Late Father’s Old Sword Collection - Swords #2 + #3

[kotachi]

I have been watching a few of the auctions from the seller bassy58 and I know the "Sa" blade was already discussed here. I just read the article on mei analysis by Darcy Brockbank and this auction sent up red flags.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/171263187843

 

First off, the seller states, "After taking my swords to a kendo sword club, the sensei told me that these two swords are a set, and after taking the handles off we noticed they both had the same inscriptions. So I am selling these as a set and the winning bidder will receive BOTH of them."

 

What are the chances that the sensei recognized these blades as being from the same smith before taking the handles off? To me the sugata, kissaki and boshi seem to be very different, would there really be this much variation in a single smiths work even between generations, especially a famous smith as the listing states?

 

Secondly, the mei also seem inconsistent from what I read. The strokes have a different style and orientation on many of the characters, one has a fujiwara charecter the other does not, the mekugi ana is not located at the same spot in relation to the second character, the wakizashi mei does not follow the shinogi line and the katana does, the nakago's are close in shape but the nakago-jiri is not. All this points to gimei right?

 

If anyone has any other examples of Tadahiro mei's I would be very interested in seeing if I got it right.

 

Also to me the sap story about inheriting fathers swords, paying for kids education, no return policy and the "famous" smith and the value relate messages he has posted suggest that he might know more then he is letting on and, possibly even that these are gimei, and is just trying to make a buck. Wonder if that why the first winner of this auction didn't pay the 3500$ it went for first time around.

 

I hope I am wrong, as I usually am when it comes to nihonto. Please help this newb understand the finer points of recognizing bunk auctions and fake signatures.

 

-Jay G

[Stephen]

also a relist from non paying bidder....lets be careful out there boys

[Jean]

http://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashi-hizen ... generation

[J Reid]

I think these swords have already been discussed. Hizen blades usually have tachi mei. This sword is katana mei.. Dead giveaway to gimei, IMHO.

[cisco-san]

see also:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17861&p=159863#p159863