C1700 – 1800 Japanese Late Edo Period Mino School Work Very Small Ko Wakizashi Possible Period Boy’s Coming Of Age Festival Sword With Ko-Gatana Side Knife, Scabbard, Carry Bag / Cover & Expert Assessment. Sn 23063 Sword

C1700 – 1800 Japanese Late Edo Period Mino School Work Very Small Ko Wakizashi Possible Period Boy’s Coming Of Age Festival Sword With Ko-Gatana Side Knife, Scabbard, Carry Bag / Cover & Expert Assessment. Sn 23063 - 23063

An original Japanese small Sword and scabbard. The sword has been assessed by UK Japanese sword expert Bill Tagg. A copy of his hand written notes and illustrations accompany the sword. In extracts from his notes he states “Ko-wakizashi ? Very small sword possibly made for boy’s festival coming of age ceremony, a scaled down katana unsigned looks mid to late Edo period 1700 to 1800. Looks like Mino influenced work shape of tang & what looks like gunome midare hamon (temperline) vaguely showing through the old finger rust & old buff marks needs a professional polish to see work. Fittings (mounts). Saya (scabbard) black lacquer with bright green speckled cloud decoration some old damage and end cap missing. Has ko-gatana (side knife) fitted in pocket blade is signed but unreadable with old rust. Kodjuka (hilt) shows chidori (small birds) flying under large waves signed ‘teru hide’ & kaikihan (seal) omori school style work (undercut waves) bit of wear to it. Tsuba is oval (brass) been gilt showing man with stick pointing at a rabbit with copper rim & one copper plug Hitso Ana nicely engraved circa 1800. Couple nice castellated seppas. Tsuka has old worn black ito over dirty fish skin wrap. Fuchi / Kashira (end caps) are copper been some gilding. Depicts Fish & Waves possibly same workshop as Kodjuka, worn. Menuki difficult to see looks like Motei with his sack in Shakudo & gilt nice quality. When new this would have looked a special sword. Worthy of restoration”. In his illustrations Bill describes the cutting edge as 31 cms & total length as 43 cms. He also describes & measures other blade characteristics which can be seen in the images. The price includes UK delivery. Sn 23059 (in Tanto box armoury)

£975.00