KungFooey

Hi everyone As some here know, I recently had a panic with my first ever blade as I thought it had a bad kizu. I discovered then that descriptions are all well and good but a real picture is worth a thousand words - so I thought it might be useful for non-experts like me to have a thread where they can see actual photos of flaws in blades all grouped together. (If this should be moved somewhere else please go ahead.) Dee Here are some to kick off.... please add any photos you think will help.

Well said! It's as much a piece of history as a 700 year old blade with a big cut in its back! Dee

Hi, With all respect, your question sounds a bit like "I've just passed my driving test - should I buy this 1906 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost with a huge, irreparable dent in the fender?" Why do you really want it? Will you be able to live with the dent after the honeymoon period? Can you look after it as it deserves, without inflicting any more damage? Just my thoughts as this is way out of my league! Dee

Jean, I KNOW that swords should always be displayed in a stand with the hilt to the left and they should be passed to others in the same manner to show passive intent. But respected dealers in Japan stand behind their swords with the hilt facing THEIR right. So It's ridiculous to expect the smith to do otherwise. Dee

@Jacques D. Tell that to Japanese sword dealers at the big shows. I would've thought they would know something about sword etiquette. 🤔

No, the position respects etiquette by presenting the tsuka on the left of the viewer - as represented by the cameraman.

Hi, Even nowadays you get iai people putting real old guards on their pot-metal swords. I guess it's just to feel a connection with the old samurai? Dee

Ikkansai Shigetsugu made a blade for Hitler - maybe this is the matching SS guard? 🤔 Dee

That is amazingly beautiful, Peter! I love it! 😊 Dee

It's the size of the katana kake, Jacques. If he put the tsuba outside the width of the stand (as is usual), the saya tip would fall off! Dee

Thanks Peter! I'll try hard to get this into next February' shinsa - after all, Wer rastet, der rostet! Dee

Hi Jake, I really appreciate the follow-up! I tracked down the original thread and can give due credit for that quote to @Ed. Thanks! Dee

Dear Jean, As always, you give me great encouragement. Thank you so much! Dee

I was just comparing it to this but I was too late!!! 😥

Hi Jacques! Can you post a better photo and I'll give it a try? You can't see the signature properly in this one - it's too blurry. Thanks! Dee

Gut feeling? It's been touched up at least. The messy gold paint is a giveaway (see below) and that might suggest the scabbard is also a respray. The kamon is a little larger than usual and something looks off to me with the tang's odd 'smoky black' patina. But hey, I'm no expert on anything! Good luck! Dee

You need to strip em off, Swords! That big old tsuba means one of them is packing much heavier junk. 😉

Hi Jake! Many, many thanks for taking the time to chime in - that's very much appreciated. Taking on board your observation that I had said other examples were way more beautiful than mine, this is absolutely true. But other examples of this school are just 'meh' - so mine wouldn't be the first not to shine. Actually, I had never even heard of this school until I got this guard - but then my tastes often run contrary to the mainstream (for example, I think Goto, however finely made, just looks like 'rapper bling' and I wouldn't touch it even if I could afford it) I'm still trying to find the thread I copied and pasted this from but I think this quote about the Akao metalworkers is interesting: "Therefore their work was rarely, if ever seen by the general public. This isolation resulted in the public never becoming familiar with the school, which in turn prevented them from being desired by the masses or widely copied by other schools." So why bother gimei for something not even in popular demand? Anyhow, this very interesting discussion has really piqued my curiosity so I've told my brother In Japan to hold onto the guard and we'll try and submit it into the next NBTHK shinsa. If they say it's wrong, I will accept it without a murmur and let all you guys know immediately. If however, they pass it, I sure hope I don't start hearing the common complaint nowadays that "the NBTHK fittings shinsa is no good anymore"! 😉 Dee PS: I managed to get slightly better shots of the Hozon piece's signature (left) next to mine (right). Yep, there are small differences - but hell, there are differences every time I sign something in pen and these were both chiselled on steel. Otherwise, I still think they look pretty darn close.

Hi Swords, Have you weighed the blades naked (I mean the swords, not you)? One of them has a much bigger, heavier guard. Dee

Two warning signs for me: the hamon starts at the hamachi, whereas it should run on into the tang if it's been shortened. Also if it's been so greatly shortened what are the engraved Kanji characters doing that far up the blade?

Mmm. What about these examples from the same school in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford England? (Oh, I know the last one has decorative punch marks but it's exactly the same shape.)

I can see mine has sharp angled 'lower walls' the others don't (if that makes sense)?

Thanks Peter! I trust your 'old' eyes. 😊 If it's gimei, I can live with it because I buy a design not a signature and I never send anything for papers anyway. However, when something is wrong I'm happy to hear about it - just like my cast tsuba which didn't turn out to be the great bargain I thought it was! 🤣 Dee

Hi again Peter! @BIG This is a really interesting thread on this school from way back in 2011. There's a couple of guards which are way more beautiful than mine but have that same signature. https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/8808-akao-school-maybe-similarly-constructed-but-different-motif/#comment-88789 I'm still trying to find another NMB thread where I found the following quote from John L. while I was researching my tsuba: "Haynes lists no fewer than five artists, working in Edo between the second half of the seventeenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century, whose mei was AKAO YOSHITSUGU. Most of the work of this school is in the soft metals, but the early masters, living in Echizen, worked in iron, as did occasionally later artists. It is difficult to attribute a particular artist to Mike's tsuba (six of these artists' mei are illustrated on pp.609a-610b of Kinko Meikan) but it probably dates to the eighteenth century - H 12227.0 or H 12228.0? John L."

Hope you feel better real soon and can have a relaxed vacation! Dee