nulldevice

You'd be hard pressed to go wrong with either IMO. Rai school and anything from the Bizen Naomune school will be top notch work no doubt!

Here is the other example from the Nihonto Taikan. The bottom of the Shige kanji is again just 3 strokes. I can post the description pages as well if anybody is interested which usually give context about the smith, but they'll need to be translated.

If other more knowledgeable members chime in and have no issues with the signature, I would say that it is worth sending to the NBTHK for appraisal, especially if you are already in Japan where it is a much simpler process.

A few references from Fujishiro and the Nihonto Taikan for the same blade. Some differences in some of the kanji strokes but I will admit I don't know Masashige's mei and any changes over time and I don't have enough references of his work to provide any additional context.

Its signed: 文化六己巳年十一月日 手柄山正繁 I believe the date is: "A day in November of Bunka 6 (1809), year of the snake" Tegarayama Masashige My date translations are super rough, so its probably a bit garbled but I think its close. He was a quite high ranked smith (Jo-jo saku) who was active in the late 1700s to early 1800s.

I mean, there may be 10 more Usa Ju Nobukuni signed blades out there with old and modern papers sitting in collections that we may never see. The NBTHK has records of these and probably the best library of resources and oshigata in existence and we get only a very small glimpse into their world. What we do know is that during the shinsa session, they had reason to assign the blade to the Tensho Nobukuni and we know that they have more resources than just Fujishiro, Hawley, Toko Taikan, etc.. I hope you can find more information and wish you happy hunting as well. The thrill of tracking down new information is indeed exciting and challenging when dealing with a foreign language that is hard to search if you don't speak it at a decent proficiency level, even with good internet skills. Edit: Also, if your final goal is to put all doubts aside, a new shinsa is really the best way. The reasons have been beaten to death above.

How do you know that tanto you found was the "only and first" tanto signed that way? The NBTHK has had hundreds of thousands of blades pass through their shinsa over the decades and there is no possible way to guess how many Nobukuni signed blades passed through in any given year. We'll likely never have that information in English let alone Japanese for the lower level papers. I would assume there are many more examples of blades with this signature that the NBTHK has record of. There isn't an online index where you can search NTBHK paperwork and only a small portion of papered blades make their way onto the internet where we can search them. The NBTHK asked that many people with older papers re-submit for a new shinsa just to clarify the very thing we're debating in this thread. Not all old papers are unreliable, but enough are that in order to remove all doubt, you should resubmit for Hozon and get the same attribution.

Google translate says: IDK that I agree with the last part about it being a koto sword. The tang looks like a much more modern sword and not a pre 1600s sword. I'll let others chime in regarding the rest of the translation on the wooden tag. IDK how accurate it is other than the last part.

Brian is a great guy. I had many wonderful conversations with him at the Vegas show and learned a lot from him.

There are a few members here who can facilitate that for you. Robert Hughes and others come to mind. Theyll handle the paperwork getting the sword into Japan where it has to be registered. Then the sword will be submitted at the proper date to the NBTHK (a Japanese official sword appraisal and preservation body) for a shinsa or “judgement” where they’ll look at the sword and its quality and attribute it to either a school or a smith if there is enough detail to attribute the work to a specific swordsmith. This will come with a paper serving as an appraisal and judgement of the sword. Truly exceptional swords are usually submitted again for an even higher level of recognition (Juyo) which is a competition where only the top blades pass. Whereas for the lower 2 levels (Hozon and Tokubetsu Hozon) are a guaranteed pass if certain criteria are met. Without a proper shinsa and judgement by somebody who is properly knowledgeable and can inspect the sword in person, it’s very hard to assign value. Some swords are worth a few thousand bucks and others are worth hundreds of thousands depending on who made it, when it was made, and most importantly, the quality of the sword in hand.

This blade is very interesting. Looks like a quite stout and healthy blade that has been shortened. As Ray mentioned was used in a cutting test from the 1600s which is a really cool thing you don’t see too often. It could be an older blade and I’m curious to see what the cutting test inscription translation says in full. Was there any paperwork on this? I’d bet this blade could be a really nice candidate to send to Japan for shinsa.

Hizen smiths usually signed with a tachi-Mei meaning the signature is facing outwards when the blade is worn cutting edge down. It’s one of the things that this school did that is fairly unique on blades in Shinto and later eras. There may be some confusion of the previous owner regarding the smith in question. Mecox above has a wartime smith that signed this way and the fittings also match that. Unless there is another Hizen smith that signed this way from the Shin Shinto era, it’s more likely that this is a wartime smith. The other stuff on the tags all seems correct.

