Any Nagamitsu fans out there - one for your perusal.

[Beater]

Thought I’d share my sword with the Military sword / gendaito enthusiasts. I’ve read many of the old threads on NMB regarding Ichiryushi Nagamitsu and the debates around the many mei used to sign his (or in many cases his students) swords. In my mind this rare example, having both his “full-Monty” mei and a date is, undoubtedly, the work of the man himself. 

“Bizen ju Ichihara Ichiryushi Nagamitsu saku” and dated to May, 1944. There are no stamps whatsoever to be found on the nakago. Original, wartime polish.

Slough’s book shows a similar example and I have only found reference to two others similarly signed pieces. Mine has quite a late date. I suspect that the green-blue ito and use of Type 98 mounts, rather than the more common Type3 seen on other later Nagamitsu blades, points towards this being a special order / custom made sword. 
 

Any observations, comments or new information regarding this fascinating smith greatly received.

 

Kevin.

[Bruce Pennington]

Love it Kevin!  I agree the fittings are certainly upgraded, and that mei is the elaborate version of his work.  Gorgeous, thanks for sharing.

[Michaelr]

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing. I have a few Nagamitsu’s myself and love them. 
  MikeR

[Rich S]

A wonderful example of Nagamitsu at his best.  Possibly a special order sword judging from the mounts. Classic Bizen hamon. Lucky you - I'm so jealous. 

Rich

[Ooitame]

10 hours ago, Beater said:

Any observations, comments or new information regarding this fascinating smith greatly received.

 

Kevin.

Hi @Beater, good looking sword! I guess I may be the odd duck. However, patina, me but, mei ridges, nakago and other minor items look off. Might be my eys or phone, but something feels off. I could be wrong though. Is it possible to see the Boshi, as a well as mune of the  kisakki top down, also without the habakai, and the end of the nakago? The hamon is very similar to mine, bizend den most likely kanemitsu

 In stlye and sughata.

[PNSSHOGUN]

Lovely sword, thanks for sharing. 

[Beater]

9 hours ago, Ooitame said:

Is it possible to see the Boshi, as a well as mune of the  kisakki top down, also without the habakai, and the end of the nakago? The hamon is very similar to mine, bizend den most likely kanemitsu

 In stlye and sughata.

I hope these photos cover the points you wanted to see. They are taken with my i-phone and I tried with and without flash. Best I can do. I’ve used Slough’s pages on Nagamitsu as a backdrop, as, from the photos you requested, I’m guessing you want to compare alongside his example?

To my eye the similarities are evident and although the nakago-jiri of the long signature example in Slough differs slightly from mine, you have only to turn the page to see another example which is a dead ringer. Slough says that one is Shoshinmei, so I’d conclude Nagamitsu’s nakago-jiri show slight variation.

 

 

 

 

 

[Itomagoi]

Hi Kevin, very nice Nagamitsu. This one was in my collection.

[Beater]

1 hour ago, Itomagoi said:

Hi Kevin, very nice Nagamitsu. This one was in my collection.

 

Thanks very much for the picture Peter. Another great reference for the rarer full mei and dated examples.

 

[Itomagoi]

Here is another Nagamitsu from my collection. It is rare as katana mei with bohi, no stamps.

[Beater]

14 minutes ago, Itomagoi said:

Here is another Nagamitsu from my collection. It is rare as katana mei with bohi, no stamps.

 

Oh Peter, any bo-hi blade grabs my attention, so that’s a real bonus! Plus the different use of that dating system. This is indeed a rare mei. Love it! Thank you again.
 

This is exactly what I hoped this thread might produce. There seems to be a great deal of speculation about why there are such variation of mei from Nagamitsu, so I hoped others fortunate to have owned the longer mei / dated swords and those who have already done some research, might add their findings. From that we may see patterns developing.

 

Any thoughts why your katana side mei bucks the trend of the seemingly more commonly encountered tachi-mei? How is it mounted? Bo-hi are often ordered / sought by martial arts practitioners, so I wonder if it was ordered by someone with skill in the use of a sword or perhaps because it was supplied in katana mounts? I guess technically all Type 98 mounted swords, like mine, are mounted in tachi style fittings.

 

No stamps, again like mine. We know he was RJT, so star stamps would be expected. Saka stamps are sometimes found, showing a blade made for or at the Osaka arsenal. 

 

 

[BANGBANGSAN]

Not my sword, but this one has even longer Mei-備前國於烏城下市原一龍子長光作 / 昭和十九年十月吉日

 

[Itomagoi]

In my opinion the sword was built for a martial artist as a katana with bohi. It is mounted in civilian koshirae. There are scratches on the blade that may be from blocks from another sword. It has a great balance. 

[Beater]

30 minutes ago, BANGBANGSAN said:

Not my sword, but this one has even longer Mei-備前國於烏城下市原一龍子長光作 / 昭和十九年十月吉日

Thank you Trystan.
So that’s October 1944 - a very late date. I can make out Bizen kuni????Ichiryushi Nagamitsu saku. Could you please help out with the full translation. 

Regards.

[Beater]

35 minutes ago, Itomagoi said:

In my opinion the sword was built for a martial artist as a katana with bohi. It is mounted in civilian koshirae. There are scratches on the blade that may be from blocks from another sword. It has a great balance. 

That would also be my hypothesis now I know it is civilian-mounted.
One wonders if it were carried to war, with a leather combat cover? It is hard to imagine, with the great demand for officer’s swords at that time, that a martial arts practitioner could order a blade for their entirely personal, not military use, unless perhaps some respected Sensei, too old for military service but with sufficient status and clout to still get his wishes granted.

