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Brian showa22 is a very experienced, long time seller with over 3400 sales, so is he just ignorant or a fraud, if this is an oil quenched showato then his description is more than "misleading", it would be an outright lie would it not? ("traditional hand forged,..... The temper line is wavy gunome choji temper pattern and has deep temper at the point. The forging grain is tight itame-hada and no forging flaws at all.") Here are the available images of the blade, can anyone help the original poster (Mike) and point out what shows this to be an oil quenched blade so that in the future he will have more to go on more than just the description of the seller.

Check this link out. Tang Stamps http://ryujinswords.com/shostamp.htm

Here is the sellers description. What facts lead you to determine that this description in false? ("This is a Japanese WWll Army officer`s sword in mountings. The blade is signed "Noshu Seki ju Kaneuji kin saku 濃州関住兼氏謹作", dated "Koki Nisen roppyaku-nen 皇紀二千六百年 (1940)", with 昭 inspection stamp, shinogi-zukuri shape, WWll time period made blade. Kaneuji made swords during WWll and after the war as a Gendai sword smith, listed in John Slough's book page 72. The blade is traditional hand forged, in old polish with original ububa, no rust, no stain and in good condition. The temper line is wavy gunome choji temper pattern and has deep temper at the point. The forging grain is tight itame-hada and no forging flaws at all. There is no bend, no crack and cutting edge is sharp. The scabbard is heavy metal scabbard, no dents, no bend and in good condition. The handle is tight fit with silver family mon on kabutogane, tsuka-ito wrapping is no cut, no loose and in good condition. Lock mechanism works fine. Tsuba and seppa are matched 136 number stamped. It came with blue/brown company grade sword tassel, no cut, no fade and in good condition. It measures 27+1/4" tip to the guard, 26+3/8" cutting edge, 1+3/16" width, 7 mm thickness at the notch and 39+1/2" in mountings.")

Jean,thanks for the explanation, yes his reputation is stellar, I just never tried to check out his website and could not figure out if it was working properly or not.

Is the description false? Send the seller an message and ask if the sword is a "nihonto", and by the way, are not Japanese swords made with "nanban tetsu" still considered to be "nihonto".

Is it just me or does his website dead end? http://www.keichodo.com/

CUTTING EDGE 58.8 cm/ 23.15 inches......so not really "almost 2 shaku on the nose". Possibly a wakizashi with a katana tsuka added at a later date? Katana typically do sell for more than wakizashi.

Do you mean this mess...do you mean "kojiri" and not "kogai"?

Piers...a utsubo-bako, amazing, thanks. I did not know about your recent thread on Japanese boxes, I think this box belongs there, maybe Brian will move it. When I click on a forum members name and then click on the box for "threads" or "posts" it only displays a few of the most recent ones and no more, it should bring up a persons entire history. Here is a link to your other thread for anyone who is interested. http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/22563-Japanese-boxes-we-like/

Contact Kelly Schmidt, he lives in Japan, I have used him for years, very reliable. kschmidt1127@gmail.com

Speaking of large Japanese boxes, I bought this one from Kelly Schmidt recently, he described it as a "katana box", I neglected to check the size before I paid for it. I was a bit shocked when it arrived, it is 54in / 137cm on the inside, as you can see it is quite a bit bigger than a katana. There are no racks and no sign that it ever had any. It must have stored something large but what? It appears to be old, held together with wood pegs.

Piers, if you ever want to free up some room in your house just let me know!! I always wanted one of that type of arrow head but I just have not been in the right place at the right time.

Piers, your katana-bako is the only one of its type I have seen, these bako with racks and carrying hardware must have been for military use. Along the same lines is another rare example, a ya-bako?

Piers, images of your katana-bako and an image of your teppo-bako. While your katana-bako is very similar to the teppo-bako I posted, the racks are quite different.

