The sword summary and photos

 Preliminary Inspection

• Appears to be a cheap reproduction at first glance.
• Tsuba is loose and rocks fore and aft at the 12 and 6 o’clock positions more than the 3 and 9.
• Lacquer of birds’ wing is chipped and is quite thick.
• Copper appears quite old.
• Tsukamaki is not original but rayskin underneath appears to be.
• No corrosion on surface of exposed blade.
• The folded metal looks very old and well done.
• The saya surface towards the tip on the outside surface appears like the blade had pushed the surface in the shape of the kissaki outward as if the handle and tip movement was suppressed during a drawing motion (the rupture is not where the kissaki would rest when fully engaged in the saya)and the centre of the saya was forced outward causing the blade tip to push against the inside surface of the saya until it partially ruptured the surface.
• It appears that the wearer of this sword was left handed as the picture is on the left hand side of the saya which would have to be worn on the right to be seen as intended and the area around the cranes’ neck on the tsuba is worn smooth where the first knuckle of the first finger on the left hand would contact it when drawn and where the first knuckle of the right little finger would have rested when sheathed.
• Blade shape and size appears to be mid Kamakura with the sori exactly in the middle of the blade.
• Habaki is worn so thin at one of the leading edge corners that it has cracked.
• Tsuba:
• Awa-ishime – Ground design of ring shaped punch marks. Used mainly on old Katchushi guards. The surface facing the blade is mostly awa-ishime while the surface facing the handle is more Hari-ishime.
• Chidori – a plover, often used as a design motif. Two plovers, one head down on a reed and the other level as though nesting on forward face.
• Hachikaku-Gata – Tsuba of Octagon shape.
• Hari-Ishime – Surface finish of punch marks.
• Ho-o – Mythological bird with feathers of five colours and very long tail plumes in lacquer on saya.
• Horiage – carving of low relief.
• Kawarigane – soft metal Tsuba and other fittings (no Iron).
• Tori-Zori – maximum blade curve in the middle – typical of blades in the early to mid Kamakura period.

It took about two months of research on the internet to determine which period the blade belonged to and it seems that it is about mid-thirteenth century according to the profile, size, position of the highest point of the curve of the blade. Once this research was complete, I believed that it would be prudent to get the opinion of a reputable dealer/appraiser and sent the information, complete with pictures, off to one in the US and the other in eastern Canada. Both responses were the same – “it is a Chinese fake” – basically word for word. A little disappointing to say the least but the Canadian suggested that I remove the handle to see if there was a mei or signature. I figured that seeing as how it was a Chinese fake anyway, there was really nothing to lose by dismantling it. This is where things started to get very interesting.  The dealer said it was easy to find the mekugi (pin) and to tap it out but should be careful because they are often tapered and can only be removed in one direction. I figured what the heck, I can take a helicopter apart and reassemble it, this should be a walk in the park. Not so!! First off, the tsukamaki (handle wrap) had been replaced at some point and no matter how I moved the wrap, the pin was just not visible anywhere so I figured, again, it’s just a Chinese fake so I’ll  take the wrap off. It can always be put back on. Anyway, once the wrap was off, there was still no visible sign of the pin. After much twisting and turning of the handle in different lights, a slight crescent looking line appeared under the same – (rayskin) covering over the wooden handle. As carefully as possible, I scraped away a little of the same and there was the mekugi. The same was very brittle and broke away easily, exposing the full circumference of the pin. Now I was getting somewhere. A small brass punch and four ounce hammer should do quite nicely. A light tap – the pin didn’t move. H’mmm – okay, let’s see if it will move in the opposite direction in case it is tapered. Another light tap – no movement. Okay – let’s hit it a little harder and then came the unmistakable sound of release – that little “pop”. Another tap and a little more movement. Another tap – no more movement.  Well let’s turn it over and drive it back the other way – maybe it was just stuck before. The pin moves back quite easily now but then tightens up just below the surface of the handle just as it did on the other side. H’mmm?? Okay, the only way this handle is coming off is if that pin comes out right?? Right. So – bigger hammer – no – just a sharper blow – some more movement but becomes quite tight and requires an even harder hit to get it to move again. After about the fourth “hard” tap, the wood of the handle started to sliver around the circumference of the hole. 

     It finally popped out and to my amazement - was kinked in the middle!!??

This would explain the looseness of the tsuba and would indicate that the handle and tang experienced a severe double shear stress causing the mekugi to be nearly sheared by the forces involved. I believe that this would be, or at least, should be construed as “battle damage” as the forces required to cause this type of damage could only be initiated by the application of high stress to the top edge of the handle, close to the tsuba and an equally high stress applied simultaneously to the bottom edge of the handle close to the fuchi kashira or handle cap as would happen in a heavy, two-handed strike. There are no indications on the blade that would suggest that it contacted anything hard enough to chip or otherwise damage the cutting edge.

