Gendaito or shinto on eBay?

[Marius]

Dear All,

 

a friend of mine is looking for a daito. He shuns gendaito, and he has seen a sword on eBay, which is described as a shinto by the seller. He suspects it is a gendaito.

 

Could you please help him determine what kind of sword it is?

 

Here is the link:

http://cgi.ebay.pl/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... otohosting

 

 

Many thanks and best regards.

[Brian]

I don't see any reason for this to be a Gendaito personally.

You don't see much in the way of a nice gentle notare like this in Gendaito too often, and that shinto yakidashi looks to me to be true to the period.

There was a Nagatsugu working during the Genroku period, and it would fit in with the description on the auction.

What makes him think it is something besides what it claims to be?

Yes, it could be a Gendai sword that was gimei'd to an earlier smith, but seems like a lot of trouble to go to, and then not pick a bigger name. Nakago doesn't have a huge amount of age patina on it, but that isn't a definite as many collectors will show you Koto swords that have well preserved tangs. Looks like a reasonably nice piece to me.

 

Brian

[pcfarrar]

I'm not so sure, I think the possibility of gimei is very high. You have to ask yourself why would the Japanese sell a sword on ebay, it usually means they have no market for the blade in Japan. Which leads you to conclude it has either bad kizu or is gimei. Sure you get the occasional good blade but not very often.

[Marius]

I'm not so sure, I think the possibility of gimei is very high. You have to ask yourself why would the Japanese sell a sword on ebay, it usually means they have no market for the blade in Japan. Which leads you to conclude it has either bad kizu or is gimei. Sure you get the occasional good blade but not very often.

 

 

I agree, but can we not safely assume that 90% of all signed blades are gimei? I (and my friend too) like to look at the blade only. What I see here is a decent blade, gimei or not. I know that what I get on eBay is not up to the Japanese collectors' standards, but I cannot afford perfect blades. If having a gimei makes the blade affordable and accessible to me, that's fine.

 

I have a (Rai) "Kuniyuki" tanto, which I really like, knowing that it is gimei. It is a nice blade and it exhibits all the characteristics of a koto tanto. I could have the mei removed and send the tanto to a shinsa, but what for? I know it is a good blade.

 

BTW, any thoughts on removing a gimei?

 

regards

[Marius]

Sure you get the occasional good blade but not very often.

 

hm, which leads me to the question - is this a good blade or not, in your opinion?

 

regards

[pcfarrar]

hm, which leads me to the question - is this a good blade or not, in your opinion?

 

Impossible to say on those bad pictures in my opinion.

 

The only bargains you can ever get on ebay from Japanese sellers are people like Daimyou54 etc. who don't seem to know much about swords.

 

It is possible to get very good blades on ebay, look out for swords in gunto mounts straight from the veterans. The pointer is good quality gunto mounts, with mon badges, pierced tsuba etc. That is by far the best way to get a decent sword at the lowest possible price.

[Marius]

 

Impossible to say on those bad pictures in my opinion.

 

I have originally posted some higher resolution pics here, but the seller does not wish the pictures to be distributed anywhere outside eBay, so I had to respect his wish. Sorry.

 

regards

[pcfarrar]

I have originally posted some higher resolution pics here, but the seller does not wish the pictures to be distributed anywhere outside eBay, so I had to respect his wish. Sorry.

 

I managed to check out the pictures whilst the link was still active. It looked good, lots of ji-nie. Could do with some better images of the monouchi, I thought the tempering looked a little weak in one place. I still suspect gimei though!

 

When a seller doesn't want his pictures distributed outside of eBay it makes me very suspicious that he has something to hide...

[Brian]

Ah..I wonder if this is the seller that emailed a while ago and had a fit that we were discussing his swords on the forum? If not..it was another one that objected to us showing his pics here. (Besides Mack of course)

Silly really, you expect your buyers to make uninformed decisions?

Backfires too when the item is actually quite nice and has good comments, and will probably lead to more bids and a higher price.

But we'll respect the wishes of sellers who ask for us to not post their pics here. Linking to the auction is fine though. They are public auctions

 

Brian

[Jacques D.]

Hi,

 

Seems to have some ware on this blade, one on the shinogi (center of the pic number 7) and one on the shinogi ji (pic number 2 center of the katana-kake).

[Marius]

Hi,

 

Seems to have some ware on this blade, one on the shinogi (center of the pic number 7) and one on the shinogi ji (pic number 2 center of the katana-kake).

 

Jacques,

 

you have good eyes, congratulations and thanks :-) One of those ware seems to be filled with red urushi.

 

regards

[pcfarrar]

Are you certain they look like reflections?

[Brian]

If there are minor ware that are filled in with red lacquer, then that would also point to Shinto, as that was the period this was commonly done.

Also, about any ware...how about asking the seller? Logical, no?

Minor ware are not an issue, simply ask the seller about any flaws and for better pics. I don't see anything too disturbing at all.

Looks like a nice sword to me, and you don't get much in that pricerange.

 

Brian