I was hoping someone could help me possibly identify the age of a Japanese Katana given to me by my grandfather. He was a Corsair mechanic in the south Pacific during WW2 and obtained the sword in while on leave in China. I have been told from a local collector that the blade could be old, he offered me $500 for it, of course i told him nicely to piss off. I am more familiar with Western swords although i have done some research on the blade without any definative results. The tang is unsigned and fairly rusty and pitted. There is also a peice of cheesecloth with japanese writing on the scabbard. The pics are a bit blurred but its the best i can do at the moment. Here are some measurements that i have taken.

blade length 27.25"

tang length 7.25"

blade width
from hilt 1.062" - .690" to tip

blade thickness
from hilt .220 - .160 to tip

Thanx,

John Gage

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Hi John,
Although I am a student of Japanese swordsmanship, and have had a love of Japanese swords for almost 15 years now, I am by no means an expert. The best people on this forum, to my knowledge, to give you a definitive answer would be Keith Larman, Patrick Hastings, Howard Clark, Rick Barrett, or Shane Allee (sorry if I butchered your last name Shane!).
Here are my impressions, and I hope that they help :D

Overall, based on the greater curvature of the blade near the shoulders vs towards the tip, and the gradual decrease in the width of the blade as it approaches the tip, I would say that what you have is not a katana, but a tachi, which would suggest that the sword is far older than WWII (Good thing you didn't sell, regardless of what the actual age is it is worth FAR more than $500). Also, I get the impression that the tang was shortened at one point, probably to fit the current Gunto mounting. The lack of signature, if I remember right, was at certain points in history the norm rather than the exception, since many smiths used the shape of the hamon as their signature; although if I'm right about the tang being shortened, it is possible that the signature was on the portion of the tang that was removed.
As for the cloth with the writing, it could be a transcription of what was on the tang at one point, or from a family scroll that listed the name of the sword, the smith, the date it was made, the family name and those in the family who carried the sword in the past; or it could be something completely different :) .

Hope this helps!

Hi Robert,

Great info. I did a bit of online research and it is in fact a tachi it seems to be early or possibly mid Kamakura period. After noticing the blade curvature as is starts closest towards the hilt and being the blade is very delicate... thin and long i would guess it is from the earlier period. Im just speculating of course.

Here is the link to where i got the info http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/sugata/shape.htm

Any and all thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

thanx,

Just for kicks I'd call that local collector back and offer to let him touch it for $500.

Brian M

It seems.... That shape and size of tachi was from The Heian period (794-1192)

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ANCJAPAN/HEIAN.HTM

If anyone could recommend an reputable appraiser i would be most thankful.

Here are some more pics

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What the heck did I ever do to get put in with that lot? *G*

Joking aside, I'm very new to japanese swords and haven't focused much at this point in time to study the history behind them. So I'd be no help trying to date a sword like that.

Shane

Hey John,
Perhaps a good place to send your sword would be to Fred Lohman; they might be able to date and appraise it, and, if you would like, possibly remount the blade as a true tachi. Here's the link.

Fred Lohman Company

Congratulations on a fine blade! I am only responding in order to slightly dampen the enthusiasm however. Though it I am no expert and it is certainly a tachi blade and probably not a gunto the attempts to date her by shape concern me. Japan in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, that is and pre-meiji, was undergoing a certain fit of nostalgia resulting in the manufacture of weapons and armour of archaic styles. Now personally I would be ecstatic to have any pre-WWII tachi or katana as you almost certainly have but I think its premature to conjecture on exact period.

John,
I can read Japanese, and even better my wife is Japanese. It looks like your sword was owned by a Masayuki Nakagawa . My wife doesn't think that it is Heian period. One thing is that the the name Masayuki Nakagawa is not a Heian period name. She thinks that it is a WWII sword.

Masayuki's name is on the left side of your picture. The right side says the division that he was part of. It looks like it was the 17th division. I hope that's helpful.

Ben

I have no opinion one way or the other on the sword, there's way to many little complexities of a Japanese sword for me to even guess at how to date this one. However having said that seems like if someone from WWII wanted to put their name on an old sword they could...

OK I finally have some updated pics, i hope they help. I want to make it clear that i am not staing that i know that this sword is from that time period it just seems to be the shape, size and style from that period.
I hope these pics help.

Thanx,
John

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While I cant be sure the rust on the nakago looks real enough, the blade itself looks to be in very poor polished state...probably cleaned up by someone with sand paper *eep*. cant really make out with the swords polish in that state as per weather its tamahagane or just run of the mill monosteel.

I was able to copy some script off the tsuba of this sword. If someone could give me more info on it, it would be greatly appreciated. I have tried to photograph and get a rub from it but it is very faint so under a magnifying glass i was able to replicate it to the best of my ability.

Regards,

John