[BANGBANGSAN]

54 minutes ago, Beater said:

1 hour ago, BANGBANGSAN said:

Not my sword, but this one has even longer Mei-備前國於烏城下市原一龍子長光作 / 昭和十九年十月吉日

Thank you Trystan.
So that’s October 1944 - a very late date. I can make out Bizen kuni????Ichiryushi Nagamitsu saku. Could you please help out with the full translation. 

Regards.

 

Bizen kuni oite Ujo ka ichihara nagamitsu saku kore

[francois2605]

I like this thread. I was thinking recently that it would be really useful to have swordsmith-dedicated threads on the forum to aggregate all the information about a given person. 

[BANGBANGSAN]

42 minutes ago, Beater said:

That would also be my hypothesis now I know it is civilian-mounted.
One wonders if it were carried to war, with a leather combat cover? It is hard to imagine, with the great demand for officer’s swords at that time, that a martial arts practitioner could order a blade for their entirely personal, not military use, unless perhaps some respected Sensei, too old for military service but with sufficient status and clout to still get his wishes granted.

It was in regular Type 98 mount, but the sword was restored in Japan, it also has a custom-made shirasaya.

Here is the OP    

 

[Itomagoi]

Without leather cover. The tsuka had many training sessions (sweat print) It was directly registered in 1951.

I do not know, but I think a craftsman / smith does his work for pay and if it is a private person why not.

[Itomagoi]

This Nagamitsu was on ebay. Also Katana Mei and civilian-mounted Koshirae. May 1943

[Beater]

So Trystan’s old thread revival of the “Crow Castle” sword which originally was in Type 98 fittings is signed tachi-mei, as is mine.

 

Peter’s own bo-hi and the civilian mounted sword he has seen on eBay are both signed katana-mei.

 

Not a large enough sample to draw any conclusions (yet) but it is shaping-up. I am coming round to the belief that Nagamitsu did not just randomly decide to sign tachi-mei or katana-mei, but did so based on the customers intended choice of mounts. 

 

 

[Itomagoi]

Here is the next one with Katana Mei and Bohi, but wihtout date.

Koshirae looks not new.

 

https://www.nipponto...swords4/KY329350.htm

[Beater]

Another interesting addition. So, that’s three katana-mei all in civilian mounts.

I agree the koshirae does not look new. I did note the painted numbers on the nakago which I associate with aiding assembly - matching up blades to (military?) mounts, where the numbers are often repeated on the seppa etc. Can’t recall seeing painted assembly numbers on a Showa civilian-mounted sword…anyone?

 

Quite a short katana at just over 24” (62.1cms). I understand that shorter and very stout blades are a feature of Nagamitsu. 

[Ooitame]

@Beater thank you, I believe it to be legit, congratulations! One more question, at anypoint in the hamon does it go flat/sughua ish?

[Bruce Pennington]

I think Nagamitsu must have had strong connections with private shops.  I have 14 of his blades with all sorts of stamps and numbers, but only 2 with a star, and both of those came from Slough's book.  That's not counting all the blades I've seen without stamps of any kind.  I don't track those but have seen plenty.  

[Beater]

1 hour ago, Ooitame said:

@Beater thank you, I believe it to be legit, congratulations! One more question, at anypoint in the hamon does it go flat/sughua ish?

Thank you.

No, not suguha but there are lengths of hamon much less pronounced than the peaks of gunome you see clearly in my first batch of photos. Photo 4 shows the more pronounced gunome and photo 5, towards the kissaki, a more gentle. gunome.

[Ooitame]

@Beater This is mine if you would like to see.

As promised, NTHK kantiesho Nagamitsu Saku Showa Type 3, Saka Stamped Ichi 0313, tachi side hada; did a crappy job. But here you go.
 
 
  https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/18610-show-us-your-high-class-gunto/?do=findComment&comment=408045

[Beater]

7 hours ago, Ooitame said:

@Beater This is mine if you would like to see.

As promised, NTHK kantiesho Nagamitsu Saku Showa Type 3, Saka Stamped Ichi 0313, tachi side hada; did a crappy job. But here you go.
 
 
  https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/18610-show-us-your-high-class-gunto/?do=findComment&comment=408045

Thanks for sharing Eric. What I see with yours and others I’ve seen for sale on Aoi etc is that post war art polishes reveal so much more than typical wartime polishes on Nagamitsu blades. He may have made decent swords but who ever polished for him set the bar low - I guess for wartime / campaign use all you really needed was a reasonable polish and sharpen. Your hada is very nice indeed.

[Ooitame]

14 hours ago, Beater said:

Thanks for sharing Eric. What I see with yours and others I’ve seen for sale on Aoi etc is that post war art polishes reveal so much more than typical wartime polishes on Nagamitsu blades. He may have made decent swords but who ever polished for him set the bar low - I guess for wartime / campaign use all you really needed was a reasonable polish and sharpen. Your hada is very nice indeed.

Thank you @Beater, glad you enjoyed it. I agree war time polish was not the best, but in time of war you take what you can get

I have seen some great swords from him and most good to fair. After the polish, there is actually faint utsuri, and faint hakikake, what a surprise those were! It is definitely a shot at a bizen osafune kanemitsu. The hamon is spot on, as you can see on both sides where it goes sughua for a bit, reason I asked.

 

[Ooitame]

@Beater, and all, here are photos of it in war time polish, for comparison. What a difference the polish made!