opinions and mei translation on this wak

[stace]

thanks in advance for any thoughts you have on this wak. my cousin inherited this and I did have this in hand last week. any thoughts as to smith and gimei or not? the blade is in very good shape. although not remarkable it has no obvious flaws, etc. Hamon is suguha. no visible yakote. the tsuka fittings are very nice quality. any sense of age or school? the nakago is 4.75 in and the nagasa is 19.5 in.

 

thanks in advance for your thoughts - very much appreciated.

 

Stace

corpus christi, tx USA

 

 

(more pictures in next post)

[stace]

more pictures

 

thanks

[Surfson]

Looks like Naganori to me. B

[Surfson]

Shape of the tang has a distinct Bizen feel to me and there are many listed that are nijimei.

[stace]

Thanks very much Robert! any other thoughts about; is the mei legitimate or gimei? Was naganori a single smith or a line of smiths using that name? any sense of age for this blade?

 

thanks again for any opinions!!!

 

Stace

[Soten_Fan]

Hi Stace,

Well, my first nihonto was a Naganori, but I don't know if we are talking about the same one. The signatures look a bit different.

 

Here is the thread with pics if you wanna have a look about the discussion of that mei:

 

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10766

 

There seem to be about 3 or 4 Naganori to choose from. In any case your wakizashi is fairly old.

[stace]

Dimitri S. - thanks very much. that is very helpful!!! other insights would still be welcome. thanks everyone...

 

Stace

[Grey Doffin]

Hi Stace,

The shape of your wakizashi's nakago (tang) is indicative of work in the Bizen tradition, one of the 5 mainline branches of Japanese swordmaking. According to Hawley's Japanese Swordsmiths Revised, there were a few smiths working in Bizen who signed with the name Naganori in the 15th century and one in the 17th. There were smiths working earlier and later, but this sword wasn't made earlier or much later than that. Without having the sword in hand there isn't much more that I can tell you. This could be a true signature of one of these smiths and a good blade, it could be a forged signature and/or a blade with problems, or it could be something between. Hard to tell much from photos.

Grey

[stace]

thanks Grey - that's helpful! I realize pictures (and mediocre one's at that!) are never the same as seeing the blade first hand. I'm trying to convince my cousin to attend the Tampa sword show and learn more about his blade as well as nihonto in general. he's not far away in Atlanta and he could see many fine examples of nihonto.

 

thanks very much!

 

Stace