raiden

I'm not sure what Natsuo taikan you have Ford ( I hope they aren't making more bad copies in China - and yes that IS true Japanese sword and fittings books have been faked from China), but here is the info that you requested. The copy from the Taikan, the order and inverntory info. Only because we have to send this info to who is interested anyway, otherwise I wouldn't do this.

cyrus has the note copies, will post later when he sends them to me.

Just an interesting piece that we got in that will be for sale soon. But not an utsushi, or repair, so what?

listed and recorded in the Natsuo taikan i believe.Not sure what happened to the whole mount, but many things were given up after the war, and many blades that I have bought had the fuchi missing........

in meiji 23.......

But then a very important piece was lost or damaged for some reason.........So another person was asked to help.

all of the recent topics of copies or utsuhimono brought this into play. I'll tell a story here......Once upon a time, there was a beautiful Naginata mounted in a fabulous koshirae made by a guy named Yasuchika........

Nice discussion guys, yes it is a naginata fuchi so that can be verified. Yes it is also signed and dated.

Quality at what level?

Mikawa Kuni Ju Kazumune Torokusho issue is aiichi ken (Owari)

hmm not familiar with this guy....perhaps Paul or Chris can give info on this guy

some fittings guys read as tomomune

heisei 22 feb, kazumune or yasumune depends on his reading

Well, all I can tell everyone is what we usually get called to do in the case of a collection. True the appraisal is only as good as the appraiser, actually I believe that dealers (professionals that do this for a living) have a good idea of what the current fair market values are. They buy and sell items all the time giving them a very good sense of current values. Websites also aid in this as many dealers now have web "storefronts" with possible identical items offered for a value. For example if you see an item similar to yours, then print the page and keep it with your records. As for conflicts of interest, as in our case, we give both what is the current fair market retail and wholesale values in our opinion. We also tell the clients to check other sources as it is easy to do so these days with a computer.We haven't had any conflicts that we know of so far when doing appraisals. We also recommend like Chris had stated about keeping good records such as cost of an items and any expenses incurred (polish, shinsa , etc..). Also it is a good idea to keep all original kanteisho in a safe place, and copies in a separate place. Many times in the case of a large collection, we just recommend to the "heirs" to contact the major auction houses such as Bonhams or Christies to get some help in selling their items, but we warn them that they are not always easy to deal with..... And yes I agree, many people are looking for a deal, especially if the owners want to sell the whole lot at once. But, I don't see any harm in having an appraisal ( a fairmarket value type) along with the cost records to have an idea of what each item should be sold at, when it comes time. For me , I will leave all the info clear and concise with the family lawyer so there is no difficulty - mine is easy as the kids get most of it anyway......but one tsuba will go with me! and yes I wouldn't task the relatives either...

From the pics, the tsuba looks definitely burned badly. The remnants of the patina and the texture of the inner portions show heat damage at quite a high level. Then who ever over cleaned it trying to take off the scale, has left a shadow of the tsubas original self....sanmai style like this is sometimes the 4th maker known as the first Tadatoki, but the kozuka hitsu is so damaged (its shape appears strange) most likely by the heat that it is hard to pick a particular generation.

we usually advise clients to have am appraisal (formal one), thus leaving the said appraisal with a will or any similiar docs. Works well enough, and usually we advise on the more important pieces......at least there is an idea of both importance and value. ex: number 151 - katana signed Koyama Munetsugu, 70 cm ubu 1 hole dated 1858 NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon, polshe dby Shinozaki san, fully restored in shirasaya mounts on tsunagi. appraised market value as of May 2013 - $21,500. any additinal notes blah, blah , blah......

Probably a new thread is better - just to make things clear for the majority, and we seem to be changing the thread a bit...but I like the new thread idea, and I think it is important.

For those that wanted to see it.boshi on the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tetsugen ... 884?ref=hl

From my experience, the decision to paper or not seems to depend upon both the piece, and / or the collector. Some people would like an educated opinion to help guide them in their study of their item, while others just want verification of their opinion / or verification for value. However, in Japan, there seemed to have been many old collectors that studied hard, thus in their collections were may uncertified pieces, but they also had the guidance of someone who's opinion was well respected (Amiya comes to mind). When I buy items that have no certificate, I love to take up the challenge to figure it out. This works on both signed and unsigned pieces. The for educational purposes, I will either show it to my teachers, and / or shinsa it to see and compare their opinion to mine. If I am terrribly different, then I always look to see why so I can learn as perhaps I missed something in my study. As far as Peters question is concerned, well known pieces in Japan don't need any certificates. They have been accepted for years as to what they were due to their provonance, or past history. A good example was a Shintogo Kunimitsu tanto my friend showed me years ago.....it was so healthy and gorgeous! But when I saw the nakago, it was not only signed, but dated as well....apparantly 1 of 3 that was published in an old book years ago that belonged to a famous Daimyo ......no need for any certification, but one could see that it was an easy Tokubetsu Juyo blade in any day! Each piece has to be viewed one by one, piece by piece...and opinions by well educated peers never hurt. And no, I do not have papers for everything in my collection, but yet many pieces do!

I know that there is an investigation going on right now, from a bad dealer that was recently arrested for "fake" torokusho and exporting bad poorly made gendaito with gimei names to the US (it was on Japanese TV). If Yamaguchi is selling blades like these, he should be careful.....I saw many he listed on Ebay before that were exact copies of mei from the gendai listed in the Shinshino Taikan. Thats why I always recommend to buy from a reputable person or certified items....but many people bought these blades from him on ebay.......

I can also confirm results are out.....

ugly cast nanako kozenshi kazuuchi mono.