Kronos

yes, without clearly seeing the origami there's no way to know. naminohira smiths were around from late heian to early edo...

I think it might surprise just how many unpapered/old papered swords there are in Japan and i'd imagine there's a few dealers who specialize in finding good swords out of the woodwork.

Looks like a sue-seki kazu-uchi-mono type deal that's had a hard life dressed up for the meiji export market. Hard to tell really.

Yes, the prices are the reduced prices. For instance the Shinto/shinshinto Zenshu is a compendium of both the shinto shinshinto katntei books and the kantei supplement books so it is more expensive. The actual physical book is about $150 iirc and the normal price of the ebook around $90.

Looks like just a little bit of Ware/loose grain which is very common. To elaborate, pic 1 is ware, pic 2 is probaably ware as well, however in context this what looks like a shinto katana which were almost exclusively made with masame in the shinogi-ji which seems to be more prone to splits in welds between layers. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will come along and correct me.

Nice! Time to stock up on all the books I didn't grab the last time around. My recommendations for anyone at all interested in Nihonto would be the Ebook versions of: Swordsmiths of Japan Koto Kantei Zenshu Koto Meikan Shinto Meikan Shinshinto Meikan Shinto-Shinshinto Kantei Zenshu All must have books for serious collectors and ridiculously cheap compared to any comparable books like Hawley's or Fujishiro's.

Don't forget that with c-14 testing charcoal is somewhat difficult to test and highly prone to contamination, whats more it only measures when the tree that provided the carbon was felled, so the repurposing of older trees/iron can also give a much older result.

Wait what? Thats a tsuba? That flag looks like a photograph if not better as it has a 3d property to it. By far the most technically excellent Tsuba I've ever seen. :Drool:

Don't worry about it, just call it a donation and for every $10 donated you get a "free" entry into a prize draw. Or alternatively, draw a picture of a cat in paint, copyright it and sell that for $10 per print.

All the info in that article is still current, correct and first hand experience of a knowledgeable member of this forum.

Don't forget that it is customary in Japan to consign items rather than sell yourself so I imagine they're used to taking a hit.

It's like looking at a chinese fake and a low level nihonto side by side (just a lot smaller differences). In this example everything about the nihonto would be better, crisp lines, a good and natural shape, more pleasing hada,hamon, hataraki etc (chinese fakes don't have a hamon so not a good comparison but you get the idea). Then as you move up the quality ladder looking at swords side by side the better one will have a certain je ne sais quoi while the lesser example will look plain and ordinary in comparison even if it's an exceptional sword in it's own right (such as a juyo by Muramasa to borrow your example). I guess the hard part comes in when trying to compare blades from different schools/time periods/smiths. How you judge the best Kanemitsu with the best Hizen Tadayoshi I have not got to that part yet...

bunmei looks like a likely candidate, I'd be confident it's muromachi either way. I'd say have a window put in and take it from there.

Looks like it could be late kamakura from the photo's and measurements. I'd be interested on your thoughts on whether the first mekugi-ana is the original? (to me it looks like it isn't making it O-suriage and a fair bit longer originally). Also the rust on the naakago looks shinto making a shinshinto utsushi unlikely.

Shinogi-zukuri Wakizashi didn't exist before oei, so it'd have to be signed tachi-mei to be a kodachi to even have a shot at being shoshin. I've done a little research on this as I have a wakizashi dated eiwa that I can't for the life of me see why it would be gimei given the small named smith. If the workmanship matches after it's polished I may submit it to shinsa anyway to test the waters as it were.

I saw a tsuba similar to what you describe last year that unfortunately was mounted on a sword that sold for many times my budget. This is one of my favourite Tsuba I've seen and I plan to find it or one like it one day. I still have a photo: Alas I can't help with your search but they do exist

I can offer a book or tsuba as I said last year.

The sword is in Japan, why wouldn't you get modern papers on a $9000 sword if it would pass? It all depends on your confidence in your own ability to kantei this accurately. If you feel your ability is good enough buy it, if not that's what papers are for.

I'm agreeing with you lol

Sorry, I meant frustrated with myself, although not a competition I have my own internal competition and have a deep passion to know these things. Thanks for the exercise as it was enlightening, especially number 1.

This.

I think the NTHK dropped the ball on that one then. 1 and 3 are a bit atypical, 2 was just confusing with the osuriage call and 4 was spot on for early/mid kamakura. I just find it very frustrating.

It's easier to see lol. I think the aim is a dark ji, bright white line as tight as possible so it looks like ying and yang. black and white imo is the desire for the uneducated to show "it's a real samurai sword as it has a pattern" rather than looking at the artistic merit of the hamon and activities/details etc I mean, look at that hamon, it's god awful and anyone with even an ounce of artistic appreciation would run a mile.

Agreed, but with the caviat that looking at shape can get you almost there and with sugata elements such as niku etc that you can't tell from a photo and then use hada/hamon etc to either confirm or show it is a newer "utsushi" or whatever you want to call it. I do have some thoughts on these particular swords though which i find to be somewhat exceptions (which is why I think you chose them?): 1: it's a kanbun shinto shape and size with maybe a little less tapering than one would expect so definitely an oddball but I suspect there's other features that would show it to be later and maybe a one off throwback by the smith to the kanbun time period. 2: I suspected maybe not O-suriage and just slightly suriage otherwise it'd be well over 80cm so I think you'll find the 2nd mekugi-ana is the original and maybe it was unsigned from the start. The momoyama shape after all is that of a cut down kamakura tachi with maybe a little saki-sori. I don't think you'll find a single example of an 80cm+ momoyama blade and saying O-suriage may of lead people astray as my definition of O-suriage is losing the entire original nakago. 3: fair enough, the kasane is a little thick for nanbokucho but O-kissaki swords like this started in late kamakura so no complaints from me. 4: Meh, awataguchi not Rai, should of guessed when I went mid kamakura.

Congrats on the sale, it's about time as these are too good to go unsold.