A Super 375 Year old Ancestral Sword by Sagami no Kami Fujiwara Kunitsuna. Mounted for Use in WW2 By a Japanese Officer of Samurai Ancestry, Fitted in Shingunto Mounts With Tsuda Clan Mon in Silver on the Imperial Menuki

A Beautiful Shinto katana with a very fine blade with a very flamboyant temper that shows the skill of the smiths from the Echizen School. Nice curvature, combined with the healthy width create a wonderful shape for an very nice example of a finest Shinto piece. Two hole mekugi ana nakago with nice patina. Kunitsuna was one of the smiths that worked in the Echizen Shimosaka mon.

Kanbun goro 1600's
Katana signed " Sagami no Kami Fujiwara Kunitsuna. on the omote
Echizen Ju on the ura
(1st kunitsuna from around 1650) Hawleys KUN 1604. A member of the Shimosaka school.

He was called Tahyoeinojo and he worked during the Kanbun era.

One of the more noted Tsuda clan samurai commanders, and head of the Sohei warrior monks of the Tsuda clan, was Tsuda Kazunaga (津田算長)
Kazunaga TSUDA (1499 - January 22 or 23, 1568) was a busho (Japanese military commander) in the Sengoku period. Kenmotsu TSUDA. Kazunaga SUGINOBO. He had a younger brother Taekazu TSUDA, and his children included Kazumasa TSUDA, Shozan SUGINOBO and Arinao TSUDA.

He claimed to be a descendant of Kusunoki clan founded by Masanobu TSUDA. He was a lord of Hanzaki-jo Castle in Kii Province. He was the head of sohei (warrior monks) in Negoro-ji Temple. He was the founder of 'Tsuda-ryu hojutsu' (gunnery of Tsuda school).

He travelled to Tanegashima Island and bought a Tanegashima rifle from the feudal lord Tokitaka TANEGASHIMA, and made Seiemon SHIBATSUJI, a craftsman, to reproduce the rifle (teppo). Because Kazunaga introduced gunnery to Kansai region, Kii Province, typically Sakai City, became a place of significant production of guns.

The sword has been untouched since it was taken as a war trophy in 1945, and the traditional, full, type 94 metal mount's saya was originally covered in a leather combat cover, but the corrosion under on the steel has lifted it off in many parts, probably due to the extreme humidity in the jungles of Burma.

The tsuka and ito samegawa and all the mounts are good, and matching numbered and stamped 45, with one of the menuki bearing a silver clan mon of the samurai Tsuda clan, a vassal clan of the Oda clan.

The signed blade, by Echizen Ju Sagami no Kami Fujiwara Kunitsuna, circa 1650 of the Shimosaka School of smiths now mid re-polishing. it will return and be photographed again once much improved

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Code: 24379