Japanese Mystery Sword...

Ah, I see. And I'm guessing there are not that much in the market these days right?
It seems like a very unique Japanese sword.

EDIT: I researched and found that it's also called a Tsurugi. I think...

Basically it is a jian with a Japanese style handle. There are a few places that make them, United Black has one a few others, but mostly they are marketed to the inexperienced as novel Japanese style for low cost.

You would probably be better off asking a jian maker like Garret from Jin Shi to make a jian with a tsuka handle than to try and find a decent production version.

Slight correction, they were generally considered superior for combat from horseback. They used these straight swords until the 8th century AD. Their method of warfare changed from foot to horseback, so out of necessity they had to change their swords to a form that worked better on horseback.

This was recognised historically in the west a very, very long time ago.

The ancient Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher Xenophon (430 – 354 BC) recommended a curved bladed makhaira over the straight, double-sided xiphos for cavalry use.

"I recommend a kopis rather than a xiphos, because from the height of a horse’s back the cut of a machaira will serve you better than the thrust of a xiphos."
- Xenophon

The Japanese finally worked it out over a thousand years later...

ok, aside from KoA, where can I buy a more useable one of these?

There are a number of this type of sword vendors out there. Plenty are available on ebay today, right now.

Sheng, of St-nihonto , st-swords, ninja katana, ts trading, etc., etc., etc.,, has some of a similar style though slightly different. His are kissaki moroha with a straight blade instead of a curve.
www.ebay.com/itm/Hand-made-Clay- ... 3372b5dc2d

Shinwa is another vendor with several vaiants.


KOA is sold out and unavailable.

What you see is a United Black/United Cutlery offering in 1045 steel. They're sold out most Places. What's left is the folded steel (labeled as damascus) version. Model name is ikazuchi= thunder.

Supposed to be well balanced, agile and quick.

What masahiro 560 says...I second. These variants are fantasy blades not true ken nor anything historically backed. The tsuba and fittings (zinc) are tribal designs.

Hope this helps

Steve

and heres a japanese made ken with a ''traditional'' ken hilt



and here'S the link for more pictures of the sword samuraishokai.jp/sword/kn10003.html

As an extremely happy owner of one, I completely agree. I love the feel of the leather ito. I'm a non traditionalist by nature so the "uniqueness" of this sword only makes it even more desireable, imho. The only downside I see so far is in customizing the fittings. I have yet to find either tsubas or habaki to match the blade's flat diamond geometry. It handles quite well one handed, light and snake quick even in my poorly trained hands.

While the Buddhist temple ken swords are still around, I don't think they were the only type of ken. Just the ones that were best preserved. The ken also saw use as swords in the palace as formal court sword, and probably saw use as swords for the higher ranking military. I think the fittings on these were more likely to be more functional than the Buddhist temple swords.

I would guess they looked a lot like the chokuto fitting. Chokuto and ken existed side by side for awhile and I would suspect they had similar fittings, and handles.



Some examples of Chokuto fittings







Here is some examples of kofun era pommels and fittings


Here is a Ken dated back to the Shinto era from sabakusamurai.com/collection/collectionsword.htm

Looks a lot like a jian handle

So most likely early functional ken had ring pommel, like these Japanese Ring pommel examples from the Tokyo Museum dated to the kofun era


While yes the ken had the distinctive Buddhist temple look that etiennehamel and masahiro560 talk about, I think there was more to them than just those. I would guess that little of the early court and functional ken did not survive due to the need to recycle the metal into newer swords. Back at that time they were importing much of their iron from China and Korea, so the metal was quite valuable. It is likely many of the older swords were reforged many times, becoming newer and newer swords. This is just my own speculation and I haven't seen authentic antique ken from that era, but I have read how ken were not just temple swords. and the picture etiennehamel is a temple sword. From knowing that the ken evolved from Korean and Chinese swords that were brought over, and that the original versions the Japanese made were duplicates of the Korean and Chinese blades makes me suspect there were other looks to the ken than the temple sword style.