Tanto for joke
One of our friends found an interesting tanto blade at an antique market. It has no signature, but he thought it could be made by "Norishige". Norishige is a smith in Etchu province, 14th century. They say he is a brother of the legendary smith Masamune in Kamakura city. So, Norishige also is a famous and legendary smith.
Blade length 24.7cm, thickness at the base 5.5mm, width 2.6cm
Our smith kokaji studied it carefully. It looks like Norishige style, but too much. In other words, a sort of tautology. He thinks it is a copy of the style. His opinion is Uda school in 16th century or some Shin-shinto smith (19th century). The friend was disappointed with the opinion. And then, we bought it from him and planed a stupid game.
We will have the blade re-polished in the classical style (sashikomi style) and submit it to the paper challenge. If it get an attribution of "Norishige", we would invite the friend for a dinner.
Steel
Hamon
We have removed the make-up on one side using hazuya stone to see the real face of the blade.
We are going to ask the craftsmen to make shirasaya and sashikomi style polishing.