Dear Customer

I spent two hours today taking photographs of my silver Tachi. This sword is much more beautiful than I remembered and much more beautiful than the poor quality photographs that I previously had posted on my websites.

First, let me discuss the blade itself.

The blade is a very old one and therefore it has been cut down from a much longer sword, originally made in the Nambokucho era; around the year 1350. It has a nice curvature, has a wonderful dark colored skin or grain or Jigane to it, very typical of a very old sword, which is made from river sand, and it has a really nice temper line. The temper line, is what we Japanese sword collectors call, Choji, and is very active and beautiful, the kind of temper line that advanced samurai sword collectors love.

It is a medium size Choji Temper Line, as one would expect from a very old sword. There is a lot of activity there to be seen, lots of flying temper, lots of "islands", lots of "jewels". This all is very indicative of a Nambokucho samurai sword or samurai Tachi. The blade itself is very clean, but it would look much much better with a brand-new and complete and full polish. I think it should be put into full polish before it leaves Japan so that upon arrival at your place it will look extremely beautiful.

The next thing I wish to discuss is the gold lacquer work on the scabbard. This gold lacquer work is very old and of very high quality. Not only does it use gold lacquer everywhere but, on top of this, it has what is called "Kiri-gane", which is a rare technique where the master lacquer worker takes a thin sheet of pure gold and uses them to make the leaves on the design of the scabbard. Usually, these thin sheets of gold, over the years, pull off or fall off, but these have not -- I searched everywhere and it seems that they are 100% perfect. Of course, there are several areas of scuffing and opening where the peach lacquer has separated by 1 mm but this is to be expected, but this only shows that the scabbard itself is extremely old. I think that the gold lacquer on the scabbard and the scabbard itself dates from the Muromachi or Momoyama era, and therefore dates from around the year 1550.

Now I wish to discuss the solid silver mounts, or what we called the Koshirae. Since I have been handling these now for a couple hours I can say with confidence that they are very beautifully made and of a very high-quality. They are also very heavy, which shows that they are of high quality, since the daimyo family commissioning these mounds would only give a large quantity of expensive silver to someone who is a master at working with this silver and this gold. They have the family crest or family Mon shown in several different places. This means that undoubtably this Tachi was owned by a very important Daimyo family. To show their wealth and power they have ordered up an entire Tachi made out of solid silver. The handle is a complete sheet of heavy silver over wood and the sword guard is made of nine separate pieces of solid silver all matching and all beautifully made with incredible precision. Each washer has to be put onto the tang of the sword, in the exact correct order, or it will not go on. The accuracy and delicate workmanship is incredible.

For example instead of using the traditional ray skin on the handle with a silk wrapping this Daimyo family has made the entire handle from Silver and the tiny "dots" called Nanako or "Fish Roe" are made one at a time, by hand, so carefully and so precisely, that they exactly imitate the older technique of using the Ray skin under the handle. They are so well made it seem as if it they were created by some mechanical process, but this is not so --- they were made by specialists who make them so carefully and skillfully that they seem as if they had been made by a machine, but they are made by hand, each one individually.

The peg that holds the handle on is skillfully hidden inside the handle, underneath the family crests. These two pieces screwed together within to the handle but, as is the case of a very old sword, they use what we call "Gyaku Neji" meaning that they screw in backwards from the traditional Western method. When the Japanese learned how to do this in the 16th century from the Portuguese they somehow got the system backwards so on old Japanese antiques you see the screw and method going in opposite direction. As it does, indeed, on this Daimyo Silver Tachi.

I think the mounts, meaning the silver parts on the outside are from the year 1700. This means that the family took a very valuable early family gold lacquer scabbard, and had it remounted with their own family crests in about the year 1700. Note that all the family crests are perfectly matching. Note that all the silver parts are there, and not a single one is missing as I see in 95% of these cases. Nearly always something is missing, but in this case not a single piece is missing anywhere. Even the seven small rectangles that go above the Tachi hangers in the middle of the sword are all there. Even the two silver end caps that go on the end of the leather hangers in the middle of the sword are still there, which is quite amazing as they almost always fall off.

The only thing that this Tachi needs now is a Tachi cord, made of silk or leather, tied onto the silver hangers in the middle of the scabbard. I would also advise a full polish because this cannot be done overseas --- Japanese are masters of this and the temper line and the grain of the sword will pop up and be easy to see and be quite beautiful. I personally have left the sword in the exact same condition that I found it in and it is very pleasurable and enjoyable on display just as it is, what by bringing it into Japan and taking it out of Japan has become more difficult in these last 20 years so I would advise either one or both of the small adjustments that I recommend in this letter to be done before I send it out of the country again for a final time.

In summary, this Tachi is less expensive than the other one, because it is unsigned for the blade and also unsigned for the Koshirae. I find this Tachi to be extremely well-made, but a very elegant and gentle sword from the Koto period, and this is why I kept it back for myself for my collection and have not offered it for sale actively, previously. The mounts are beautifully made, and have a wonderful color, they have a wonderful fit and finish to them, and most amazing of all, every single part and piece is still there as it was in the original which is at least 300 years old.

The Tachi can be displayed on a plain wooden stand, or on a much more showy gold lacquer stand, if you can find one, as they are quite rare. It can also easily be displayed by putting it into the silk middle area belt of a Japanese samurai suit of armor. This is how many Japanese collectors display their samurai swords and also their Daimyo Tachi.

Signed,

James R. Miller

Tokyo Japan

June 2010