Shugyosha

The second just says "Satsuma" 薩摩.

The best you are going to get is by submitting to NBTHK shinsa (authentication) but with no date or signature you might only get a general attribution i.e. school and period. The blade has a number of attributes indicating Mino influence and somewhere in the Edo period is probably about right. If someone said a little earlier I wouldn’t argue.

Hi Bryce, My feeling is that it’s not an utsushi as there isn’t enough about the sugata to suggest that. To me it looks like a typical sugata from the mid to late 17th century. The workmanship is also more Shinto than koto for me: the ko itame hada and the hamon reaching fairly high up towards the shinogi. The issue is the tang being overly long and with the groove continuing through and the second mekugi ana. I think this makes it a custom order either from someone who wanted to wear it as a tachi on formal occasions and/ or, I think more likely, someone who took his swordsmanship seriously. The longer tang would alter the feel of the sword and by shifting the hands downwards on the tsuka some extra reach could be gained without flouting the laws regarding sword lengths. The continuation of the hi could be for aesthetic reasons or to adjust the balance of the blade to compensate for the longer tang. The second peg would give security in case the other broke or would fit the tachi koshirae idea. All speculation obviously...a really nice sword though.

Not in my experience - I’ve had no one say they weren’t prepared to ship USA to UK.

Hi Mark, I've had no problems importing swords or fittings from Japan in terms of ordering and getting what I paid for but I can't recommend or disrecommend Samuraistore.com, but perhaps others can. I've used Aoi Art, Touken Matsumoto and Sanmei Trading (Tokugawa Art) and had no problems with receiving goods from these guys. I wouldn't necessarily recommend Aoi or Sanmei but not for any issue relating to the ordering and receipt of their goods. In addition to the sale price, at the seller's end there may be shipping costs and the cost of de-registering the blade in Japan. You need to check that the price includes these costs or whether they are "add-ons", but they are normally included in the sales price but, if not, these shouldn't be significant sums. Providing the sword is properly described in the sales paperwork as being antique, the price you pay when the sword gets to the UK should be 5% of the purchase price, so if you are paying £5k for the sword your costs when it gets to the UK should be £250 in VAT at 5% plus an admin fee of £15. This fee may have increased as it is a couple of years since I imported a sword but should be around this amount. I've never had a package opened to establish that the item was in fact an antique. The whole issue of papers isn't a short conversation and quite nuanced. All swords in Japan need to be registered with the authorities and receive a "Torokusho" that travels with the sword within Japan. This isn't an authentication paper but merely confirms that the legal niceties have been complied with and shouldn't be confused with authentication of the sword or signature. So, essentially, if the sword is in Japan and has no authentication papers then it has either failed shinsa or not been submitted. If there is a big name on the sword and it has no papers then you can assume that the signature is false because it lies easily within the gift of the seller to get the sword papered if genuine, so you need to beware. That isn't to say that the blade in question has no "quality" but it needs to be treated as if it were an unsigned blade and the price should reflect this - don't believe any backstory about how it might be by a famous smith because it is pretty certain that the seller has checked it out and it won't be. Also if it has the old NBTHK green papers, they have been discredited so should be taken with a pound of salt if given to a famous smith. Anyhow, if I were you I would post a link to what you are thinking of buying on here and get a view. A further issue you may have is the ability to ask questions of the seller, and to make sure that they include the correct description of the sword, due to the language barrier. If the suggested amount wasn't hypothetical and you are looking at dropping £5k on a blade then, if it were my money, it needs to have NTHK papers as a minimum and ideally NBTHK papers as these organisations have international standing - there are other organisations in Japan that authenticate blades and fittings etc but their views carry less weight in the market. An althernative to buying in Japan would be to look to the USA as there are a number of excellent dealers. I've bought from Ray Singer and Grey Doffin who besides being total gentlemen, have some excellent blades, you can talk to them in English and it would make for a far easier transaction. Ed at Yakiba also has an excellent reputation. The price for importing from the US is the same as from Japan and the GBP is strong against the US dollar at the moment, so if you are about to spend a significant sum, make it as easy as possible to determine that you are getting something that is worth what you are paying. I hope that helps, but I'm sure others have some views they can offer.

A couple of relevant articles here, the second might cover some of the same ground as Markus Sesko's: http://www.nihontocraft.com/Suishinshi_Masahide.html http://www.nihontocraft.com/Aratameshi_Nihonto.html

Hi Mark, No, not normally if the seller has described the item as an antique and used the appropriate harmonised tariff code the 5% rate will be applied. If that is in order, when things are working normally, then once the parcel arrives in country, you’ll get a letter requesting payment of VAT which you can do in a number of ways including on line. Seven to 10 days after payment you should get your package. At least that was the case pre-Covid and Brexit...

