December 14-17, 2021 Collectible Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/15/2021
Measures 24 - 5/8" from kissaki to munemachi. Wide, active gunome midare hamon with thick frosty nioi. Classic shinogi-zukuri blade structure. Nakago is unsigned with katte sagari yasurime.Single mekugi-ana. "196" assembly number on the inside of the fuchi and on top of the wooden tsuka core (core also has two unidentified characters but look as though they might be a Nagoya inspection?), 196 also visible in mouth of saya. Naval tsuba with 196 on tsuba, and 3 of 4 seppa (topmost brass unnumbered). Tsuka-ito is olive green with hand rubbing to brown with chysanthemum themed menuki; same has heavily worn and nodules are no longer visible. Fuchi, kashira, and sarute with floral decorations; fuchi and kashira with roe pattern. Saya with old leather wrapping and secured by 5 snaps with holes for 2 ashi. Included is the rare foul weather top cover with imprint of tsuba from being wrapped for a long time. CONDITION: Very good. Hada is not discernible but hamon line is very good. Some areas of microscratches from polish. Kissaki has a miniscule deformity at extremity. Furniture is very good, leather with some hand rubbing to brown where dominant hand would have gripped and kashira is slightly discolored; the foul weather cover has a hole in leather that would have exposed kashira to the elements. Leather saya is excellent with plenty of rubbs and scapes to brown; top button of snaps is frozen, with some tearing of leather from someone trying to unfreeze it, and caution should be used to avoid damaging leather further. Leather cover left in place to avoid further damage. Foul weather cover is pliable with aforementioned hole at top, some deterioration and rewrapped section of edging. This is a really nice blade with some rare accessories. EMW