Half a mei

[Alex A]

A good sword, im curious as to why someone would allow half the mei to be lost in this particular way, never seen this before.

 

http://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashi-awata ... -tadatsuna

[Klaver]

When I see this I would think O-suriage, but in this case I think AOI will mention it in the description, but they have not. The oxidation has the same pattern, you can see some file marks on the none Mei side I think, they want to get rid off the full mei?

[Geraint]

Hi Alex,

 

You are right, this is unusual, I cannot recall seeing one like it before. My first thought was that there was a need to polish the shinogi ji heavily and that the nakago had been adjusted to take account of that but I see that the kasane is still quite thick. In any event there would be ways of adjusting to retain the mei. Look forward to other people's input on this one.

The only other thought that occurs to me is that sometimes nakago are re worked to fit specific military koshirae, perhaps this one was altered to fit a kyu gunto or something like that.

 

Jordy, why would you think suriage? Shortening the nakago and removing part or all of the mei seems quite different and we know the sword is papered.

[Klaver]

Geraint,

 

Your points of view are really making sense.

 

I do think a papered katana can also be o-suriage, if I understand you well. You have one hole so this does not indicate surriage. The shape seems right also. I thought because of the re-shaping some Mei has got lost due to those techniques. I remember I have seen an o suriage blade and they forged in the old Mei, but this was clearly visible in the steel pattern.

 

I think your thought this nakago is re worked to fit specific koshirae makes the best explanation for me.

[Jim P]

Jordy, This will explain things http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/suriage.html also the holes (mekugi-ana) do not matter both can have one or more in a Suriage or O-Suriage blade. Hope that helps

[Alex A]

Cheers for the replies guys. Geraint, thats what i was thinking, that maybe someone trimmed the nakago to fit an existing tsuka.

[Guido]

To me it looks like the the blade is Suriage and Machi-okuri, and that in the process the Nakago was reshaped. I find it highly unlikely that this was done for a pre-existing Tsuka. There was no need for that back in the day, having a new Tsuka carved wasn't a big deal. Also, someone who actually used a sword wouldn't risk to have a Tsuka that wasn't a perfect fit.

[Alex A]

Cheers Guido, ive not seen a mei like that before, an interesting sword.

[runagmc]

Never seen this either

[leo]

The nakago looks refinished, so how about this:

 

A former owner was told that it was gimei, so he ordered the mei to be removed in order to receive a paper. Halfway through the process, he received the good news that it was shoshin!!

 

Cheers, Martin