My favorite of the heirloom collection. Would love any info on it.

[Christina M]

Good evening,

Just wanted to see if anyone could tell me about this piece. It is my favorite in the collection passed down from my Grandfather who brought it back after WW2. I know it's condition isn't the best but I love it. Unfortunately there is no signature that I can see.

[ChrisW]

Unfortunately, someone has greatly harmed the blade by cleaning the nakago (tang) of all black rust. This makes it both more difficult to date accurately and devalues it. It still looks nice over all! A good togishi should be able to repatinate it.

[Shugyosha]

Hi Christina,

If you can take some detailed pictures of the blade you might get some better answers but at the moment the only thing I could say is that, based on the file pattern on the tang, the blade was made after 1600 during the Edo period in Japan - so a 270 year window. Unfortunately, as it is unsigned it is quite a generic blade and so it will be difficult to be more specific.

 

The fittings appear to be from this time period also though perhaps nearer the end of it than the beginning as they tended to wear out and get replaced.

[Christina M]

Thank you. For the information. After my father passed my brother had the collection in his hot garage in south Texas. I finally convinced him to give the collection to me so it could be in climate controlled safe keeping.