Tcat

Amazing display

The study/collection of nihontō can be a slow-burn pursuit. Some of you with bear-trap memories may recall (though I concede, it may be unlikely) this blade I posted here, coming on seventeen years ago. At the time a recent graduate living in the UK with plenty of enthusiasm but very little knowledge and severely limited means, this board (and SFI) was effectively my only interactive window into the realm of nihontō. At this stage of my 'study', which I recall very clearly, I was not content in taking the very good advice to spend my hard-earned pennies on boring old books! I was keen to get my mitts on medieval Japanese steel, and was rather more inclined to trawl eBay looking for a deal than to drop my “first thousand dollars” on dusty tomes. (You gotta be kidding me!) I had three criteria for buying my first ebay sword: be sure it’s koto, thick, and not rusty. Eventually I settled on something I could be certain, I told myself, was genuinely old but still healthy, which to me meant thick. In my defense, I tried hard to be selective, gravitating towards something with an “obviously old” and active jihada. This sword represented my first foray into online auctions, and marked my first thousand dollars spent there. I always had faith that this sword was a bit special and unusual; however, try as I might, I could never confidently match it to any school. It seemed to my ignorant eyes to have the traits of several, all at once. I am pleased to finally and at long last be able to share a reliable update and judgement of this sword. The sword was examined by renowned expert Mike Yamasaki, who appraised it as the work of... More recently, I had the opportunity to exhibit the sword locally at a cultural arts festival in Orange County, alongside a few others. It was a small thing, but meaningful to me, and felt like a way of (finally) contributing something back to the wider “nihontō study and preservation” community. I wanted to return to this thread to close the loop, but more importantly to say thank you. A great deal of my interest in deeper study began right here - I was so determined to uncover the mystery of this blade's origin. The friendships, knowledge, and perspective that followed all trace back, in part, to those early exchanges. NMB has a lot to answer for. Over the years I’ve had the chance to meet and correspond with some of the people who replied here and elsewhere. That has been an honour, and always both enlightening and entertaining. I feel compelled to mention a few names in particular who I wish I could properly thank: Guido Schiller, Ford Hallam, Keith Larman and Darcy Brockbank, among others. Ted, I have been meaning to thank you for your responses to that original thread for a very long time. So, a belated thank you to Ted Tenold for such a detailed reply; it became, whether you realised it or not, a lens through which I’ve looked at sugata and three-dimensional blade geometry ever since. This post is not intended to resurrect an old thread but rather to close the loop on an earlier discussion, which I have always felt was left unresolved, and also to acknowledge the influence it had. My thanks to those who contributed their knowledge then and who continue to do so now.

However, the state of the nakago looks reassuringly mature.

I have located the Aoi-Art appraisal sheet for these menuki, which provides some additional details. My opinion is that this pair was likely made by a Kaga-kinko school, whose works often feature this style of carving in shakudo and gold. Price reduced to $375 (shipped+insured CONUS).

Apologies, I meant purely in terms of pricing - low middle and high pricing meaning a few hundred vs a few thousand vs tens of thousands.

I suggest you make a 5x5 grid collage, number each square in the grid, one tsuba per box, then post here. That way you can display all the tsuba for sale in three images. Not many folk are going to bother spending hours trawling through that very unfriendly google drive interface just for low level tsuba.

Hi Charlie, A few things go into the quality of a sword blade. It can be said that the standard of the forging is probably most important, followed by the level of heat treatment. The forging basically refers to the lamination of the steel and drawing out of the blade, here we consider are the laminations all properly welded, are there openings, how large and deep are any openings, how numerous are they, are there bubbles or air pocket at certain points in the steel, is there any cracking - this sort of thing. Then you have the heat treat to consider, is it nie/nioi, is the hardened area the correct hardness and in the right proportion to the spine, is it too brittle, how tough is the edge etc. This sword being a modern forged sword should basically have no flaws at all, especially if the maker is well-known. In the moden and contemporary era, there is no great need for swords, and smiths are limited in their production output by law. As a result, all blades made are custom order, and several are made at a time with only the best selected for submission to the client. The result is that swords made in the modern era have very few if any flaws.

Very nice resource and writeup, thank you sir.

We cant see the whole object but I'm 98 per cent sure this is a bat gaff for commercial fishing, probably tuna, made in Kogushi machi, likely before 1956 when the area still used this name. It's called a bat gaff because its short, truncheon to baseball bat sized. It uses a 90 degree bend hook and short lengh for hauling fish over gunwhales and moving fish around on deck/at market, compared to a long pole gaff design with a more classically shaped J hook used for controlling and lifting fish out of the water from above.

Shameless plug, I need to find a home for these beautiful beasties if anyone is interested, click to zoom...they are currently over in the 'for sale' section. Hi Bruno, great tsuba, did you see these on ebay - https://ebay.us/m/FwRBtN - looks like a nice match.

I concur that there are likely to have been unorthodox targets cut with this sword. Don’t ask me why I might know this Jeff, regarding tsuka - no they do not crack up and fall to pieces after a few cutting sessions. They can take a surprising amount of abuse and come out relatively unscathed. The blade typically breaks/bends before a healthy tsuka gives up. The caveat here is healthy, and fitted correctly for the nakago. Since the scratches run through the rust on the edge of the blade, they must have occurred after the rust accumulated. This leads me to believe that the scratches are later than WWII.

