Tokaido

Hi fellow collectors, a very good friend of mine offers his Sue-Bizen tanto on a local selling platform. A good deal for collectors from Germany/European communitiy (you should not hesitate to ask for international shipping within the EU, maybe he will agree) http://www.egun.de/market/item.php?id=5610348 Greetings Andreas

Hello Paul, I selected the Go-Shinkai and Tadahiro-Rai "couples" because they were always regarded as original-copy. Maybe my selection of vocabulary was poor, english is not my native language. I used the "compare" in the sense of "better/worse" which is often the way to look at these couples and which is wrong in my oppinion. But I like to emphazise that I think, there are not merely "copies", but idealized works by the later smiths. Greetings Andreas

Loose translation: "the better thing is the enemy of the good thing" What is good? What is better? Disclaimer: The following ideas are my ideas and I maybe totally wrong with my conclusions. To be honest, I prefer good Koto over good Shinto/Shinshinto. But it is only a matter of taste: I like hataraki wich may be the result of impurities in the steel (for example chikei, I believe are). And I like well forged hada, which do not look "perfectly smooth" but shows lots of flowing, burling etc.. I find this mostly in (good) Koto blades. BUT: I really do like very good Shinto, too. I remember my jaws dropping to the table while seeing three superior katana of Sukehiro, Shinkai and Tadahiro (all three in suguha!). These smiths never intended to produce the hataraki formerly found in blades of Koto masters. They used a very uniform hada als canvas to bring up a PERFECT shaped hamon, which the pefect width of the habuchi and size of the nie, exactly like they intended to burn into these blades. And their hada is art as its own: not flat and liveless, but "perfectly shaped". Maybe some of you say "oh, they tried to copy Awataguchi or Rai". I think you maybe wrong: They intended to copy the IDEA / ideal of Awataguchi/Rai or whateverlike. But in a perfected form/result. Do you thing they would have had problems to aquire some rusty swords or nails as material source to make a closer copy by using material closer to the original one used in Koto? NO! I guess they would have had no problems to work some ware into their blades or mix some roughness into or create some fancy hardening effects by adding high carbon bits into their blades. They did not want to do that. They wanted to create perfection and used the best availiable material of the time. Greetings Andreas sorry, I got carried away: but I do not like the discussion "what is better koto, shinto or shinshinto" anymore. DON'T compare them. You can't compare a Go to a Shinkai. Enjoy both for what ever merits they have.

Hi, simple: the itomaki is missing on this saya. It is customary to place brocade instead of same under the itomaki at the top of the saya and on the tsuka of a traditional itomaki-no-tachi-koshirae. Greetings Andreas

Hi, my fist idea while looking at the hamon and hada was: nice Naotane.. I did not expect this combination of very thight hada and almost sudareba style structures within the hamon/boundary to the ji in a YAMATO Shizu. Greetings Andreas

Hi Jean, on a first glance I read Joshu (= Yamashiro) with a "special writing of the kanji "shu". But maybe I'm wrong Concering the rest I can deciper something of "osuriage mumei" , Rai Kunitoshi, Nambokucho, and in the left column at the very end: keihin (good work) as well as chinchin chocho ("very precious") Greetings Andreas

Hello Marcello, I did search Fujishiro, Shinto Taikan and the Koto-Shi and Shinto-Shi by Markus, but I did not find a matching nakago. A smith by this name is listed under Gamaku school, but their signatures look different to yours. Sorry but keep looking Greetings Andreas

Hi, interesting style to chisel the kanji for "shu", but anyway, I guess: Noshu ju Fujiwara Ujinobu Greetings Andreas

Hello Robert, please give us some measurements (at least nagasa, sori, kasane). WHY do you think this sword is Nambokucho Period? Usually blades from the prime of the Nambokucho Period (thats where Naoe Shizu is placed in) "should" show a shallow sori, a wide mihaba and a slightly elongated kissaki. Without measurements and a rather difficult accessment of the shape of the blade due to the dissorted picture of the blades shape (to shallow an angel of view), I "see" a blade with a pronouced sori and a chu-kissaki, which may have been shortened/reshaped (assumption because of the very thin boshi). Hamon style: I do not see any of the (in-)famous up an downs in the hamon, which produce a very thin width of the hamon in the valleys of the hamon and which are typical for Naoe-Shizu (and the most representative Kanetomo). Greetings Andreas

Hello Jean, you are lucky in France! In Germany you have to pay 19% VAT plus 3% customs fee on any antique sword imported from Japan Greetings Andreas BTW: the scans of the juyo paper are to small for me to see clearely, but the boshi looks quite close to the edge on the Strebel katana and lacking hakkikake. But that maybe only the result of my bad eyes and the small blurry picture provided.

