Real or fabrication

[drb 1643]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234534657756?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=1cqLZpPhR4y&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=&widget_ver=artemis&media=EMAIL
Since this auction is over I’m posting the link. I’m wondering what the consensus is, original Minatogawa?

 Thank you for any information.

Tom

[PNSSHOGUN]

Looked real, the most offensive thing was the self polish. 

[Bruce Pennington]

Interesting piece, Tom! Thanks for posting!

 

I has kikusi on a seppa!  I've seen them on habaki, which this has also, and fuchi, but this is the first time I've seen it on a seppa.  Also interesting is the 1-piece fuchi/seppa.  There must have been a shop working navy, or near the Toyokawa Arsenal, that made these.  I've seen a rare few on kaigunto, and then they are used in a big way on the post-war souvenir. 

[drb 1643]

Does the mei look funny to anyone or is it just me?

Tom

[WulinRuilong]

刀　(菊水紋)湊川神社正直　昭和十八年十二月(菊水刀)　Katana[Okada_Masanao]日本刀　刀剣販売 サムライ商会[samurai shokai]

Masanao？ Why so expensive??

[Tensho]

^^^^^Seller is notorious for shill bidding. You will never get the items at a good price. I was watching an item in old polish that should have sold for half the price it went for. Was re-listed on a different account in the same state 2 weeks later with other swords the seller "sold" beforehand. 

 

Common sense will tell you that bidders with the same feedback score aren't going to bid on every single item of his. 

[ChrisW]

Stay faaaaar away from this guy. He is known for shill bidding as well as selling spurious or fantasy items.

[NewB]

I had no idea about the shill bidding. I know he uses steel wool or something on the blades that have rust which is a big No No.. I got few blades from him. No complaints so far.

 

J.

[AntiquarianCat]

I wish this seller didn't amateur polish his swords. Many of them would've been perfectly fine blades if he just left them in old polish. It’s akin to the guys that clean old silver coins with steel wool.

[oneshot onekill]

I won one of his auctions after watching and bidding on his stuff for a couple of years. The sword I won was not really how it was described. I'll be kind and leave it at that. He took it back without any hassle so there's that.

[Bruno]

Last year Showa22 outbidded me on a bare blade RJT gendaito that Komonjo had for sale.

 

Komonjo told me after, that Showa22 often "scretly" buy him blades under several different accounts names to re-sale them after and make profit. (Different names but same shipping address so not hard to guess)

 

Indeed. Less than 10 days after, the not anymore "bare blade RJT gendaito" was for sale at Showa22's, fully re-mounted in random Type 98 koshirae, blade fully horribly cleaned so was the freshly rubbed nakago. 

 

To be honest, it was an average RJT blade by an unrecorded RJT Seki smith KANEUE. I was sad not because I lost the auction but because I could not save this one.