Rivkin

I can't see the yasurime in details, but for example, Echizen Seki. One of a few more or less generic possibilities.

Unfortunately the photographs were taken very poorly. This is one of Japanese setups with a fixed box and a fixed light which is however positioned in the way it accents hadori but not the hamon. It however also catches a bit of hada so it sort of has appearance of a real sword, but in reality you can't see anything at all. That this is 2023 session might mean something, or it might not. It is sort of like getting an award in Physics - "we did not give awards to Europeans for a long time... We need to support this topic because they are facing hardships... this guy was coming up for awards many times but never got any". All are valid and present considerations in all such "competitions", and in the sword world the first thing to consider is what were the Norinaga attributed blades that passed, which more or less defines the range. In regards to school's standing, the first thing to check is whether there is an upper bound on attributions. For example, the best Taima can become Yukimitsu, the best Echizen Tametsugu can move Shizu, Go, Norishige, even Masamune. Shikkake is however relatively well defined because its periodic gunome or alike hamon is not common for the period. At times it goes Shizu or Yamato Shizu or Mino Kanenobu but its not very common. So in principle you can have a very strong Shikkake blade, and there are some. Overall while it does not have strong TJ potential as a school, at the same time it has a good TH to Juyo pass rate, so the worksmanship is significantly tighter compared to say Tegai. Aoe is not Yamato, its in fact one of the greatest schools of Nihonto which however produced quite a few trashy blades. So did Bizen, but somehow it did not hurt its reputation nearly as much. In regards to Hosho - even tighter work, daito are rare while Shikkake is mostly daito school, I would rate Hosho higher but mostly because Hosho aesthetic is more subtle and classic. Senjuin is a catchall for pre-end-of-Kamakura period Yamato blades. There are absolute top tier items, and there are quite a few trashy ones.

First, its probably being offered for sale in Japan. Second.... its probably earlier than Kambun but later than Tembun. Most likely shinto though. Hamon is not seen, only hadori, so its either not nie heavy, or the polish was done quickly by a dealer.

Both are interesting blades but what is shown is plain darkness. Nakago, overall, macro of activity.

If only we had Verdi to honor the tragedy of "who has dislikened me".

I admit I did not notice the description. If its only the Ukrainian collection I don't expect anything interesting.

Almost in all cases in the world where you have a sword supposedly taken from some defeated general, if there is detailed information about it, turns out by the time commanders decided "oh, it would be nice to collect a few blades to present them as sign of our victory", everything slightly worthy has already been cleaned out (Tipu Sultan's swords being a good example) and the only way to obtain a presentable piece was either from a guarded and locked arsenal (if such existed) or you simply had to buy one from one of the traders who followed the army. It is actually not at all uncommon that the bought sword was clearly not carried by the enemy - but was simply the nicest one a seller had on hand. Nice koshirae with a long sword would not remain sticking around from the ground for long. Especially since it has not been really a Japanese tradition to present defeated men's sword (though surrendering a sword was normal), you could keep it for yourself, what you had to do is cut off the head, take the helmet, and then present the pair. What you see consistently in Nanbokucho period letters is if you wanted something more than participation award you had to either charge first or kill someone important, and it had to be witnessed. So you waited until you see someone on your side in a fancy helmet (potential witness) and then hoped to get a fancy helmet from the other side. So for a leader there was an obligation to wear a fancy helmet or otherwise people would simply not move. Conversely, everyone with a collected helmeted head insisted this was enemy's general, so many well known people were "killed" over and over, sometimes even displayed headwise at the same time on different bridges. And people committed to taking a head in battle would often paint their faces or their hair to make it easier for witnesses to confirm. "Kabuki" has some very unusual roots, but again you actually see this tradition now and then in other parts of the world as well. Disposal of bodies and final scavenging was however a different matter. Something until rather late if organized, done by "unclean" castes, tanners and others who lived next to rivers in larger cities. They also served as executioners during Nanbokucho, as pre-Muromachi it was considered an unclean, non-Buddhist profession. They also prepared heads for display, supposedly the neck had to be arranged in a certain way. There are couple of nice Ph.d. works on the subject - thankfully Japanese is one of a few traditions that is quite document and literature based. By comparison if you take Persian or Ottoman or Indian sources, usually it simply ends to great confusion.