WOW! Someone took a lot of efforts to GLUE ANYTING IN PLACE !??! Since there is no ito, it maybe easy to carefully drill out the *black stuff* which may cover mekugi. But be carefull, maybe there are no mekugi or no mekugi ana in the blade below the black stuff. With a glue job like these, anything maybe possibly going on below the wood Be prepared for surprises Greetings Andreas

Hi Tobias, the pictures at ebay are badly out of focus, but from the placing of the shinogi line in the nakago I guess the shape is not shinogi tsukuri but rather kiriha tsukuri (on both sides). That is a rare shape for a longer sword. Greetings Andreas

Hi Donjohn, now Veli has allready done the difficult part: transscription of the sloppy *handwriting* of the smith into the *type writer shape* of the kanji. Now please try the link *kanji pages* at the very top of the website and find out the reading by yourself. It is easy now and it is fun AND it will give you the satisfaction of your own successfull translation. Signatures are written in a patterned style: First two kanji = Province, sometime followed by a 3./4. kanji giving a name of a town and a kanji *ju* meaning *living in* next two kanji = Name of the smith followed by kanji meaning *made by*, or *this was made by* Now try yourself and post the result and anybody will be happy to assist your further research in your new aquired sword. Greetings Andreas

Hello Greger, the European Branch of the NBTHK has a strong scandinavian chapter. The members meet freequently in Malmoe, Kopenhagen and Stockholm. I suggest to contact the NBTHK EB through their website to get more information or a direct contact in Sweden: http://www.nbthk.net Greetings Andreas

YES! and this is the shape of the mentioned Nagamitsu Kodachi... nagasa 54.3 cm, sori 1.9 cm koshi sori Greetings Andreas

Hello Peter, how do the curvature of the broken blade look like? Please take any picture of a short wakizashi (~45cm) and cut off the tip by photoshop Don't you think a swordsmith /polisher would be able to correct the shape of the ha a little bit by filing away the edge near the (now) tip? Otherwise the new very tip of the edge would easily break of again. Are you sure of the widening at the kissaki from above? Isn't it just the same width the shinogi shows more below the blade? Sorry, but the angle of the photo do not show the tip from the front, so I really can't see it. Again: why should a blade show open layers around the core? The core do not "rattle" within the kawagane To "see" the core, you may have to etch the surface on the "front" of the tip. BTW: not a "junk piece" but a rescued blade, "recycled" in the best meaning Greetings Andreas

Hello Peter, Yasuhiro with this kanji for "Yasu" + Chrisantemum could only be Bitchu no Kami Tachibana Yasuhiro from Osaka Ishido school (see Markus Sesko's book.) BUT: the writing style is clearly different in the Shinto Taikan (more rounded strokes) AND the tip of the nakago is a more flat one. Plus there are no nijimei mentioned in Markus Sesko's book. So might be gimei. The use of Chrisantemum is an honor, limited to swordsmiths who were allowed to use it by permission. I bet the blade is a satsuma-age, cut down from the tip. Why do you think a properly forged blade will show "loose layers" in the body when cut and properly filed? Greetings Andreas

Hello Jordy, since the oshigata are by Aoi-Art (obviously), you may simply ASK Mr Tsuruta if he guarantees Hozon Kanteisho and act accordingly to the answer... Greetings Andreas

Hi nihonto friends, after the auction is over, I like to ask the group for comments about the hardness of a swords edge. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-SAMURA ... 7675.l2557 The pictures show more dents than chips. I'm especially curious about the "bigger" dent. How soft is the edge on a Sue-Soshu blade?? I expected a much harder edge! Anyone seen this before? Greatings Andreas

Hello Stephen, since the blade is in my country, I might take a shot and pic it up afterwards Anyway, do you think those blotchy ara-nie call for a yamashiro blade? I bet on something like suekoto of Kaga Province... Greetings Andreas PS: Nice tsuka, but the saya looks like one made for a iaito?

Maybe I found the original pictures with the "salesnumber" in my archive Please notice that I divided the detail photos because of the original size >1,6MB Greetings Andreas PS: obviously a hosho-utsushi

Hello Tobias, on Shinto Blades you may find the second mekugi-ana occasionally on very long blades (by Yamato (no) Kami Yasusada for example). But they are rare. Maybe they were made "by oder from serious swordsmen only"?? Needs further study I added two samples from the Shinto Taikan: Two Katana by (Horikawa) Kunimasa, one with and one without the secondary mekugi ana. The blade with the secondary mekugi-ana is a shy of 1 mm longer than the other one (nagasa 712mm). Below I have posted another oshigata of a blade from my own collection which is rather short (nagasa 662mm), but has a long nakago (nakago nagasa 212 mm). Obviously the nakago is ubu = not shortened, but has a secondary mekugi-ana. Was this second mekugi ana originally there or was it added during the time of the later (200 years) added cutting test? I do not know, but carefully looking at the mekugia-ana let me think that it is not a later addition. Greetings Andreas

Hello David, these pic of the nanako look much better :-) Another proof how difficult it is to judge fittings based on photos. Greetings Andreas

Hello David, can you please have a close look at the circeled parts of the fitting. In the right circle it looks like a "flat ground" within the nanako. So the nanako punches do not meet each other, but are separated by a large flat area of double the size of the nanako? At least it looks like this in some parts of the nanako. => please reconsider your judgement about quality. In the left circle it looks like "gold paint" applied at the rim and giving some "fussy border" between the rim and the nanako. Do you see more evidence that the gold is applied laquer rather than uttori or mercury-helped gilding? Anyway,since this type of handachi fittings are seen frequently, do you (the group) think, that it was something like a part of a uniform (for lower status guardsmen or something)? Greetings Andreas

Hello Tobias, I have never visited those shop before during my visits to Hamburg. I allways recommend STRONGLY to ask for samples of "restorers" works, before you even give them an old gunto tsuka to restore. Good luck, and please post pictures of "before" and "after" at NMB The "Museum fuer Kunst und Gewerbe" (museum for art and craft) http://www.mkg-hamburg.de/en/ has some very nice kodogu. They focussed on softmetal work when collected kodogu back in the 1890ties. I'm not sure if there is much on display right now, but I heard they have enlarged the Japanese exhibiton area after their refurbisment some time ago. So if you are in town anyway... go for it! Greetings Andreas