I picked this up from a coworker several weeks back, he had inherited it along with some other WWII items when his grandfather passed, but his family wasn’t really interested in keeping any of it. He knew I collected WWII militaria and asked if I had any interest in an “old Japanese knife” and some other “WWII daggers and hats”. Ended up with some nice items, but my favorite is this piece. While it is indeed old and Japanese it is more correctly defined as a tanto based on the blade length (right around 11”).
When I first saw it I knew it was old, but didn’t know exactly how old. In removing the blade from the shirasaya (the wooden storage handle and scabbard), I saw that the tang was signed and looked quite old. Long story short, it is signed by a sword smith who signed as Bishu-ju Yasumitsu and the blade likely dates to 1400-1450 based on info I received from a very well known expert and traditional sword polisher. Even the shirasaya appears to be in the area of 200 years old. I ended up sending it to the polisher for proper restoration and it just arrived back looking great. Cell phone pics certainly don’t do it justice. I love the visible grain patterns and hamon. This is my first nihonto piece and hopefully not my last, it’s pretty amazing to hold something that is 600 years old.
When I first saw it I knew it was old, but didn’t know exactly how old. In removing the blade from the shirasaya (the wooden storage handle and scabbard), I saw that the tang was signed and looked quite old. Long story short, it is signed by a sword smith who signed as Bishu-ju Yasumitsu and the blade likely dates to 1400-1450 based on info I received from a very well known expert and traditional sword polisher. Even the shirasaya appears to be in the area of 200 years old. I ended up sending it to the polisher for proper restoration and it just arrived back looking great. Cell phone pics certainly don’t do it justice. I love the visible grain patterns and hamon. This is my first nihonto piece and hopefully not my last, it’s pretty amazing to hold something that is 600 years old.
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