Eddie

The hamon has been brought out using acid. It is quite clear from the unnatural colour of the hamon (dark grey/black ish). sorry but i disagree the rest of the blade shows no signs of being acid etched maybe a experienced polisher might chime in with their opinion Ed

Mate for your first nihonto its fine, we all started somewhere. my opinion is enjoy your purchase, study it in person, learn what you can and enjoy the journey, when your ready to move up or when you find your tastes change you can resell to buy something else. p.s the hamon does not look " chemical treatment" to me, it looks to be in old polish, good enough to study. regards Ed

hi Peter, A dense ko mokume hada also known as konuka hada is a common trait of shinto hizen swords, like yours. Umm if you have the connoisseurs book of Japanese swords, go to pages 246 to 248 and read hizen province, the tadayoshi school. i think you will find a description that matches your sword. lots of kantei points towards shinto, hizen province, tadayoshi school. That would be my pick, what do other members think???? Ed

my opinion shinto hizen province done in yamashiro tradition sorry does not look koto to me. regards Ed

Jason, google some auctions bidding services ( bid on Japan yahoo ), they charge a commission but you can buy what you like when it comes to tosogu. Swords, most wont handle some will. You have to use translating service to get an idea what the descriptions say, but as others have stated its hit and miss with the translating services. Beware that it is like ebay there are alot of fakes and good ones, that take a keen eye to spot. but the good stuff goes for high prices like ebay so there are no bargins to be found on there. ive personally bought lots from Japan yahoo but iam warning you be carefull, expect to pay top dollar for good quality items. Also because your using a bidding service its not like bidding on ebay, you have to place your bid and hope for the best, you cant place a bid at the last seconds to try and win an auction like on ebay, so if you find something you like work out how much you want to pay and then place your maximum bid and hope for the best. Also you will have to pay upfront first if you donot win the auction to can get a refund from your auction bidding service. Thats the only way we westerners can bid on there unless you know someone in Japan. My advise would be to try and buy good items from known dealers, yahoo and ebay is mostly full of junk that the good collectors donot want with the occasional good item thrown in. regards Ed

Thanks for posting this Ford its been very informative. here is a tsuba a just saw over on Japan yahoo.........its identical to the 3rd link you posted. Regards Edward

hi Guys just an update I found out that the theme is a Japanese good luck Or protection talisman ( Omamori ). Iam still working on what the kanji might say mean. Eddie

Thanks guys thats a great help. I did a quick google search for keshfuda, thanks Nobody i see the resemblance. I'll need to research it some more, thanks John will look further into nembutsu. George you mentioned the kanji saying tashin? what do you think guys what does it say? the fuchi kanji is different to the kashira, and is difficult to make out, iam not bad with mei but this is beyond me. regards Eddie

hi guys, Would anybody be able to help me ref to the meaning on the theme implied on this fuchi and kashira? thanks in advance Edward

thanks Ted Ed

HI guys, need some help to with this mei, i get kanesada saku am i correct? whats your opinion gimei?? i cant find a match for it. regards Edward

Yes, of course cheeky buggers Ed

Thanks Peter what I notice about the nagako is the first 4 mekugi Ana are the same, and the same amount of corrosion on all of them or am I looking to far into it. I don't know about the hamon I think it's just the hadori finish. Swords in Japan would they acid etch a homon over there? Edward

well i would say koto to early shinto??? thats my guess buts thats very broad, looking at the shape, nakago, hamon, dimensions, seems to fit into the koto period. as for the school i have no idea. If i was to make a wild guess i might say dotanuki? regards Edward

added some pictures had to reduce them for the upload. Edward

hi guys, need some of your opinions on to when this katana might date too, also which school might it belong too. Mumei o-surage nagasa: 65cm moto haba: 29mm moto gasane: 6mm nakago: 20.3cm sori: 1.4cm saki haba: 19mm saki gasane: 4.5mm there are 5 mekugi ana so its been remounted a few times, the nakago has deep rust but noticed near the second from the top mekugi ana the patina is different, any opinions on this? grain is very tight hard to see in pictures but you can see noi nie?? scattered though out the blade. blade has some kitae kizu, and comes in full higo koshirae. picture can be seen at this link, click on the thunb nail to see high resolution image http://photos.yahoo.co.jp/ph/higodouta/ ... p/&.view=t any help would be appreciated thank regards Edward

