Laurian

Merci, Nicolas!

Hello, fellows. During the last few months, since I bought my first sword (https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/49116-my-first-nihonto-a-mumei-uda-school-katana/#comment-516907), I've been trying to enrich my terminology "knowledge base", regarding various aspects of a blade. But, as most of the descriptions available online or in the (still very few) books that I have access to don't come with good enough pictures attached to them, it's pretty hard to figure out what exactly all those things mean. In the picture below, you have a detail of my newly acquired wakizashi (signed by Fujiwara Masayasu, around Enpo era). Please let me know what's the whitish line along the hamon called. Is it the nioiguchi or habuchi itself, or something else? Thanks!

Thank you all!

Thanks again! The idea of the sword being ubu never crossed my mind. This is a completely new lead for me. But I guess it makes sense. I'll have to take a closer look at the way the nakago meets the polished blade. Again, correct me if I'm wrong: the concept of an ubu sword would imply it was koshi-zori from the beginning, right? Instead, if it were o-suriage, the blade could have actually been torii-zori, originally? Sorry for all these questions, but I'm trying to learn as much as I can here... Except for Kokan Nagayama's book and the articles I found online, I currently have no literature to study. Could you recommend some more books, please? "Facts and Fundamentals of Japanese Swords: A Collector's Guide" looks good, but it seems to be impossible to buy for a decent price, these days...

Great! Thank you! Actually, assuming this katana is O-Suriage, I was wondering why would a longer blade be forged in the 1500s (in an era where the regular nagasa was under 70 cm, if I'm not mistaken), just to be then shortened, in order to fit the tendencies of the period.

Last three.

And some more...

There you go. Some pics. After taking them, in macro mode, I noticed I hadn't removed all the oil on the blade. Some lint is also visible. Sorry for all that. I hope those pictures are still relevant to some extent.

Correction: when I wrote “pre-Sengoku”, I actually meant “before the end of the Sengoku period wars”. Sorry!

I’ll try to snap a few more pictures showing jihada in good light, at different angles. But that’s a weekend job…

Thanks Kirill! Excellent piece of information. It helps me a lot. Being pre-Sengoku, it might still have seen some action in battle. This is really exciting.

Thanks, Jeremy! At first, as I didn’t have my glasses on, I didn’t read “could’ve”, but “couldn’t have” 😅, so I thought to myself “s..t, is it THAT bad?!”. Yes, those two small kitae-ware are located in the shinogi-ji, one close to the mune. The hira-ji is really clean, as is the hamon and the ha itself. The cutting edge appears to be flawless, even under high magnification. Sharpness? I guess I’ll never find that out… So far, I didn’t have the chance to read nearly enough about jihada, so I’ll concentrate on that next. I want to be able to identify those specific elements on my blade. I’ll also try to do some more digging into the sword’s age and origins. I’ll probably write to Tsuruta-san about this, as he was the one to come up with the mid-Muromachi estimation. Maybe he’ll find time to write back…

Great link, Oli! Thanks!

Thanks, Oli. This is not a price or value issue. The auction winner got the sword for cheap; that’s a fact. Lucky him. I paid much more than that, of course, as I purchased the sword in Europe, where we owe VAT and import duties, plus the profit of the Dutch dealer I bought the blade from… Japanese sellers I wrote to were reluctant to dealing with a bloke from Romania. The politely said “no”… I live in the “wild Eastern Europe”, so I guess I can’t blame them for distrusting me. So, what I paid is not relevant right now. It’s not a question of buyer’s remorse, as I obviously didn’t expect a flawless Juyo for that kind of money. I simply want to learn more about the sword as it is, with all its ups and downs that are part of its story (and history). Actually, I’m glad it has a few minor nicks on the mune, which I like to think are battle marks. All flaws add to the character of a weapon that was forged before the peaceful Edo period. That’s exactly why I was looking for a koto, even if it’s not “artistically” perfect. Kitae-ware, on the other hand, are forging flaws, as I understand, so I want to know more about them and aboult how they can hurt, not the value, but the potential “wothiness” of a blade. Even if I’d never use this sword, in any scenario, it feels good to know that, in case “I had to” go out cutting things with it, it wouldn’t break.

Hi. This is my first post, so thank you for having me here (and for your patience ). I'm still new to this complex universe of Nihonto, but I finally managed to purchase my very first blade, a few weeks ago. It was originally sold by Aoi-Art to a dealer in the Netherlands, from whom I then bought it. This link is still active: https://sword-auctio...oduct/14740/as22549-刀：無銘（宇多）保存刀剣/ According to the Japanese site, this katana was made in the mid-Muromachi period, but in my very, very humble opinion, comparing the sugata and the pretty narrow motohaba and sakihaba to some examples and descriptions I found in Kokan Nagayama's book, the blade just looks a bit older (early Muromachi, maybe?). Of course, I wouldn't dare to contradict Mr. Kazushige Tsuruta, but still, I would very much appreciate your take on this. Unfortunately, as you know far better than me, NBTHK certificates don't mention anything about the estimated age of the blades (which is a shame, in general, I guess). Can that piece of information be confirmed in any way with them? Don't get me wrong, I love my sword regardless of age, but it would be interesting to learn more about its history. One more thing: my katana has two pretty visible kitae-ware. At first, I was really worried about those flaws, but then I read that they are really common on koto blades and that they are mostly esthetic and in most cases don't affect the sword's integrity or functionality. I would NEVER use a 550-year old katana for Tameshigiri, so it's not a practical problem for me, but, again, what do you think of kitae-ware? Thank you for your time! All the best, Laurian