My first Hozon Katana

[Jonas Ne]

My first Hozon papered Katana. I thought it was very interesting how short the blade is and how shallow the sori is. The sori is only 2.1cm and the blade happens to only be 62.4 cm long. When looking into the blade I found that most blades attributed to Naminohira were munch longer than this, so this is a rather short katana. It has some minor flaws along the blade and is out of polish, but none the less I think a great first papered sword.

[ROKUJURO]

Jonas,

it is a SURIAGE (= shortened) blade, which means it was considerably longer originally. The SORI is not at all shallow, compared for example with a KANBUN SHINTO blade. The condition is something that will be of concern in the future. The blade is out of polish, but it seems to be quite tired, so more material loss is probably not doing it any good. The KISSAKI seems to have a major KIZU which probably cannot be removed. But we would need better photos to be sure.

So the question may be allowed what you see in that sword? A lot depends on what you paid for it and what your expectations are.

[Jonas Ne]

  On 2/26/2024 at 11:59 PM, ROKUJURO said:

Jonas,

it is a SURIAGE (= shortened) blade, which means it was considerably longer originally. The SORI is not at all shallow, compared for example with a KANBUN SHINTO blade. The condition is something that will be of concern in the future. The blade is out of polish, but it seems to be quite tired, so more material loss is probably not doing it any good. The KISSAKI seems to have a major KIZU which probably cannot be removed. But we would need better photos to be sure.

So the question may be allowed what you see in that sword? A lot depends on what you paid for it and what your expectations are.

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There are no openings or blisters on the KISSAKI, it is just the manner in which I took the photo that makes it appear as such combined with the surface scratches. I am aware the blade is somewhat tired and just wanted a sword that was of modern papers to research and admire until I can afford to move on to more prestigious blades. The only reason I commented on the length is that I could not find a single blade to have been shortened to that extent from this school. Most were around 26cm or longer which I thought to be somewhat strange. I paid only 1200 for the blade. 

[ROKUJURO]

Jonas,

I am happy for you that the KISSAKI is not damaged. For most collectors the KISSAKI is "the face" of a sword blade!

26 cm are about 10 inches. I am assuming you were meaning to write inches.

[Jonas Ne]

  On 2/27/2024 at 10:01 AM, ROKUJURO said:

Jonas,

I am happy for you that the KISSAKI is not damaged. For most collectors the KISSAKI is "the face" of a sword blade!

26 cm are about 10 inches. I am assuming you were meaning to write inches.

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Correct 😂, I did mean inches not cm thank you.

[Paz]

Question out of curiosity. Do tired swords make Tokubetsu Hozon? Even if they are say late heian,  early Kamakura. Or do they only get hozon. 

 

 

Thanks