Wari-kogai

I`m pretty sure, that this is one of those swords imitating Tom Cruise`s sword from the movie "The Last Samurai".

Whenever one thinks it can`t get more bad than it actually is......Thank you for the picture, I added it to my others pictures of flaws (in the case, once I`ll try to buy another sword good to have it). At least I could use it as an quite good example for showing(all?) the kinds of flaws which are possibly seen on a sword. As a newbie I won`t seriously argue with you or other mebers about this sword`s worth as i´m not in the position to do so. Nevertheless out of pure interest I`d like to know its history, as far as it is obvious from style of blade, mountings etc..

Yes, this blade is not as the others I`ve seen or hold in hands. i know, that to a real collector it must look very hmm "strange". :D At least i was told something whose essence can be reduced to: "A mercedes is a mercedes and a bycicle istays a bycile. One can not expect a mercedes for a bycile`s prize.". Well, if someone wants to say, which flaws look especially bad, just do so. The dates I got are as follows: - unsigned war-blade is mounted in a Higo-koshirae, probably Kamiyoshi-family - Mino-blade, although there`s Uchinoke, which is typically for Yamato & Yamashiro province - has Hotsure & Kuichigai-ba, also - Blade was bigger (although not much longer) but has been extensively polished and further polishing would be to dangerous for this blade - end of 15th century, maybe later (difficult to say 1480-1560/70 ?) - Dragon-tsuba with gold (see rest on end of left part of "beard"), probably 17th century, not much older, as it is relatively small, thin other than earlier ones (held such one in hand), erhabener Eisenschnitt (??? cutted iron, positive form ???) - Koiguchi & kojiri correspond, made of brass, roe-shape (fish-eggs) (Kojiri has Kebori as i see it) - Fuchi & Kashira correspondend, connectd stars or something like that, Fuchi has Kebori, Kashira has Yanamichi-kebori (typical for Higo) - Don`t know the name for the saya-style and if blade saya was painted brown later on or...... - Flaws from retempering: 14,5 - 17,5 cm from Munemachi on right side Any agreement, correction etc. is welcome.

Contracting & increasing of text happens often (i`m always happy when each line has same length) but line breaks are used by me primarily to avoid unsuspected wordwraps or unreadable texts etc.. The color has been changed back for that members using different forum-apperances are happy.

Okay,... then this will be the first forum, where I do use the preselected colour. :D ??? This is strange, I created the file using winrar and the link works very well for me ???I will link some of the pictures and attach another zip-file with new photos of the blade. In the case that the problem remains, it seems, that ´`ll have to link all of the photos. From the first pics/zip-file: http://www.kubushi-tengu.de/zeitordner/sword/Nihonto%20Tsuka%20right.jpg http://www.kubushi-tengu.de/zeitordner/sword/Tsuka%20&%20Tsuba%201.jpg From the new pics/zip-file: http://www.kubushi-tengu.de/zeitordner/sword_2/bladelength%20to%20saya1.jpg The new zip-file itself: http://www.kubushi-tengu.de/zeitordner/sword_2%20(6,48%20MB).zip

Dear Mr. Bottomley, thanks for the first answer in this topic. Well, that`s fine so far. It was indeed the koshirae which attracted me. I don`t have much information about such things but they are mentioned in Serge Mol`s"Classical Weaponry Of Japan". The most "extensive" text I know of is in the magazine "Daruma - Japanese Art & Antiques Magazine". I do think (no kanji are given there), that the translation of bokuto (B/Moku-to = wooden-sword) as doctor`s sword was from thinking that 1. these people did wear these swords or 2. that the headline "Bokuto (´Doctor`s Swords`)" should only kind of emphasize that primarily these people did often wear such swords which wasn`t obvious. At least I personally couldn`t find any "boku = doctor" in dictionairies. Added to the article is a notice, that meanwhile the authors got to get to know, that doctors were alloowed to use [real] swords. I could imagine, that this kind of (really thin) Tekken (Tetsu-ken / metal-sword)falls into the same category as the Bokuto (but I absolutely don`t know much about it). Meiji-period would suit very well to the age I had in mind (e.g. because of the numerous items).

Sorry guys, I just wasn`t aware of this problem. I now found a color which should do well with all 3 styles of board-appearance. Please don`t judge my very personal interests by this color.:D Did you already look at the pictures inside the linked zip-file ?If you did, it could become a bit diffcult for the mounting (the blade has to be photographed again, anyway). I`ll try my best to get some better photos soon. After trying out the search-function without success, any hints on how to take good photos are welcome. As far as I was told (& do think I see), polish is poor and the blade is tired, also (just as you mentioned).

