Rivkin

Wow, thanks a lot! I might have photographed this one... The archive is getting messy I am afriad.

Second that it does look like late Muromachi Kongobye.

Unfortunately I can't really see much in Sadamune's photographs, either date. Jigane is probably tight, bright and consistent but we see what amounts to a glimpse of that.

You guys are doing some great jobs with databases of signed swords. I would presume Jussi is leading the charge? Two quests I am still at the beginning of is recognizing the northern signatures and understanding the earliest Bizen.

According to one "Mogusa theory", this Jubi is actually gimei. Pro-Mogusa thinking goes like: a. There should be a common school/progenitor which unites all Yamato offshoots, Hoki, Naminohira, Houju, Bizen Tomonari etc. b. Mogusa is well documented in historical sources and there are records suggesting it was his descendants who came to Bizen etc., but there are no signed blades. c. It is because he did not sign with his name! What did he use? One of the possibilities he used a "title". d. "Northern sword" collectors are weird, they keep most signed ones at TH without submitting higher. e. The earliest generations signed (1070-1170) probably do not exist, the earliest one that exists is likely early-mid Kamakura. They are not dated.

Antiques don't have a well defined price, or liquidity. Every auction generates stories how this item was for sale for 50k for a year with not a lot of interest, now it sold for 300k. It found the right buyer. Even if we just consider some abstract "value", people collect for different reasons. For myself its probably 40% interest in solving mysteries, which swords generate a plenty, 20% militarism, and 40% aesthetics. But there is a considerable number of people whose collecting is guided by specific historic or ethnic interest, or (a very considerable portion) because they believe it marks them as part of the elite, or because they believe they'll make money on it. Accordingly to some the fact that this maker was collected by a Daimyo, or that he was generally well regarded - is important. Knowing its Juyo - is important. Its "elite" by definition, in the very least. For me Juyo is like you took a perfectly good blade, added spoilers and now want a lot more money... Hm.... From purely aesthetic prospective many very high ranking smiths are not only associate with great blades. They also have a lot of bad blades. Plus condition. Plus intrinsic ambiguity with attribution. You end up with something that is very attractive to those who want to be the elite (big name), but aesthetically is so-so. Which is one of the reasons I tend to be allergic to any approach where a maker is "scored" by some formula or table, or the emphasis is made on how many Juyo he has. Plenty of high class early Kamakura smiths for whom there are couple of known blades. What's the pass ratio? How many were published-Meibutsu-whatever? Is it even in Fujishiro? By default I would take signed Mogusa over Kanemitsu anytime of the day, but that's just highlights my mystery-historical and aesthetic based preferences. Others will think very differently - and their price strategy will also be different.

By "research" you probably mean reading books or the internet, and the resulting statement above is kind of .... Its something who might own Suketaka would come up with. Because Suketaka did not pioneer or spearheaded much if anything, both he and Masahide at first followed Sukehiro, only Masahide essentially made Sukehiro forging the arch-nemesis of all good and noble in swords, continuing to more Soshu or Bizen inspired works, Suketaka remained where he was...

Nice! I would think fully developed, periodic, profound ayasugi hada is basically post 1490, with o kissaki this one I would say might approach Tensho.

Title is just a title, not a nobility. Think of it as incorporating protective spirits of a province, rather than as a lord (lit. defender) of it. Its more esoteric in roots, i.e. there were some swordsmiths and actually fittings makers who were outright capable of conferring protection or invisibility (similar things). For a long time however bushi was a blood distinction. You had to descend from the north, from people who went away with the first Minamotos, or at least claim so. Again, Japan is a society where a paper from the current Shogun testifying it is so carries more practical weight than most historical documents. You could be adopted and thus become samurai, but it was not too common, if only because you have a system where the clan lives off some income which is held officially by one person. And in Edo period court standing on inheritance claims against such adoptees became a bit more stringent. P.S. Suketaka is a major smith, but goes in the background of nidai Sukehiro whom he imitated. Sukehiro, Sukenao, Suketaka.

Hamon is exactly periodic sinusoid with accented nioi-guchi which is visible everywhere at any angle. Most likely Showa (WWII) stuff with brutally cleaned nakago.

I don't know, its kind of two different worlds - people who place kinzogan and museums which drill numbers to make sure they don't get lost. The latter happens when a curator dies (its a lifelong appointment by default), they hire new one, next day he comes to department head and asks politely - where is the actual collection? Because the storage box is empty but there is a bunch of stuff without tags on dead curator's table. The next day, everything qualifying as portable-walkable Michelangelo gets a little number drilled on its ass. Or feet.

