Listing a rare and important gendaito by Shibata Ka. He was a very special smith, being in a unique position of being able to study masterworks at leisure within his own collection and was subsequently able to reproduce the jigane of Kamakura jidai works to a remarkable degree. Shibata Ka has been my favorite gendai smith for a long time, and I would have put him (in my own opinion) as the overall best until I was able to study some very exceptional blades by Tsukamoto Okimasa.
This sword is an exceptional piece done in So-den Bizen with a brilliant choji/gonome-midare hamon having kinsuji running in parallel strands throughout. There is much depth of activity, with ashi, yo, etc descending to the edge. The sword is 68cm in length with a 31mm moto-haba and 6.5mm kasane. Due to my interest in this smith, I have made a point to study his work whenever possible. This is now the 8th example I have been able to study, along with 3 other katana and 4 tanto. The sword is an overall very good state of polish. It is in shirasaya with koppamaki and has a solid silver habaki. It has a patriotic dedication on the nakago along with the name of the individual who ordered this sword. It is dated a lucky day in the 8th month of 1942.
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