Sword for your review

[Bob Coleman]

The Choshu School of tsuba makers were quite prolific in the 19th c. This is typical of their work which mainly portrayed plants and flowers.

[luftwaffenkopf]

here are the original missing pics. had some trouble with image hosting...

so the consensus is that it's a Koto era blade in WW2 dressing except for the tsuba which is from the 1800's. the blade looks to have had three holes in the tang, with the end tip broken at the third hole. what is the significance of this, if any? thank you

[Death-Ace]

Definitely osuriage and looks to have been remounted twice. Pretty neat! The koshirae is pretty nice too especially with the Choshu signed tsuba, probably a black saya underneath the cover. Think you have yourself a pretty nice find.

These links should help with describing the hamon and hada:
http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/hamonpatterns.html
http://meiboku.info/guide/form/hada/index.htm

My other opinion is was the full cover for the tsuba actually leather? It appears to actually be canvas, which is uncommon in itself. We've seen the canvas Type 94 Namby holsters and such but rarely have I seen a canvas saya cover!


Another side note is that there are definitely quite a few tsuka that were ruined by the uninformed believing there were prayer scrolls or jewels in or under the I to, or just to take out the menuki. I also had a gimei nobuhide that had the mekugi ana enlarged by someone drilling to the side of the mekugi without realizing that the peg was the way to take off the blade!

[luftwaffenkopf]

the saya cover is canvas with a leather tip as you can see. the canvas looks to have been painted all brown with most of this paint now worn off.

what would be the reason the blade was shortened by removing the end of the tang at the third hole? thank you

[Death-Ace]

the saya cover is canvas with a leather tip as you can see. the canvas looks to have been painted all brown with most of this paint now worn off.

what would be the reason the blade was shortened by removing the end of the tang at the third hole? thank you

There were quite a few reasons why a blade would have been shortened! To meet standards according to the times, broken in accident or combat, to accept certain mounts, easier for the owner to wield, etc.

There was a hira-zukuri wakizashi I kick myself for not buying that was ubu nakago but had four mekugi-ana. It was in terrible polish but had no kizu noted and a high quality handachi say A for super cheap but I mulled on it too long. So there were also blades that were remounted and never shortened. Its like some guns that were lightly or heavily modified. Another piece I kill myself for was a RC 1916 doubledated HZA rearseneled luger that had started life as an artillery model and became a standard length model to comply with the Versaille treaty. Probably was becoming worn out by WWII after 25+ years of continuous service or whatnot that it was sent to be repaired and refinished.

So like everything, they were modified for various reasons. I've had blades that were shortened with the original mekugi-ana in the end. There were blades shortened so much that they lost the entire original nakago. Disregarding lost from war, accidents, etc, another two reasons why ubu tachi and ubu katana from the Kamakura era to the end of the koto period are uncommon (especially Kamakura tachi) was due to either damage or more than likely to comply with the lengths set by the Tokugawas. One last example I had was a wakizashi that had an inch of its original nakago but was remounted twice after. Right below the hamachi (bottom notch) was a possible kirikomi that would not have polished out so was shortened.

[nickn]

Swords were shortened for a number of reasons
Damage
Fashion ,the owner wanted a shorter sword
Sword length laws
Remember these were just weapons

[Death-Ace]

Swords were shortened for a number of reasons
Damage
Fashion ,the owner wanted a shorter sword
Sword length laws
Remember these were just weapons

Agreed, just like another weapon, they were "rearsenseled" to meet the times and the owner's likings.

[Bob Coleman]

As pole arms such as naginata and nagamaki became of less use in warfare, many were cut down into either katana or wakizashi as it was a way to give the blade an new usage.