Kanemoto Blade - trying to figure out what generation

darbianco · January 14, 2014

Hi Everyone , just recently found this blade signed Kanemoto and now the hard part ( but fun ) is i have been trying to figure out what generation Kanemoto. I soon realized i cant figure it out with my limited knowledge so i thought i would post some pics here and see what type of comments i can get. any help would be greatly appreciated

paulb · January 14, 2014

Hi

To make it easier to reply could you please sign your posts as per board rules.

To help, and as you suggest it isn't easy, could you supply some more information regarding your sword such as dimensions and an image of the whole blade would also be useful.

The style of the mei and the regular pattern of the hamon I think would suggest a later mino work (not my main area of interest and I am working from memory) but certainly some idea of size and shape would help to narrow it down

good luck in the search

Regards

Paul

cabowen · January 14, 2014

In general, the more uniform the sanbon sugi hamon, the later the generation. Of course, it could be fake as well. With a famous name, so many Seki smiths, and rather common workmanship, some shinsa teams might say "later Kanemoto", others might say "gimei". It is very difficult to know for certain which is true.

Surfson · January 14, 2014

Looks like a nice Kanemoto blade. I am away from my books, but an issue that comes up with regard to Magoroku Kanemoto is the presence of the jizo boshi that he is famous for. The boshi on your sword looks atypical to me for Magoroku, though I don't know how much he varied his boshi. Here is a previous brief discussion.

http://www.nihontomessageboard.com/nmb/ ... f=1&t=9917

Cheers, Bob

Grey Doffin · January 14, 2014

Hi Bianco,

Can you tell us what the 2 elongated oval shaped lines in picture Kanemoto5 are?

Grey

darbianco · January 15, 2014

Hi Everyone and thanks for the information so far. I will try to get some more photos on and dimensions tonight. As for the elongated lines i think it is a fine scratch that has been highlighted by my light source and shows up more in this pic as i used a high mm macro lens. Thanks

Darren

darbianco · January 15, 2014

Hi everyone here is a few more photos i had. If there are any photos you would like to see let me know. The blade length is 35 5/8ths overall with 27.75 cutting edge . 1.25" wide at habaki and .25" thick at habaki. Note - There is in the first set of photos the pic of the entire nakago which showed up only as a link in case you missed it.

thanks again for all and any information

Looks like you have to click the first link to see the pic of full length

Darren

Grey Doffin · January 15, 2014

Hi Darren,

Sorry but the 2 oval shaped patterns I see are far too carefully done to be scratches. Anyone else have an idea what these might be?

Grey

darbianco · January 15, 2014

Hi Darren,
Sorry but the 2 oval shaped patterns I see are far too carefully done to be scratches. Anyone else have an idea what these might be?

Grey

Hi, i looked at the blade closely and they are most definitely scratches....If the blade turns out to be worthy i will have it repolished

Thanks

Darren

cabowen · January 15, 2014

The jigane, at least what is visable, looks quite nice....

darbianco · January 15, 2014

The jigane, at least what is visable, looks quite nice....

Yeah im very impressed with the blade. Larry K from lacrosse suggested i contact you to bring this to the Shinsa in February. My schedule is pretty busy and would love to go ...still room in the Shinsa ? if so ill have to see if i can work it out.

thanks

Darren

cabowen · January 15, 2014

Yeah im very impressed with the blade. Larry K from lacrosse suggested i contact you to bring this to the Shinsa in February. My schedule is pretty busy and would love to go ...still room in the Shinsa ? if so ill have to see if i can work it out.

thanks

Darren

Yes, you can bring it yourself or you can take advantage of the mail in service. Contact me for details.