Jim P

Hi Jason This is 1,2, and 4, together my bet is 4 http://www.touken-sato.com/event/katana/2014/03/D-kanemoto-01.html Kanemoto 2nd gen http://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords3/KT325563.htm Kanemoto fourth generation, pic, is from aoi art Tsuruta thinks its 1st gen and a Kanesada sambonsugi http://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords3/KT324936.htm but no paper and one last Kanemoto http://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords3/KT325508.htm

Chris, This should tell you all you need to know http://taiseido.biz/cn11/cn22/pg565.html

Hi Chris, I think we should thank Richard for taking the time to write it.

Chris, Did you read this in Articles? http://www.rkgphotos.com/articles/ktk_photo_document_2012.pdf Or do a search of the board a lot has been posted on this .

Hi Julian,To give some balance, My experience with Nakamura was not good so it can be different for all of us Jussi;s experience was a good one and yours may be but I would take Ken's advice and then save a bit more and give ebay a miss till you know a bit more. ebay is not for first time collectors.

Hi Klaus, First post pic 5 Great blade Matt

Nice work

Hi Darcy, Thanks for taking the time to reply, I did look at the one on your site before posting and there is some similarity in the hamon and the ji-gane looks bizen ( what I can see of it ) The sword is a bit more tired than the one on your site so some of the things you mention may be because of that so will try and get someone to look at it and in the meantime see if I can get some more detailed pics the chances are its not by him but still a interesting blade

Hi Paul, At least you had an idea that it was probably Shin-Shinto. I would be surprised if this one ended up Shin-Shinto but as you know I am not great at kantei . Hi Jean, Thanks for your thoughts, I decided to have a second look as I saw that someone thought enough of the blade to put a gold habaki on it. also in its past someone also thought enough of it to get a bohi cut after it was shortened

Hi Paul, I think there must be a few of them (sayagaki claiming its Kanemitsu) Now if that blade can get by you then the rest of us do not have much chance. I think that its old and bizen from what I saw but as you say it may well be shin-shinto or even gendaito I will take some better Pics if I can and see if that helps

Hi Hamfish, The sword is out of polish that's why the pics are not good even if he takes some more time (40m) it would not help much its not my sword but was asked to look at it so trying to work out if the sword is worth a window being done. Now *how could even the most educated person comment.) Well I think we can comment on shape, period, does it look like a bizen blade ? hamon, well what we see of it. Hi Jean, I am not saying that's its by Kanemitsu, I don't know who the smith is, that's why I said If ? and as for sayagaki I also don't know if its reliable ? but it has a good chance that its bizen and that is a good starting point. My thoughts so far are its a mid 1500s sword but it could be a bit older ? But I will try to get some better pics of what I can

Hi Guys, This sword is out of polish and O-suriage but you can see bits of gonome-midare and choji-midare in the hamon the sayagaki says Bishu Osafune ju Kanemitsu so if its a bizen Kanemitsu, which one ? thoughts ? also remember reading that if the gonome-midare hamon straitens out in the top part of the blade its a later smith ?

Hard to hold but a late bizen blade and fittings by myochin ? http://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords3/KT324760.htm

Hi Darcy, I had a look at a few Yoshimichi most of the ones I looked at did not have sudareba about 60% and looking at this blade it has some of the form that makes up sudareba so maybe a mix ? or just the polish ? we will see when the polish is finished .I enjoy doing a bit of kantei right or wrong it helps improve our skills Hi Jacques, Saw that the atari was pointing the wrong way and looked off is that what you are pointing to ? it should be pointing down when this was first posted I had a look at a few and some characters vary a bit but the only one that had it in this place was yamato no kami yoshimich but the rest of the mei does not match look at pic For those that want a good article on the kyoto yoshimich's mei have a look at TOKEN TO REKISHI Issue 614 IMHO if you take all of the info together it has a good chance at shoshin,

Thanks Darcy, I also had a tinge of doubt when I first looked a the pics but put it down to the polish not being finished ? thanks Sylvain for posting it

I agree with Jean that's sudareba let us know if you submit for papers and what the result is

James,Hirokane.

Brian is right as usual, (Everyone wants a Koto) that why the better ones cost a lot more, old does not imply better and at the lower end of the koto market kazu-uchimono, tired, and blades with flaws abound. I would prefer a good shinto than a bad koto. John, I think I remember someone saying that NBTHK had never heard of Kobayashi Yukinobu being on their shinsa panel, ?

Darius, If this is the sword, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Papered-Mutsu-No-Kami-Kaneyasu-Katana-Nagasa-65-9-cm-25-94-inch-U-88-/221946884613?rmvSB=true I would ask for a close up of the boshi and mei, Its interesting they took pics, but no close ups of the mei or boshi and no close ups of the blade ? The papers by JTK (Juho Token Kenkyukai) I would be wary of and do my homework

Hi Sylvain, IMHO I am surprised the polisher would say that, yes there is variation in the way a smith signed but they did not have bad days and your mei has some differences that I had a ? about for example Hawley lists 3 generations so have put up some shoshin mei from Aoi art what do you think ? the Yasurime looks ok but the mei has some ? I would be interested to find out who signed it if its shoshin

Hi Sylvain, IMHO. I think you should get it to shinsa , I had a look at a few references and had no luck matching it to Osaka or Kyoto has the polisher given a opinion on the mei ? As you say ( I can guess the sudare ba design of the hamon within the rust, ) are you 100% its sudare ba ?

Ben,The only Ieyoshi I could find does not look good

Hi Ben,We do have a group of Melbourne collectors that get together a few times a year if you show an interest we are always there to help, just message me Ben Its good to look at the sa school but IMHO that would be a long shot as its probably gimei as Sa Yasuyoshi would be a target for gimei

Hi Ben, If it is Yasuyosh,as its not a clear enough pic but IMHO Sa Yasuyoshi does not match from the mei I looked at. So,, later gen ? or one of the other Yasuyoshi and there are a few or gimei ? ( Dr. Honma Junji in Nihon Koto Shi said that There is a possibility that there is another Yasuyoshi, who belongs to the Sa school, inferring from the extant tanto with the mei of Yasuyoshi in a different style) but it does not look like sa school work from the Pics I don't have mei of this Yasuyoshi but IMHO this is a mid to late muromachi period blade/ my 2 cents worth it may be gimei ? some info on the school http://www.nihonto.com/abtartchikuzensa.html eg.one kantei point look at the boshi.The Sa boshi will be almost pointed, look at https://markussesko.com/2015/06/10/kantei-3-hamon-boshi-3/ taore-bōshi (倒れ帽子)

Hi Kam, IMHO. Your observations are correct, I think part of the problem is some don't know enough to pick the difference between passable and excellent work. I know I am still learning but know enough to do my homework