Identification Request For Recently Purchased Tanto

[jrg]

Hello - I recently acquired the Tanto in the attached pics as part of a larger knife collection. Was hoping to get any info available from forum members. I would like to know age, style, maker, any background available. The tang is not signed. Thx, John

[Jean]

The mekugi ana is unusually placed on the nakago. Seems, but difficult to see on your picture, that hamachi and mune machi are not aligned. It seems that the nakago mune is unusually thick and the nakago jiri does not seem very classical. All this added to the shinogi makes me thing that this blade could come from a very shortened katana or wakizashi.

[Marius]

This is a very sloppy osuriage of a shinogi zukuri sword. I wouldn't call this a tanto proper, rather a sword stub, that can, however, be studied and enjoyed. The "nakgo" is a real eye sore, I am afraid  Your pictures do not show enough to make an attempt at attribution. 

[jrg]

Thank you very much for the information. Does this essentially mean a larger sword was cut down and re-purposed as a 'knife'. I am sure I am not using the correct terminology but I am a novice on this topic. Was that a common practice and does it eliminate any collector value from this piece? Best regards, John

[jrg]

I am also post additional pics of certain parts of the piece if that would be helpful

[Marius]

John,

 

Terminology is not so important. It is a real nihonto, a Japanese sword, regardless of its length. But yes, it used to be a longer sword, either a wakizashi or katana, that has been cut down to the current length. The shortening work is crude - a proper job would result in a well shaped nakago.

 

Yes, it was common practice to shorten swords to accommodate a new owner's requirement or to respond to the fashion of the day (many long tachi have been converted into katana or even wakizashi). Often a damaged sword (e.g a blade with hagire = crack in the hamon) was cut down to allow to extend its life span and to use it as a shorter weapon. And yes, shortening always affects value, in some cases to a great degree. 

 

In your case the value has been reduced very substantially, to put it mildly. To all intent and purpose this is just a remnant of a sword. You are left with 19-20cm of a blade but you can enjoy what you can see in the steel (ji-nie, hamon, etc). In this respect it has value. Sometimes, Japanese  connoisseurs will salvage even a remnant of a good blade in order to study it. In such cases, even if the blade is in a pitiful state, the nakago will be correctly shaped. Here is a good example:

http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/Sueyuki1.html

 

 

BTW, since you are new to nihonto, how about reading some books to start with? 

[Brian]

The old adage of being wary of any tanto in shinogi zukuri applies again. Best to avoid them.