mike yeon

Mark, I once owned a shimosaka wakizashi made by kunitsuna (if you do a search for it on the forum you can see some pretty smart comments from forum members). Plus I've handled a few blades from this school. There's a bunch of styles these smiths incorporated into their works from soshu to yamashiro. I sold the blade before I fully researched it but here's what I can share: One good kantei point is the turnback at the boshi. Should be long and sometimes goes past the yokote line. The hada is usually a fine ko-itame/mokume, and the steel is dark. Yasutsugu (the school's founder) developed what's called Echizen gane (very tight hada with some shirake). The blade I owed was typical keicho shinto style (very wide and stout.) In some earlier works of this school you find the longer kissaki. The nakago will taper to a smallish end and the yasurime on the kunitsuna was katte-sagari. Hope this helps. I like the o'kissaki on your blade. Good luck! mike

Hi Ken, A shirasaya would have been made to fit the tanto so can't say the shirasaya is older (unless someone slipped the blade into a makeshift shirasaya that just happened to fit.) In any case, when you say "shinsa team" do you mean members of an organization like the NTHK? Or is it a kantei group within your sword study group? (Asking because some study groups have members that are indeed shinsa team members I'd imagine.) Just curious. In my opinion, I agree with steve (WW2 dagger.) I'd like to be wrong. Can you see any hataraki in the hamon? The hada looks muji from the pictures. Nice activities would point to a traditionally made blade and away from the WW2 pilot dagger assesment. Best of luck in either case. mike

Also, the blade "says" kanemoto because of the hamon. Like a sudare-ba would say yoshimichi. Not a very difficult kantei. If it were mumei with a sanbonsuji hamon then you wouldn't be so sure. Could be any of a number of later mino-seki smiths. Any attempt to get papers may narrow down the time period and possibly generation. Most dealers won't bother as the blade is clearly not the work of the earlier more highly rated kanemoto. Either way, looks like a perfectly fine blade with a nice text book example of a famous style of hamon. Enjoy it. mike

Nice blade and at a good price. Mike Y is one of the best guys to deal with on ebay. The mino kanemoto line is famous for developing the sanbonsuji hamon (3 cedars) which this blade exhibits a good example of. I'd say your blade was made by one of the later kanemoto as the "tree" points are pretty uniform/distinct (which point to later mino-seki). The style of sanbonsuji exhibited by the earlier smiths (1st & 2nd) are more irregular and look like a variation of gunome-midare. Either way, it's a good candidate for shinsa. Congrats on your purchase. mike

I'd also note that since the blade is o'suriage, the presence of a mizukage as evidence of a school or smiths that produced intentional mizukage can be ruled out. mike

Paul brings up a good point about a retemper job done by a skilled smith to restore a great blade vs. a hasty one done to simply bring back utility to a burnt out blade. A retempered blade in general is a negative thing becuase the intended qualities that made a good balde a good blade are lost (activities, shape, etc.) no matter how good the job was. BUT in certain cases I believe it's acceptable. For example, I've handled a signed, ubu, ko-ichimonji tachi that I believe had juyo papers. This blade was retempered (only clues at first glance was a slight/odd saki-zori.) This blade is seen as valuable becuase the retemper job was good, and because frankly, how many signed/ubu/ko-ichimonji tachi are still around today? As for the blade in question, wouldn't there be a lack of nie since at the high temperature needed to produce nie, a blade being retempered would crack or warp out of shape? Unless I don't know what nie looks like I see patches along the hamon and a lot up in the boshi. mike

It does look like a mizukage but the rest of the blade doesn't exhibit the usual qualities of a retempered blade. Unless my eyes are mistaken, I see decent activity in the hamon, a good amount of nie, and the boshi looks pretty well defined. If retempered, seems like someone did a good job? Just my 2 cents. mike

Hey Jean, Reinier. Just my 2 cents on gimei. Correct me if I'm worng but true utsushi mono are generally left mumei or signed by the smith who is paying homage by making the reproduction. In the case of Yasutsugu, he did make forgeries of old bizen/soshu masterworks that were intended to be the "real thing" at the request of hideyasu/ieyasu. These were meant to be given as gifts when "real" yoshimitsu blades were in short supply... There's also a story about kotetsu (who was copied in his own lifetime) being presented with a blade signed "kotetsu". He looked at the blade and said "this is indeed a kotetsu but I didn't make it." (so skilled was the forgery). Also, Gassan Sadakazu was said to have made gimei blades during the meiji era when demand for new swords were at an all time low and the only blades customers wanted were older pieces. My point is not all gimei blades that are made to be gimei from scratch are made by lesser smiths, and not all are of lesser quality. mike

First off, nice looking blade! I agree with shin-shinto/gendai leaning more towards gendai. Look for ubu-ha (unsharpened portion of the nagasa starting at the hamachi.) This is a good sign the blade is younger. I don't know much about later mino characteristics but the boshi/kissaki/koshi-ba don't seem mino to me. In any case, you've got a lot of fun research ahead of you. Best of luck. mike