Hello members of Nihonto Message Board, I don`t know if this is to far away from this forum`s purpose, therefore I will put 4 things together into one single thread. The pictures are all together in one zip-file (ca. 3,4 MB): http://www.kubushi-tengu.de/zeitordner/four%20items.zip I would like to know, what you think of following items and what you know in genreall concerning such items. Thanks in advance for the effort you`re undertaking. As a newbie real or not real doesn`t matter that much as I always make my decision based on the question what would it cost do get such an item elsewhere , assuming I`m buying a newly made one in a shop & furthermore how interesting is it to me as martial artist. 1. I once bought a fan-knife via ebay (just sold as fan-knife from a person who didn`t claim to know anything about swords and who as far as I`ve noticed really didn`t sell swords, knifes or Japanese goods regularly. A sword polisher thinks (unfortunately only by photos) it`s probably around 70-80 years old, tourist-thing. The blade is kind of "naginata-style", becomes thinner towards kissaki on both sides. sample picture (more in zip-file): 2. I once purchased a kabutowari (probably bronze) on ebay which was sold as old but which I found all in all 4 times with slightly different outlook - the most expensive was the one wrapped with old-looking same. it`s the same as this one (look for the TEKKAN): http://www.e-budokai.com/weapons/hachiwari.htm The v-shaped scratches on both sides of grip are normal. 3. I purchased a bokuto or chashitsu-to and was told it would be from edo-period. As the seller sells similar "old" items regularly (e.g. tanto, yari or certain swords), I`m not sure if it`s really from the (latter) edo-period, early meiji or later. Furthermore the Kanji seem to be a little to "modern" in my eyes but finally, I do know next to nothing about it except that in edo-period it became a fashion to wear such bokuto which at the end were more like knifes than short swords. I liked that even a faked opening for kozuka had been added. 4. I purchased an Uchine which is surely a fake one but liked the yari-tip. Actually you can find this item again and again on ebay (jap. sellers). I see this as a modern reproduction which didn`t cost that much and therefore I won`t cry as I knew it would not be real. Nevertheless I`m not sure if it is a little to short for such an arrow. Whole length is 47,8cm, spearhead (all shiny part) is 9cm.. A very similar item is here: http://cgi.ebay.com/SAMURAI-Neya-Uchine-Japanese_W0QQitemZ350237140597QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAsian_Antiques?hash=item518bc2a675&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Hello, I do have only one nihonto and would like to know, what you can see as far as possible (gave my best but making photos is not that easy). I was told that this sword is nothing more than a piece for the very first steps and that it probably won`t take any further polishing, too. I will later on tell you, what me myself has been told about this sword. I won`t tell you straight away for that you`ll stay totally unprejudiced. Below I`ve linked two photos but the whole set will be available only as a small zip-file (ca. 6,98 MB). The zip-file-link will be below the sample picture I`ll post. http://www.kubushi-tengu.de/zeitordner/sword/Blade%20right%200.jpg http://www.kubushi-tengu.de/zeitordner/sword/Nihonto%2001%20complete.jpg http://www.kubushi-tengu.de/zeitordner/sword/Kashira%202.jpg http://www.kubushi-tengu.de/zeitordner/sword%20%206,98%20MB.zip Maybe your answers will match what I`ve been told, maybe not. By the way: the menuki do show mushrooms but unfortunately even with the sword in hand one has to look quite carefully.

Hello User, I "accidentally" stumbled over this forum (once again) while I was searching for infos about a certain sukemitsu-tanto someone sells (or sold by now) on ebay and that had a less nice signature/mei on its tang/nakagao. Not only that I found this kind of signature only here in this thread, it seems that the offered tanto - sold as koto - is exactly the same as the one posted in this thread`s 1. question, too. I saw this tanto on ebay and just wondered, why the price for this blade still was that low though it was offered as koto and at least not totally rusted. The auction on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280383634527&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT 1st picture below: tang from ebay, 2nd picture below: tang from this discussion (if you don`t see the similarities on your system, just trust my pc-monitor :D ) I would just like to know, if meanwhile the signature has been proven to be real (auction: "signed suke mitsu") and if so why it has been sold now, that it does look better than at the time of the beginning of this topic ?