A True Samurai Daisho, These swords are mounted in an Oxen theme of very nice quality. The Motif is of oxen and are in pristine condition finished in shakudo, gold and copper with a fine nanako. The kodzuka is of oxen also with gold back finish. The saya are black with a brown sageo. The tsuba are nanban style but not your ordinary type. This daisho set are thick with a rounded rim that sings when tapped gently. There are dragons and a hidden Christian theme of crucifix’. The menuki appear to be Sakura of gold and shakudo finish. The ito is black and the same (rayskin have a beautiful patina). The habaki are an original matching silver foil with quite a patina finished in a rain storm pattern, just splendid.

The katana is ubu, and loaded with activity. Within the Sugu-ha, gunome can be seen, there is hotsure, sunagahi and kinsugi. The hada is a dense and beautiful itame and mokume mix with some masame. It is signed katsumitsu and the signature looks good. The wakazashi an O-suriage piece, this sword has a hamon based in sugu-ha. The hada appears to be an itame nagare with ji-nie. The blades are both from the koto period.

The wearing of daishō was limited to the samurai class, and became a symbol or badge of their rank. Daishō may have became popular around the end of the Muromachi(1336 to 1573)as several early examples date from the late sixteenth century an edict in 1629 defining the duties of a samurai required the wearing of a daishō when on official duty. During the meiji period, an edict was passed in 1871 abolishing the requirement of the wearing of daishō by samurai, and in 1876 the wearing of swords in public by most of Japan’s population was banned; this ended the use of the daishō as the symbol of the samurai, and the samurai class was abolished soon after the sword ban.