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Hello,

 

Is there a shinsa by this group scheduled for next year/ near future?

 

Curious as to whether anyone has submitted a mumei sword to both this group and the NBTHK with similar results?

 

Any additional comments/observations on shinsa results from this group?

 

 

Thank you in advance for replies.

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Curious as to whether anyone has submitted a mumei sword to both this group and the NBTHK with similar results?

 

 

Depends on school/date. Tembun is realistically associated with much of the cases where one gets three very different judgments. Kamakura-Nambokucho Soshu is another pit of confusion. Anything in bad polish, or badly made, or very high end but very custom pieces (unsigned shinto utsushi of Sadamune) will also be difficult for anyone to appraise and will yield random names. 

On the opposite side, unsigned Yamato Hosho or Shintogo Kunimitsu, quite a few Bizen works, maybe even shodai Bizen Yukimitsu will always paper sort of the same, no matter when and with whom.

 

Kirill A.

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Hello Franco:

The group doing the Tampa shinsa, and it is confirmed to happen by Gordon Robson to me, is the original NTHK group which dates to Meiji times, long before the NBTHK, more recently headed by the now deceased Yoshikawa Koen and now by his son, both Keepers of the Imperial Collection.

Arnold F.

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Having had a number of swords through the NBTHK, NTHK and NTHK(NPO) shinsa over the years, doing so can be both exciting and also frustrating. The NBTHK shinsa in my personal opinion, carries the most weight, especially in Japan. The frustrating part is that their origami do not say a lot, so additional homework is required to fully understand their call on a submission. The NTHK shinsa, so I'm told, rejects a high percentage of submission which makes some wonder. Personally, I submitted a sword that had been given personal opinion of Mr. T. as Echizen Rai, but was judged a poorly made Showa sword by NTHK. I've always heard how reliable NTHK(NPO) is, but one judgement called an in-polish blade as some unknown sue-koto smith. It was sent to NBTHK and received a call to Naoe Shizu, Nambokucho (as many of us though, at least age-wise). I think we as collectors must form our own opinion after study, of what a sword appears to be before sending to any shinsa. If results seem hard to accept, seek more study and resubmit it to another shinsa down the road. All of these shinsa judges have seen and studies many, many more swords that we will ever see, but we do study and we should hopefully have gained enough knowledge to accept or to grumble about a shinsa judgement. They are all just an educated opinion, after all. Just some personal sounding off...Ron STL

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Since the topic seems to have consistently attracked attention for the past weeks, I'll try to throw a very subject, erroneous and ignorant opinion. Yes, there are issues with shinsa experts not living in a bubble and thus accessible and possibly influencible, but that happens in every area with every collectible. There are issues that any opinion even by foremost experts, that is rendered in 10 minutes, will probably have 5% chance of being quite wrong. How many times you have pneumonia xrays showing different things to different radiologists?

 

A much deeper issue is that the existing classification of swords comes with a mirriad of inherited problems. 

Basically imagine you send a Soshu blade to three Edo period experts... One will look at it and say - great Soshu, must be Masamune. Another will say - yes, but Masamune is the father of Soshu, so his works must be very early, and might not be Soshu at all. Maybe he was Awataguchi before. So I will appraise this early blade with suguha as Masamune, but I will never appraise anything with o-kissaki to him. Another will say - well, it must have the Masamune's boshi. I don't mind it being in nioi, I don't mind it having o-kissaki, but why should I appraise anything as Masamune if the key features I have written down in my secret notebook are simply not there.

 

Who is right? Good news if you are Edo dealer is that eventually you will get your thing papered to Masamune. Bad news if you are in 1960 Japan is that now you have a number of names literally invented from scratch during late Muromachi-Edo period - and they are all fancy names, but they are all of people who supposed to have died more or less exactly in 1345. And then there are other names, less invented, less fancy-pricy, but their lineage is sort of dead by 1395.

 

So you have a first class Soshu blade, no sign of Hitatsura, just great basic example - but sugata is 1355. That's it, no million dollar appraisal for you. If its tanto, most likely you'll get Hasebe. You'll get lengthy paragraph in Juyo book saying it does not have any Hasebe features... Well, its got mitsumune...

 

But what if a blade is tachi and sugata is clearly Oei? Well, in Edo period a good Soshu example from Oei period (they are rare but do exist) would be Masamune. And they simply did not create any fancy Oei names to give distinction to better period blades - because they had Masamune.

Today this blade will go Naoe Shizu.

 

Today you have myriad of blades going to Shizu Kaneuji, Yamato Shizu, Naoe Shizu, all the dealers selling them are writing how Kaneuji went one winter night to Kamakura and worked there with Masamune, sleeping next to his brother Kinju and disabled (how else could he made so fewer blades) cousin Kaneyuki....

While the simple fact is - these people are NOT real. 

Shizu Kaneuji is what you are going to get when you have a Nambokucho period blade placed somewhere between Soshu and Tegai. He is not a real person. Soshu Kaneuji who signed his works was first class Soshu smith who worked in a first class Soshu style. Shizu Kaneuji on the contrary - is a big fat bucket to throw blades in.

Naoe Shizu is just a bigger bucket for Oei+ period blades.

Many are problem blades. Some are stellar examples that were treasured for centuries. Hada and hamon of two papered Naoe Shizu can be as different as Chogi versus Yamato Senjuin.

And at times one or another expert will look at such sword and say - well, especially with o-suriage, Oei sugata can be mistaken for Kamakura. And it is a nice blade. Maybe its Masamune after all.

 

Kirill A.

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