{"product_id":"katana92","title":"Antique Japanese Muromachi Katana Sword with Suriage Nakago, Ishime Lacquer Saya and Inome-Pierced Horn Kojiri","description":"\u003csection class=\"product\"\u003e\u003cheader\u003e\u003c\/header\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"specs\"\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSignature (Mei):\u003c\/strong\u003e Mumei (\u003cspan lang=\"ja\"\u003e無銘\u003c\/span\u003e) — unsigned\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePeriod:\u003c\/strong\u003e Kotō — Muromachi period (15th–16th century)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAttribution:\u003c\/strong\u003e No shinsa paper — offered without a smith or school attribution\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eRegistration (Tōroku-shō):\u003c\/strong\u003e Shizuoka No. 14601, issued 11 September 1956\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMounting:\u003c\/strong\u003e Full katana koshirae — textured black lacquer saya, iron sukashi tsuba with brass fukurin, iroe menuki\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBlade Length (Nagasa):\u003c\/strong\u003e 63.6 cm (2 shaku 1 sun 0 bu)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCurvature (Sori):\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.2 cm (4 bu) — shallow, compact\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMekugi-ana:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eShape:\u003c\/strong\u003e Shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, chū-kissaki\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNakago:\u003c\/strong\u003e Suriage, kiri-jiri, deep dark patina\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eJihada:\u003c\/strong\u003e Tight ko-itame, dark and quiet under the polish\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHamon:\u003c\/strong\u003e Regular gunome on a straight base — evenly spaced rounded peaks in nioi-deki\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBōshi:\u003c\/strong\u003e Sugu with ko-maru kaeri\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHabaki:\u003c\/strong\u003e Single-piece copper-alloy habaki, plain\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis unsigned \u003cstrong\u003eKatana\u003c\/strong\u003e is a \u003cstrong\u003eKotō\u003c\/strong\u003e blade of the \u003cstrong\u003eMuromachi period\u003c\/strong\u003e, measuring \u003cstrong\u003e63.6 cm\u003c\/strong\u003e with a shallow \u003cstrong\u003e1.2 cm\u003c\/strong\u003e sori — a compact, quick-handling sword with the balance of a weapon meant to be worn and drawn rather than admired from a stand. Five centuries on it survives complete in its \u003cstrong\u003ekoshirae\u003c\/strong\u003e, in polish, with its hamon reading clearly along the full length of the edge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe blade is \u003cem\u003eshinogi-zukuri\u003c\/em\u003e with \u003cem\u003eiori-mune\u003c\/em\u003e and a well-proportioned \u003cem\u003echū-kissaki\u003c\/em\u003e. The \u003cem\u003ejihada\u003c\/em\u003e is a tight, densely worked \u003cem\u003eko-itame\u003c\/em\u003e, the \u003cem\u003eji\u003c\/em\u003e dark and even under the polish, with a crisp \u003cem\u003eshinogi\u003c\/em\u003e line running straight to the yokote. The geometry is clean and the blade retains healthy thickness through the monouchi — no thinning, no waviness, nothing that says a tired sword.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003ehamon\u003c\/em\u003e is the feature that carries this piece: a \u003cstrong\u003eregular gunome\u003c\/strong\u003e of small, evenly spaced rounded peaks marching along a straight base from \u003cem\u003ekoshimoto\u003c\/em\u003e to \u003cem\u003eyokote\u003c\/em\u003e. The rhythm is remarkably consistent — peak after peak at almost metronomic spacing, the kind of controlled quenching that only comes from a smith who had done it a thousand times. It is a \u003cem\u003enioi-deki\u003c\/em\u003e temper with a tight, bright \u003cem\u003enioiguchi\u003c\/em\u003e that stays legible along the whole edge. At the point the \u003cem\u003ebōshi\u003c\/em\u003e runs \u003cem\u003esugu\u003c\/em\u003e and turns back in a neat \u003cem\u003eko-maru\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003enakago\u003c\/em\u003e is \u003cstrong\u003esuriage\u003c\/strong\u003e — shortened at some point in the sword's working life, as Muromachi blades routinely were as fashions of wear changed — ending in a squared \u003cem\u003ekiri-jiri\u003c\/em\u003e, with two \u003cem\u003emekugi-ana\u003c\/em\u003e recording successive mountings and a deep, dry black-brown patina. It is \u003cem\u003emumei\u003c\/em\u003e: whatever signature the original tang carried went with the steel that was removed, the ordinary fate of a great many working blades. No attribution paper accompanies the sword, which makes it a straightforward \u003cstrong\u003eshinsa candidate\u003c\/strong\u003e — a healthy Kotō blade in polish, with a characterful hamon and an undamaged tang, is exactly the sort of piece the NBTHK examines readily.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"koshirae\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eKoshirae Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe sword is complete in its \u003cstrong\u003ekoshirae\u003c\/strong\u003e, and the fittings have real character. The \u003cem\u003esaya\u003c\/em\u003e is black lacquer over a granular \u003cem\u003eishime\u003c\/em\u003e-textured ground, giving a matte, stone-like surface rather than the usual mirror gloss — a finish that hides handling and reads as quietly expensive in the hand. It is bound with a broad braided \u003cem\u003esageo\u003c\/em\u003e in olive and indigo.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003esaya\u003c\/em\u003e terminates in a shaped dark horn \u003cstrong\u003ekojiri\u003c\/strong\u003e carved with a raised profile and pierced with an \u003cem\u003einome\u003c\/em\u003e — the heart-shaped \"boar's eye\" motif that runs through Japanese armour and architecture as a protective device. It is a small detail, and the kind that separates a mounting made for someone from a mounting made for stock.