Mark

difficult to say without seeing each sword. I have seen several Nobufusa blades with weak areas of hada and ware', but he obviously he made some great swords. Shigetsugu has the advantage of an interesting background and history but he did not actually forge most of his swords, i have seen several and there was a wide range or quality, guess depeding who forged them. From what i see in the pictures i would pick the shigetsugu, but pictures can be deceiving.

i have this set. bought them some time back and have not used them yet. if they are what you want i would be willing to part with them.

John a lot of books help understand how the shape of a sword changed through time. If Kamakura you would expect it to be smaller/shorter and uchizori or no sori, big wide blades, sort of like this were made in nambukcho but they would be thinner and have little sori, so by process of elimination you can say it is Muromachi as there were a blades of this shape made then

the bare blade is genuine WWII Showato. the NCO looks genuine but the CHinese fakes are getting much better so from the one picture it is be hard to be 100% sure but it looks ok from what i see

i vote for 5, 6, 9, 10.

Seki Mifuka Masayuki saku. made by Masayuki, Fuller & Gregory have the personal name as Mifuka but i am not sure if this is the correct translation.

KaShu Ju Fujiwara Iyetada Kaga province

thank you very much. that will help me research it

David thanks, i had the same concerns. I wanted to verify they did not belong together before i broke up a set that actually went together and had a theme someone recognized.

I am having trouble with the mei, i am thinking the maker is Joei but maybe it is read differently, also the kanji before are not making sense. Any help appreciated thanks

I bought a sword and the kashira was hanging off the tsuka and then broke off (fortunately not before i bought it). The fuchi is signed Naotoshi, looks like H 06807.0 from Haynes index, Hamano circa 1775...... The fuchi and kashira came together but i do not know if they are a set or have been put together in the past, the carving is in 3d on the fuchi but flat on the kashira. I do not know Japanese subjects that well so i do not know if this is telling a story and belongs together or not. Any input would be appreciated Thanks!

Chip Gimei means the signature is false or a forgery. You can have a signature properly removed, then the blade has the value of an unsigned blade

average factory work. not hand made but made as a weapon nothing of note. It would be a militaria collectible but not of value as an example of a traditional Japanese sword

Martin good point. shinshinto blades do resemble Koto swords at times. I had not thought of the kanji being hard to read as intentional, i am probably just naive. I appreciate the message, i will research it as being shinshinto. It is still a decent sword, and i enjoy trying to learn from each sword

George Thanks. here are some pictures Noshu Ju Kanemoto. blade is 27" appears ubu, the sori and shape do not seem Shinshinto, but i guess it could be. The sanbansugi is not the "regular" type seen in latter generations, but it clearly is not the the Important Kanemoto. The Moto kanji is unusual, i have been looking for a maker who wrote it that way but have not found a similar mei yet. I hoped if i could narrow down the era it would help narrow the search. I appreciate the help

i can read Bun____ 5th year 8 th month hard to make out the second kanji of the date, i was thinking maybe Bunroku?

Brian, if you live in driving distance to Louisville maybe you are in my area. I live near Toledo OH, i travel in Ohio and KY. You can email me at nixe@bright.net if you want to try and meet.

looks like Seki (City), Ju Nin (resident of) Kanenori (makers name) Saku (made this)

Chip maybe you did not understand, the suggestion was you might want to make a SMALL donation, like $15 or $25 that would represent 1% of what you saved. i do not think anyone even suggested you donate $1500, no one would even think of anything like that. we are not here for the money, it is just nice when someone uses our help they show a minimal amount of appreciation

not sure i understand this comment. We try to be helpful to all who ask. Eric's comment was just a simple reminder that the help is free but there is a cost to run the board and if you have had a large financial benefit from the help you might make a small donation to offset the cost of the operation to show your appreciation. maybe ijust misunderstand the meaning of your comment.

the blade may not be a naginata, it may be a Shinshinto blade made in that shape

hard to get clear shots of the boshi. here is my best effort. I appreciate all the comments.

I looked in Fujishiro and Taikan etc, the examples seem to conflict in references, so thought i would ask other opinions

blade is not in polish. it is hard for me to show the sudareba, i am not the best with a camera

I have an 18" wakizashi. It is signed (no) Yoshimichi. The blade has classic "natural" sudareba and Osaka yakidashi. I think the mei is genuine (blade work looks right on). I am sure it is Osaka branch. I am not sure what generation, i am thinking 2nd or 3rd....... any comments (good or bad) and suggestions welcome. thanks!