Mark

Klaus i am sure you could work out something with one of us in the US and the seller could mail it to a US address, we could recieve it and forward it to you.

Awataguchi Omi (no) Kami Tadatsuna. Famous maker from late 1600's. There was a sword with this name that recently sold on eBay for several thousand. It is hard to be exact from just a small part of the tang, i would think caution would be best and move slowly until you know enough to decide what to do.

that is all i saw other than the stamp

looks like Feb 1945

tranlate what? i do not see anything or any links, am i missing something?

Went through the tsuba i took to Chicago for sale and found these. Not my favorite as i dod not collect them but i think they are Nanban. Comments welcome

why upload more picture? see Brian's message -- clear fake

there is an knowlegable collector who lives in the area. I asked him in Chicago and he is willing to offer his assiatance and look at the sword. Email me at nixe@bright.net and i will pass along his contact information. Hope that helps

I sold a couple of nice ones at the Chicago show. It is much easier to buy/sell when you have it in hand and can examine it and even ask opinions of others who are in the room. I an hesitant to offer swords on line as it is so hard to show exactly what it looks like. German daggers are "standard" and you need to verify if genuine and condition, but all handmade blades are different, there is no standard so it is a challenge. Do you travel to any big military swords (SOS or MAX etc)? If so you can arrange to see some nice swords in hand

maybe 1450-1500

i think if you are not comfortable with the price/value then best to pass and find something else. Hard for us to get in the middle of your transaction especially when we have no idea of the prices/return policy/details etc. If you are not excited to own these based on your experince level best to keep looking, there are plenty of swords available

looks like a ken shaped blade mounted as a tanto

looks to say Kunihiro is the maker. I agree with Brian, does not look like an antique Japanese sword

another option could be bring the sword to the show in Chicago. You could get a lot of instant free information. I will be there and so will a lot of memebers. not a bad drive from Atlanta, make a nice get away

Stone Mountain GA is near Atlanta, there is a very knowlegable collector there

i do not see a picture? what do i need to do?

the kissaki and especially the ko-shinogi have a strange look

subtract one as the first year is 1688 so 1688 + 11 or 1699

check http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/kanji/nengo.htm it will tell you when Genroku began, then you have the rest so you can figure the date

thanks John, appreciate the help

can anyone help with identifying/translating this pin or badge? the back of the badge have the same 3 kanji as on the box. My guess is it is some civilian organization. It is well made. Thanks!!

i would think the bidders would do research. the shape and sori bother me, placement of the mei and nakago shape seem unusual. The hori is not t he usual theme Tadatsuna did but that does not preclude it being right

there will be plenty for sale. i think i will bring close to 80 tsuba + other fittings, at least 40 swords, a bunch of books, sword bags, and all type of misc.

Ho Shu (Bungo) Takada ju Fujiwara Yukinaga

if you are buying it to keep it then the market value does not matter that much, pay what you are happy to, i have bought plenty of swords for more than they might have brought on the market because i wanted them, it came down to what was willing to pay to own them