Rivkin

Can't estimate the sugata with such angled photos. The nakago has a strong Kaga vibe, probably Edo period. To pinpoint it further we need - full nakago without habaki. Full blade without camera distortions.

Hard to be certain, and knowing kasane might help but I would say its Muromachi, not the most common sugata, i.e. wide and straight with some tapering towards the tip (overpolish, don't know), but I think this can be as early as 1450 to as late as 1520, and I favor the earlier date, i.e. pre 1510. Looks too thick for Nambokucho though. For the school - hazy suguha hamon, profound wavy nagare, coarse jigane. Naminohira or something alike. Sometimes you see this with Fuyuhiro, Kaifu etc.etc.. Characteristic nakago shape which by memory I don't remember which school it would match, i.e. with such aggressive taper you almost want to say Hasebe... and there are very coarse Hasebe with suguha, so theoretically Oei+ generation might be a match, but I don't think so.

There are used to be a couple of guys here - a dealer and a tokyo resident who would respond with extremely vile personal attacks to anyone questioning papers. Reasons are obvious - papers are dealers' bread. Without them its hard to sell anything. If only because the buyer will come back in a month infuriated because he had shown it to "John, who everyone agrees is an expert" and received an appraisal that its saiha with multiple hagire. Plus the majority of dealers like to cosplay deep scholars, and without papers it would become apparent they have not the slightest idea what they are dealing with. So papers are here to stay permanently. Their quality... I used to enjoy taking a highly papered blade and submitting it to the first level papers to see what alternative pops up. Obviously choosing examples where alternative attribution is possible and probable. The last Juyo I submitted to NBTHK, NTHK and NTHK NPO came back as Bungo, Echizen Seki and Kaga. Within the last five years unfortunately I had other similar experiences. With Miyano san and a few others on shinsa panel I had pretty good idea how they are judging blades, the modern teams - it feels like a lottery. At times it feels like they are down to like ten bucket attributions for the entire koto. There is a substantial variability session to session. Every organization progresses from people who work because they are fanatics of what they do, to people who joined because it promises decent money, security and social status. In the first case the organization derives its fame from the individuals, in the second - individuals are defined by their position in the organization.

Looks like a well known dealer of 500-1500$ blades without papers and usually with some issues is becoming very popular. Not much is seen, but the date is most likely shinto - the steel has shinto feel, nakago condition, kanji writing is consistent, beefy blade with some curvature. Could be something else, but my feeling it is shinto. By default little known shinto signatures are genuine. They are not trying to be something well or even semi-well known. Plenty of those names are not in Meikan, though it does tend to be relatively well aligned with shinto names, its 1400-1500 period where a solid portion of smiths are missing alltogether.

Taper would be more in line with Kambun or taking into account its not really straight with more like 1640-1630.. or with earlier wakizashi, but then taper is usually combined with koshi-zori. So I would say 1640 is probably the latest date here. But kissaki and hamon are more consistent with earlier preferences.

Non-traditional polish. Typically a grouping of two togari, or a mixture of one and two is a characteristic late Muromachi style which was done at both Mino and Bizen... Mino tends to be odd groupings, but even that is unreliable. sugu boshi can throw towards Edo period, but it was practiced by Mino at the end of Muromachi. Sugata is indistinctive and can be many things, but largish kissaki is also consistent with end of Muromachi/early Edo. So probably the very end of Muromachi/early Edo... I would probably go with Mino-related on this one.

Its a relatively large wakizashi with a lot of sori, curvature is not koshi-zori (sometimes you see large waki early but they tend koshi-zori), so its likely somewhat late. 1500? Nobukuni lineage did make those, nakago can be, signature can be (large squarish kanji), but Nobukuni signature is one of the most faked in koto so need to look at work.

Thanks, might be able to attend. Are they fun or its more about listening to 2hr lecture in German?

Yes, its most likely Edo, and polished a bit aggressively and untraditionally, which complicates things. Feels a bit 1650-1700. Would be interesting to confirm sugu boshi.

It looks like either Kambun shinto or late Muromachi with altered sugata, insignificant signature most likely - its not worth much. I would keep it as is. Would appreciate no further postings here of the great knowledge of "someone affiliated with nihonto who looked at the blade".

