Tachi Sword Tang is signed Nagamitsu - which Nagamitsu is it?

[tbonesullivan]

I guess this is one of those things that is at the crux of Nihonto collecting. It's what looks to be a very old blade, and the tang is signed Naga Mitsu  長光, in fairly large kanji. They are somewhat faint, but I'm certain on the name. I looked at the Nihonto club listing, and there are a whole bunch of smiths using that same marking, and it's only a two character mei.

 

The SUGATA is SHOBU ZUKURI from what I can see, and is lighter and has the typical thinner tip of a Tachi. It is also signed on the correct side of the blade for being worn edge down. The polish, sadly, is poor, and someone definitely used a buffing wheel on it a bit, so I can't discern any type of hamon.

[Mark]

i think it is shinogi-zukuri, just yokote worn away.  mei seems very crisp and deeply cut (for 600 years old) but poorly done, maybe added at some time?

[Shugyosha]

It's hard to get anything significant without more detailed photos (and if it has been buffed even that might not help). Here's what I can see:

 

The patina on the tang and that the mekugi ana hasn't been drilled suggest koto. There might be a hint of koshi sori. There's something dodgy about the kissaki.

[Ray Singer]

As Mark indicated, you may want to consider the possibility of gimei (signature is not authentic). There were many smiths who legitimately signed Nagamitsu, however these tachi-mei Nagamitsu are often meant to be passed off as authentic examples of the Kamakura period Bizen smith who used that mei. 

[tbonesullivan]

Let me go see if I can get some better pictures. The NAKAGO definitely has significant age to it, and the holes are definitely punched. It just has that look. I'll look on the blade to see if I can see any HADA, Kizu, etc. Without a good polish those can be hard to make out.  Now back to writing up a type 32 Gunto.

[Ray Singer]

The NAKAGO definitely has significant age to it, and the holes are definitely punched. It just has that look.

 

David agreed, I think it is evident that this is a koto blade. 

[Gakusee]

Yes, the mei has some crispness to it which might mean it is not the Osafune smith. However, there is good patination in the mei, which might also mean it was done in the Shinto/Shinshinto period. The kissaki looks to have been reshaped, possibly due to damage

[Rivkin]

My problem with it is that for pre-1500 blade the curvatue is too uniform and shallow. It would make sense were it o-suriage, but does not look right for the ubu blade.

If this is the case, its probably does not matter that much which Nagamitsu, as long as its not gimei... There are not really any famous nijimei examples coming to my head when thinking about those times.

 

Personal and erroneous opinion,

 

Kirill R.

[Ken-Hawaii]

Ana is chiseled, not punched. Kirill is right about the curvature, & it looks Muromachi to my old eyes. The nakago may have been buffed, but the mei doesn't look rounded-off enough for even Muromachi, & I'd bet on gimei. Better photos might give more clues.

[tbonesullivan]

Ok, here are some close up pictures of the Kissaki, blade, and both sides of the Nakago. Also a picture of the blade in the handle it came in.  If whoever buffed the blade went after the nakago, that could explain why it seems shiny in that area.

[Ken-Hawaii]

They did a remarkably fine job of removing any sign of the hada, too. Really quite a shame, as I doubt that those features could be recovered by a new polish.

[16k]

... and the heat of a buffing may well have removed the temper too! That’s a real shame!

[tbonesullivan]

I would hope that the buffing wouldn't be hot enough to get the steel nearly hot enough.  But yeah, it's a shame, but at least it was ONLY buffed.

 

We've had some people show us some blades that they had taken to have "sharpened" by people who put new edges on Chef's knives and scissors. I have to sit there hiding my horror as they talk it up like they just had their car detailed.  Even if it's a standard Arsenal forced Shin-gunto, that's still hard to look at.  

[ChrisW]

Terribly sad fate for something that may have survived 700 or more years to be destroyed by ignorance.

[Blazeaglory]

Hello. I would say, definitely not Kamakura Nagamitsu.

 

Seems like it could be a later copy made to appear old? I always cringe when ana are so obviously chiseled, it almost screams "look at me, I'm Koto!", when in reality, all of the Koto "master smiths" chiseled ana are so well done that you almost need a microscope to see the chisel marks.

 

The Nakago as a whole also looks a little off. It seems, again, as if it was purposely aged to fool the unsuspecting collector.

 

Imo, at best it's a Shinto or Shin-shinto "copy" trying to imitate the earlier Kamakura Nagamitsu... or Some later Nagamitsu of lesser repute maybe (off the top of my head I couldn't name any) ?

 

At worst a modern forgery?

 

Just my 2 cents.

[SAS]

They did a remarkably fine job of removing any sign of the hada, too. Really quite a shame, as I doubt that those features could be recovered by a new polish.

 

How do you figure that?