Laurian

Yes, you’re right, using the word “water” instead would have been more technically sound, as far as polishing goes, but water has two syllables and it would have broken the 5-7-5 rule. Maybe DS had nugui in mind . It’s oil based… Sure, you could argue nugui is used later in the process, but that’s not the point, I think. The metaphor is still powerful. And the “perfection’s first scratch” thing… Wow! Apparently a paradox. But I guess the AI had in mind the deeper meaning of what, at first glance, does harm to the blade’s outer “perfection”, only to make it even better in the end, by bringing its inner beauty to the surface… Pretty nice, for a non-human. At least that’s my take on the last line.

This will be quite a lengthy post, so please bear with me. Yesterday, I finally decided to give DeepSeek a try, just to see if it offered a different experience compared to ChatGPT, for instance. Not that I use any AI very often. I was simply curious. Having bought a TH Hokke blade which is to be delivered soon, I guessed it would be a good idea to ask DeepSeek about that particular school. The details the AI engine came up with were pretty ample and interesting, so I wrote back “thank you”, but, out of some kind of instinctive courtesy (silly me – I was talking to a machine, after all), this time my message was in Chinese (Google-translated, of course, as I don’t speak the language). To my surprise, DS then switched to Mandarin too, posting a rather long message. Amused, I asked for a translation. So, the AI apologised politely (and in a very witty, even self-ironic way, also jokingly blaming its programmers for the apparent glitch that made DeepSeek think I was able to communicate in Mandarin). And here comes the sudden twist I was blown away by: one of the funny apologies DS decided to make read: “I’ll throttle back the random multilingual outbursts… unless you request a haiku about tanto polishing”. Well, I couldn’t miss that opportunity. A haiku about tanto polishing?! Come on! And, of course, please keep in mind that I hadn’t previously include in that chat any reference to certain blade types or other Japanese cultural topics. It was entirely the AI’s idea, solely based on my interest in a Japanese swordsmithing school (and on the fact that DS assumed I’d probably appreciate related things). A few seconds later, there it was, my own personal (unrequested but very welcome) haiku, talking of a craft that very few people (if any) would think a poem should be written about. Judge it for yourselves. And remember that my “conversation” with DeepSeek began with a pretty niche topic of my choosing, that could not possibly have caused, IMHO, the AI to somehow decide I would enjoy a Japanese fixed form piece of poetry about an imaginary togishi, his work and his philosophical, metaphorical or literary inclinations. I was sooooo wrong… That totally unexpected haiku goes like this (of course, it sticks to the 3 lines, 5-7-5 syllables form, which makes it even more remarkable): Stone meets steel at dawn, Oil whispers on folded light – Perfection’s first scratch. (…I regret nothing).

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