Now that the mekugi was removed, the handle should come off with a slight tap to the hand gripping it. I found this information on a website dedicated to the handling of Japanese swords. Well, after several attempts at this method, not only was the top of my hand getting sore but the handle had not moved linearly even a fraction of an inch. It did rock slightly around the axis of the pin hole so I wrapped a soft cotton cloth around the blade (several wraps as this blade is still very sharp) and then gripped it with my left hand and used the existing looseness to rock the handle back and forth while applying a tensional stress away from the blade. After several minutes and a lot of strain, the handle started to move – very slightly but I kept at it until it finally came off.

Surprise number two!! The reason that the handle was ”stuck” on the nakago (tang) was due to the fact that the blade and handle were fitted together and match drilled (both handle and tang were drilled at the same time from the right side) and the mekugi was installed without first removing the handle in order to deburr the tang. It was this “burr” imbedded into the wood of the handle that caused the handle to be “stuck” on the tang which reveals that this sword is absolutely original as it has remained intact from the moment the hole was drilled right up until I took it apart. The same had been applied over the mekugi which reinforces my opinion and also seals the bamboo mekugi from the atmosphere preventing it from absorbing moisture and causing the metal around the pin hole to become corroded. I believe that this is one of the reasons that this sword is in such good shape for its’ age. I believe that this blade has probably not seen a polish for several hundred years but because of the wooden saya (scabbard) and the seal created by the habaki along with the sealed mekugi in the handle, the blade was virtually sealed in its’ own moisture-free environment during that time.

Surprise number three. The tang is cracked at bottom edge about two centimeters aft of the pin hole which probably happened in conjunction with the deforming of the mekugi as it would take the same type of stress load to cause this type of fracture. Note: crack at edge of tang in center of photo.

Once the handle was off, a lot more information about this sword became visible and led to more investigation. You will see in the following photo that there are peculiar red-brown stains on the end of the handle that fays against the tsuba. The interesting point here is that the stains appear to begin at the outer periphery of the handle and then terminate in a smooth, semi-rounded shape.

My thought was that they could possibly be blood stains so engaged the services of a forensic biologist. She said that it was impossible to determine if what we were looking at on the handle were blood stains without scraping material off and sending it for special tests at a lab. After examining the tang and tsuba, she pointed out that there were definitely deposits that had the same sheen, luster and characteristics of blood she had identified on other cutting edge instruments. (This woman had done forensic work for several police forces on the continent prior to retiring) She also stated that without some very expensive laboratory tests, it would be impossible to determine if the stains were human or animal but that they definitely appeared to be blood. In the photos below, the suspect areas are quite shiney and reddy brown in respect to the duller tan colored areas that have been identified as rust.

Right side of tang.

Left side of tang.

Signature on right side of tang indicating Tachi mount.

The next surprise took a couple of months to realize as I really didn’t know what I was looking for – or at for that matter. After researching information on “left handed samurai” the majority of text indicated that there were no left handed samurai due to certain different factors one of which was the “bushido code” and another major point was that the Japanese/Samurai pass on each others right hand side so that the sayas would not touch and hence a sword mounted on the right hip would cause all sorts of problems in that society. It took me awhile to notice the profile of the stains on the handle and their placement. When viewed under a 10X magnifying glass, the stains appear to be a sedimentary build up of foreign materials which is what the forensic biologist pointed out and would have to be scraped off and sent to an appropriate laboratory for identification. The point that finally hit home with me was the shape of the stains. You can see that it was the right hand that was placed at the aft part of the handle through the following photos. The first photo shows the right side of the handle and the curved stain that would follow the shape of contact with the palm of the right hand.  The second shows the left side of the handle and the rounded stain where the little finger of the right hand would be positioned during a two handed grip.

The next photos are of the tsuba surface facing the handle and where the surface could only be worn smooth by the first knuckle of the left hand with the sword drawn and with the first knuckle of the right little finger resting on the handle while sheathed. Note the worn area between the eight and ten o’clock positions where the ground design punch marks are nearly completely gone and the rim is worn almost to the surface of the negative relief.

It was about this time that I asked the opinion of another expert but he only wanted pictures of the tang or nakago and the tip or kissaki. His reply was that due to the rough surfaces and the shape of the tip that this was not a Japanese sword but a crude Damascus blade. He was only interested in those parts of the blade and said that the koshirae was of no interest when determining whether or not this was indeed a Japanese blade. Now if this blade is from the mid Kamakura period as I believe it is then they were susceptible to tip damage as stated in a paragraph contained in one of the articles in “Shadows of Leaves” pertaining to Japanese sword history.  It appears that this may have been the case with this sword. It may have had a good sized chip in the kissaki which would have taken the sword maker quite some time to repair between battles, so instead of maintaining the typical curved tip, he made it straight, very much like the old chokuto style straight blade tips and got it back into service as quickly as possible. This is only my opinion based on a maintenance focused trend of thought.

You can actually see the core material at the edge of the tip as a solid piece. This core also shows up in the mune or back of the blade in the following photo.