Hi All, No offense at all taken regarding disagreements. After about 5 years of consistent use, with a tameshigiri session every month or so, cutting 20-30 mats each time, with say roughly 4-5 cuts per mat, let's say for argument's sake roughly 5,500 cuts or so, my sword looks very much like this, albeit with the scratches more concentrated in the monouchi area. Yes Jeff, tip cuts are a thing and are practiced specifically in certain styles and by certain practitioners. 'Notice how the scratches stop right at the shinogi — someone did this by hand with a goal in mind.' Tameshigiri scratches do this also though. The pressure from the force/action of cutting is all focused onto both sides of the ji through the path of the cut, hence why the scratches are most prevelent there. The shinogi ji barely touches the target in the cut, because by the time it gets there, ji has forced all the material away from the blade...also worth noting is that the shinogi ji is burnished so is much harder to scratch deeply than the ji, hence the shinogi ji typically does not get as many scratches from tameshigiri. In this case, there doesnt need to be any sandpaper involved - used tatami has in it ingrained many many little sharp bits of dust, dirt and SAND from peoples feet and daily use as a floor mat. This grit of all sorts stays inside the makiwara and scratches blades when they cut it. The scratches are identical. Just my casual opinion looking at the blade, as a tameshigiri practitioner. I have no hesitation to say thats what caused it, but there certainly could have been some non-standard targets used.

Hi, from my experience these look exactly like the results of tameshigiri, specifically cutting tatami. A single cut usually only leaves a few minor scratches, so unless the targets were particularly sandy I would guess this sword has seen a few cutting sessions.

Offered for sale are a pair of Edo era menuki made from high quality shakudo in the form of Shishi, sized for tanto or wakizashi. The level of the carving is quite exceptional and difficult to capture with a camera phone. No signature. Sale includes custom carved kiri wood box with cushion. US $400 +shipping. 5% of the sale will be donated to NMB.

A fantasy realized! Absolutely amazing work.

Go on then…my much-loved tsuba - I think it one was originally something else entirely, with the tiniest bit of gold zogan from its former life still visible. I believe the fukurin, shakudo inserts (‘plugs’ as we referred to them on another thread) and kogai-ana are later modifications. A tsuba made out of another tsuba.

I have one with a triple stack also, I always tell myself it means its been much loved by previous owners.

Great cover art.

I first was thinking the bling was hurting your eyes, as it does many...but still I enjoy Inside is a very sturdy nambokucho blade with a length just a hair short of katana. The nakago is a keisho style o-suriage.

Kirimon iron sukashi decorated with kin zogan. Amazingly it fits like a glove on a sword I have.

Agree with Rivkin, or papers might say Nambokucho Mino den.

No. Atobori was a historically common and context-dependent practice from the Edo period onward. To recap.. Atobori (後彫り) refers to carving in a blade separate from the original design for the blade at its time of manufacture. That is to say after the sword was originally forged and finished, rather than as part of the smith’s initial “conception”. While often viewed critically by modern collectors, atobori was quite common practice from the Edo period onward. The prolonged absence of large-scale warfare in the Edo period reduced the practical emphasis on armor-piercing and battlefield durability, while factors such as balance, handling, and visual refinement gained relative importance. Within this context, atobori bo-hi were sometimes added to existing blades to alter weight distribution, improve handling characteristics, or adapt older swords to contemporary preferences. Atobori was also influenced by aesthetic fashion. Certain periods favored the presence of hi as a visual element, particularly on otherwise plain blades. Adding a groove could visually sharpen the sugata, emphasize curvature, or lend an older sword a more “classical” appearance in keeping with prevailing taste. When carried out by skilled hands, such work could be executed in orthodox styles, including nagashi terminations, making the best atobori difficult to distinguish from original carving. In the Meiji period, motivations shifted further. The abolition of sword-wearing and the collapse of the traditional samurai market led to the modification of many older blades to enhance their visual appeal to collectors, tourists, or foreign buyers. Atobori bo-hi from this period were often added to make a blade appear more dynamic or refined, sometimes with little regard for historical coherence, though the quality of execution varied widely. In the early 20th century, atobori continued for mixed reasons. Some blades were modified for martial arts use, where balance and handling were prioritized, while others were altered during remounting or refurbishment. As before, the workmanship ranged from careful and traditional to purely cosmetic. Importantly, atobori does not automatically imply deception / fake / gimei or poor quality. Many atobori hi were executed competently and reflect legitimate historical practices. However, because the carving was not part of the blade’s original forging concept, any but the best often reveal subtle inconsistencies in proportion, termination logic, or stylistic harmony when compared to original work. For this reason, experienced observers tend to assess atobori not by a single technical fault, but by the cumulative weight of visual, stylistic, and historical considerations.

I know that this may not seem like a satisfactory response… but they just look “wrong” for that sword in a couple of ways. Firstly the bohi terminates midblade before the monouchi with a nagashi (tapering away) style. Unusual, and often an indication of atobori in and of itself. What does not indicate atobori is the nagashi style termination at the machi, this is / would be normal. However, on the ura side I find my eye to be anxiously checking alignment of the carving of the futatsuji-hi, which appears ever so slightly misaligned. With strong futasuji-hi, the eye will relax and everything will feel right to the trained observer. The spacing here however feels functionally parallel but aesthetically unresolved (seems to be some slight divergence). Meanwhile, a sword of this style is seldom seen with this kind of carving, that is to say, a utilitarian sword from the muromachi period, which this seems to be, basically does not originally have soe-hi. I don’t want to come across as elitist but the “eye training” one gets from looking at hundreds / thousands of “correct examples” over decades solidifies an aesthetic expectation which is very difficult to describe but this sword falls short of. Call it a gut feeling if you will, but I’m far from an expert.

The hi appear to me to be atobori / ato-bi.

Made in a studio in south China. I’m in touch with the artist(s) if you’re interested in acquiring one.