Piers, I do not doubt its age at all, a very rare weapon. Have you entertained the possibility that this had a dual use, mounted in a pole as a kama and it could have also had a hand held kusarigama mount with a removable chain, just pull out the mekugi and put the blade in whatever mounts you needed at the time. The fact that it has an oval shaft and a naginata ishizuki seems to indicate that the mounts were originally from a naginata and not a yari. As for the hole, in my personal opinion, if it has a chain and weight it becomes a kusarigama, otherwise it is a kama / jingama. Below is a quote from Don Cunnungham, in which he says "The weighted chain added to the jingama to complete the kusarigama", which to me says that a chain and weight is needed for a jingama to be a kusarigama. As for your weapon, I would not think about adding a chain and weight, it would scratch the blade and fittings etc and it seems to me as a pole weapon a chain and weight would not be of much use. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/73/ab/d6/73abd664e70f0c5974225f9b53a0f95f.jpg

Here are Serge Mol's and Don Cunningham's thoughts on kama, which they call "jingama". https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/c7/e9/63/c7e9634afd06d866e9d1746a6d38bc9c.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/45/72/d4/4572d441b6d0e3f159385b9f77d39360.jpg

Piers, I can not remember seeing another kama mounted like this one, it looks like it has a naginata ishizuki, is the pole oval or round, the whole thing looks to be custom made.

Piers, this "yari" designation goes back as far as George Stone (1930s), in his book he describes a hand held kama as a "kama yari". In my opinion if it does not have a point it is not a yari, just as a kama with a hole is not a kusurigama if it does not have a chain and weight.

Piers, I remember yours, I thought you would appreciate seeing this one, do you still have any images of the one you had. You also have / had a very nice katana-bako with racks if I remember correctly.

John, is this the one from Darcy? Not much like Piers example, different blade type and no hole for a chain, long nakago meant for a pole, Piers example could be mounted in a pole or as a hand weapon. Darcy says that this one was probably a kama yari but I have to disagree with this as it has no point. Japanese kama blade by Takahashi Nobuhide, Shinshinto (AD) nakago:49cm, 2 mekugiana mei: 浪花住清雲子高橋信秀之道 (Naniwa ju Seiunshi Takahashi Nobuhide), uramei:増田原四？正義？？作之慶應四年秋 月？日作之 (Masuda Genshiro Masayoshi [?] Saku Kore, Keio 4 Nen [1868], Autumn [?] Day, Saku Kore), nagasa:10.5cm. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/a8/67/d4/a867d430387abeec526585e82135bf63.png

Here is a rare image of a teppo-bako, it looks like it holds two stacks of five. These are rarely seen, probably due to their size. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/e6/c4/6d/e6c46df1c236729bd3e30b77d4797a92.jpg

Piers, kemurigaeshi are not to common, I never really looked to closely at these, now I will have to take a closer look at the images I have to see how frequently they were used. Here is a more standard example with a pan cover.

Recommended reading material. BOOKS IN ENGLISH. Noel Perrin "Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879". Olof G. Lidin "Tanegashima-The Arrival of Europe in Japan" Shigeo Sugawa "The Japanese Matchlock" (English version). Rainer Daehnhardt "Espingarda feiticeira: A introdução da arma de fogo pelos portugueses no Extremo-Oriente = The bewitched gun : the introduction of the firearm in the far East by the Portuguese" (Portuguese and English in one book). BOOKS IN Japanese. Taira Sawada "Nihon no Furuju" (Japanese Antique Guns). Shigeo Sugawa "The Japanese Matchlock I & II"

Take a look at my Pinterest board on Japanese matchlocks, you should find images of all the individual parts of a Japanese matchlock. https://www.pinterest.com/worldantiques/Japanese-matchlock-firearms-from-the-samurai-era-t/ Japanese matchlock nomenclature. Detailed image showing the barrel protector (ama-ooi), barrel protector wedge (ama-ooi kusabi ) and removable barrel bolt (bisen). Japanese matchlock firing mechanism (karakuri), internal spring type.

Piers, it looks like it is missing more than a pan and ramrod.....but still not bad looking at all.