70% of swords in museums have either chiseled or permanent ink written catalogue number on them. Yes, Goto Teijo tsuba with white number across the plate.

Yeap, something strongly Mino related, probably early shinto.

I personally think putting kinzogan was always being a bit nonchalant with a historic item, but people actually do it today. The thinking is that if you want to box in NBTHK into giving you exactly what you want or failing the item completely, do nijimei kinzogan. On the border Yukimitsu/Taima - put in "Yukimitsu". It has been far less uncommon in the past 100 years than most think.

Not tosogu guy, but Aoi piece looks like Meiji period work or closeabout, not modern, not old. Fairly decent piece for the style.

99% of what you see in oshigata is arbitrary drawing. Blade's outline and nakago signature are supposed to be an honest imprint, but that's not what people who study oshigata are really interested in. At best you get a decent hamon outline. If you know school's work you can mentally reconstruct the jigane and the hamon, if you don't its probably confusing infinitely more than helping.

Quite possibly late Muromachi piece, ubu, unsigned - therefore not a great restoration investment.

Feels like some kind of Bizen blade but many pictures are needed to be more precise or certain of anything.

There is an issue that only handful (truly handful) of blades today have continuous history established prior to 1550. So if the name is older than that, whether its indeed the same blade or not is often unproveable. Sometimes it gets funnier - until Meiji it was one (or many) blades that were associated with the name, today its one - but its not obvious that the one selected for the role Meiji and later is actually the best fit...

I see... stormy night. Someone is.... looking at yahoo Japan... I see... package... its in white carton box... there is some writing on it... Tsunahiro attribution depends on who attributed it. NTHK might use it as a synonym for better class sue-Soshu, but generally its considered quite a good attribution for mumei blade... Could this blade be by Tsunahiro? Yes. Its probably from 1560-1580. That would be what, sandai? Nevertheless if you submit it to NBTHK its very likely will not be Tsunahiro. His best works have quite good jigane and also stayed rather true to nie when many were trying to do Soshu in ko nie or even nioi - and his nie execution is rather refined, whether its first second or third generation, at least compared to others. Here jigane is tired, though it was not bad it was not first rate, and the work why very shiny is not the first tier and hitatsura does not cover entire blade and its coarse in a way. You'll probably get like Shimada as attribution.

Surprisingly, any Bizen and Soshu name was seen worthy of gimei.

Late Muromachi or Kambun shinto are default attributions if its not Showa or shinshinto... Basically 90% of the remaining blades will fall into those categories. Sugata here is kind of generic. The nakago shape with its width, no sori... that existed for a long time and made its appearance now and then. Nakago ana is a bit off-circle. Its a good indicator its koto. Patina... I just dealt with Nambokucho tanto who had such patina. I've seen shinto blades with darker. So nothing conclusive, but early shinto-late Muromachi is within realistic. It has considerable ware all along the blade, it looks like masame is strong here... hamon has some hotsure, so most likely this is something in Yamato line. It does not have typical deep thin kaeri which we see on a lot of work like Owari. The only factor that remains is yasurime. And this one is a bit garbled, but it almost look higaki... or takanoha. Higaki or takanoha with earlier work would tent towards Yamato, with later towards Mino. If its not higaki, I would lean towards something like Bungo.

Makes my life harder because its not what I expected. Why these guys have to be like that... Its not enough to make any definitive judgement, unfortunately. But as a wild guess, end of Muromachi, early Edo. School... Bungo.

I generally find anti-Muromachi sentiment prominent among many collectors to be both understandable and strange. There was a ton of crap forged between 1500 and 1550, the kind of crap the jigane is so coarse it barely holds together. There are blades of true mastery - more during Oei to Onin, but some of Tensho work of almost zero level names was very-very impressive.

I will admit to liking Japanese dealers. Yes, certain nonchalant description writing can be next level compared to western ones. There are no guarantees. Communications can be edgy. You want to pair koshirae with a blade from different dealers, and as a rule they hate each other and proud to make impossible. But I am yet to see a western dealer (though youngest generation shows great promise) who would close the knowledge gap compared to upper grade Japanese ones. Or have an actual impressive personal collection NFS. Which again speaks to personal knowledge, re: ability to pickup the magic guntos that matter. Yes, Japanese dealers have "make money" attitude, and they have solid acceptance of the fact they are traders by profession. Frankly, dealing in some loveable items and making money - why can't one be proud of this profession? Comparing this with a certain (common) type of Western dealers... I actually wish they would accept being professional dealers, and be more concerned about the knowledge gap, rather than investing into building a brand of a warrior-scholar who is not doing this for the money.