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I was looking at various katana and wakizashi yesterday and was confused by one particular wakizashi that was hira-zukuri(flat sided) on one face and shinogi-zukuri on the opposite face. I've not seen this before and initially thought it must have been 'over polished' and lost its shinogi line on the flat side. But it looks so purposeful and I wondered if the swordsmith used the blade as a kind of experiment, possibly because of overall dissatisfaction with the blade, or maybe it was an apprentice piece or...??

I have recently acquired a wakizashi which appears to be either 4th or 5th generation Shigetaka. I note that the swordsmiths listed here under the name SHIGETAKA only covers the first three generations. SHI505, SHI506 and SHI507. There appears to be at least eleven generations of Shigetaka.

I have recently purchased a wakizashi that appears to be a 'Norimitsu' The nakago has a mumei/signature reading (I believe) Bishu Osafune Norimitsu.
I believe that means, in simple terms, that it could have been made anytime between about 1300 and 1700, as there were nine generations of Norimitsu working out of Bizen school/Osafune.

I note an auction in London tomorrow 17th July has a 'signed Hikashiro Sadamune' wakizashi. You can find it on google if you do a search
Now my understanding is that there is only one signed Sadamune in existence - a tanto. So this would suggest this is a great unaccounted for signed Sadamune or a gimei. The image of the nakago is very unclear as it is very badly pitted and the inmages of the blade are not sufficient to make any judgement on quality.

Interested in the process of auction houses selling Japanese blades and their descriptions, when there is obviously no paperwork.

Andy

I am having trouble translating the characters on this nakago. It is the reverse of the nakago so I assume its the details of date etc, rather than the smith.
Also, is it relevant that the characters seem to be 'hanging off the edge' - ie, seem very close to the edge? Visually this seems odd to me?

Just received the Kokan Nagayama hardback - Connoisseur's Book of Japanese Swords - a very steep learning curve obviously. Unbelievably detailed - I don't know where to start.
Thanks for the recommendation.

Cheers

Andy

(Accidentally placed in my blog and now re-posted here in this forum)

I am new to this club and hope to find some information regarding a WW2 Gunto "Bring Back" sword.

Hi, i need some help and i'm here :) . i live in France and i started a tiny collection of Japanese sword ( tantô, gunto... )

i have this wakizashi. it is not in great condition ( i bought it in this bad condition ).
i'm looking for some informations... the hamon is almost invisible, it seems to be suguha ( i'm not sure ).
blade is Hira, mune is maru ( i'm sure is the original shape )
but polish is very bad and it seems the former owner do some bad thing with very fine sand paper... i see some hada

I would like know how old is it

what is this inscription on the tsuka ?

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Hi All

I have recently obtained a Wakizashi, which I believe bears the signature of Fuyuhiro.

The blade measures 65 cm's end to end and the tsuba is inlaid with what appears to be copper, silver and gold.

I have done a load of investigation online I am now more confused than before I started looking, and as I will be selling the sword I wish to describe it correctly!

Any help that can be provided would be very much appreciated.

Greg

If required I can add more photos

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Dear Sirs
I have already contacted you last year after finding a short sword signed Hisakuni in south of France.
When I found it, the sword was in a very bad state. There were some deep marks of blows. The polisher has made what he could but some of them always appear. Now the blade is restored and mounted in a beautiful shirasaya.
This short sword had the particularities of Kamakura’s forging, tender steel, thin shape, curved, light hamon, Fine Hada... but now, we are are not experts.

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Dear friends,

please your help to identify this wakizashi swordsmith.

Best regards,

Pilgrim