Boy's wakizashi? Solution Found!

[Marius]

I have recently acquired a (very inexpensive) diminutive wakizashi. I am sure, some of you have seen it on eBay, nobody bought it, but me, against my own rules to buy only gimei blades, so it serves me right

 

Measurements are:

Nagasa 39 cm

Motohaba 2.3 cm

Sakihaba 1.8 cm

Motogasane: 0.48 cm

 

The blade has fumbari and a pronounced sori. Hada is itame, the rest can be seen in the pics. Its proportions make it look like a toy sword, although it is a real nihonto.

 

It rests in an old, carefully crafted tiger-striped honoki shirasaya.

 

The nakago loks like it has been artificially patinated, so this sword may be gendai, though it tries to appear older.

 

What do you think of it? Was it a boy's wakizashi or something like this?

[Guest nickn]

hello

it looks a nice little blade with ,as you pointed out, a cleaned a re-patinated nakago

is the hada masame? its hard to tell from the photos

nick

[Marius]

hello

it looks a nice little blade with ,as you pointed out, a cleaned a re-patinated nakago

is the hada masame? its hard to tell from the photos

nick

 

The hada is itame with the pattern flowing into the hamon, which is nie-deki. I can take close-up pics if someone is really interested...

 

The puzzle remains - why is it so tiny? I am not sure if the nakago has been cleaned since the yasurime seem original to the blade. Who knows...

[Marius]

I am answering myself, but this information may be interesting for some of the Forum Members here:

 

This is possibly a sword for the Genpuku coming-of-age ceremony. I have found a similar sword on eBay, described a wakizashi sized katana given to boys.

 

http://cgi.ebay.pl/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0437949377