An interesting blade which is easy to appreciate. One suspicion which is hard to confirm without seeing it in 3D there could have been a signature on the nakago... orikaeshi mei or something else. This was cleaned out. Might have been "Kuniyuki", since it does remind a bit.

Probably Dmitry Pechalov is involved, I did not speak with him for a long time though. If he is, there can be some very nice swords.

Very personal observations: I would argue that much of "what is proper polish" reflects not so much the difference in blades as difference in collectors. I have seen people who like "Honami polish", mostly Japanese, who argue it is the proper nihonto aesthetic and if you don't like it you are a garish foreigner. Is Fujishiro better than Honami Nishu, and how do they stack against Kenji Mishima? I know my answer to these questions, but I heard exactly the opposite opinions, in some cases expressed by people significantly more experienced. Specific example, controversial one, is how does nioiguchi needs to be accented. Quite a few who studied part time under Nagayama react strongly when they see a nioiguchi where you can see it over long, like 5 inch, segment rather than about 1 inch long area, and even that at very large view angles. They immediately say its acid etched, or its not a proper Japanese polish etc. But then there are even upper grade Meiji-Gendai blades that sort of come out like this in almost any polish. Another thing is overall quality of polish varied a lot in the past 150 years. I've seen quite a few blades which were not polished ever since 1850-1900 and I was actually very impressed by the work. On the other hand some of the supposedly "really good" works from 1930s-1950s left me wondering. Better grade "Sashikomi" from 2000s and "sashikomi" today can be very different beasts. Could it be that "anti-sashikomi" feelings common 20 years ago were a reaction to some inferior early Showa polishing jobs? I don't have a strong enough experience to confirm or deny, but maybe someone else does.

Interesting piece. The nakago, the overall, and the macro of activities (which are clearly visible here) would tell us a lot. Otherwise, yes, its authentic nihonto, quite probably[?] post 1520, but within this range it can be many things. Hamon has a certain Edo period vibe, but hada wants to look like koto. But for now its all a wild guess - with better pictures we'll narrow it down to something rather specific.

Yeap, the issue with hadori is hadori suffocation, common in Japan, problem with sashikomi there is no per se single standard and what you get in one place is considered unacceptable in another.

Based on couple of things I would guess shinshinto or later purposefully made to appear old, but its a guess.

Very much looking forward to the event and will be bringing a lot of stuff.

Interesting! Might be the polish indeed suppressed some hamon activities.

On the road, so out of my books. The most important photograph is missing - overall blade. No pointing in the air, just lying down and carefully photographed making sure everything is visible. Measurement of kasane would help, just in case. It seems to have little sori, which might suggest its 1350-1421 kind of ish, it has a chance to be shoshin I think. I will even add my gut feeling its a strong chance to be shoshin. If it is, its actually a valuable blade.

Acid wash in general can't accent jihada, so it was polished. In regards to the hamon - is it shinshinto?

I don't know the history of this one as well as others, but a conservative way to look at it, I guess, is that after shinsa it probably passed through multiple hands with a question "is it worth a polish". That the collective thinking came up negative despite this being a tanto (not a huge investment) is concerning. Optimistic look is I know couple of cases when someone respected loudly stated that something is gimei and after being sold off on this basis it was accepted as shoshin the next year.

I actually really liked this one!

It has very sharp, well defined hamon contours, as if drawn with a pencil. Really old "ashi" tend not to looks this way, this is more like Bungo.

Wonderful. I wanted to say Go and Fukuoka Ichimonji before I've read the descriptions.

Signature in faint strokes close to nakago is usually koto, I would have imagined it is not Oei, but anywhere between 1470 and 1570 is a possibility, personally I would be most comfortable with 1520-1550, but its just a guess. Unfortunately none of this narrows it down to a specific Shigemitsu.

Entire nakago, boshi, etc. etc.

Very poor pictures and problematic setup. Modern cast chinese tsuba. Tsuka looks somewhat better, but again pictures are bad. Very poor yasurime on the sword. Sharp, intense contours of nakago. Two options - circa 1945 production/possibly memento circa 1946, or entirely modern fake.

Modern, koshirae does not even fit in places, married to butchered Muromachi (?) blade, plus shill bidding. Horror.