Old Tachi but is it?

Babu · August 26, 2020

Ive got an old Tachi mei sword that's had its mei folded over. So now it's katana mei.

It's now 70.25cm with a 19cm nakago.

I'm guessing for the mei to be in roughly the right place 33cm of original sword has been removed.so is missing 14cm.

So in total the cutting edge was 84cm approx.

Can anyone kantei the sugata to a period?

It's a very clear omaru boshi.

It's in an old Japanese sashikomi polish I think.

I'm not sure what to call the hamon.

It's thick at 6mm at Mune with the nakago at 7mm at the widest point midway.

I'm thinking of its prospects for shinsa.

ChrisW · August 26, 2020

You've really dove into the deep end with all the acquisitions lately!

Its a nice looking tachi. Mei looks rather old, so at least late-kamakura would be my guess just by the pitting/patina of the metal.

Rivkin · August 26, 2020

The blade is Ishido shinto school, the signature is Muromachi-ish Bizen style, but it does not seem to be a perfect match for the blade's work.

Kirill R.

Mister Gunto · August 26, 2020

Beautiful blade!

Babu · August 26, 2020

3 hours ago, Rivkin said:

The blade is Ishido shinto school, the signature is Muromachi-ish Bizen style, but it does not seem to be a perfect match for the blade's work.

Kirill R.

Kirill. Thank you.

if you look at the wakizashi on this link it certainly looks a similar style but appreciate its in new polish and my blade is a fair bit out of polish.

It is not unusual for the 2nd or 3rd gen to sign this way with six kanji and produce this style of work. https://www.aoijapan.net/wakizashi-bisyu-osafune-munemitsu/

The mei looks very old on mine and if it is gimei then it's a very old tachi mei gimei.

The Orekaeshi happened when the blade was adapted to a katana hundreds of years ago. You can see no seams or joins its that well done.

Anyway I've asked both markus Sesko for his opinion and Paul Martin to run it past Tanobe Sensei as he wrote the sayagaki for the Aoi art blade.

If they think there's a good chance I'll send this one to shinsa.

I'm still interested in opinions.

Tom Darling · August 27, 2020

I agree with Krill it is shinto , and is gimei to appear older.

Tom D.

Rivkin · August 27, 2020

Two big concerns and a few small ones:

Looks like boshi abruptly calms down and narrows to suguha. Edo trait, did exist in Kamakura but in different form. Maybe that's a photo issue, can be clearly resolved.

More so, the choji are mostly wide and rounded, densely packed etc. etc. Muromachi choji tend to be pointy rather than periodic/packed/wide array type of thing. Which was however beloved in Edo and especially Gendai etc. I don't see how one can resolve this one.

Regarding AOI blade, it looks very expensive for the signature, but it is a masterpiece for the given style and knowing how Tsuruta-san's scans light up the blade - this is the work of more than just excellent polisher. I don't want to study the marks, but would strongly suspect the photographer Fujishiro. Very unusually vivid nioi-guchi given the light/camera angles - something one does not really see in Bizen aside from his Album. Sashikomi at its best and applied precisely to the blade it should be applied to.

Kirill R.

Jacques · August 27, 2020

As i'm not an augur, i wil not give any comment on the blade itself (pictures are pictures and those are not the best). I'm really stunned some can give an "appraisial" based on pictures only, while it's difficult enough with sword in hands.

There are two smithes signing that way during Muromachi jidai. The only one thing which is certain is it's not THE Kagemitsu.