Looks like you got yourself a nice piece. I want to say shinto because of the big nie/hamon and the boshi/turnback looks very osaka shinto/yasutsugu school. But then the length of your blade at 28" and o'suriage make it an unusual length for a shinto piece. The tapering and small kissaki also looks koto. But I am going to stick to shinto. The menuki is a kiri mon (a heraldic badge related to the imperial household dating back to the kamakura period but used throughout history.) I once owned a gimei kagemitsu that had similar menuki. In any case, get it in the hands of someone knowledgeable (as pictures are not the best way to kantei or price something). Let us know where you're located and forum members can advise you on clubs/reputable dealers in your area. Good luck and nice piece. mike

Jean, I was thinking late koto as well. When I say scalloped (raised shinogi), look at the blade with the mune facing you. if the shinogi outline looks like a fat man standing behind a thin tree, then that's a raised shinogi. Not an exact way to look at things when looking at a nagamaki or naginata. mike

Very well said jean. I was asking about the high shinogi for that reason as the konogbei school stuck to the yamato/yamashiro tradition for the most part. Can you get a pict of the bulb at the kissaki? If the bulb is large, I would wonder if it's not too old (more later koto/early shinto than nambochuko). Also, maybe it's a nagamaki-naoshi katana? Good luck with your research. mike

like when you look at it head on does the shinogi's height almost make it look like the mune is scalloped? Also, you mentioned taper, does it taper towards the tip and then "bulb" out at the kissaki? mike

not a bad lead. I know a bit about the mainline chikuzen school, not much on the kongobei line. I believe it was one of the schools that held off the soshu influence that was adopted by everyone at the time. I'd google "chikuzen moritaka" What's the hada look like? Should be mokume/masame mix. Look for the raised shinogi. The sotoba-gata looks good. Though other schools have used this as well (mino). Good luck! mike

It should be mentioned that the blades in the Cheness video are NOT the chinese fakes you see on eBay selling for $1.00. Those fakes meant to look anitique are produced in an even more crude fashion. Interesting to see there's no use of a power hammer shown. Just 2 guys beating the billet. mike

That's exactly the type of email I recieved. Unfortunately I was victimized by my curiosity. And yes, I do agree the forum was instrumental in the blades finding good homes. I sincerely thank everyone from Stephen to Brian. If there's anything I can do to help anyone in the future, please ask. It's a wonderful community we have here, and gives me faith in light of all the dishonest scam artists out there. Thanks to all. mike

Brian, Thanks for the info. I've been in touch with eBay and they changed my password for me. One word of caution they offered was to always log out of your sessions. I have a feeling that I left my account open on my home computer and that's how they got in. Aside from my reputation on NMB and beyond (I hope that has been rectified) the damage has been minimal as Renier, Andreas and myself have worked things out and are moving forward. The only things I have noticed are they reposted the wakizashi which I immediately took down. There were also many second chance offers sent. If you have recieved these please PM me. Strangely enough they've been using my account to harras other eBay sellers of everything from TVs to event tickets (I don't know if these are legitimate). And now that you mentioned it, there was an email sent from the UK saying that my listing was a duplicate that I replied to. Hopefully this will get fixed. Anyone who has had this problem and has any insights on how to move forward, please let me know. Thank you Brian, as if there was no NMB, damage control would have been 10X harder. And much thanks to Renier and Andreas for offering me the benefit of the doubt. Thank you everyone. mike

Thank you Renier. mike

Stephan Hiller at nihonto.de can also vouch for me. (Stephen, I hope you don't mind me using your name in this capacity). I've sold him a blade recently. I will also post pictures of me holding the blades with a dated periodical. This is such BS that I need to go through these lengths. Thank you everyone for your patience/support. mike

The blades are mine and in hand btw. For further assurance I can tell you I work for Maxim Magazine (I'm the marketing director). Here's a link to the masthead: http://www.maxim.com/masthead/index_magazine.aspx scroll down to marketing and promotions. message me if you want a free subscription. :D This really is unfortunate. I want to assure everyone that I'm legitimate. mike

Hello Everyone, My ebay accout has been hijacked it seems. Numerous people are getting second chance offers and it also looks like they're relisting the same auctions. I've contacted ebay to help. Has anyone else experienced this problem and if so, what did you do to rectify it? My information is: Michael Yeon 330 West 45th st NY NY 10036 My phone is 646-827-7216 (call me or stop by if you want to check if I'm real) I believe moses beccera recently joined the forum (moses, please let everyone know I'm real if you see this. thanks) mike

I was a joke but Steve might be on to something. Logistics are giving me a headache though... mike

Or what we can do is give $40 each and then hold a raffle... Beautiful blade. mike

Why yes it is sir. Thank you for the shout out Stephen. It is priced accordingly as the mei is not verified. But a solid, beautiful blade that I need to move fast to facilitate another purchase. I was meaning to advertise it on the board but didn't get around to it. I also have a papered wakizashi up for auction right now as well (just click the other items link). Message me through eBay if you're interested. Thank you again for the kind words Stephen. mike

I'm not a fittings or production sword guy but isn't that a paul chen tsuba? mike