Kyu Corner

[Bruce Pennington]

Don't think I've ever seen a kyu with horimono before, until @mdiddy posted this one HERE:

 

 

[mdiddy]

32 minutes ago, Bruce Pennington said:

Don't think I've ever seen a kyu with horimono before

 

Just a head's up - that habaki belongs to a different sword

[DTM72]

A Gassan blade in Kyu mounts with Gassan horimono?  

[DTM72]

In this entire thread, I have only seen 1 cavalry officers kyu. I am guessing these are as rare as the naval officers kyu's (with real blades). Asking because I just picked-up a company grade 1886 pattern cavalry sword with kamon on the backstrap. Added bonus is the fittings from Suya are in excellent condition. Blade is in excellent condition and looks to be a Murata/zohito and is mumei.

 

Anyone have any additional information on the cavalry kyugunto's and their rarity compared to other kyugunto?

[Bruce Pennington]

That's quite a find, Dan, and quite gorgeous.  Could be the first I've ever seen.  I think there's been a couple NCO cavalry swords bantered about NMB, but not Officer Kyu.

[DTM72]

1 hour ago, Bruce Pennington said:

That's quite a find, Dan, and quite gorgeous.  Could be the first I've ever seen.  I think there's been a couple NCO cavalry swords bantered about NMB, but not Officer Kyu.

There was one in this same thread that was actually a field officer cavalry version. <— quite nice! It was actually posted by you on page 3 of this thread, 5 th post down. Russian collector from guns.ru.

[Bruce Pennington]

2 hours ago, DTM72 said:

posted by you on page 3 of this thread, 5 th post down. Russian collector from guns.ru.

Ooo, good eye!  I missed the hand guard pattern.

[Bruce Pennington]

Adding a nice Kyu waki, posted by @Volker62 here: Kyu gunto with antique waki blade from Plimpton collection

[Volker62]

Plimton collection wakzashi...

 

 

one kanji on the swords nakago has left     "Echi"

[Volker62]

still found this rare early Kyu Gunto version

 

in this  case with an old treasured familiy blade by Omino kami fujiwara Tsuguhira, with NBTHK

 

toku betsu Hozon papers

[Bruce Pennington]

The ones with the locking latch are pretty rare, nice one @Volker62!

 

On another note,  have we already seen that Rinji with the brown tassel?

[Volker62]

uploading error Bruce..

 

failing eye sight, without glases

[Bruce Pennington]

1 hour ago, Volker62 said:

 

uploading error Bruce..

 

 

Seriously, though, I checked my chart and don’t have a Sword from you with a brown tassel. So if that’s yours, and if the tassel is brown, I would appreciate some more photos.

 

Do me a favor, and post your pictures here:

 

[Volker62]

Bruce its my fantastic sword made by Okishiba Masakuni, which comes from an prominent collection here in Germany.

 

 

Dr. H.F. Jung  head of Bayer Leverkusen in Tokyo since 1962

[Bruce Pennington]

9 hours ago, Volker62 said:

its my fantastic sword made by Okishiba Masakuni,

Thanks!  And just to confirm, it has the all-brown tassel?  And is it dated?

[Bruce Pennington]

One of our guys gave me a link to this.  It had been at auction, Amero Auctions, and he hoped to get it, but was outbid.  Hoping someone here won it and will post photos, including the serial number!  A 1938 SMR Mantetsu in Navy Kyugunto fittings!!!

 

[DTM72]

After having this on display at the Las Vegas show, I was asked to post here. Took me a while to get the drool  cleaned-up that @Brian left on it. lol

Beautiful 1883 pattern Navy Kyu-gunto with signed and papered katana from Bungo ju Fujiwara Sadayuki earning 76 points at the Chicago NTHK-NPO shinsa. Most interesting feature is the tobiyaki found just above the shinogi line, with one or two on each side of the blade that are in both the shinogi and the ji areas. With the shinogi being burnished, it has been impossible for me to catch the tobiyaki in the photos. The shagreen (sharkskin) saya is completly unblemished and in museum condition, as well as the fittings. Hope you like!

 

 

[DTM72]

The blade.

 

[Brian]

It is a stunning piece, and one that I would be very proud to own. Has lots going for it.

[Stephen]

Basically my holy grail or the one before. 

Something I'll never reach. 

Book em Dan O

[ChrisW]

@Bruce Pennington@Stephen@Brian

 

Well, I finally got around to taking some quick photos. I've photographed them as a pair, but they're two very different blades. Both in army mounts though.

The wakizashi is a 21.5" blade signed simply "Nobuyoshi" and could be any of the late 1500 to middle 1600's Nobuyoshi. It has a very active choji hamon with a lot of tobiyaki. Dan from my ITK group likes to call it "florid choji". I like to think its almost like paint or blood dripping. Nothing special about the mounts other than the condition being very good with much of the gold plate/wash present. Good portions of the chrome on the saya is gone, but the condition is stable.

The longer blade is a 25.75" cut-down tachi which I believe is from the Late Kamakura era. It appears to have been around the 30 to 31" mark originally. The nakago has three mekugi-ana and retains about 1.5" of the original length of the nakago. The hamon is a very narrow razor-thin suguha and is very difficult to capture. The mounts have a kamon on the backstrap. I believe it is a Tokugawa crest. It is missing one seppa unfortunately. But the chrome plating is near immaculate on the saya.

 

That's about all I know of the two. I'd welcome opinions on school of the longer blade as I've no idea without visible hada and a barely visible hamon through the clouding.

 

 

Edit: apologies for the photos as usual. Working with a phone camera and then an image compressor means much is lost. They'll both be with me at the Chicago show this year again too.