This sword appears to be of the mihara school but must be verified. A beautiful O-suriage tachi this sword from the late koto era. possibly even as early as Nambokucho period boasts of classic workmanship. The hada has a dense ko-itame with masame and whitish jigane. The hamon is of sugu-ha mixed with ko-midare,ashi, inazuma,kinsuji and sunagashi which layers the length of the hamon. The sugata of the sword still retains the classic tachi curvature and one can imagine its original majestic shape still intact. Their appears to be the remnants of 3 mekugiana.

“ The Ko-Mihara school was founded by Masaie during the Kamakura period FROM TOKUJI (1306 TO SHO-CHU 1334 AD. BLADES OF THE EARLY KO-MIHARA SCHOOL ARE FOR THE MOST PART “O-SURIAGE”. THIS IS DUE TO THERE GREAT LENGTH THAT GAVE THE MOUNTED WARRIOR A DISTINCT ADVANTAGE. MASAIE AND MASAMITSU WERE succeeded by, Masahiro during the Nambokucho period. Works by Ko-Mihara have strong Yamato influence, AND OCCASIONALLY BIZEN INFLUENCE. IT IS THOUGHT THAT MASAIE SPENT SOME TIME STUDYING With THE MASTERS OF BIZEN, ON HIS WAY TO BINGO (BINGO PROVINCE IS SYNONYMOUS WITH THE MIHARA SCHOOL). Masaie’s MOST PROLIFIC PERIOD is thought to be THE Kem-mu era (1334). It is very rare to see any works from Masaie or Masahiro, and are only a few that are dated. All of the MAIN LINE MIHARA smiths signed with Masa; (Masakiyo, Masamitsu, Masanobu). IN ADDITION TO THE MAIN LINE there was THE “HOKKE ICHIJO”, AND SHIMBO MIHARA GROUPS. DURING THE later Nambokucho period several additional mihara groups, SUCH AS ASHIDA, TOMO, KINASHI, SHIMBO HOKKE, AND KAI. these later groups also have yamato influence. ”

The sword comes in a beautiful old Japanese shirasaya of honoki with a copper fluted habaki.

We Guarantee that this fine sword will pass this up coming shinsa in august, adding to the value of the blade no matter what the age.  As the quality is very good we feel that this is a great candidate. We will be submitting swords for clients so if interested let us know.