Hi Peter, I owned a shinto period katana signed Harima No kami Masamichi many years ago, it was in high quality shingunto mounts also. It had a different hamon on each side as well. one side had similar hamon to yours, crab claw, i cant remember what the other side had, ive got some pictures but they are on film, before the days of digital photography. But hope this info helps some. regards Edward

ok i'll put my thick skin on :D thanks jacques for posting the oshiga of those mei regards Edward

THank you Guido I do indeed understand, but sometimes you just have to retort to comments like that. Thanks to all you took the time to reply much appreciated. Fishing knife it is then Regards Edward

It is your money, if you want to waste it....this blade is not well forged and only a miracle will be make it "nice". Sorry for my frankness Hmmmm. Please do enlighten me as to how you came to that educated opinion. Have you xray vision that enables you to see through surface rust to look at activities in the blade.If so you must feel special to be able to do that yes no? I just wanted to see if it was worth preserving or if I should turn it into a fishing knife. Pardon my humor. This forum is for education mate. Not for tickling your ego, Read the original post I asked about the smith not wether it was forged well or if I can make it nice. Edward

Thank you Grey, thats one of the first sources i looked at, but unfortunately i do not have access to any of the reference volumes listed to compare the mei. The sukemitsu mei i have managed to find all do not match so unfortunately i can begin to assume that its quite possibly gimei. "I can see neither elegance nor taste in this particular example. reinhard" neither can i reinhard but its one of the only references to mei writing in the period i could find, thats why i posted it. not to worry as i do not collect signatures, so weather its gimei or shoshin is not the concern, my concern was weather to send it to Japan for polishing or elswhere, it will be a nice koto piece to display once polished. thank you gentlemen for your comments and help. kindest regards Edward

thats Ok grey no need to be sorry, the hi probably threw you off. ive had a look all over the web and i cant find no examples of a sukemitsu mei from the late kamakura to the nanbokucho period. i found some examples of later bizen sukemitsu but the mei writing style is different. The nagako looks bizen shape so i have kept my search in this area. I did find a reference search and found this from, Nihon Koto Shi By Dr honma Junji, he stated the use of chippy chiseled style of mei: "Generally speaking, the chiselling style (mei) of koto smiths resembles that of sculptors of Buddhist statues and they are normally done in the semi cursive or running style. They were not very skilled but their mei looks elegant and tasteful. Some Bizen smiths started employing the square style in signing and the styles of mei by smiths who belong to the same lineage have a close resemblance. It is highly possible that professional chisellers, who substituted for the smiths in signing, existed in Bizen Province." but without a reference mei iam stumped. The tanto look tired the surface rust is not deep and i cant see any flaws or pitting, so iam thinking it might have one more polish left in it. Ive stablised the surface rust, but just now researching the period of this tanto and weather it might be sho shin or gimei will give me direction as to the polishing direction i will take with it. let me know your opinion guys. regards Edward

the blade IS hira-zukuri, with two bohi on either side , one side it goes to the kissaki the other side it goes half way up the blade. regards Edward

dear gentlemen I was a member years ago when Rich T still ran the board, just came back as ive had a long absence from collecting and found the new board and noticed its changed hands. I could not find my old log in details so stared anew again. Just picked up this old tanto, its signed sukemitsu and looks to be from early koto period ( judging by the shape, patina on nagako is dark chocolate color , and mekugi ana are well rounded) but going through some records found about 5 smiths that signed sukemitsu from 1288 to 1500, as i dont have any other mei to compair my mei too iam finding it hard to narrow down which one it might be. Or if its gimei. Sorry the tanto is way out of polish has surface rust all over it so i cant help with any features, but nagasa is 10.6", sori 0.1", moto haba 1.0", moto gasan 0.2" any help would be appreciated. regards Edward