This is an unusually straight, which is usually an argument for the later Edo. However the signature is written rather crudely, typically if its a minor Etchu smith from shinshinto you do expect the signature to be a bit more consistent and elaborate with near constant pressure. Its also close to the mune which is not the most typical Edo period's placement. On the other hand, late Muromachi Uda smiths often used such placement and their signatures are using largish kanji with typically somewhat uneven strokes in both pressure and width, some of which do come out as highly visible triangles (here). The tapering is also more pronounced compared to shinshinto's cane swords or loyalists. Suspect its end of Muromachi piece which might have been even straightened at some point to get into cane. It is possible to do such things.

Great projects, has been done a few times with different levels of completion and different outcomes. Once in full with consequent secret sale to subscribers, once half-full on purpose (setsumei were not translated) and once with full translation but of a few volumes. Good luck!

One can use a handheld camera-microscope this days for even higher magnification.. its fun, but as a learning instrument its not particularly rewarding. The issue is that most information is contained not in some secret structure, but in how the steel reacts to light at different angles. For example, if the appearance does not change much its a very strong argument its not koto. If one does photography for a long time one learns there are 5-6 angles one needs to always check, and Muromachi blades will generally react differently than, for example, Kamakura. And one is going to see additional richness in the structure. With super-high magnification its very difficult to do that. Here is "macro" shot, but the trick was to position the light source just right. Lens etc was strictly a secondary importance. BTW hada here is a strong kantei point which in principle allows you to identify the maker.

I admit to being old fashioned and more so, old and white, when it comes to my tastes. I don't care that much for who is nth generation polisher or who got promoted into some position. First reflects birth, second reflects loyalty. Even prizes have their limits - there are authors like Remarque or Tolstoy. And there are Pulitzer prize winners. Expert should earn the title. By predicting things or offering valid, well known, published arguments. In my book: I strongly value Brian Czernega as a general kantei expert as well as that on certain materials and techniques. Markus Sesko is the best when it comes to studies of old Japanese texts. Dmitry Pechalov is very good when it comes to researching certain genealogies and a relationship between the swords and the collecting community.

I would find some polisher ready to confine/remove red rust for not a lot of money. This is not a blade which will pay off to repolish, but a shallow red rust can be helped (usually).

It seems to be in ok polish and the spots can be addressed by a polisher individually. Jigane is nice and looks like shinshinto work.

Every forum I've been to unfortunately has the same pattern - me being almost the solo voice who has some idea what the items presented are and a dozen or so people who daily post that its impossible to understand anything unless its presented to "experts". Such is life.

I don't see here papers clearly stating its Nambokucho Masahiro. Maybe they are, maybe they are not. Its (highly) unusual for mumei attributions NBTHK mentioning exact era, especially Meitoku (short one) in Nanbokucho. One can get more general attribution to Nanbokucho though. On the other hand, dealers often write Meitoku to indicate the item is still Nanbokucho. Default attribution Masahiro is certainly Muromachi generations. Nanbokucho work is actually quite rare.

They seem to be most fairly late and more expensive pieces are probably Meiji, some executed in accordance to better known motifs, but the hand is different from the originals. Some signed ones are a bit eff... Seems to be one person's taste clearly governing the collection. Very nice and very representative of Meiji style.

Think kasane, work consistent... However its quite possibly Muromachi generation. First generation has very fine and prominent masame, nice jigane.

Yes, late Muromachi does come to mind.

After the war started for a while there were absolutely no direct flights from most EU countries and I had to receive and ship probably a dozen packages for various collectors. Most countries had to use a connect flight through Dubai or something of the sort, sometimes with a stop in Thailand or alike. If one has to fly over Emirates or Thailand one might as well stop on the way, the economics of fly through all the way till Tokyo makes sense only for a very major route... Even today I suspect unless you are using one of the largest European airports there are no direct flights and shipping anything interesting has its issues. I don't know about weapons side of it, knowing Japanese sensitivities it might be an issue, but then again - many EU collectors do suffer or suffered. Which helps us the US sellers! Weapons-related are things like limits imposed on shipping to Poland of large quantities of things like Chinese drones or certain chemicals.

That looks like shinshinto. For whatever reason Suishinshi Masahide rendered Hosho style in this way with drastically different steel layers and everyone else in shinshinto seemed to follow. It reacts well to white light (directly from above), reacts well to sidelight, its relatively insensitive to all conditions. Challenges begin when its Kamakura, complex utsuri, nioi based hamon with plenty of ashi.

Don't know about the signature but horimono looks too crude. One can try using one of NTHK shinsa in the US or have someone submit it to NBTHK in Japan.

Not really except no other sources of light within 4m from the blade. It helps with contrast a lot. Ashi on shinshinto are capturable with side light, you might put it a bit towards the mune though, but still directing it at the blade.