Old Sigend Wakizashi out of estate sale last week.

[NBolinger]

Picked this wakizashi up last week, its signed on the two sides and the blade a couple small chips , would like to know if this is a anything special? Thanks for any help i may be able to get!

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5555

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[gabedamien]

Hi. It's a genuine antique, not in great condition but eminently restorable if you want to pay the very high expense to do so. Can't guarantee it would break even though, would depend heavily on the quality of the workmanship and/or if it would subsequently paper (NBTHK / NTHK-NPO). Of course you can't really judge the workmanship out of polish, nor can you submit to shinsa, so if you restore it's a financial gamble; do it for the love of bringing the piece back to its potential, then, not because you need to flip it for a higher price.

The mei is 備州長船祐定 Bishū Osafune Sukesada / 永正十年二月 Eishō jūnen nigatsu (Sukesada of the Osafune smiths in Bizen province, second month of 1513). You should google this as there is a great deal of info about the (extensive) Sukesada line, perhaps the most common signature there is; many gimei, many kazu-uchimono (mass produced blades for the Sengoku Jidai), not a lot of top-grade works.

Cheers,

—G.

[NBolinger]

thanks

Thank you so much for your help on my sword. Thank you very much for your help with the signature, you are very kind and thank you for your time.

[reeder3]

I like the tsuba!

-Brandon

[Luis22]

Its my understanding that most gimei (fake signatures) were of well known sword smith in this case was an average swordsmith whick makes me believe that the signature is real...nice authentic historical relic sword!

[gabedamien]

Its my understanding that most gimei (fake signatures) were of well known sword smith in this case was an average swordsmith whick makes me believe that the signature is real...nice authentic historical relic sword!

Nope, not quite.

General: many times gimei are of average or even unknown smiths. Why? Who can say. Certainly the "big names" need to be treated with the greatest care and scrutiny, but "no-names" were not immune to forgery either. Perhaps because it is easier to pass off an average work if it is signed by an average smith, or if the smith is too hard to research.

Specific: Bishu Osafune Sukesada is a very common gimei.

HOWEVER, that really doesn't mean much, there are so many Sukesada in this line (over 50?) and so many are run-of-the-mill that really people don't make much effort to distinguish genuine average Sukesada from gimei average work. It's only when a sword is trying to pass itself off as a specific Sukesada (i.e. it has a zokumei) that people look really carefully.

So ultimately this blade will be judged more for its intrinsic workmanship than for its mei, which is as it should be.

For the record it could easily be shōshinmei, I'm not arguing it IS gimei. Just pointing out that it's certainly a possibility.

OP needs to bring the sword to a club / polisher and get in-person opinions, plus consider restoration for its own sake. I just don't want OP to invest in restoration on any kind of confidence that it will be a financial windfall to do so.

Cheers,

—G.

[merdock]

Hi,
Indeed it do's look a very nice one, imo bring it back to it's former glory if possible ,forget the value/cost it deserves it.
I had my sword polished cost as much as it was worth do I regret it ''never''
Mark