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An Incredibly Ancient Samurai Katana, Signed Partially Sagami Kuniyasu, Likely 14th Century, Nambokochu Era. With Its Original Edo Shirasaya Bearing A Sayagaki. An Incredibly Ancient Samurai Katana, Signed Partially Sagami Kuniyasu, Likely 14th Century, Nambokochu Era. With Its Original Edo Shirasaya Bearing A Sayagaki. An Incredibly Ancient Samurai Katana, Signed Partially Sagami Kuniyasu, Likely 14th Century, Nambokochu Era. With Its Original Edo Shirasaya Bearing A Sayagaki. An Incredibly Ancient Samurai Katana, Signed Partially Sagami Kuniyasu, Likely 14th Century, Nambokochu Era. With Its Original Edo Shirasaya Bearing A Sayagaki. An Incredibly Ancient Samurai Katana, Signed Partially Sagami Kuniyasu, Likely 14th Century, Nambokochu Era. With Its Original Edo Shirasaya Bearing A Sayagaki. An Incredibly Ancient Samurai Katana, Signed Partially Sagami Kuniyasu, Likely 14th Century, Nambokochu Era. With Its Original Edo Shirasaya Bearing A Sayagaki. An Incredibly Ancient Samurai Katana, Signed Partially Sagami Kuniyasu, Likely 14th Century, Nambokochu Era. With Its Original Edo Shirasaya Bearing A Sayagaki. An Incredibly Ancient Samurai Katana, Signed Partially Sagami Kuniyasu, Likely 14th Century, Nambokochu Era. With Its Original Edo Shirasaya Bearing A Sayagaki. An Incredibly Ancient Samurai Katana, Signed Partially Sagami Kuniyasu, Likely 14th Century, Nambokochu Era. With Its Original Edo Shirasaya Bearing A Sayagaki. An Incredibly Ancient Samurai Katana, Signed Partially Sagami Kuniyasu, Likely 14th Century, Nambokochu Era. With Its Original Edo Shirasaya Bearing A Sayagaki.

An Incredibly Ancient Samurai Katana, Signed Partially Sagami Kuniyasu, Likely 14th Century, Nambokochu Era. With Its Original Edo Shirasaya Bearing A Sayagaki.

The sayagaki appraisal, infers that this sword was made by the third son of the master who taught the great Masamune, one of the greatest and certainly the most famous samurai sword smith who ever lived. The son who studied and was trained alongside Masamune, under his father and master’s tutelage. .

Complete with its original antique shirasaya storage mount that has an old sayagaki, an inscription to describe the sword, which translates to; "

"Shintougo Kunimitsu
had three children,
this sword was made by his eldest son, Kuniyasu.
It is unsigned."

Shintougo Kunimitsu, was the master who taught likely the world's greatest Japanese sword smith, the legendary Masamune, he was born in 1275 and died in 1339, at the age 64.

Although it translates as being technically unsigned, its likely meaning that it is signed, but technically unreadable, due to great age, and lack of fully readable kanji remaining. However, what is readable, are three important kanji, which has now been de-cyphered by our friend in Japan to;
Sagami ****yasu the now unreadable part of the smiths name would be ‘Kuni’, the first part of the smith’s name, to thus make the complete name of the smith as; Sagami Kuniyasu son of Kunimitsu

This sword we have been eagerly awaiting to arrive since we acquired it before lockdown, with its other companion pieces from the collection of samurai pieces numbering 53 swords, artefacts and armour.

Shintougo Kunimitsu the father of the man who is regarded as to have made this sword was the master of the Soshu-den tradition, and believed to have taught the great Masamune, Yukiimitsu and Norishige, three of the greatest swordsmiths in Japanese history. So if this is by the son of Kunimitsu he may well have studied alongside the greatest Japanese sword smiths who ever lived. Naturally that may well too much to hope for, and furthermore, just because a smith studies and learns his craft alongside the greatest master, Masamune it cannot always follow he is in the same skill class, but, it is intriguing to hope for the possibility as such, even if remote.

There are very few Masamune masterpieces surviving, and likely all are in great museum collections. However, if one were to be discovered and thus re-appear on the open market, it would likely sell today for millions, and who knows, even, possibly, tens of millions of pounds.

A Sayagaki is Japanese kanji script calligraphy, written to a sword's saya, primarily for identification and or information. It can be anything from just barely mentioning what blade that the shurasaya storage mount holds, to an elaborate expert opinion, such as a comment or appraisal of the blade in question. In other words, a sayagaki is an ‘opinion’ appraisal written at or around the time of the shirasayas making, in this case in the Edo period, of the blade the shirasaya contains, and it may or indeed may not, add value, or at least additional info to the sword. It would be based on its overall appearance, the style and form of the blade, an estimate of its age and by whom it may likely have been made. An entirely personal judgement and opinion, made at the time, and thus set down in script upon the shirasaya, for the benefit of the current owner of the blade, or, for those that may wish to study it in the future, to make their own opinion.

The nakago shows every aspect of ancient ageing one would expect to see on a blade of this great age

It has very good and beautiful all Edo period fittings, including including a pair of gold and shakudo fuchikashira and menuki, plus an early o-sukashi tetsu tsuba decorated with decoration of hammered pure gold.

It has a very beautiful ishime urushi lacquer saya with carved buffalo horn fittings, and very good black silk tsuka-Ito to the hilt.

The blade is bright and shows a very nice hamon when judged in the correct light. The blade bears no significant chips or nicks, which for a blade of this great age is excellent. The nakago is signed and partially readable, three kanji, read by our friend in Japan to;
Sagami ****yasu. Thus missing a small name part See Hawley's reference work, Kun1725

Code: 24403