J Reid

And I'm sure Mike was lingering in the background to advise them of care and etiquette etc. At $35-40k it probably was a juyo candidate (or juyo already). I don't think he would just walk away without making sure everyone knew how to properly love something so precious and important.

Or even worse... chumly hahaha

I would like to believe in my heart that Dana white would quickly educate himself on the topic and show the swords the same respect and care that mastering any martial art would require. He did say he's building a display room. I imagine with his budget these swords will find their way to a new home, in a glass case with LED lights, high security, well oiled and hands off display. I honestly have faith in him. We all started somewhere. Better him than Rick. Haha

Heres another seller. User ID is a common Chinese name and he is located in China.https://www.ebay.ca/sch/changtian-sword/m.html?item=292429705656&hash=item44162b31b8%3Ag%3AGoQAAOSwK6pab9xd&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562... .I saw one of these blades the other day with a sort of ayasugi hada. Here: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/292428365994 . I was shocked. Definitely suspicious. These are high level fakes specifically meant to fool novice collectors. Definitely coming from the same place that komonjo is getting his. I asked him where he got them and he said that he was getting them in bulk on consignment from a dealer in Japan who buys them at auction in bundles. I don't buy that though. Here is Komonjo (Mike Yamaguchi) response to me. edit: seller says he is in the US but if you check the profile ebay says he's based in CHINA.

^^

Showa22 is a known shill bidder and you will never get a deal on anything he lists. He has accounts with high feedback that he uses to bid up his items. He had been a dealer on eBay for many years and has sold thousands of swords..

Guys... never do irreparable damage to your swords just to "confirm" something. Find another way... As found condition and/or restoration only, right?

Definitely a bargain. Low price tag, and one of the better yoshimitsu examples one could own... =JEALOUS

Such a beautiful sword. I've always been very fond of Ono yoshimitsu's work. He is very deserving of the title mukansa as his swords are perfect. Last one I saw was around 30k USD. If I had to take a guess, with the market as it is now, this one will go for somewhere between 18k-25k. Selling this early in the year is always difficult and usually you'll take a hit..

https://m.ebay.com/itm/WwII-Japanese-Army-officers-samurai-sword-old-antique-dragon/112782186099?hash=item1a42579673:g:8g0AAOSwLwBabnoc ..enjoy

Thanks for the kind words, Rob. I'm glad you're happy with your sword.

I second that! Good buy.

I love that wet appearance of the steel on these Tsuba. Very rich. The designs are also quite lovely. I would say the sakura impressions are a technique not seen everyday. On my watch list

Agreed. IMO.. The blade must be good enough for juyo submission to even be considered good enough for submitting for tokubetsu hozon. However, once it passes tokubetsu hozon its a whole new ball game for juyo. Darcy has gone in depth about passing juyo many times before.

As far as I understand, in order to pass tokubetsu hozon, the blade needs to be an above average work along with all of the general requirements. This is a nice blade, but to be honest, I see the hada has some somewhat slag-ish areas and the polish is good, but also -average. The polishers overall skill is detected by his burnishing marks under the habaki. Could affect the outcome. imo.

the term for this practice is called "drop shipping" and is perfectly legal. However when the product goes from manufacturers goods to 1 of a kind antique objects is when the idea becomes gray.. may be immoral but yet- not illegal.

Larger sword is a type 98 shin gunto with a mismatched saya from a dress sword. Unsigned. Kind of looks like one of the earlier traditionally made gunto blades made for kyu-gunto. Very basic working blade. But more likely a showato. The other sword is a shobu-Zukuri wakizashi with good looking koshirae and most likely Early-mid Edo. Signed kanetsune. Nice finds !!

Interesting and decent blade deserving of preservation none the less.

It looks to be shin-shinto to me and could possibly have been made by the kanehira 兼平 working 1848-1860. From what I've read in Markus's nihon-Shinshinto-shi, 兼平 was an early signature of Kanetora 兼虎, son & pupil of Masao (Kiyomaros brother). This blade seems to match the described workmanship of Kanetora. Unfortunately I don't have an example to compare to.

Very interesting (and rare) indeed.

It looks like Yamashiro hasebe school work.. nanbokucho..

Nthk Shinsa and if it passes- polish it. Will hold market value without high papers, in my opinion.

The only way they can change this is if the government pays master smiths monthly assistance per apprentice in order to supply wages. The apprentices don't make money because even the masters struggle to make ends meet. They should consider doing this if the tradition is struggling. It honestly wouldn't be too much in the bigger picture. The structure of the apprenticeship now is as it should be in order to guarantee that the quality and craftsmanship of nihonto carries on and does not slip as the times change. That would be even more tragic than the tradition ending in its entirety.

I didn't know this man. But from what I've read.. He was in love with the sword.. as we all are. The spirit of the samurai coursed through his veins. He must have felt that something had happened in his life, in his soul, that was so painful that he wanted to die.... but with honour. As sad as this is... I feel there is a bit of beauty in it as well. I hope my words do not seem disrespectful to anyone here.. I just feel like as much as I don't understand why he did it, I can at least understand how he chose to do it. I can understand why the samurai held this ritual in such a high belief and so deeply embedded into their spirituality. All that anyone can hope for now is that maybe one day.. his loved ones can understand this the way he did. May this man rest in peace.

I'm surprised it received tokubetsu Hozon with a flaw like that..