A Stunning Shinto Period O-Tanto Signed Sukemune, Around 400 Years old. Now Fully Museum Grade Restored By Our World Class Artisans Shown For Sale Now As A Representation of the Skill of Our Artisans.

A super Japanese o-tanto with a most impressive blade and fine fittings of gold and shakudo on a nanako ground. Fine, deep horizontally ribbed lacquer saya with fabulous patina. It also has a beautiful pair of silver menuki of small animals that are wrapped under the new, traditional, Japanese gold silk Ito. The fittings are decorated in gold depicting a cat with two tails, called Nekomata , and a pair of leaping hares. One of the most famous accounts of nekomata is the 1708 Yamato Kaiiki (大和怪異記; Mysterious Stories from Japan) story The Nekomata Fire (猫股の火) which tells the tale of a samurai whose house is taken over by a poltergeist-like haunting that is only ended when the family cat is killed and revealed to have two tails. This story was later adapted by Mizuki Shigeru for his comic Nekomata.

This version of the nekomata has completely taken over the Kamakura period beliefs, and it is almost impossible to find a modern depiction of nekomata that does not show the split-tailed monster.

Signed, early Shinto Japanese tanto with a most impressive blade and fine fittings of gold and shakudo on a nanako ground.

Signed zenkoji ju ani sukemune ‘Kiku. Student of Tsuda Sukehiro (SUK130). AKA "Kojuro Sukemune".
It has a very beautiful blade now traditionally stone re-polished, that now looks as stunning as it once was. The blade had been left unattended without care for over a century and looked absolutely appalling, as you can see in the ‘before restoration’ photos. But now it looks as good as it did when it was new.

The blade is engraved with a carved horimono of a Buddhist ancient ken straight sword with the vajra, still bearing traces of the original blood red lacquer. A vajra is a ritual weapon symbolizing the properties of a diamond (indestructibility) and a thunderbolt (irresistible force). The vajra is a type of club with a ribbed spherical head. ... According to the Indian mythology, vajra is considered as one of the most powerful weapons in the universe.
We show some photos of it as it was prior to restoration, so our online viewers can see just how skilled our professional museum grade artisans abilities are, to restore a fabulous, early samurai sword, back to how it once looked several hundred years ago. The original Edo period saya and ribbed lacquer is totally original and its fine condition needed no attention or restoration, it just has a very few light natural age marks.

Code: 23681