Shinto (ShinShinto?) Wakizashi without Hamon (fire?) - Please comment.

[2devnul]

Hello everyone,

 

Once again I would like to ask for help of this great community!

 

My friend recently bought this sword for 500$. I'm helping him in getting any info about it, therefore, I will appreciate any comments. I will list what I already noticed and then list some questions. I'm also attaching pictures. Sword is for the moment with me so if you need any specific pictures then please let me know. Thank you in advance!

 

What I think:

1. First, Mei. As per my poor Japanese skills and research I think it stands for "NobuYoshi". 

2. Sword is in recent polish, but looks like it was never finished or done poorly. This could be linked to #3.

3. Hamon is completely gone. I can barely see 'shadow line' of something that might have been Suguha in past. 

4. Hada is also not visible, might be same reason as for Hamon.

5. Tsuka-ito and Samegawe is brand new but fittings, habaki and Tsuba looks old. 

6. I'm missing 'proper' Yokote on Kissaki. 

 

Questions: 

1. Is my Mei translation correct? If yes, then any info about smith/smiths will be awesome. 

2. What is the reason of missing Hamon? I read about swords salvaged after fire, which lost hardening due to temperature. Could that be the cause? 

3. Why no Hada? Is it because the polishing was never finished (or done poorly)? 

4. What do you think about fittings and Tsuba? 

5. Is this Nihonto after all or just a Chinese (like they do with Gunto) fake?

 

Cheers!

 

[Mark S.]

Unfortunately so many things wrong…. looks buffed to oblivion with polishing wheel.  Newly drilled ana (as in looks like yesterday) to make it fit cobbled koshirae.  Mei looks done with Dremel.  Machi-okura and messed up older blade.

[Jon]

So that is the first time I have ever seen a newly drilled Ana….it beggars the question how old does an Ana have to be before it’s acceptable…..after all a Koto may have had a number of new Ana put in right up until the 1876 sword abolishment act and 1877 defeat of the Satsuma rebellion..that ended the samurai. So any Ana put in before 1877 would be historically cogent any Ana put in after that would be some from of restoration……most definitely not an acceptable thing to do to to an old sword…..but that we happy remove metal and reshape blades during polishing….interesting.

[Mark S.]

I’m freely willing to admit I could be wrong about mei condition… it just seems thin and weak IMHO…

[Ford Hallam]

I'm afraid I'd have to agree with Mark on the mei, it's very thin and sharply cut, as well as being poorly 'written'. Very obviously an ambitious very recent addition.

 

The blade itself has seen better days but is a decent shape and hasn't, despite lots of polishes in its life the proportions are still fairly clear.  It's probably an arsenal blade issued to a few generations of lower ranking warriors and seen a lot of 'carry service'.

It's what we'd call, 'very tired', or somewhat over-polished, to the point where we can see very coarse shin-gane showing through the outer, more refined skin. The hamon looks to be intact, and although the yokote has been lost the curve of the kissaki reassures me it's not been reshaped so the boshi is likely also still ok. BUT, and it's a huge BUT, I doubt that it'd be worth it at all financially to spend any more money on the blade, a window perhaps just to satisfy curiosity but there's little to recover to be brutally honest with you. 

 

The wrap in new though, and passable 

 

Fuchi/kashira hurt my eyes.

 

Tsuba pretty low on the quality ladder too, and seen better days, sorry.

 

[2devnul]

Hello,

 

Thank you very much for the comments gentlemen!

 

I spoke with my friend and we both agreed that he won't invest more $ in the sword. It will spend the rest of his days as a wall-hanger in his billiard room. 

For him it is even better that sword is in such a poor condition. He is not a Nihonto collector, but he collects all sort of junk (like old sabers or European sword/spear/mace replicas). Having that old, worn-off look suits him well (like I said, not a Nihonto guy). For me it was an interesting example of how sword should NOT look  I just think it was not worth 500$ since he could buy something better from Komonjo for that money. 

 

I'm also giving up on Mei and smith roots. It is obvious Gimei, so it makes no sense to research further. 

 

Cheers!