Tachi Dimension/Condition Observations

• Overall length from kissaki to fuchi kashira – 99.15 cm
• nagasa – 68 cm – 2 Shaku, 2 Sun, 4 Bu
• tsuka – 31.75 cm
• Width of tsuka at tsuba – 4.7 cm (including tsukamaki)
• Width of tsuka at kashira – 4.9 cm (including tsukamaki)
• Thickness of tsuka – 3.2 cm (including tsukamaki)
• Width at hamachi - munemachi – 3.2 cm/1.260”
• Thickness of shinogiji at munemachi – 9.7 mm/0.388”
• Width of blade at yokote – 2.6 cm/1.02”
• Thickness of shinogiji at yokote – 7.9 mm/0.311”
• Sori  -  1.75 cm/0.689” – 34 cm from kissaki – tori-sori
• Length from yokote to kissaki – 3.5 cm/1.378”

These measurements were taken in accordance with instructions on one of the dealers sites. The following photo shows the artwork on the saya which is that of the mythical Ho-o bird with feathers of five colors along with what I believe is a water lily. The same type of flower is depicted on the forward surface of the tsuba in the next photo along with two chidori or plovers and additional water plants. You can also see a worn point just above the left hand plovers’ tail where the thumb of the right hand would push against the tsuba to disengage the habaki when unsheathing the sword. The tsuba is 8.6 cm from corner to corner and 8 cm from flat to flat across the center.



 Summary of the findings:

As the sword was never repaired after nearly having the mekugi sheared which in turn loosened the tsuba, it would seem that the owner of this sword probably perished during that battle and his decendants recovered his remains along with his sword from the battlefield. It was customary for the family to build a small shrine-like area in their home where the warriors armour, sword and other personal accoutrements were kept to honour his memory. This custom was practiced right up till the end of the Second World War at which time it was decreed that no Japanese could possess a sword and mass confiscation, outright theft and destruction of swords took place.  It appears that this “old Boy” was either hidden or lost at the bottom of someones’ trunk until they either passed on or their children moved them into a home and sold off their old possessions without realizing what they were selling. Again, this is only my opinion and the real history of this old blade will probably be lost forever. It does however reveal some of its’ history which I have attempted to describe here and my hope is that there is someone out there who will be able to do a much better job.

Although I am completely untrained in the art of recognizing a Japanese sword, I am trained in the art of metallurgy, assembly/disassembly and metal fabrication techniques and from what I see in this piece is that it is completely original as the day it was assembled by the swordsmith with the exception of the kissaki being reshaped and has not been altered since it was recovered from the battlefield with the exception of the tsukamaki being replaced.

I will answer all the questions that I can about this blade but please be aware that as this is the only verifiable left handed Samurai sword I can find anywhere in the world, the price tag is exceptionally high at $3.6M Canadian but believe that because it actually proves that the left handed Samurai is not a myth, the value is probably closer to priceless. I am honoured to be the guardian of this treasure for the time being.

Left Handed Samurai Bloodsword

I have stumbled upon what may well be a Japanese National Treasure and would like to keep my identity and therefore my whereabouts confidential. The intent of this blog is to get information about this item into the information stream and what better way than on the Information Highway?? Please bear with me as this is my first attempt at a blog so it may not be what some of you are used to seeing.

To start with I would like to give you an idea of how I think and therefore a bit of an insight to my character so that you will realize that what I say, is what I believe the truth to be - or at least my perception of it so I will paste a photo of a model I created several years ago that represents "The Simple Truth" - as I see it of course because only I can see my perceptions.

Truth is represented by the center disc. Your perception is the inner ring. All other perceptions are the outer ring. The wire is a thread of truth that our perceptions are based on. The gold spheres that keep the parts separated are similarities in perceptions. The "C" frame represents the universe that supports truth and all perceptions of it.

The sum of all these parts is: "Chaos" This model and description are copyright.

The Discovery

It was listed on the Firearms Canada website as a “battle ready” Samurai sword with a couple of very fuzzy pictures that did not show much except that the blade was folded metal. Being a curious sort, especially when it comes to Japanese culture, I requested the owner take some more detailed photos which he did and although still skeptical, I emailed him back with an offer which he did not accept but instead said he would hold it for me at the asking price for two weeks so I would be able to see it before committing to the purchase.

My first impression was that it was not what I thought. The handle was huge, the lacquer on the saya seemed a bit gaudy but there was something about it that literally begged me to draw the blade. At this point the owner (not the original owner – this fellow had purchased it at a flea market or some other type of show) became quite nervous and said that it scared him. Once I had withdrawn the blade, I could see why it would frighten someone. It was very stout and about three eighths of an inch thick and held its’ size, except for a very slight taper in the width and thickness, right to the tip yet was extremely well balanced. I could see the nervousness on my hosts’ face so replaced the blade without further adieu and said I would take it even though I was not convinced I was doing the right thing. I almost felt that I was letting myself be taken advantage of by my own ego but shrugged it off, wrapped up the sword in some packing wrap and trudged on back to my truck with it in tow.

To be continued: