raiden

Just so everyone understands, the Omori School did not only do sukashi undercuts in their wave format. This technique appears in many of their top level works, such as this example done for the tree trunk. In this case he basically took a Hamano design and said I could make this more better by applying the high level techniques of the Omori kei. And yes this tsuba has been certified as genuine by the NBTHk and may well challenge the Juyo shinsa soon.

1st one is Jakushi from the Hizen, a school piece, 2nd is Seiryuken Eijyu a part time student at the tetsugendo school. both signatutres look to be genuine

Hi everyone, had a nice time at the show, it was well received by all for those that attended the lectures and the small study group that I held about Higo. I also thank everyone that came to our table and I saw a few lucky people that bought some nice blades at a fair price! Hope to see you all at Chicago and the SF show.

traditionally tachi mounted or tachi koshirae are displayed tsuka down, but not when in a shirasaya. a shirasaya is usually not displayed on a tachi kake.

I guess my point is that people should not confuse appreciation and understanding from personal taste. If one is doing a shinsa, this has to be a rule or else the judgement is compromised. I am not a Bizen fan, but I love early Soshu. But I can still appreciate and understand a good Ichimonji or Ko Bizen. I hope there was some good things learned from this post! On to Tampa!

Hmmm guess I better post the paper to satisfy any doubt even though it is a textbook mei.I have had this for a bit and was thinking of putting it up for sale. I have quite a bit of wave theme items (I just like them), and if not appreciated here, it will accompany me when I go to Japan next time where it will probably sell.

I put my stuff in the "not so imaginary column, then there is no mistake....fuchi has never been posted before and will be used for a lecture later, tsuba has been on the forum before I believe. Forgive the dust!

Unfortunately only i get to see the piece in hand, and as usual, the pics do not do the richness of the shibuichi justice. If you attend the Tampa show, you may see this piece in hand. The quality of the shibuichi is very close to the Natsuo Juyo kozuka that we passed last year (Ford it's calling you!). I also guess that it is up to personal taste, I personally like all types of waves, and study them as much as i can. And the fact that Mitsutaka was the 13th mainline master and he chose to sign this piece must mean something that i must figure out! A few years ago, i had a Mitsuyoshi kozuka done in shibuichi with a strange simple design of what turned out to be a "lock" for a gate. No one would buy this piece at the American shows, but when i took it to Japan, it was greatly received (and sold)...so i have started to learn a bit about looking at the subject from the artists standpoint - very difficult to figure out sometimes!But my teacher explained things to me at that time, so I understand a bit better now, and have a more open appreciation tham before.

rare study of a perfectly simple, but yet outstanding piece by Goto Mitsutaka, Very Japanese!

well done, i would stop on the tsuba for now, apply some choji oil (lightly) and then give it some sun and air.I really am impressed!

yes that is correct about the tsuba. that much i can confirm.

sorry guys new owner wants to keep it and wants no info out yet...when i can i'll let you all know.

ok, so who wants to buy it?

Will the person that purchased a Katana made by Tsutsui Kiju from a former dealer named Kurt Holz please contact me via email. mike@tetsugendo.com

original bakumatsu koshirae for a Koyama Munetoshi, notice the perfect way the seppa fit and accent the mount.

On the original post, usually in Japan if on a good koshirae, and seppa are missing, they usually have a top grade shokunin make the seppa the correct size to fit both the width, as well as the fit to the koiguchi and fuchi diameter. Seppa when done properly have a perfect fitand are done so to compliment the mount. It degrades the koshirae when the seppa are either too small or hanging out wider than they should be. If one notices, in all nice well made original koshirae, the seppa fit perfectly.People tend to take this point for granted, but in Japan, detail and pride is everything.Ford is also correct to point out the right and wrong way to do things, especially if they will do the blade harm.

I have an excellent example. I have a ken Tanto signed Unsho The work is early, and bizen. I have had two high level collectors, and a properly fully Japanese trained polisher look at this blade. They all agreed it should go to shinsa and all three thought it would more than likely pass. It was sent to Nthk and got a pink slip- they said masahide school Deemed gimei This a few choices Leave it and enjoy studying blade Resubmit Remove Mei, and resubmit. My choice is going to be to resubmit- but it's risky. If I do this, and it fails again I will absolutely be more invested than I can get back from this blade. This time I am submitting it to nbthk though. Why don't you send us an oshigata of the mei and we can take it to Japan to check? Don't remove it just yet. My opinion only however.

I will tell of one unusual situation that may relate to thisthread. A few years ago i bought a very nice sunnobi tanto with a kinzogan mei to the maker , and with a kinzogan by a honnami attributor. The blade did not look like the attributed mei, but I was puzzeled as the Honnami kinzogan looked ok. So I sent pictures to my teacher Tanobe sensei for his advice. He told me by phone that the attribution has to be determined after a shinsa team has seen the blade, but that the Honnami kinzogan was correct. Meaning the Honnami name and Kao . So I sent the blade to Tanobe sensei to see, and he said that in his opinion, the maker of the blade was different than what was written on the tang. But yet the Honnami gold sign was genuine. So in order to preserve the Honnami mei, I decided not to have the kinzogan removed, thus having a genuine Honnami mei to be used for study purposes. It is a great sword, and it can still be appreciated for what it is, rather than what it once was....some things need to be preserved, and some do not.

Not sure when we will do machibori again, I am thinking of another avenue....The machibori lecture was a special one, I'm glad that it was well received as it was never done before in the US. This month i am doing a different angle on tameshimei katana for the NTK, not the usual info that has been hashed around, but from a new perspective. We will have about 5-7 pieces of kinzogan tameshimei swords for hands on study. All certified by the NBTHK as genuine.

wait till you see what I am bringing for curran..........

father is 4.2 mm thick, see you all in tampa.

score one for tetsugendo, we won it, this is why...