Hello to all- I am a new member and I have a question about a wakizashi that I have owned for over 30 years. It is in the shinobu-zukuri form. It is signed "Yoshikane" with only two characters. The blade is 38.2 cm long and sori is .8cm (8mm). The hamon is hard to see but looks to be gunome near the tip. The tang has some recent disturbance to the patina under the tsuka. Between the munemachi and the mekugi-ana there is a groove that appears to have been caused by a loose tsuba while the sword was worn. The groove wraps completely around the nakago and is heavily patinated. Any help with the age of the sword would be greatly appreciated. The sword has some kizu and I realize it is not the winner of any beauty contests, but I would like to know more about it. Thanks, Rich
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Yoshikane
Hi Richard,
Yoshikane 吉包 is a reasonably 'big' name, thanks to Ko-Bizen Yoshikane and Nobukuni Yoshikane, and there aren't that many smith who signed 'Yoshikane', especially with 2 characters. I compared the signature on your sword with known examples of different Yoshikane and none of them matched in style. The character 'Kane' (包) on your sword has a very peculiar shape which is different from other examples.
As you know yourself, this sword is not of greatest quality and this means it was most likely made either some lesser known or unknown Yoshikane, or it's a gimei (fake signature). Either way I think it will be very difficult or impossible to find the maker of this sword, unless some other, very similar looking sword pops up and more is known about it.
Regards,
Stan
Gimei
Stan-
Thanks for the help. I agree it is not the work of a high quality smith- or he was having a bad day. Any guess as to the age of the sword? I would think no older than shinto.
Rich