Reply #56: and some swords look like this (no fittings, just the blade)

[Lisa]

Some more info for Maine Mary -- as BigMcLargeHuge said, the real Japanese swords can be disassembled. Sometimes the blade appears on its own, with a very simple wooden handle and scabbard. This situation is called "shirasaya". You can see the end of the bamboo peg which holds the handle together, mentioned earlier, which can be removed ... the handle will then slide off so you can inspect the metal tang. Our family had an ancestral wakizashi (the shorter sword in a pair ... we weren't a samurai family so it was the only sword that our ancestors were allowed to carry, in the old days). You should also be able to disassemble a sword with the fancier fittings (such as one with silk wrappings etc. on the handle). I'm pretty sure that most (if not all) of the swords which might have been manufactured, or re-mounted, for use during WWII (with more European-style fittings) would have kept this feature. (The metal-tipped scabbard with the rings for attaching to the belt, which is in BigMcLargeHuge's photo, is an innovation copied from Europe ... some people went the whole hog and had a sabre-type handguard put on too, so unless you look at the blade, it's hard to tell that it IS a Japanese sword.)

The end of the bamboo peg should be visible through the wrappings. There is a small end and a larger one, and if you push on the small end with the end of a large paperclip -- or better yet, the end of a chopstick, whittled down a bit if necessary -- it should slide out. (Don't use pliers or a knife tip to force it out, in case it damages the handle. I once saw a dealer try to do this, and the guy also put his hands all over the blade, leaving corrosion marks for sure .... the steel is very sensitive to finger oils!)




Once you get the tang off, it will look something like this. You've already noticed the hibaki (the copper wrap-around bit at the base of the blade). Note the hole for the bamboo peg. This particular example doesn't have any of the information (artisan's stamp, etc.) which BigMcLargeHuge mentioned earlier, but you get the idea .... By the way, the little flower on that list of symbols is a cherry blossom, and signifies that a sword was made during the reign of the Emperor Showa (a.k.a. Hirohito) ... this includes wartime swords as well as ones made for decades after, because he did live for quite a long time!




More info on the chrysanthemum marking (post-Meiji) mentioned by BigMcLargeHuge, though the sword discussed is European-style and the stamp is on the ricasso (flat area at the base of some European blades):
http://hometown.aol.com/machood/meiji.html

Pic of a loose hibaki (it's nice to know that replacement ones are available -- this one's from a swordmaker in Wisconsin ... even though it probably should be copper and not bronze)




More info on Showa-era swords:
http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/showato.htm
http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/civilian.htm

p.s. more info on valuation -- don't be afraid to shop around and get various opinions. Ever since people in North America started to get turned onto Japanese swords ("nihonto", another search term to try out), there has been a lot of bad information dressed up with mysticism out there. I have seen entire Internet forums devoted to speculation about Japanese weaponry, and a lot of it is wishful thinking ... or worse, charlatans out to bilk unsuspecting owners and buyers. Our family got lucky and had our sword evaluated in return for lending it to a museum exhibit in Toronto a couple of decades ago. In the meantime, store the sword in a dry place (not too hot or cold, basically the same conditions enjoyed by your computer). And avoid touching the blade.

If it has been touched, wipe it with a clean lint-free cloth -- there are "sword maintenance kits" with special oils available at various antique/martial arts places, for example this company in Oregon. (Don't do what my grandfather did, and attempt to remove the rust himself by scrubbing with sandpaper and steel wool!)

http://www.japanese-swords.com/index.htm
http://www.bugei.com/