Gakusee

To Geraint’s post above about item 104, I think one of the best descriptions was penned by Darcy when he described the theme here: https://yuhindo.com/goto-joshin/

Unfortunately, John, in common parlance “kitsch” means garish and tasteless, excessive and ostentatious. So, kitsch might be collectible, but it does not make it tasteful or elegant. Now, of course, we are entering the realm of personal preferences and tastes. There is not winning in that morass Sometimes, I like a bit of kitsch too, so perhaps I am a culprit too. Overall, I try to steer clear.

Can we pause here for a bit please. Could someone juxtapose the before and after photos so that we can ensure it is the same sword? It does take a looot of polishes to remove hi. Even Koto swords with polished down hi normally have remnants of the hi remaining in the ji

Kirill I do not think it is Ichimonji. The shape is later, the hamon is Oei+ (so from Oei onwards) with its slanting and crab claws. If we had better polish and detailed close-ups, views of the shinogi-ji and boshi and very importantly - hada, we might be able to say with greater certainty.

Reid How many Japanese swords are there in this museum? Perhaps we can go and visit them as To-Ken Society of GB and talk to them and evaluate the collection. We are, for example, having a members' meeting at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in mid-October to view some of the Church collection of tsuba and swords that the Ashmolean holds. On to this sword, it looks like an interesting Bizen blade in high-quality mounts and merits a closer inspection.

Thanks, James! So, two weeks ago I was having lunch in the garden of a cathedral outside of work, and saw this restoration guy refresh and maintain a brass plaque of a poet sculpture. He wiped it with with tissue, then heated it up with a Bensen burner or similar and then applied the Ren wax. I wondered why he used the burner but now understand that perhaps he did what you tried to achieve and remove any old wax residue.

Hi James Thank you for persevering and updating us! Did you manage to remove the wax without a heat gun? Does it wipe off easily only with Microfibre? Or do you need Microfibre and alcohol? Thanks

Yup, Steve the more detailed thread is here: In general, we have a lot of newcomers to this forum over the last couple of years, and a lot of the old-timers have left.....So, content gets duplicated or the same questions get asked/answered etc etc. I suppose it is normal for any forum that things are repeated in cycles. In general, though, people should try to use the search function embedded in the forum a bit more....

Look up this topic in the forum: “Taro Asano does a torture test on his sword” Apologies, do not know how to Hyperlink another forum topic on the mobile with the new software.

Well, with one word: “congratulations!”

Pre-premium and tax? That is heavy.....

Jon, there have been numerous responses to this very question and they all point to Mike Hickman Smith

I echo Rivkin here. This sword has a lot of niku (usually only JuBu and JuBi preserved blades are so intact) and too refined a jihada for what I expect of Ko-Bizen. I have handled only one Sukekane but it did it not look like it. Did the sword come with some attestation? It nevertheless looks like a great sword.

