A Bizen shin-shinto katana | Signed Bizen kuni Osafune junin Yokoyama Ise no Kami Sukehira | Edo period, dated Kansei junen nigatsu hi (A day in February 1798)

The Property of an English Collector

A Bizen shin-shinto katana

Signed Bizen kuni Osafune junin Yokoyama Ise no Kami Sukehira

Edo period, dated Kansei junen nigatsu hi (A day in February 1798)

Sugata [configuration]: Slender shinogi-zukuri, koshi-zori, iori-mune, ko-kissaki

Kitae [forging pattern]: Possibly ko-mokume hada

Hamon [tempering pattern]: Slightly undulating chu-suguha in nioi and nie-deki

Boshi [tip]: Omaru, kaeri

Nakago [tang]: Ubu, ha-agiri, kuri-jiri, with two mekugi-ana, signed Bizen kuni Osafune junin Yokoyama Ise no Kami Sukehira (made by Yokoyama Ise no kami Sukehira, a resident of Osafune in Bizen Province), and dated Kansei junen nigatsu hi (A day in February 1798)

Habaki [collar]: Silver 

Koshirae [mount]: The black lacquer koshirae decorated in gold, red and black hiramaki-e and takamaki-e, with a courtier beneath an autumn maple tree, nanako fuchi-kashira, the kogai inlaid in silver and gilt with daikon, iron tsuba 

Nagasa [length from kissaki to machi]: 66.2 cm., 26 in.

Saki-haba [width at the yokote]: 1.7 cm., ⅝ in. 

Moto-haba [width at the machi]: 2.6 cm., 1 in. 

The koshirae: 96.4 cm., 38 in.