The next sword that I have information on is the National Treasure tachi by Iesuke. The Tamashima Shrine, Tamashima Mura, Matsuura Gun, of Saga Prefecture turned this sword into the
Karatsu Police, who in turn, gave it to the Occupational Forces on February 27th 1946.
This tachi is signed Bishû Osafune Iesuke / Ôei Ni-ju ichi nen shichi gatsû hi (made in February of 1414). It has a nagasa of 73.3 cm / 2 shaku 4 sun, 3 bu, and a sori
of 3.1 cm / 1 sun. This sword was designated Kokuhô on April 15th 1920. It was listed as the missing Kokuhô # 8 in the Yamanaka Newsletters.
This sword was put up for auction by the Robert E. Haynes, LTD Auction House in San Francisco (no longer in operation), in November of 1981. It was mentioned
that this sword had been turned over to the Occupational Forces, but no mention was made of it being considered “missing”. There was no estimated price range
given for this sword. But the ‘reserve price’ of $100,000 was not met. And thus it did not sell. Later the well known sword polisher Kajiwara Kotoken purchased
this sword, and returned it to the Shrine.
IMAGE LOST. Unfortunately some of the information on this page from Jim Kurrasch’s website has been lost. Please contact me if you have a Nanka Token Kai copy that I can re-construct it from or any images of the missing sword
The once Missing National Treasure tachi by Iesuke
