I did it: Den Enju

[Roland]

Oh happy day… After quite some time of research, visiting a lot of dealers and talking with a few more experienced nihonto addicts I succeeded in buying a really nice papered Den Enju katana. I have to shoot a couple of photos during the next few days but for now here are the first quick impressions (no hagire to be seen on the photos, just a few tiny hairs from our cats

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

[zentsuji2]

That's a nice looking blade Roland,it looks a quite beefy blade on the pictures you posted, can't wait to see more.

Looks like your waiting and patience, plus advice has paid off,made up for you.

Regards Ian Bellis

[Geraint]

And very nice it is, Roland.

[christianmalterre]

Yep!

(strikes out from the common mess indeed!)

Well Done!

 

Christian

[paulb]

congratulations Roland looks to be a good work.

I have been lucky enough to see a number of Enju blades and to date have never seen a poorly made one. Early Enju pieces compare very favorably to Rai work. Their lineage begins with a Yamato trained smith who then trained further with the Rai school before establishing the Enju school. You can see the influences of both Rai and Tegai styles in their early work.

Well done I think you will have a great deal of enjoyment from this one

Best Regards

Paul

[Jean]

Very good blade and school, Roland. Now the new challenge you are facing is to find why did the shinsa put "Den" :D .

[Marius]

Jean has made an excellent point. I am curious why.

[Roland]

Yeah, that's indeed an interesting question. When I first saw the sword my spontaneous idea was: "Oh, that looks much like a Kunitoki I!" On the other hand a lot of even higher level Enju swords up to Juyo Token are classified as Den Enju...

[Darcy]

It's a great blade.