HIGH GRADE SHOWA-TO**WW2 Period Japanese Katana Sword Blade Seki Gunto Smith Signed ‘NOSHU SEKI JU MATSUDA KANE TAKA SAKU’ In Protective Wood Shira Saya Resting Mounts & Expert Assessment. Sn 22019 Sword

**HIGH GRADE SHOWA-TO**WW2 Period Japanese Katana Sword Blade Seki Gunto Smith Signed ‘NOSHU SEKI JU MATSUDA KANE TAKA SAKU’ In Protective Wood Shira Saya Resting Mounts & Expert Assessment. Sn 22019 22019

This is Katana blade has been assessed by UK Japanese sword expert Bill Tagg. A copy of his hand written assessment notes accompany this piece. His notes state “A Showa period katana blade in 20th century resting mounts (shira saya). Probably a war time sword in shin gunto mounts, they must have been very badly damaged with war service and water saturation from the look of the once heavily rusted tang. Put into shira saya to protect the blade which has a just visible signature of a seki gunto smith ‘NOSHU SEKI JU MATSUDA KANE TAKA SAKU’, real name is ‘MATSUDA TAKE ICHI’ born 1911 a student of ‘KOJIMA KANE MICHI’ worked as a gunto smith does not seem to have entered any competitions. No mention of him making gendaito?. There is no sign of either Showa or seki arsenal stamps? Maybe pre 1939 manufacture. Have to class it as High Grade Showa-To because of its condition. Out of polish & heavily scratched & stained. Needs professional polish to reveal workmanship (see fuller & Grgory 1st book for 3 oshigata of this man pages 37 & 38 also Marcus Sesko book on sword smiths page 274. A big strong blade with dramatic hamon, would look good with re-polish”. In his illustrations of the blade he adds “cutting edge is 67.5 cms, total length is 90.5 cms. He also translates the tang signature & describes other blade and tang characteristics and dimensions which can be seen in the images. The price for this Katana with expert assessment includes UK delivery. Sn 22019

£995