Sword2
Katana O-suriage
Blade length 62.8cm, thickness at the base 8mm, width 3.2cm
This is a nice katana with a long kissaki and attractive appearance. It
looks typical katana blade what is shortened from a long tachi blade of
14th century. It has no fumbari on both width and thickness.
Steel has a visible wood grain layer pattern. And it is filled with large
steel particles. It looks beautiful.
Hamon is made of large particles. It is bright. And its temper line (hamon
particle band) is wide. Many attractive activities appear around the temper
line. Those are kinsuji, sunagashi, and some others. And a lot of faint
ashi in the hamon. Hamon in kissaki also has a lot of large particles with
sweeping pattern.
Yubashiri and utsuri also appear in the ji.
The polishing is the modern style. The work is good. The hadori work is
rather strong, though. But you can study the hamon by proper lighting.
The total taste of this blade easily reminds us so-called "Soshu tradition".
And by careful studying, you can find that the steel is a little dark or
black (opposite meaning of fine or clear). We can understand it is a nice
blade shortened from a long tachi blade of 14th century, and I believe
you will agree with our opinion. But, it is difficult to find out a reasonable
attribution to this blade for our eyes. I wonder if it is possible to think
it to a copy of O-suriage blade by some master smith in 17th century, for
example Kunihiro or Yasutsugu. In that case, it could be another "Yamamba-giri".
Tang
The blade is so much shortened as its original tang has completely cut
off. We are not sure if the grooves are original or not.
Habaki is double, made of solid gold. However the gold is alloyed with
silver. So the color is a little whitish. We don't know what family the
mark on it suggests to.
Shirasaya and bag
800,000.yen
It is not very easy for us to find out the smith who made this. It is a
nice blade, though. It may be an interesting journey to detect the smith
or school researching books and other information.