Early-to-mid Muromachi Mino Wakizashi

[kazarena]

Dear friends,

 

I’m offering a wakizashi from my personal collection, that I enjoyed for many years. The blade is in a fresh polish with a newly made shirasaya. It also comes in a new bag.

 

I think it belongs to Mino school, early to mid-Muromachi. As with many functional, sturdy blades made in that era, it's hard to attribute it to a particular smith. The cross-section is diamond shaped. This blade has a one-piece construction without the inner core. As it’s a very old blade, some ware are visible, after many polishes, but no fatal flaws.

 

This blade should be sent for shinsa. I just didn’t have a chance to do it myself.

 

Nagasa: 52cm (20 1/2'')

Saki-haba: 26mm

Moto-haba: 18.1mm

Sori: 12mm

Sugata: shinogi-zukuri

Nakago: mumei, one mekugi ana, kiri. Yasurime is katte sagari.

Boshi: midare-komi

Jihada: running masame with shirake-utsuri

Hamon: gunome, with groups of nie in the valleys between the gunome

 

 

   

   

   

 

 

If you need high-res photos or more detailed dimensions, you may find it here: https://nihontoclub.com/swords/0000-1442.

 

SOLD

 

Payment: wire transfer or PayPal (the buyer pays the fees), shipping extra.

 

The sword is located in Ireland. I would prefer a buyer from the UK, Ireland or continental Europe, because shipping swords out of Ireland to any other destinations can be quite an experience.

 

Kind regards,

Stan

[ROKUJURO]

Interesting old blade, good polish, and very good photos!

[Ken-Hawaii]

Your photography is excellent, Stan. And the price is certainly right.

 

I doubt that it's mono-steel, however, as that form of construction stopped in late Kamakura-early Nanbokucho, & your blade is newer than that.

[kazarena]

Thank you, Ken. Much appreciated!

 

Regarding the mono-steel construction, I'm not an expert in this subject, but the polisher confirmed it's mono-steel, and I'm pretty confident about it too, judging from the jitetsu.

 

As far as I know, this method of construction may have stopped being mainstream around Nanbokucho, but it was in continuous use until Shinto times, when new production methods resulted in higher quality steel that was also more brittle, hence the lamination technique was essential. I believe Ohmura study confirms it: http://ohmura-study.net/008.html (see the very bottom of the page).

 

Regards,

Stan

[kazarena]

The wakizashi is now ON HOLD.

 

Regards,

Stan

[kazarena]

The wakizashi is SOLD.

 

Admins, please archive the thread 

 

Regards,

Stan