A Beautiful Shinto Samurai Tanto, Circa 1670, With Beautiful Hamon Blade, & Shakudo and Pure Gold Embellished Koshirae

with a very attractive tsuba with gold, and a gold flake lacquered saya set with carved buffalo horn fittings. fitted with a delightful utility knife, a kozuka of patinated copper with gold crabs. the fushigashira are decorated with deep relief figure of an armoured samurai bowman, and the menuki are of prancing ponies beneath pale blue-green silk binding.

The blade form is very scarce indeed in that it has a completely flat mune, and an active gunome regular pattern hamon. The blade hamon is stunning. All other features of this beautiful tanto are in superb condition. Single hand punched mekugi ana on the short tang. Shakudo is a billon of gold and copper (typically 4-10% gold, 96-90% copper) which can be treated to form an indigo/black patina resembling lacquer. Unpatinated shakudo Visually resembles bronze; the dark color is induced by applying and heating rokusho, a special patination formula.

Shakudo Was historically used in Japan to construct or decorate katana fittings such as tsuba, menuki, and kozuka; as well as other small ornaments. When it was introduced to the West in the mid-19th century, it was thought to be previously unknown outside Asia, but recent studies have suggested close similarities to certain decorative alloys used in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

We show for our display purposes only a Chinese Ching dynasty period archaic jade disc stand for a Late Ming dynasty carved jade disc. It has been adapted by a late tanto collector in order to display Japanese tanto, and the effect is stunning

The blade is very beautiful with just a minuscule edge nick about 1mm

Code: 23914