willrichtor
October 29th, 2009, 08:53 PM
I received my Bushido Masakage katana today, along with a sword oil/oilcloth kit with clamshell case for the cloth.
The Masakage came packaged in a handsome full colour cardboard box with the bushido branding on the top and sides. Inside it was supported by 5 C shaped pieces of foam. The katana was inside a black sword bag with white lining.
The first things you notice about the Masakage are the ito and the saya. The saya was advertised as brown "speckled" when in fact it is a gorgeous metal flake bronze, the sort of paint job you would see on a tricked out El Camino or Ranchero. The sageo and ito are weird. From a distance it just seems black, but up close, or under good lighting, it is a dark blue green, very deep and vivid, and paired very well with the saya. The combination seems very unique to me, and the ito colour isn't very common on it's own I don't think.
The koshirae are very nice. The star here is the tsuba, which is cast in a darkened copper or bronze tone and sparingly, tastefully detailed with silver and gold. There are better pictures of this tsuba as it is shown with the Tatsu model katana. It is half again as thick as the bamboo tsuba on the Musashi. It features, on one side, a tsunami rearing up over the roof of a house with a starry night sky and white capped mountain in the background, and on the other a same texture background with Masakage drawing his sword, the mon on his kimono highlighted in gold. Beautiful casting. The fuchi/kashira feature the same portrait of Masakage. The menuki are very interesting, a long tailed cloud blown across a crescent moon on one side, a full moon on the other. At least that's what they look like to me.
The ito is beautiful, the wrap is quite tight except for a bit of looseness in the finial. The same is thin but nice, with a couple of very large nodes on one side. It sparkles like pearls. The tsuka, like my other recent acquisitions from Ryumon and Musashi, is fitted tight enough to the nakago so as to discourage me from further disassembly. It is of a completely different shape than the slender musashi. It follows straight lines where the musashi is waisted, and even under the ito you can make out where the corners are beveled and faced rather than rounded. It is not at all uncomfortable, but I do prefer the feel of the Musashi.
The blade is both shorter and heavier, by a couple ounces, than the musashi. It's point of balance is 4 3/4" in front of the tsuba. This is a closer POB than the musashi, but the Masakage feels much blade heavier in the hand. I would not feel comfortable wielding it one handed, where with the Musashi, even though it is longer, I feel fine. The blade polish is more than acceptable for this price level, though not to the same degree that the Musashi shows. The hi is cut and polished smooth, and runs only 2/3 of the blade, with horimono seperating the hi from the nakago on either side. The horimono are nice, but not as cleanly cut(? stamped?) and an attempt to highlight them with charcoal proved that the depth of cut is uneven, becoming much shallower in the middle of the dragon design, and in the kanji on the other side. The wire brushed faux-hamon is... well, it's a wire brushed faux hamon. Or etched I guess. I don't care for it and wish it wasn't there(through tempered blades should look the part), but it is what it is and it doesn't detract too much from the overall aesthetic.It is very, very sharp.
Overall I would give this katana 4/5* The only things holding it back from 5* at this price are the faux hamon and axe handle tsuka profile.
The Masakage came packaged in a handsome full colour cardboard box with the bushido branding on the top and sides. Inside it was supported by 5 C shaped pieces of foam. The katana was inside a black sword bag with white lining.
The first things you notice about the Masakage are the ito and the saya. The saya was advertised as brown "speckled" when in fact it is a gorgeous metal flake bronze, the sort of paint job you would see on a tricked out El Camino or Ranchero. The sageo and ito are weird. From a distance it just seems black, but up close, or under good lighting, it is a dark blue green, very deep and vivid, and paired very well with the saya. The combination seems very unique to me, and the ito colour isn't very common on it's own I don't think.
The koshirae are very nice. The star here is the tsuba, which is cast in a darkened copper or bronze tone and sparingly, tastefully detailed with silver and gold. There are better pictures of this tsuba as it is shown with the Tatsu model katana. It is half again as thick as the bamboo tsuba on the Musashi. It features, on one side, a tsunami rearing up over the roof of a house with a starry night sky and white capped mountain in the background, and on the other a same texture background with Masakage drawing his sword, the mon on his kimono highlighted in gold. Beautiful casting. The fuchi/kashira feature the same portrait of Masakage. The menuki are very interesting, a long tailed cloud blown across a crescent moon on one side, a full moon on the other. At least that's what they look like to me.
The ito is beautiful, the wrap is quite tight except for a bit of looseness in the finial. The same is thin but nice, with a couple of very large nodes on one side. It sparkles like pearls. The tsuka, like my other recent acquisitions from Ryumon and Musashi, is fitted tight enough to the nakago so as to discourage me from further disassembly. It is of a completely different shape than the slender musashi. It follows straight lines where the musashi is waisted, and even under the ito you can make out where the corners are beveled and faced rather than rounded. It is not at all uncomfortable, but I do prefer the feel of the Musashi.
The blade is both shorter and heavier, by a couple ounces, than the musashi. It's point of balance is 4 3/4" in front of the tsuba. This is a closer POB than the musashi, but the Masakage feels much blade heavier in the hand. I would not feel comfortable wielding it one handed, where with the Musashi, even though it is longer, I feel fine. The blade polish is more than acceptable for this price level, though not to the same degree that the Musashi shows. The hi is cut and polished smooth, and runs only 2/3 of the blade, with horimono seperating the hi from the nakago on either side. The horimono are nice, but not as cleanly cut(? stamped?) and an attempt to highlight them with charcoal proved that the depth of cut is uneven, becoming much shallower in the middle of the dragon design, and in the kanji on the other side. The wire brushed faux-hamon is... well, it's a wire brushed faux hamon. Or etched I guess. I don't care for it and wish it wasn't there(through tempered blades should look the part), but it is what it is and it doesn't detract too much from the overall aesthetic.It is very, very sharp.
Overall I would give this katana 4/5* The only things holding it back from 5* at this price are the faux hamon and axe handle tsuka profile.