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Originally Posted by josh stout
I have seen the pictures posted of what may be a Chinese tribute blade (what do you call a present from one emperor to another?), but that is the only one I have ever seen.
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Mmmm.. maybe the Sui swords we are referring to were all destroyed in the
centuries ?
Even in Japan such original items are no more then a few dozen, treasured
in Shrines and a very few only documented. In actual paintings you can't
find such a kissaki detail...
There are no evidences this was a present from Chinese Emperor, too.
Might be simply a very good blade purchased or custom ordered for
the Emperor. Anyway, even if it was the case, I'm not sure that a "tribute
blade" must necessarly have different features then the ones present on the
battlefield items. On the contrary such features usually are much more
detailed and well made to represent the status of both giving and receiving
parts.
Other then to quote the Tokyo National Museum I would add to my
sources Nagayama Kokan in his "Token Kantei Dokuhon" in which he depicts
another couple of them with chinese features and chinese provenance.
Here the scan of a detail of page 13 of the english version
(ISBN 4 7700 2071 6)
Kiriha means "with ridge line", Kamasu Kissaki means exactly the point's shape
of the pics I've posted, with Yokote.
