Info on kaiken, small tanto, other knives

[PongPing]

I am very new to the world of genuine nihonto and I am currently doing my research. My interest is to eventually acquire a kaiken or similar kind of small blade, as a modest start. This has raised a few questions that I hope can be answered.

 

1. Are there any books specifically about differentiating and appraising knives?

2. Besides kaiken, and excluding the usual tanto (and of course craft knives), were there any other kinds of Japanese knives?

3. Are these knives typically signed and/or documented?

4. What price range do these reasonably fall into?

 

My apologies if these questions have already been covered somewhere. Best regards

[Bugyotsuji]

in ‘Nihonto’, look for the ‘Smaller blades’ thread for many different examples.

 

 

[ChrisW]

I can attempt to answer 2-4.

 

2. There are a lot of types/shapes of 'small knives'. To name a few: kogatana (the blade in the side slot of a saya, used as a general utility knife), the yoroi-doshi (armor piercing tanto), the ken (two-sided dagger), osuraku-tanto (has a very long boshi, where half or more of the blade is boshi).

 

3. Any of the aforementioned could be signed, with kogatana having the least likely probability to be legitimate signatures.

 

4. Kogatana are by far the cheapest usually, with ken tending to be the most expensive/hard to find. Osuraku are pretty up there too (many of the best ones were made by Kiyomitsu). Kogatana can be had for as little as $50 on fleabay (eBay) usually, and the others will run low thousand to several thousands depending on condition, school/smith, papers, etc.

 

Here's a picture of two ken (three actually, but only two are tanto sized). I'll have to see if on a sunny day, I can get a good picture of my yoroi-doshi.

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Max,

1. Are there any books specifically about differentiating and appraising knives?

Not really. There are dozens of books that will help you on the way but not one with all the answers.

Seems like you're asking for a shortcut around study; there is none. Take your time with books, sword shows where you can see Nihonto in hand, and ask lots of questions. There will never be a time when good and better pieces aren't available and the more you know before you buy one the happier you'll be with it.

Cheers, Grey

[Brian]

You could do a lot worse than pick up a copy of this book and the translation.
https://japaneseswor...rs-with-translation/