Sword

An especially long, slightly curved samurai sword (tachi or katana) with one wide groove that begins at the sword collar and extends down the length of the blade nearly to the tip. The back of the blade has a single ridge (ihori-mune) creating 2 planes instead of one. The surface of the steel shows grain (hada) primarily in horizontal lines. The misty, tempered edge (hamon) reveals a soft, wavy pattern and transitions smoothly into the mirror-like body of the blade. The base of the blade meets the hilt with a plain, copper-colored sword collar.

The plain, undecorated hilt has two holes, one at the top and one at the bottom, where bamboo pegs would be inserted to secure the hilt to the blade. The top of the hilt is adorned with a simple, rounded, metal collar (fuchi). The simplicity of the hilt shows that it is a storage mount (shirasaya) and not the normal hilt fitting.

Beneath the hilt, the tang is inscribed on one side with a signature and on the other with a date. The maker's signature reads, "Aoe Sadatsugu of Bitchu/Bishu," (備中國住人青江貞次). The date inscription reads, "Eiwa period, 2nd year, 8th month, a day," (永和二年八月日) which roughly translates to, "A day in August, 1376."