Japanese Samurai Era Katana, 28 Inch Blade
This item is listed for historical interest only. It was listed on our site previously but has been sold and is no longer available for purchase.
Sold for: $995.00

Original era manufacture. Typical Samurai style katana length sword, with a hand forged blade, pierced iron tsuba and a nicely decorated gold leaf scabbard.The blade measures 28 inches in length from the tip to the top of the tsuba, traces of the original tempering can be seen on both sides of the blade. The tip is undamaged, there is a single, very small nick in the cutting edge, and a slightly larger nick, both are quite tiny. There is some age darkening to the surface on both sides but no corrosion pitting. When the handle is removed, three individual mounting holes can be seen in addition to a line of kanji on one side near the base of the tang. The extra holes indicate that the sword has been in use for many years, being placed in a variety of mounts requiring the addition of other peg holes.Silver covered Habaki with a rain-style decoration, decorative pierced iron tusuba in good order.The grip retains only its fish skin covering with an easily removed wooden plug. No cloth wrapping or menuki decoration came with this sword at the time of our purchase.The wooden scabbard displays a very nice lacquered decoration interspersed with gold leaf. The metal fittings are also of a nice quality with gold leaf trim. Signed tang as pictured.