JTK origami help and Soten tsuba mei help (plus pictures!)

Hello everybody and thank you for your time,

I bought an old wakizashi and have been learning a bit about nihonto. The blade came with some paperwork which I was hoping to be able to get some info from. From what I can find out the paperwork was done by a polisher in Japan who also writes origami. I realize that the person appraising the sword is not highly respected as the other groups and people appraising swords such as NBTHK or NTKH, but I still feel there is some value in the paperwork.

I am pretty sure the appraiser felt the sword was made by (or in part by) Fusamori from Bungo who made swords from 1532-1555 and has a Hawley rating of 15. I am hoping there are more details the appraiser wrote about the sword that would be interesting.

I also bought 2 Tsuba and was hoping for any info about them. One is Soten style with mei on both sides and the other one has a nice patterned inlay. If anyone could translate the mei for the soten style then that would be great.

In case anyone cares, I paid $640 for the nihonto, $550 for the soten tsuba, and $255 for the other tsuba.

Thanks very much,

-Grant G.

Pictures of the Wakizashi

-Grant G.

I just wanted to express my thanks in advance for a person's time in helping me translate the Kanji. I hope everyone enjoys the pictures. I wish I would have taken one of the wak with the handle removed, but I didn't think about it the other day and I am hesitant to handle the sword too much. The blade is very elegant looking and is most beautiful without the handle on. Some additional information:(the following was from a 2008 ebay sale of this blade from Mitsuhiro Takaya)

-Grant G.

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/j ... school-jtk

Paper(Certificate) JTK(Juho Token Kenkyukai) Kanteisho.

Signature Front:Takada Fusamori

Back:No Signature.

Registration(Torokusho) The Japanese sword is registered in the Agency for Cultural Affairs as artwork.

The sword having a registration card is made with the Japanese traditional hand forged blade.

Registration Date : February 5, 1970

The place that was discovered : Tokyo

A production period Muromachi period, 16th Century.

Jitetsu(Jigane) Itame Hada and utsuri and chikei in jitetsu. Very good Jitetsu.

Hamon(Temper line) gunome midare, Nie-deki. Kinsuji, Sunagashi. It is very good Temper line.

Blade length(Cutting edge) 43.6cm

Sori 1.0cm

Motohaba 27.4mm

Motokasane 6.3mm

Boshi Komaru

polish The blade is old polished.

Condition Good condition, No Chips, No Hagire, No Shinae, No bend, No other fatal damage.

I only just learned this tonight, but Sōten/Sōten-style tsuba have long mei of a common form as seen here.

Front:

R: 藻柄子入道 Sōheishi [or "Mogarashi"] Nyūdō… (name of the mainline Sōten masters, often copied)

L: 宗典製 …Sōten sei (…Sōten made [this])

Back:

R: 江州 Gō Shū (Omi province)

L: 彦根住 Hikone Jū (Resident of Hikone)

Thanks for posting it as it enabled me to return with more info to this other thread.

ggil -

Nice items. Please sign your name on all posts, per Brian's rules.

Welcome to the forum.

Ken

Grant,

This has been translated dozen times in the translation section. There is a search button on the top of the page which enables you to search by yourself in the different sections. Hikone/Soten tsuba were produced by hundreds.

Grant,

 

This has been translated dozen times in the translation section. There is a search button on the top of the page which enables you to search by yourself in the different sections. Hikone/Soten tsuba were produced by hundreds.

hundreds at least, "thousands"....

Its about time I thanked everyone for the responses. You people are so nice to share your hard earned knowledge. I have info about the tsuba with geometric inlay. It looks like late sendai school (?or style?) maybe circa early to mid 1800s. Please see attached pictures from an old haynes catalog.