Special features : Tadahiro the Second forged this katana. He was born
Heisakuro Hashimoto as a legitimate son of Tadayoshi the First.
Tadahiro was only19 years old when his father passed away in1632
but he was enough skillful to forge sword at that time. Tadahiro
designated the Omi-Daijo in 1641, aged 29 and continued not only
forging sword but also supervised many pupils until his death in 1693,
aged 80. He is known as a skillful swordsmith almost all works are
above the standard hizen-to. He had been forged sword for a long
period of time to leave the largest number of swords among the
swordsmiths of Hizen school. He was good at both of Suguha-hamon
and Choji-midare Hamon. Especially the beauty of jitetsu called
konuka-hada is appreciated as the best among the hizen-to. His
swords are ranked at the Owaza-mono because of the sharpness.
Even if the blade is suriage, the shape is nice and good looking and also
mice jigane which is typical 2nd generation Tadahiro.

Appraisal Quiz #34 (02.20.2009)

Who made this sword do you think ?

Hint:

Blade length : 54.2 cm or 21.33 inches.
Sori : 1.5 cm or 0.59 inches.
Mekugi: 1
Width at the hamachi : 2.86 cm or 1.12 inches.
Wide at the Kissaki : 2.11 cm or 0.83 inches.
Kasane : 0.52 cm or 0.20 inches.

Shape : This blade is wide Osuriage Wakizashi with good Sori and middle size Kissaki.
On the both sides of blade, there are Bou-hi.
Jitetsu : Itame hada grained with Jinie attach and Yubashiri appear.
Hamon : Niedeki Gunome midare and Chouji midare are mixed. In Ha, there are Ashi and Yo and Sunagashi and Niesuji.
Boushi is Hakikake, Midarekomi style.

Answer will be posted at next Appraisal Quiz.

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