OK, apologies for hurting your feelings, Chishiki Mark, but I am somewhat weary of many people not making an effort on this forum, constantly requesting to be spoon-fed and preferring someone else to do the work for them. Be that as it may, as I have a bit of free time, please refer to the Japanese-language version of the same website https://www.touken.or.jp/shinsa/fee.html and right-click and press translate (depending on your browser). This is what I have done, so the translation is linguistically imperfect but semantically clear. You are right, together with Curran, that the NBTHK Honbu often forgets about us gaijin, rarely updates the English info and also does not include in English nearly half of the otherwise available info that they have in Japanese. Disappointing it is indeed, and for those who assume that all info will be spoon-fed to us foreigners in English well, unfortunately it is not the case. It is not the case with some high-end dealer websites (with some exceptions), it is not the case with the NBTHK - just the basic info is served, it is not the case with the rest of Japan (we are more of an afterthought , but do not take it personally.) For some reason the headings in the table did not copy across properly - in the table below, the left fee is for members and the right - for non-members. You will see that the fees correspond to your tosogu charges and also I confirm that for one of my items, which got TH in July, I was charged the fee from this table as well. 'Save' herein below means 'preservation', denoted by 'hozon', and 'important' is the translation of 'juyo'. Again, these are Google Translate defaults. Examination fee ■ The examination fee varies depending on the examination result. ■ The examination fee will be stated in the result notification sent after the examination. ■ If the examination result is "pending", the examination fee is free. All examination fees include tax. Preservation / special preservation examination For save-only application Examination outcome Membership fee Non-membership fee Pass Sword / sword fittings \ 25,000 ¥ 27,000 Sword fittings ¥ 17,000 ¥ 19,000 failure Sword / sword fittings ¥ 10,000 ¥ 12,000 Sword fittings ¥ 7,000 ¥ 9,000 When applying for special preservation only (I already have a preservation certificate) Examination outcome Membership fee Non-membership fee Pass Sword / sword fittings \ 35,000 ¥ 37,000 Sword fittings ¥ 30,000 ¥ 32,000 failure Sword / sword fittings ¥ 10,000 ¥ 12,000 Sword fittings ¥ 7,000 ¥ 9,000 When applying for preservation / special preservation at the same time Examination outcome Membership fee Non-membership fee Save: Fail Sword / sword fittings \ 10,000 ¥ 12,000 Sword fittings ¥ 7,000 ¥ 9,000 Save: Pass Special save: Current status Sword / sword fittings ¥ 35,000 ¥ 39,000 Sword fittings ¥ 24,000 ¥ 28,000 Save: Pass Special Save: Pass Sword / sword fittings ¥ 55,000 ¥ 59,000 Sword fittings ¥ 44,000 ¥ 48,000 * If you pass the preservation examination, the examination fee is the total of the preservation (pass) and special preservation examination fees. * If you pass both preservation and special preservation, you will get a discounted rate only if you apply at the same time. 　(Discount amount: sword / sword fittings \ 5,000, sword fittings \ 3,000) Examination of important swords, etc. Examination outcome Membership fee Non-membership fee Pass Sword / sword fittings \ 220,000 \ 240,000 Sword fittings \ 120,000 \ 140,000 Current status Sword / sword fittings ¥ 21,000 ¥ 41,000 Sword fittings ¥ 15,000 ¥ 35,000 Examination of specially important swords, etc. Examination outcome Membership fee Non-membership fee Pass Sword / sword fittings \ 340,000 \ 360,000 Sword fittings \ 240,000 \ 260,000 Current status Sword / sword fittings ¥ 31,000 ¥ 51,000 Sword fittings ¥ 21,000 ¥ 41,000

Come on guys, for people seriously interested in the hobby you should know this website by heart : https://www.touken.or.jp/english/aboutus.html Shinsa prices are there

Sorry, but this does not look Bizen to me.....Bungo is a different call to Bizen

Juyo 51 = 2005. Also, there is writing on the back of the certificate. And also, there is the setsumei.

The Juyo paper usually has two places where you can see the year. One is the perforated number in the upper part of the paper (where you can see something starting with 16 and then the actual year starting 200…). The other place is the Japanese text (third column from left) starting with 平成 and followed by the number 16 (16th year of the Heisei era, which started in 1989). The equation for years is: starting Japanese year of Japanese era+ number of the year - 1 = Christian nomenclature. So 1989+16-1= 2004. More specifically, the certificate says 15th day of tenth month, so 15 Oct that year.

I agree in principle. One should always approach dealer certificates with a large dose of salt.

To me, it would have and was. If you buy Rai, you want proper Rai - flawless hada, nice jinie, beautiful hamon….. Here there were remnants of some nice jinie and chikei here and there but overall disappointing

Thanks, Michael. I looked at it, initially dismissed it as gimei but then some doubts crept in that there is a bit of a chance of daisaku mei. But the condition of the jigane was not good.

How much did the tanto go for?

I have red, bronze and green I think. All the same quality but different sizes. Top notch

Ok, folks. Let us get to the point here. This is not nijuba but Aoi Art’s wishful interpretation of the hamon. They are often, let us say, “creative” in the way the depict hamon. The rather crude nie kuzure is symptomatic of lack of control as it is not consistent along the habuchi.

Is this rust in the monouchi or has been inserted in a flame? If the latter, will have lost its hamon in that area.