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003etsuba\u003c\/strong\u003e is a round iron plate cut in bold \u003cem\u003eji-sukashi\u003c\/em\u003e openwork, with broad lobed leaf forms sweeping around the \u003cem\u003eseppa-dai\u003c\/em\u003e and both \u003cem\u003ehitsu-ana\u003c\/em\u003e left open. The plate is fitted with a \u003cstrong\u003ebrass fukurin\u003c\/strong\u003e — a soft-metal rim cover wrapped around the edge — which frames the dark iron in a warm gold line and lifts the whole mounting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003etsuka\u003c\/strong\u003e is wrapped in black \u003cem\u003eito\u003c\/em\u003e in \u003cem\u003ehineri-maki\u003c\/em\u003e over \u003cem\u003esame\u003c\/em\u003e, with the ray skin cut in a lobed panel where it shows beneath the rounded dark-alloy \u003cem\u003ekashira\u003c\/em\u003e. The \u003cem\u003emenuki\u003c\/em\u003e are the highlight: figural work in \u003cstrong\u003eshakudō with gold and copper iroe\u003c\/strong\u003e, mythical beasts modelled in high relief with gilt manes and copper accents, still bright in the recesses where centuries of palms could not reach. The blade is seated in a plain single-piece copper-alloy \u003cem\u003ehabaki\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"smith-background\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReading an Unsigned Blade\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA \u003cem\u003emumei\u003c\/em\u003e blade is not a lesser blade. Shortening was routine in Japan: as fashions of wear changed and long tachi were cut down for use as katana thrust edge-up through the obi, the portion of the tang carrying the signature was simply removed. A shortened, unsigned tang tells you the sword was carried, remounted and kept in service — the opposite of a piece that sat untouched in a storehouse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat the sword itself says is more useful than what the tang doesn't. The reading points here are the \u003cem\u003esugata\u003c\/em\u003e — 63.6 cm with only 1.2 cm of curvature and a modest chū-kissaki, a compact and practical profile — the tight ko-itame steel, and above all the \u003cstrong\u003eregular gunome\u003c\/strong\u003e, a temper that speaks to disciplined, repeatable heat treatment rather than improvisation. Taken together they place the blade in the \u003cstrong\u003eMuromachi period\u003c\/strong\u003e, the Kotō era's last and most productive century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat we do not claim is a smith or a school: no shinsa paper accompanies the blade, and the price reflects exactly that. For a collector this is the interesting position to be in. The blade is in polish, the hamon and jihada are legible, the tang is undamaged — the three things a \u003cem\u003eshinsa\u003c\/em\u003e panel needs in order to work. Submitting an unpapered Kotō blade of this health is one of the few moves in collecting where the upside is genuinely open-ended.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003csection id=\"school-history\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Muromachi Katana: Kotō Sword-Making at Full Capacity\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Muromachi period closed the \u003cstrong\u003eKotō\u003c\/strong\u003e era, and it changed what a Japanese sword was for. Until then the long sword was the \u003cem\u003etachi\u003c\/em\u003e, slung edge-down from the belt of a mounted man. As warfare moved to massed infantry, the \u003cem\u003ekatana\u003c\/em\u003e took over: worn edge-up through the sash, shorter, with the curvature pulled shallower so the sword could be drawn and cut in a single movement. This blade sits squarely in that shift — 63.6 cm and 1.2 cm of sori is a sword built around the draw.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003eŌnin War\u003c\/strong\u003e of 1467 broke the country open, and the century of Sengoku warfare that followed created a demand for blades that Japan had never seen before. Every province with iron sand and charcoal put its smiths to work. Some of that output was \u003cem\u003ekazu-uchimono\u003c\/em\u003e — bundle-forged swords made fast and cheap for foot soldiers — but the same period also produced enormous quantities of properly made blades for men who intended to survive using them, and it is those that have come down to us in polish five centuries later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe temper on this sword belongs to that world. A \u003cstrong\u003eregular gunome\u003c\/strong\u003e is not decorative work; it is the mark of a smith with a settled, repeatable method, laying the clay the same way down the whole length of the blade because that is what produced a reliable edge. Muromachi steel of this kind was made to be used, and the fact that it is still healthy, still cutting-thick through the monouchi and still legible in the ji is the whole argument for buying Kotō.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat is offered here is an honest, complete \u003cstrong\u003eKotō katana of the Muromachi period\u003c\/strong\u003e — a healthy shortened blade in polish with a bright regular gunome, dressed in a full koshirae with an ishime-lacquer saya, a brass-rimmed iron sukashi guard and finely worked iroe menuki, and registered in Japan since 1956.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e\n\u003c\/section\u003e","brand":"Tokyo Nihonto","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57089787461956,"sku":"KATANA92","price":3500.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0753\/4080\/8516\/files\/Katana92_220K_0038_GenerativeFill3.jpg?v=1786349192","url":"https:\/\/tokyo-nihonto.com\/products\/katana92","provider":"Tokyo Nihonto","version":"1.0","type":"link"}