Information Requested on Wakizashi signed Kanemoto

[nmCollector]

This a recent eBay purchase ... the only one I own that is not in WWII mounts and has a fresh polish. I figure the price I paid was less than what it would have cost to purchase the blade then a Japanese polish, habaki, and saya.

 

http://www.nmcollector.net/KanemotoWak/

 

Clay

[mike yeon]

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

[nmCollector]

Thanks. Perhaps you can enlighten me on something though. I figured since it had already been to Japan for a restoration (it came from a Japanese dealer) if it was worthy of shinsha it would have already gone through one. Wouldn't that make sense?

 

Thanks again,

 

Clay

[Guest Nanshoku-Samurai]

Hello Clay!

 

Looks like an excellent blade. The style is right for a later Kanemoto in my cheap oppinion.

 

Just because a blade is coming from Japan without papers does not mean it being unworty of Shinsa. Japanese sellers often have a large stock so they are rather interested in turning around blades quickly for a fast buck rather then investing time and money to make a bigger profit. The good thing is that us collectors will profit from it.

 

Regards,

 

Max

[nmCollector]

Well, that's great news! Thanks.

 

Clay

[mike yeon]

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