New member Blade information

[Anlashok]

Hello. As I’m a new member I would like to introduce myself to the forum. My name is Lee Moore. I live in Tasmania Australia. I have been studying various forms of martial arts for over 25 years. I am currently studying Iaido.

I have a katana I acquired about 20 years ago and have recently had a new tsuka fitted so I can use in my Iaido training.

I have collected information regarding the blade from a number of sources over the years, all have confirmed the swordsmith reasonably accurately.

As I have no intention of selling the blade and intend to pass onto my daughter, I would appreciate if anyone in the group would be able to add to the information I already have.

Details of blade:

Omote mei - Yano Toshikazu Saku ) see attached scan of nakago

Ura mei - daidai dotan Barai Yamada )

Nagasa – 775mm

Sori – 15mm

Moto haba – 36mm

Saki haba 24mm

Kasane 9.25mm

 

When I purchased the blade the handle had been cut off (as you can see in the scan), supposedly to fit in the duffle bag of a returning soldier. This has resulted in some of the tang being cut off losing some of the signature. I still have the original tsuba and habaki. Will post these details another time.

 

Thank you for your time and await your reply

(Edit Brian - changed image to jpeg from tif for ease of viewing)

[Bugyotsuji]

Hi Lee, welcome to the site. There is quite a bit of detail and puzzle in your post, so I suspect that no-one has been willing to try and answer, since it may take some time to marshal the old thoughts. I will start the ball rolling by saying that it was interesting hearing about your background and the plans for passing the sword on to your daughter.

 

Would it be possible to take some more piccies with an overall view as we cannot see the wood for the trees? It is hard to imagine what you describe about someone actually cutting a sword short to fit in a bag, and we would wish to see the difference between that and any suriage, for example.

 

As to the Mei, did you read that yourself? It is generally on target, but I sense that the way you have cut the words may not fit quite right. I will go away and study them, but I suspect someone else will step in and provide the necessary dusting up!

[Anlashok]

Thanks for the welcome Piers. Sorry for the confusion. The person I purchased the sword from explained that his uncle had acquired the sword in Malaysia during WWII. As it would not fit in his duffle bag on returning to Australia, he clamped it in a vice (evidence of vice marks on the blade) and cut clean through the handle. This removed approximately 25 to 50mm of the tang. Also lost the original kashira and menuki.

I will post some pictures of the blade as requested.

As for the mei, no I did not read it. I have had 2 people in Australia and 1 reply from Japan stating the same swordsmith. I have only a name and a possible location. I was interested in more details of the swordsmith.

Also I am led to believe the ura mei describes a cutting test and would appreciate any more information on this.

 

Appreciate any assistance

[Nobody]

Hi,

 

Now I understand what you want to know.

 

The mei reads Yano Toshikazu saku (矢野俊一作) as you already know. That means Yano (family name) Toshikazu (smith name) made. The attached picture shows a page from a database whose name is ToShoW. According to the data, he was a smith in late Edo period in Musashi no kuni. However, I do not know the reliability of the database. At least there is an error. “Chorensai (長連斎?)†must be “Chounsai (é•·é‹æ–Ž)â€.

If he was the smith on the page, One of my books says that he was a student of Chounsai Tsunatoshi (é•·é‹æ–Žç¶±ä¿Š) school in late Edo period.

 

As for the ura-mei, your reading might be a little incorrect, though I am not 100 % sure.

That may read TaiTai Dodan-barai (太々土壇拂) Yamada (山田 – family name of the tester), and that is a cutting test record.

TaiTai (太々) means a shoulder level of a body. Dodan (土壇) is an earth mound. So, the ura-mei means that a body on an earth mound was cut through at its shoulder level.

[Brian]

Hi Lee,

If the signature and cutting test are genuine (they are very often faked) then whomever chopped it took off a few $1000 off the value (historical value too)

Worth following up on though. Even if gimei, it might be a nice blade. Will have to find other examples of this smith's work to compare.

 

Brian

[Anlashok]

Hello again,

Have been unavailable for a few days.

Thank you Koichi Moriyama for your comments. Backs up the information I have.

 

Interesting to learn Toshikazu was a student of Chounsai Tsunatoshi.

My quick search found Koyama Munetsugu to be another of his students.

"It appears that Munetsugu collaborated with the Yamada family of professional sword testers, especially Yamada Yoshitoshi and the head of the family, Yamada Asauemon Yoshimasa, in the study of cutting efficiency as numerous of his works are engraved with the results of these tests." quote off a website.

Would this 'Yamada Yoshitoshi' be the same as the person that tested by blade?

I have read that the Yamada clan were the offical testers for the Shogunate at that time.

 

Brian,

I hope I have a genuine blade. I cried when I saw what someone had done by cutting this blade.

As there a very few blades in Tasmania, comparing to another of my swordsmith would be very difficult.

 

If anyone has come across 'Yano Toshikazu' before I would appreciate hearing from you and any background you have on him. Of the blades I have seen mine is very thick and slightly longer than most. Would this have been the usual standard around this time (1850)?

 

As requested I have attached some photos this time.

 

Regards

[Ken-Hawaii]

Lee, as a fellow iaidoka & collector, I would really hesitate to use this blade for iaido practice. As noted above, you might have a quite valuable Nihonto, & using it to train will not add to its value....

 

I do understand that you don't plan to sell it, but I think you'll find that most of us on this forum are believers in maintaining & preserving as much historical value as possible with Nihonto. Your mei indicate that this blade might be historically significant.... I only use shinken in my SMR jodo practice (modified KSR), but I carefully bought a Showato "beater" that serves my training purposes well without having any real significance.

 

BTW, my wife & I will be disembarking in Burnie on 12/8 of this year, Lee - are you located anywhere nearby? We'll be on the Holland America Volendam on our first vacation in a decade! Can't bring our iaito along, of course, but we wouldn't mind some ideas of what to do for the 10 hours we'll be there. And meeting other iaidoka sounds like a great idea.

[Anlashok]

Hello Ken,

 

I only use this blade for form training. I'm looking at purchasing another blade for tameshigiri when I'm competent to undertake this task. There has been some question marks on using this blade because of the shortened tang and if this has compromised the integrity of the blade/tsuka.

 

I live aprroximately 1 1/2 hours from Burnie. Will check my work roster, if I'm free will come down to say hello and welcome you to Tassie.

 

Talk again soon :D

[sencho]

 

I only use this blade for form training.

 

 

Hi Lee,

 

I think that 'form training' is what Ken is talking about, and trying to dissuade you from using a possibly significant sword... I would tend to agree with him...

 

Cheers

[Anlashok]

Thank you sencho for your comments.

 

I'm trying to verify by other sources, if I have a valuable Nihonto.

 

Will keep posted

 

[slavia631]

I only use this blade for form training. I'm looking at purchasing another blade for tameshigiri when I'm competent to undertake this task.

 

Again, I am sure that "form" practice is what he was meaning to dissuade you from anyway, and I think I can safely say that the rest of us stand behind his sentiments.

Furthermore, I sincerely hope that the "other blade" which you intend to use for tameshigiri will be a modern production or custom katana and NOT an antique/Nihonto of any quality from any time period.

 

Your sword looks to be in good shape and should be very valuable (both monetarily and historically) despite it's "flaw". Treasure it, as each Nihonto piece in existence today is irreplaceable. Good stewards like us are few, and take on a great and wonderful responsibility in the ownership of such things.