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kogatana sellers?


Stever

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Hi folks,

 

Does anyone know where I can find reasonably priced kogatana? Decent condition, signed/unsigned not drastically important, not looking for jo jo saku juyo papered blades. ;) Only place I've found so far is Aoi; just hoping for some more selection (I have seen a couple of others, but the selection/pricing is beyond what I'm looking for at the moment).

 

(edit) As an addendum, are there any modern smiths making shinsakuto kogatana? If so, how would one go about ordering such an item?

 

thanks

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Guest Simon Rowson

Hi Steve,

 

Not very helpful to you I'm afraid but I often see kogatana of widely varying quality and cost in the antique and flea markets of Tokyo .....so they are definitely about.

 

Also, most modern smiths do make kogatana but, just like their swords, the price is usually much higher than a lower-end antique example, especially if they are a highly rated tosho.

 

Simon

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At the Kyoto sword fair yesterday (and today :D ) I saw huge amounts of kogatana for sale. Prices not cheap though..around $150 and up. Lots of modern shinsaku kogatana too...at high prices.

There are SO many shops here that do not have online pages, and some only work by regular mail even. After the first few hundred nice tsuba, I was just brain numbed. But the kogatana are plentiful in Japan, even in the antiques shops where they go around $80 to $150.

Sorry I can't help with an online source right now.

 

Regards,

Brian

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D'oh! I guess I gotta get myself to Japan. :( Prices you mention are half what they are online (at the lower end), and it sounds like there's a lot more selection as well. Arg. Thanks, guys.

 

Oh, and Simon, the shinsakuto question is really a totally separate thing. I figured that a newly made blade is not going to be cheap, but I am still interested in getting one made at some point, if possible. Still, I'd expect it to be less expensive than a wak or katana; if most smiths still make them then maybe it's a more affordable path to owning a blade made by a mukansa! :D

 

Would something like that be ordered in the same way as a sword?

 

thanks

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Oh, and Simon, the shinsakuto question is really a totally separate thing. I figured that a newly made blade is not going to be cheap, but I am still interested in getting one made at some point, if possible. Still, I'd expect it to be less expensive than a wak or katana; if most smiths still make them then maybe it's a more affordable path to owning a blade made by a mukansa! :D

 

Would something like that be ordered in the same way as a sword?

 

I'm having a kogatana made by Usagiya at the moment in Aikuchi mounts, they said the estimated cost will be 100,000 yen or so.

 

See the link below (scroll down to the bottom)

 

The saya is going to be black lacquered and the same is also going to be lacquered black.

 

http://www.ksky.ne.jp/%7Esumie99/Tadahiro,wak.html

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Great! Thanks for the link, Peter. It looks beautiful. That seems a reasonable price, too. Now to contact Ono Yoshimitsu and order one with juka choji! :D

 

That wak's the one you had restored, then? Interesting photos of the process. I bet the togishi cringed when he saw it! Looks pretty good now, though.

 

cheers

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They sell kogatana blades in shirasaya for around 45,000 yen. I believe you can have them any style you want. Personally I think its worth paying the extra for the koshirae.

 

Yes thats my nidai Hizen Tadahiro wakizashi. Even though its lost the original shape its still a great blade, now if only I could find an affordable Tadahiro katana...

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At the Kyoto sword fair, the All Japanese Swordsmiths Association was well represented with a display and table, and was manned by a smith by the name of Jiro Kuniota (Kiyota Hiroki) and an apprentice, as well as a westerner from Canada (Pierre Nadeau) who has been studying to be a swordsmith for the past 2 years, and is dedicated to completing his apprenticeship. Great guys..all of them. I was very chuffed to be able to buy a book on shinsakuto that was only done in a small run a while ago and had sold out. They found some copies at the show and sold me one at a great price, and Kiyota san signed the page for me that featured one of his swords. Will have to post a pic of the book when I have a chance, as I cannot remember the title, but his sword is on page 14 for anyone who might have the book. See here http://www.tousyoukai.jp/english/member_e.shtml in wakayama prefecture.

 

Anyways, they had kogatana for sale at good prices, but what I really loved was tiny miniature swords (katana, wakizashi, tanto and ken) that are much smaller than kogatana, but still made from tamahagane and forged and tempered. Really beautiful, and going for around $275 to $350 each. Exact tiny replicas even with a mei and mekugo ana. I will be buying 2 of them for myself. Also bought a small boxed piece of tamahagane for a really cheap price. Lots of eye candy.

 

So to keep this on track, there are lots of kogatana from modern smiths around in Japan. If you get them second hand, the prices are around 20-30% cheaper than new.

I will post links to some of the shops that I saw there once I get through all my paperwork I brought back.

 

Btw..Pierre has a webpage at http://www.soulsmithing.com/PERSONS/NAD ... eauEN.html and you can probably organise a kogatana or some of these miniatures through him there. He will make contact with the smiths he is studying under. Tell him the South African who bothered him so much says hi and thanks :)

 

Regards,

Brian

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More sword shop links, yay! That'd be great, Brian. I've been to that soulsmithing site before when I was looking into westerners that have attempted aprenticeship with Japanese smiths. Was looking for a good excuse to contact him, now it appears I may have one. :) If I get in touch with him I'll definitely say hi for you. Those small swords seem an interesting idea, I wonder if they count against the smith's output allowances?

 

cheers,

/steve

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Hi Steve,

 

the kogatana , or any small blade without a mekugi ana, generally falls outside any production limits. This is also why apprentices are allowed to make them before they are qualified and licenced smiths, they obviously don't need to be registered in Japan.

 

Cheers,

Ford

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Hi folks,

 

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for their help. You guys are great. Now, here's an update:

 

A board member who happened to have some reasonably-priced antique kogatana for sale got in touch with me. Pics look pretty good, I'll be inspecting them in person shortly and most likely will buy at least 2 of them.

 

Also, on the shinsakuto front...I contacted the Kashima sisters after getting that info from Peter and it looks like I'll be ordering an o-kogatana blade with gunome hamon in shirasaya, with a silver habaki (just 'cause :) ). Whole deal is ¥52k, without the habaki it would be ¥40k. Admittedly, going for the full koshirae at ¥60k as per Peter is probably a better deal on the whole, but it just doesn't do it for me personally. Considering that I'm seeing gendai and showa kogatana blades in shirasaya online going for $900-1200 (and not even particularly famous smiths, either), I think this is a pretty d*mn good deal, comparable to Aoi's antique kogatana prices (which are about the cheapest I've found online).

 

I'll still probably get in touch with M. Nadeau about the mini-to (I suddenly feel a need to own a miniature tachi, and it's all Brian's fault!), but I think it'll have to wait for a bit, now. If anyone else contacts them, please let us know!

 

Thanks,

/steve

 

p.s. Got those links for us yet, Brian? :)

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