Shōchō Blade, No Smith, potential candidates?

[Lareon]

Hi All,

I picked up an interesting Gunto a while back and am just getting round to spending some time examining and studying it. The mounts are quite interesting in themselves but the Nakago is O-Suriage tachi mei and only part of the signature remains.

The date is Shōchō 1428 so early Muromachi.
so the date i've got 

Shōchō Gannen   

I can't make out the last kanji on the date maybe Roku ??  Actually it's Hachi 

The signature i've got

Bishû
Osafune

 

and now i can't quite make out the last kanji again 

 

 

The sword has a ko-notare hamon 
the sori is 3cm 

Nagasa is 60cm
Total length including the nakago is 76cm  (16cm nakago)
There is no yokote
I need to take some photos of the blade itself, it's out of polish and the hamon is very faint, the hada is hard to see but i will try and pick it up.

any suggestions on a potential smith? I will add pictures of the blade this weekend when i have it hand again

 

 

 

[SteveM]

Maybe 備州長船平秀景　Bishū Osafune Taira Hidekage?

[Lareon]

Forgot to say the hada is ko-mokume but is quite hard to see.

 

@SteveM yes I could see that fitting. I'll take some photos as best as I can on Sunday. To add to these.

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

Tony,

as there seems to be much left of the original NAKAGO, it is not O-SURIAGE

[lonely panet]

that nakago is very very suspect, the patina is to evan for a surigae

[Lareon]

Well, I got round to taking some photos of the sword yesterday and while the Hamon is very hard to see generally, I managed to get some good angles with some studio lights where I could see it properly. Now that I had time to sit and look over it properly I noticed some things I hadn't before. 
The Hamon is actually konote gashiwa quite distinctly.

The condition the sword is in, isn't the best. there's a fair few scratches on the blade and a little bit of spidering. 
Threw in a few pictures of the gunto mounts it's in; as they are high quality.
The habaki moves a little bit (1cm) but is slightly damaged on the inside and doesn't slide off the nakago anymore or i would of taken photos with it off.
 

[Franco]

Hello,

 

1. http://www.sho-shin.com/oei4.htm

 

Based upon the newly posted image of the out of polish hamon, my thoughts at this time would lean towards this being a Kozori Hidekage blade. A healthy valid signed and dated Koto muromachi period sword is worth considering for polish.