cabowen

George- You have asked this question on several occasions and I can't help but wonder why you are so interested in what he thinks about the topic???

Perhaps some clarification is in order... The NBTHK has had several of their people in hot water in recent years for various alleged offenses. These scandals have been all over the Japanese press. There have been many lawsuits. The Ministry of Education has cut off funding and the Japan Swordsmiths Association, along with many other major figures, has aligned themselves with a new sword group. It is possible that this new group will issue kantei sho in the future, though at present they are not doing so...

What does the dealer have to say about it????

try here: https://www.aoi-art.com/sword/katana/10185j.html

yes, like yours, this kiku has the star at its center.... That all sounds ok. You might want to invest in some appropriate oil. A light coat of oil on the nakago in this case (normally the nakago is protected by a nice even patina but this looks to be rough and perhaps cleaned at one point) probably wouldn't hurt. This is a fairly well known smith and there are plenty of fakes out there. It is always hard to make any judgments with any certainty from photo over the net. Compare yours to the example you found above. Note the placement, shaps, and spacing of the kanji, as well as the stroke direction, etc., of the kanji themselves...

Simply "mumei Akasaka".....

I think you will find, among other things, the kiku is a bit different.....

yes, it is Minamoto...Wrote Fujiwara out of force of habit.....Edited above to correct that....Sorry about that...

Blade is signed Echizen no Kami Minamoto Nobuyoshi. Nakago is in rough shape. Signature is iffy but can't determine with certainty due to the cleaning and image quality. In any case, it is a real Japanese sword, circa 17th century. Keep it well oiled and some of the dirt and grime may come off with light rubbing with a cotton cloth.... edited to correct sloppiness....

I believe I made the comment that the Fukuoka Ishido school would be a place to start your research, not that a smith from your group definitely made your sword. Nagayama Kokan's book would have some info on this group, as well as help you research in other directions your sword takes you.....

I have seen this w stamp often and seems it is always on factory blades. I assume it is an assembly or acceptance stamp of some sort. Nothing of terrible importance....

I believe this to be Yoshiharu (義治). There were at least two of them that I know of. One early, who was a student of Yoshichika as mentioned above and the other was a smith who ran a sword factory in Tokyo. I met his son once. The factory has long since closed but they had buckets of half finished gunto fittings and other inventory sitting all over the place....They made gunto using modern methods and the swords were not traditional. This looks to be of that variety....

I thought we were talking about swords....

We have amateur polishers to thank for some of these....What amazes me is that people who claim to love swords continue to try to save a buck by using unqualified people to restore their beloved sword....Sorry, ranting again myself....

You confuse kiri-ba and kata-kiriba which are not the same, kiriaba was only found on very old blades (chokutô) A quick search on google shows that Katakihira is not so rare. Below three examples, (one mid Shinto and two Shinshinto) http://www.samuraishokai.jp/sword/09317.html http://www.finesword.co.jp/sale/touken/ ... su/562.htm http://www.japanesesword.com/Images/Swo ... 5wakX.html Yes, I am guilty of playing loosely with the terminology. I am referring to katakiriba blades, as this is what the op was talking about. Finding three example out of the thousands of swords on the net still qualifies as rare in my mind....For every thousand swords I have seen, maybe I have seen one katakiriba. Even if it was 1 in 100, I would call that rare. Maybe semantics.

I don't think we can say kiri-ba was ever "popular" based on their scarcity today. As I said, most of the ones seen today date from sue koto and early shinto. There are early and later examples but they seem to be even rarer...

Thanks , I did not know that Hi could be re cut...who? would be nice as I intend to keep this. Roy When the blade is sent to a professional polisher, they will have a horimono-shi or swordsmith who can do this if requested....

You tend to see them in sue-koto and early shinto. The oni-bocho made by a Mizuta smith is well known. Oya-Kunisada made them as well....They are fairly rare. This blade looks to be in that period of time. The hi could be re-cut when polished...

It is listed as shobu-zukuri. There is no mention of any suriage which would have me assume it is ubu....

maybe you meant kazu uchi mono...???

The rest of the paper, as I have answered elsewhere, is just the dimensions and description of the sword....length, etc.... This group has a long history. I am sure you will be able to find quite a bit of info... Hope that is of some help.....

The living national treasure polisher and professional kantei ka Fujishiro Matsuo, who clearly handled this blade, declares it to be a Tensho era work by Kongohyoe Moritaka. Highly doubtful you are going to get a more accurate opinion from amateurs on this board who can only see a group of photos...

I think it is just a difference in what people are looking for. Clearly many here look at swords as arifacts and value the history. For those people, clearly, as Ron as correctly pointed out, these swords are historical artifacts. Others are looking at swords from more of an artistic viewpoint. The kissaki is the face of the sword. Without a boshi, it is defaced and to many, ugly...If can no longer be called on to function as it once could.... That being said, I think it is obvious that for old tachi, a lot of slack is cut them due specifically to their age and history. As I have pointed out, there are National Treasures to Juto without boshi. Clearly the taste makers have recognized their historical value and given them their due. When it comes to Shinto and after, they are suppose to be intact. Especially gendaito. I have seen plenty of WWII era blades without a boshi due to damage sustained in combat. These may attract those interested in history but I prefer them intact myself...

It simply gives the stats for the sword-mumei, nagasa, sori, kitae, hamon, etc. It attributes the blade to Moritaka of the Tensho period....

Yes, many early tachi have lost their boshi, and many of those are National Treasures, etc., so I wouldn't say it completely destroys the blade from a collector point of view in all cases.... In the heat of battle, without a replacement at hand, no doubt a sword that lost its tip could still be used but I find it hard to imagine anyone would willingly trust their lord's life to a defective blade. I think it far more likely that they were retired and treasured. In any case, all we know for fact is that there are many old tachi surviving without boshi, and very few later swords still around without boshi. I suppose we are all free to draw our own conclusions and opinions. By the way, what is an ichi kizu sword????