Nagamaki naoshi?

[Surfson]

Hi All. I am curious about this sword that just sold on Ebay. It seems a bit slender, but is it possible that it is a Nagamaki naoshi? I would appreciate the advice of those more knowledgeable than me on this. Happy New Year! Bob

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... _500wt_898

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Bob,

Hard to tell much from the pictures and description: could be naginata naoshi or could be a wakizashi made without a yokote. Nice fuchi/kashira and I like the habaki; the rest of it, unless the buyer gets very lucky, seems way overpriced to me.

Grey

[loiner1965]

i think its a naginata as it broadens near the yokote

[ububob]

Too bad it wasn't parted out.

[Surfson]

Thanks guys. Grey, I agree that the price figures in a huge amount of risk, even if the F-K contain solid gold rather than utsuri. I doubt it can be a wakizashi, since I estimate the cutting edge to be about 70 cm+. Steve, I'm not sure it has a yokote - it looks to me to be shobu zukuri-like in shape. Anyway, I might have taken a flyer on it at a fraction of the price, but am still curious as to what it is likely to be, and how old it may be. Cheers, Bob

[Ian B3HR2UH]

Robert , I was the buyer of this sword and thought you would be interested to know how it turned out.

The late Robert Lewert had a Juyo blade by Bishu Suyetsugu that was dated 1378 . This featured in the May 1974 JSSUS Newsletter . The length and shape of Lewerts sword are very similar to the one that I purchased . In the translation of the Juyo write up that is in the Newsletter the shape is described as " Naoshi Nagamaki , shobu zukuri, high shinogi " I think that it is fair to say that the shape of the ebay sword was also Naoshi Nagamaki.

I took a punt on the sword for two reasons . Firstly the mount was in my opinion the best Katana mount that I can recall seeing on ebay for ages .There are lots of mounts with mediocre fittings that come up but I thought this one had some class about it . The Fuchi Kashira were good , tsuba by Owari Sadahiro , fine silver foil habaki and gold foil seppa . As a generalization you would expect a mount of this class to have an OK blade in it . Secondly the blade was Nagamaki Naoshi and as you said, seemed to be about 70 cm long.The very few blades of this style that I have seen in books or in the flesh all seem to be attributed to or be by Nambokucho smiths so I thought that there must be a reasonable prospect that this blade was too.

When it did turn up the mount was as classy as I had hoped for. The blade is 68 cm long and is in fair condition . The hamon is nioi based and I would decribe it as undulating suguha with some Ko midare and ashi . There are a couple of rounded spots in one area of thi Ji which might be shintetsu . I think I have got myself a probable cut down Nambokucho Nagamaki . There is a shinsa out here in September and I will put the blade in that and see what the experts think !

Ian B

[John A Stuart]

Nice of you to fill us in, Ian. John

[Surfson]

That's really exciting Ian. I definitely thought it was a nagamaki, and I'm glad to hear that you like it, aside from the shintetsu. I would have given you a run for your money if there was even a shred of visible hamon in any of the photos but there wasn't. I wasn't prepared to take the chance that it would come without any hamon at all or with a Nioigiri. I'm happy for you that it came through mostly healthy. Do keep us up to date with the shinsa and polishing results. Cheers, Bob

[Ian B3HR2UH]

Hi Robert,

We had our NTHK Shinsa in Sydney a couple of weeks ago and I submitted the sword for judgement.

Like many ( most ? ) of the submitters my optomistic hopes were dashed. I had hoped that the piece might have been by a Bitchu Aoe smith of the Nambokucho period. This was based on the nioi based hamon , what a few of us thought was sumi hada and the fact that this school made blades of this shape .

As things turned out it was papered to the Kai Mihara group circa 1530 . Seems that many of us are guilty of excessive optimism when it comes to assessing what we own.

Ian B