What is your opinion on this Tanto?

[Fumei]

Hi All!

I would like to ask my colleagues to express their opinion on this Tanto.

 

Fumei

[Brian]

Shinogi zukuri tanto....Avoid.

[Matsunoki]

It looks like either a total fake or the top section from a blade that has been made to vaguely resemble a Tanto. The nakago is mis-shaped, the mekugi ana is in an unlikely place, there is terrible calligraphy which shouldn’t even be on the blade. All in all ….what Brian said….avoid.

[Brian]

Shrine souvenir, good luck charm.

[Fumei]

So is this a fragment of a real sword, remade into a tanto, and then signed?

Or was it a fake from the very beginning?

[ROKUJURO]

Vladimir,

looking at the shape and the details, it is a post-war souvenir TANTO for tourists. The signature (SEKI KANETSUGU ?), if correct at all, is in the wrong place. These show up from time to time, not rare. Sometimes they are sold as "KAMIKAZE TANTO", which is wrong as well.

[moriarty]

Pretty good choice if you want fancy kitchenware 

[Nobody]

The characters on the blade are 菊一文殊包永作 (Kiku ichi monju Kanenaga saku).

 

[KungFooey]

Hi Fumie-san,

 

To me, the carving on the kanji doesn't look any worse than what you normally find on World War II blades. However, their carving looks far too bright and fresh. If they were contemporary to the blade (judging by the nakago), I would expect to see some oxidisation or dirt inside the kanji as the blade is not in polish.

 

Just my thoughts.

Dee

 

[Brian]

They are contemporary, and are honorific, not literal. These were sold as good luck symbols. Genuine, but not traditionally made and fairly crude.

[reinhard]

For consideration:

True Horimono are made by removing steel.

In this particular case the characters were just hammered in and the surface polished afterwards to remove the raised edges.

You can see this on blades given to shrines and temples, but this is most probably not the case here.

 

BTW: All mei on nakago, with the exception of Hankei's, are made by just hammering them in.

Not removing steel, but pressing it aside.

This is an important criterion when examining a mei.

 

reinhard

 

 

 

[fujidog]

My 2 cents, when I look at the mekugi-ana i can see it has not been drilled by machine. Indicating olden hand tools, possible multiple attempts or re drilling.