sounds like a wonderful set of books to keep you busy on all things Bizen-den! It only gets worse from here btw

As for Togintei Sato Yoshiteru, Ive found a Juyo set of daisho tsuba, a few more Tokubetsu Hozon tsuba and one more tsuba on the Japanese cultural heritage website. I've also found other fuchi, menuki, and various fittings with his signature on it as well as a few metal storage boxes bearing his signature. The Boston MFA has a few kozuka but their images don't show the signatures and just show the front panel only. The only history I can find on him is from old auctions saying he studied under Araki Tomei from the Goto Ichijo school and Sato Toho later taking the Sato name after marrying into the family. From Jussi's juyo index I can see the following Juyo items: Juyo 34 - Daisho Tsuba Juyo 35 - Daisho Tsuba Juyo 44 - Chiisagatana Koshirae - Fuchi signed (Yoshiteru – 義照彫之) Juyo 47 - Daisho Koshirae (I believe this may be the daisho koshirae in the above photos) Juyo 58 - Daisho Tsuba Below are the zufu for Juyo 34 and 35 Daisho Tsuba

It seems the tsuba is its own standalone piece as it doesn't fit the Junishi theme but the rest of the fittings seem to form a 5 piece matching set which according to Touken World is called a itsutokoro-mono. These aren't seen much if this is indeed a 5 piece matching set.

And finally the kashira and better photos of the tsuba

Edit: Updated photos

More photos

I received the koshirae for one of my blades today and after taking everything apart I found the fuchi is signed. I’m not knowledgeable at all about tosogu and would love more information. I figured out the mei is Togintei Yoshiteru (Kao) 東吟亭義照 (花押) and that he was a Shinshinto fittings maker who has made some nice examples of work I've seen on Aoi, Tsuruginoya, and other auction sites. The fittings are in good shape but just a bit covered with grime. Only the fuchi is signed but the theme among the fittings is all the same zodiac animals and the work to my eyes looks to be of the same maker (particularly looking at the gold inlaid tiger stripes).

Signed 濃州住大矢友信作 - Noshu ju Oya Tomonobu saku. From Marcus Sesko's book, Japanese Swordsmiths: TOMONOBU (友信), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Gifu – “Tomonobu” (友信), real name Ōya Kyōichi (大矢供一), born December 1st 1899, son of Kanenobu (兼信), he worked as guntō smith and died October 12th 1967

Many other good reads like this can be found. It seems to boil down to superstition, and the practical side of my brain agrees that especially during a time of ongoing war, swordsmiths probably didn't suspend production of blades from March through July because they weren't "lucky" months. The overall distribution of nengo on blades does show spikes in February and August and I'd suspect it was more to do with lucky numbers and superstition than when the blade was actually quenched. You'll rarely see a blade with the 4th month on the nengo written 四 because of its connection with the word for death. You will see 二二 instead in many cases.

I would recommend re-reading and studying the concepts in the Sesko article again. And I’d avoid jumping to conclusions of laziness on the part of swordsmiths without studying a lot more on the subject of suriage and anything nihonto.