Hi Tom, Are you still looking for that blade? Andrew Ickeringill is in Oz so taking care of the scratches won’t require too much effort should you wish to.

Hi Mark, congratulations you own a genuine Japanese sword!! The signature reads “Bichu kami Tachibana Yasuhiro”. There were three smiths who signed this way and they worked between 1661 and 1736 - assuming it is a genuine signature,

Wow, I knew you had a tsuba habit but that’s pretty impressive. 😬 I’ve got around 20 which is both too many and too few. There’s 5 I wouldn’t part with, 5 I’d be happy to move on now but can’t be bothered to purge, 10 I’m enjoying for the moment but will move on in future and around a 100 that I haven’t met yet but hope to own down the line. Kozuka are quite nice too though...

If they are long and done by Mukansa level smiths then maybe, at least Aoi Art has sold some at around this price and they are likely to have been sold to westerners I guess: https://www.aoijapan.net/katana-minamoto-yasutake-mukansa-swordsmith/ https://www.aoijapan.net/katana-hisyu-jyu-minamoto-moriyoshi-saku-no-mukansa-sword/ https://www.aoijapan.net/katana-yaguwa-yasutake-seitan-kore-mukansa-swordsmith/ https://www.aoijapan.net/katana-sagami-koku-zengyo-ju-tsuruoka-hachimangusha-mae-okubo-kazuhira-mukansa-2/

I think there will be quite a lot of cold water poured on the romance of Scottish independence, including but not limited to: Loss of funding via the Barnett formula whereby Scotland receives around £11,000 per capita from the UK government each year and the need to recoup this from somewhere before they start receiving hand outs from the EU; The time lag between applying to join the EU and being allowed in during which time they will have to put in place their own currency as they won’t be allowed to keep the Pound Sterling; Being allocated a share of the UK national debt, currently through the roof compared to when they had the last referendum; The presumption that they will get access to the North Sea oil fields and that the price of oil will generate an adequate revenue from its sale; The other parts of the UK are Scotland’s biggest market for their products which they risk losing or paying for; and The need to use England as a land bridge to receive goods from Europe which will no doubt be made harder and costlier than it currently is. Ultimately, if Scotland wants to leave the UK then there will be a lot of pressure applied for it to stay via the above and other means and, if they didn’t want to leave the EU because they think they will be worse off, then they need to weigh being worse off still against the cry for freedom. Sorry for the lengthy post. Lockdown has given me too much time to fill.

Doesn’t apply to VAT. Or rather VAT is now applicable on purchases of goods and services from the EU into the UK at 20% unless there’s an exemption. As Michael says, items that are antiques only attract a 5% charge, but the dispatch paperwork needs to identify them as antiques otherwise the full rate is payable.

Hi Mike, I think the main bits are cherry bark (top two characters on the right) and tea caddy (cha zutsu) middle two characters on the left. I’m sure that the better linguists (or chado practitioners) will finesse this somewhat, but I hope that’s not too far adrift.

In normal times the NTHK have at least one shinsa in the US, normally at the Florida sword show which is usually around this time of year. There may be individuals who are willing to look at your sword and give an opinion but the NBTHK and NTHK authentication papers are the gold standard (some would argue only NBTHK for high value swords) so having an opinion or paper by anyone else won't really carry any weight in the market but might give an indicator as to whether a sword is worth a polish and/ or going to the trouble of papering.

源鉄王 Minamoto Tetsuou No idea whether it's genuine or not.

Cheers JP, I thought it was just me. For me, the state of polish is far from perfect. Given that, it’s going to be hard to definitively identify most features of the blade and that goes for a mizukage.

Hi Peter, The signature is “Yasuchika”, bottom picture before the one above.

Whatever the motto on the blade says, the carving hasn’t enhanced its artistic value.

Another tanto by him here: https://www.aoijapan.com/tanto-hideaki-2/

Hi Jean Paul, Blades made using Mikasa gun steel aren’t all that uncommon. According to Aoi art Hideaki made about 1000 blades from Mikasa steel out of 3,000 blades made in total (if I’m reading their blurb correctly). There’s a big difference in the prices of these two: https://www.aoijapan.net/tanto-hideaki-sakuhorii-tishihidemikasa/ https://www.aoijapan.net/tanto-mikasa-hideaki/

But hundreds of thousands of people died in fires: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_fire_of_Meireki

Might be one of those katate uchi that had a machi okuri in order to take a longer tsuka.

That was my first thought. It’s hard to see any kanji there; just look like random marks.