Hands Up Who Has Seen Such Kind Of "suriage" Before ...

[TheGermanBastard]

.. my hand stays down. First time for me to encounter this ... Mid Muromachi Bizen NagaXXX

 

I wonder how such a shortening is to be considered? And why it was choosen? To do away with a Hagire? Possible but I don't think so. Some kind of flaw or damage would be the most reasonable explanation though.

[Ray Singer]

Looks like a nakago extension, which may have been done to replace a broken nakago. Very unusual. Is the nakago only pinned in place?

[Fuuten]

Very strange. Why not just create a new nagako? This doesn't seem to be all that sturdy and safe to use.

[vajo]

Nihonto James Bond

[John A Stuart]

There is a famous sword at Ōyamazumi Jinja that has a repair like this. John

[TheGermanBastard]

Hello Ray, yes only in one place. It is not an extension. As it is the original Nagakoi pinned there with some part missing inbetween.

 

John, thank you ... do you happen to have an image of that sword in question or any further information on why it was shortened this way?

 

I believe a major goal was to preserve the original Nagako as much as possible.

[echizento]

Very odd, while I've heard of this being done this is the first one I've seen. I would be interested to see what the rest of the blade looks like. 

[ROKUJURO]

To me it is obvious that the NAKAGO was broken at the upper MEKUGI-ANA and this was an attempt to repair it. 

[Ray Singer]

That is what I was indicating as well. Perhaps 'extension' was a poor choice of words, but a repair intended to restore the length of a nakago which was broken.

 

When this is done with the intent of deception to use the nakago from another sword it is referred to as a tsugi-nakago (接ぎ茎・継ぎ茎).

 

 

To me it is obvious that the NAKAGO was broken at the upper MEKUGI-ANA and this was an attempt to repair it. 

[TheGermanBastard]

The katana size sword was appropriate bizen work ,,, unfortunately with some unwanted openings but I'd say they were acceptable. It went n a floor auction recently at around 1000 bucks. I was hesitant to bid as I had never seen such a repair before and thus could not determine if it was okay or a total deal breaker. What do you think? Again this is of course very much dependant on the specific sword in question. There is one Rai Juyo blade that could papered in parts - with t he signature part of tang chopped off.

 

But assuming is an avwerage blade I believe it is a rather undesireable repair.

[Ray Singer]

While I am not familiar with a Juyo example, there is a Tokubetsu Hozon Rai Kunitoshi which papered with both the separate nakago and the now osuriage wakizashi blade. I do not know for certain if the NBTHK would paper a sword with an attached nakago such as this but my feeling is that they would not because, even if the mei is found to be correct and the nakago is believed to belong to the blade, it would still seem that this sword is structurally compromised. With the Rai Kunitoshi wakizashi, the blade had a fully reformed nakago (was structurally sound) and would have received papers (to some smith/school) even if the associated nakago did not exist.

[John A Stuart]

As requested. A sword by Muneyoshi 宗吉 John

[TheGermanBastard]

Thank you very much John.

[tokashikibob]

The samurai really wanted to keep that sword tucked in his obi