Wakizashi - Some Help Required To Increase My Knowledge

[Iain E]

Hi all,

Is it possible to get some help in trying to place this Wakizashi,
I’m really a beginner in all this, but have been told that its possibly Shinto period, late 17th century, perhaps Mino Den by someone with more knowledge than I, however the more I read on the forum and the few books I have, the more I reaise I’m only really guessing.
My take on it is as follows:

Hamon is Midare / Gunome - is there a specific name for this style?
Jihada: masame / itame – I think Nioi / niedeki (see photo - Nioi are the large particles you can see?)
Mune: ihori
Dimensions:
Nagasa (length) 52cm , Sori Curvature 1cm, Nakago length 13.7cm, Kasan (Thickness) approx. 0.6 at the Machi, Mihaba (Width) 2.7cm I'm not sure if its been shortened at some point in time.

It was hard to photograph the boshi, but it does turn back and I think its Midare-komi
It’s in a reasonable state of polish, but does have some light scratches and a few very small grain openings
Nakago : shape is I think Funagata , with the end being Haagari , the file marks are hard to see under the rust but I think they are Taka-no ha.
One think that does intrigue me is the green dot on the Nakago, it’s in the same place on both sides, and is solid, I’m guessing it’s possibly a filled MEKUGI hole, although its hard to see any clean circular indentation there & looks like it maybe as old as the surrounding patina underneath - , but why would it be green - Is this a common practice somewhere? The surrounding rust doesn’t look like it’s been disturbed and the green material (not sure if its painted or lacquered metal) looks old,

One thing I have learnt is that it’s really hard to get good photographs – so hats off to all those who regularly post top quality ones on here. These are taken with a couple of regular incandescent lamps as daylight is in short supply in the UK at the moment, not sure how this influence appraisal of the Nakago patina?

Thanks all - Really appreciate the help to improve my knowledge and description of the blade. Any ideas on the school / vintage would be really interesting.

Iain

[SwordGuyJoe]

I see nie-deki sanbonsugi.  It is more pronounced as the hamon reaches the middle of the sword.  Could be shinto either osuriage or just a mumei wakizashi.  But yes, Mino-den (the sanbonsugi is the give away).  Others will certainly weigh in here and should since this isn't my specialty, but I think I am reasonably close.

[Fuuten]

I'm not experienced and surely not wise enough to comment on your casus.

 

Its a real blade, perhaps mino (seems to fit).

 

Not shortened, ubu, meaning original nagako. - edit see comment above me says suriage? Sure they could make it look like ubu but what is the give away (no file patterns)? -also there is quite alot of rust and shaping because of it, but couldn't that also happen with a ubu nagako?

 

Nice blade!

 

.. afterthought; whats the green blob on the nagako?

[SwordGuyJoe]

The give away would be the termination of the hamon (usually). I just can't make it out on these pictures. Suriage would show hamon continuing straight into the rusted nakago. Ubu should show a rounded termination at the beginning of the nakago.

 

And I said O-suriage assuming that it may have had a mei in the first place. I believe this is typical terminology for a shortened sword with no mei, though it could've been mumei before the suriage, but

[Fuuten]

Good evening (for me), Joe.

 

This is quite interesting and i think i recall a discussion about this before, and how it would technically (having a shallow enough hamon at the right place), to have it look original at the hamachi.. I'm not sure if i recall it correctly, but here my first thought seeing the shape was ubu, but what do i know?

[CSM101]

Hi Iain,

 

I know a katana with exactly the same hamon. It is a Shinto-Jumiyo. And it is not sambonsugi as mentioned before. It is small-big-small-big.... Sambonsugi is small-big-small-small-big-small...etc

 

Uwe G.

[SwordGuyJoe]

I think Jumyo would be a good guess on this, but I see a sanbonsugi hamon executed by a lower tier smith.  I can be (and given my track record are likely) wrong here.  Just my opinion.

[Swordlook]

Funny that last picture almost looks like a tsugi-nakago.

[Iain E]

Funny that last picture almost looks like a tsugi-nakago.

Just took a look under a descent light and I think it's just a trick of the camera making it look worse. It's right on the line where the rear of the Habakai meets the front of the tsuba, so I'm guessing the mark may have been caused by that somehow.

Never seen a tsugi-nakago in real life though so hard to know how they look..

[ROKUJURO]

Iain,

normally you would not expect a TSUGI NAKAGO without a signature (until it is a decoration repair). In this case it might just be a linear corrosion. 

By the way: It is HABAKI, not Habakai.

[Ken-Hawaii]

Iain, your blade is definitely nie-deki; the outer "whiteness" is the hadori polish, & is quite common. Nie are particles that you can see as individual & discrete, while nioi are particles that are too small to see as such, & thus appear as a whitish mist. But don't mistake hadori polish as nioi - not related.

 

The sugata indicates it's a Shinto blade, & there's a pretty good chance it's from somewhere around the Kanbun period. From the togari, my first thought would be Mino, although I don't think the hamon is sanbonsugi. I've seen several blades with similar sugata & hamon that were papered as Jumyo, so that's a good first estimate. From the hamon quickly tapering off just past the machi, my guess is that the blade is ubu, or very close to it. The filled-in mekugiana might mean that the blade is machi-okuri. I wouldn't worry about the greenish tinge on the filled ana...I've seen a lot worse; it's fairly easy for a tosho to fill in an ana.

 

Pretty nice blade.

 

Ken

[Iain E]

Thanks for all the replies, this blade has already taught me a huge amount and I think there is still a lot more to learn. Really appreciate the help from every one and the various PM’s as well.

 

Iain