Old Sword ID/Value Help

[Ted Tenold]

Ah, yes. So this sword was altered for a short handle mounting. This handle is a Type 19 Army dress sword, and is part of a "D" guard style mounting. The Type 19 mountings were circa mid 1880's to early 1930's. This is similar to a police type but the two are differentiated by the cherry blossom. Each blossom on yours has 10 petals (five fully visable stacked on top of five behind). Police blossoms are only five. The "D" guard is apparently missing though because the handguard (tsuba) you have is more like a late WWII type. Perhaps it was an alteration by the wearer to alleviate the "d" assembly as it may have been unweildy or disallowed for use by superiors(?). This type of handle was phased out in the mid-1930's, but some continued to be used, so yours may have been modified. The backstrap is indeed a Type 19 though.

 

So, my theory is that this sword already had the notches (munemachi and hamachi) moved up for whatever reason prior to the shortening of the tang which in turn was performed to accomodate fitting the Type 19 handle. This would explain why the carving (horimono) is below the collar (habaki), the habaki is a lesser seen design/type, and the tang (nakago) is so short.

 

Hope this helps.

[Grey Doffin]

But why was the blade shortened in the first place? Certainly not to fit the army scabbard as that would have been made to fit the blade.

I'm still troubled by the shortening; I see no logic to it.

Grey

[Fritz]

Unfortunatly we'll never know why but it was done quite some time ago and by the way the handle fits the tang I think thats when it was done, the blade though is what it is a nice early one in my eyes, I've seen 1812 american swords in worse shape than this one and they were made barley 200 years ago and this one is almost 450 years old and looks new compared to the other. Sorry for rambling on.

 

Fritz

[Fritz]

Gentlemen,

First off I want to thank you all for the help and advice I have received about my sword. I have learned alot from this sword so I think I'm a bit better off next time I run into one. Thanks again!

 

Fritz

[Darcy]

I once had a Niji Kunitoshi that was found by Bob Benson in gunto mounts. It had been shortened in WWII, the evidence was that the upper part of the nakago was bright and shiny... it was probably about 72ish cm and shortened down to 69ish. So this was done from time to time, and I would guess that the reason was that the guy in question had it dragging on the ground if it wasn't shortened :-).

[Fritz]

Darcy,

Thats what I figured why it was done also, I think it was shortend at least twicw by the number of holes but not to sure what the original length really was, all the signature is still there but if there was any other info above that we'll never know. I think this was a sword for someone important by the fact that the horimono is quite well done, but thats only my guess. Any thoughts?

 

Fritz

[Jacques D.]

Hi,

 

I have some doubt with the horimono, The "hilt" of the ken does not look like Sanjo Nagayoshi's.

 

 

And about this smith i've found this below which seems complicate the subject (Token Bijutsu No.598 By Dr. Honma Junji)

 

 

 

 

It is said that there are a few generation of Sanjo Yoshinori and they left works with the production dates of the Oei, Hotoku, Bunmei and Eisho Eras. Swordsmith directories list the mei of ‘Sanjo Yoshinori Izumi no Kuni’ and Sanshu Ju Yoshinori’. They temper sugu-ha and o-midare based on gunome. They also made slender tanto with elaborate horimono of shin-no-kurikara. As swordsmith directories describe, Heianjo Nagayoshi and Sanjo Yoshinori belonged to the same school. There is an extant work by Nagayoshi with the mei of ‘Sanjo Nagayoshi’ and the school includes Yoshifusa who signs ‘Sanjo Yoshifusa’ and ‘Heianjo Yoshifusa’, also one of his extant works adds ‘Izumi no Kuni’ to his mei. He occasionally carves Chinese characters like ‘Kimi Ban Zai’ and ‘Heshite Heshite’ on his blades. It is very rare to see the horimono of Chinese characters on koto blades. I have seen a katana with the mei of ‘Kurama Ju Yoshitsugu’ and a tanto with the mei of ‘Kurama Ju Fujiwara no Yoshitsugu Yoshisada’ (collaboration of the two smiths) and a production date of the Meio Era. It is said that they are related to the Sue-Seki school and called ‘Kurama-Seki’. The school also includes Yoshinaga, Yoshishige and Shigetsugu. Their extant works have production dates of the Daiei, Eikyo, Kansho and Meio Eras. It is said that they belong to the Heianjo school or the Nobukuni school. They temper o-notare with yaki-kuzure (deformed midare) and it reminds one of the Heianjo and the Mihara schools. They occasionally carve shin-no-kurikara inside koshi-bi.