Katana
JB-1012 Katana
Koa Isshin Mantetsu
Spring 1943 Koa Isshin Mantetsu (serial HI 624) — among the last of the recorded 1943 Mantetsu blades, with the muji-hada and suguha hamon that define the type.
JB-1013
£1,000
Mumei kotō-period blade with a clean gunome hamon — remounted at least three times across centuries of use, now presented as a bare blade.
- Period
- Kotō (pre-1596)
- Mounting
- Bare blade — no current mounting.
- Hamon
- Gunome — clean and well-defined despite age.
- Condition
- Mumei nakago. Saya evidence of at least three historic remounts. A few nicks in the edge consistent with combat use.
A kotō-period blade with the patina of a working sword. The nakago is mumei — typical for the era, where blades older than a smith’s reputation often passed through generations of owners without a recorded attribution, or had their original signatures lost to subsequent suriage shortenings. What survives instead is the blade’s history of service: three separate remounts across centuries, each one reflecting a new owner re-fitting an inherited weapon for the koshirae conventions of their day.
The hamon is gunome — irregular, clean, well-defined for a blade of this age — and the edge carries a few nicks consistent with combat use rather than display. Currently presented as a bare blade. The right project for a collector who wants a genuine kotō piece to commission a shirasaya for, and (if desired) a fresh polish and shinsa submission to lift an attribution from the work itself.
Age-verified delivery · UK / EU / international · Insured to declared value.
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