Traditionally, ibota powder (secretion of a cicada) is used. It's kind of hard to source and comes in a powdered form. Darcy seemed to be a proponent of bees wax as its easier to source and apply. But there aren't a lot of articles specifically covering the application of ibota, bees wax, etc. that I can find. Hopefully some more members can chime in but this has also come up in discussion as many people will get a sayagaki put on their shirasaya and people are looking for a way to refinish their shirasaya again after having a sayagaki added.

Technically its all rust. The darker rust is the more stable form Fe3O4 or Iron 2 Oxide whereas the red rust is Fe2O3 or Iron 3 Oxide which is the more volatile rust that we want to avoid. Darcy is a proponent of oiling the nakago to prevent further degradation (Yuhindo - Oil Your Nakago). On an o-suriage mumei blade like this, a light coat wouldn't be a bad idea. Just make sure to use separate tissues when applying oil to the nakago vs the blade so you don't get rust or dirt particles that scratch the polish on the blade.

Did the inclusion of utsuri in blades decline because of lack of necessity or due to a lack of capability? We see a big decline in the overall quality of swordmaking in the mid-end of the Muromachi period before a revival again beginning in the peaceful edo period. This can be seen clearly in our modern lens just by tracking which periods of blades have the most Juyo+ swords out there. The need for swords was still presumably very high during the warring states era as there was fighting all over the country and we see many surviving swords from this period showing that swordmaking didn't stop, but that the average quality was lower. Is it possible that over the ~200 years or so spanning the end of the Oei period (1394) to the beginning of the edo period starting around Keicho in 1596 that some traditions were lost? Edit: I would love to see some older documents from the Edo period, if they exist, discussing utsuri. Aesthetically, its very pleasing to modern collectors. But I quickly reach the end of my knowledge regarding polishing techniques in the 1600s being able to showcase utsuri, mention of utsuri in general, and if it was a desirable thing for swordsmiths to pursue in their artistic endeavors. I feel like I could probably find some answers in older surviving Hon'ami documents, or commentaries on family collections that have been passed down for generations.

I was in Oregon all last week and was thinking "If only there was a Rain Dragons meeting, I could sneak away!" Hope you can find a good group of collectors out there Sam!

Wishing you all the best on this Hoshi! I've really enjoyed your input on topics and comments of mine here on NMB in the past. Your knowledge has been incredibly insightful and has taught me a lot. The photography is amazing. Was this done with a scanner or with a DSLR type camera?

It paid off, those pictures are much better and show off the hamon quite nicely.

Osawa Kanehisa Saku 大澤兼久作 He was a WW2 Seki smith and you can read up more on him here

You can see that someone with the same name and email has been active on many different blade, cymbal, music, and other forums going back years now and that the poster has a very unique writting/commenting style that is consistent across the years, forums, and disciplines being discussed. Going even further, you can find social media accounts tied to the same person and email as well. People will post way too much about their personal lives on the internet and with some google searching, you can dig up quite a bit on people without too much effort. Combining this information, you can start to piece together a map of someone's hobbies, family, profession, and much more depending on what they choose to share. I don't want this to sound creepy, but that's the nature of things these days. Of course Brian could look at the IP addresses of this account and others to see if there are any matches. Someone who willingly divulges full names, emails, and location is probably not using a VPN if I had to make an assumption. I wouldn't ask Brian to divulge that information anyways as that is now bordering on abusing admin privileges in my opinion. Everything else I found, was done in about 5 minutes and a few carefully crafted google searches. Based on all of the above, I would say with fairly high confidence, that the gmail account is legit, the person is who they say they are, and that they have a sister who is a professor (hint hint, you can search all of this stuff too and confirm all of it). As they say, there is 0 privacy on the internet. Sincerely, Someone who does stuff like this a lot for a living

I guess a good question to ask is, do you see a clear boshi in person when inspecting the sword? If you can see the boshi you're trying to photograph, it makes the photography much easier as you'll know what you're looking for. Someone else here mentioned drawing an oshigata of what you see and then you can compare that to your photos.

Is that last photo showing maybe some of a boshi? Since the kissaki is small, you don’t want the direct glare in the photo. Usually you can see the boshi best with the glare (direct reflection) just off the blade and having the angle just right to see the temper line where it transitions to the tip. Some blades have a boshi that runs very close and may be touching the cutting edge or they may have a reshaped kissaki where the boshi runs off indicating previous damage to the tip that was reshaped.

Photos of the Boshi can be difficult. Having the blade laying flat on a cloth in a table and then having a portable light source such as a table lamp that you can position and then angle your photos is probably the next bet. Capturing high resolution photos will also aid in identifying the boshi pattern.

Congratulations, looks like a very nice blade with a strong sugata reminiscent of the era

Echizen ju Shimosaka Omi no kami fujiwara Tsuguhiro 越前住下坂 近江守藤原繼廣 From Fujishiro: Tsuguhiro was a fairly high ranked sword smith from the late 1600s. I can't speak to the authenticity of the mei (signature).