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[drbvac]

Hi:

 

I am Brian B from Canada and have been interested in Japanese swords and edgged weapons since I was a small child many years ago. About 15 years ago I began keeping my eye open for them and have collected and sold several over the years and still have 8 that I think I will keep. I have a Kanemitsu of Mino tachi, from the 1440's and an unsigned katana possibly from Nanbokucho era, ,maybe Naoe Shizu in Koshirae with tsuba by Kinai of Echizen and soon as I figure how to take clear pictures I will run them by you folks to see what you think!

 

This sword is in question is in koshirae with a drgaon motif which are signed signed by hiro yasu 18th century. The blade is what I am interested in and I wish I could have gotten better pictures of the hamon which is clear and the hada which is not.

 

I have come to the conclusion after some research and asking others that it is a non tradionally forged blade by the 23rd generation Kanefusa, probably in the late 1930's as it is signed as he did but it has a showa stamp near the top of the tang. The horimono are beautiful and I know he made both gendaito and other blades so how can I determine which this is even though it has the showa stamp?

 

Nice to be able to discuss these from afar as there is no one within 1000 miles to show any of this stuff to!

[Stephen]

aboard Brian

 

what i see is a good looking blade and hori, you sure its a sho stamp? hard to tell from the pix, cant get my head around it being showato....more pix when you have time please.

[Darcy]

looks like:

 

Noshu Seki ju Fujiwara Kanefusa Saku to me.

 

濃州関住藤原兼房作

 

But doesn't seem to match:

 

http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/kanefusa.htm

[drbvac]

http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/kanefusa.htm

 

This link may work, the mei they show is not this one but he did sign as you read it. I wish I could take clearer pics with my digital.

[drbvac]

heres a couple more pictures I took with an old 35 mm ten years ago. Better quality than the digital - I have a better close up camera at the offcie I will take home. I should take better pics of all of my swords I guess for insurance if nothing else.

[Stephen]

like a close up of the stamp

[Brian]

I agree with Stephen,

I am not convinced that is the sho stamp, and from the little we can see so far, I would be surprised if it was an oil quenched arsenal blade.

Looks very nice, and might have been a 1930's civilian blade taken to war and had an acceptance stamp added?

Also, there are definitely arsenal stamped blades out there that are Gendaito, although how frequent this happened is what everyone wants to know.

 

Regards,

Brian

[mfarrar]

Welcome to the board. What I can see of the hamon would lead me to believe this sword is traditionally forged.

 

I have seen Horimono on showa-to, I often wonder whether smiths use them as test pieces to practise on, or whether it is just done to try and increase the value of the blade. I think in this case the horimono was a probably a later addition.

[drbvac]

Helps a lot, and I think it was forged in the 30's and had an acceptance stamp placed at the beginning of the war. It certainly looks gendaito but I cant make out any great hada like on my other blades. It is almost polished like chrome above the hamom which is really clear, but I will await the arrival of better pics to add to the discussion.

[Stephen]

Dr B sent me the close up here is it cropped and reduced, also a nice pic of the kissaki, it may be a show stamp but it seems to rounded, what's every ones else's take on it? The blade is very clean and a wartime polish may be hiding the hada, still nice peace of history even if turns out to be a war stamp.

[drbvac]

heres another pic / sorry, didnt know that it had been posted and dont know how to delete it!

 

Quite a story with this blade, when purchased the showa stamp was actually hidden on the tang as it was filled in with colored wax or dirt of some type and I discovered it while oiling the blade as some of it dissolved in the choji oil! I then put a little lighter fluid on the area and -- the stamp appeared. The dealer in montreal was upset as he said he didnt see it before he bought it and sent me a tsuba, a sword rack and an antique print of a samauri in compensation.

 

The tsuba, koshi, and all the furnitire is signed as well so I dont think I got burned too badly but you can never tell!@

[roninjje]

I dunno, sure doesn't look like oil tempered, but it also may be made from something other than tamahagane. :?

[drbvac]

Folks: Please look at signature and tang on this link

 

http://www.aoi-art.com/sword/katana/06311.html

 

If I was paranoid I would say there was a stamp at one time at the top of the tang above the mekugi ana and it was filed to obscure it! Have a look, maybe same as mine!

[huntershooter]

Well, paranoid or not there has obviously been an attempt at obliterating something. The location says arsenal stamp.