Rivkin

Lets actually add the sayagaki's description: The forging structure is an itame that tends to nagare towards the ha and ji-nie appears. The hardening is a nie-laden midareba that is composed of notare and that is mixed with gunome, ashi, and sunagashi, kinsuji, and yubashiri that are interwoven with the hada. The nioiguchi is bright and clear and the bōshi runs out as yakitsume.

Width can be ascertained from the tape measure, though with some difficulty, but I am quite a bit lazy to put tape in both directions. This blade however is a great example of shijo kantei's limitations. Tanobe san writes in his description that bohsi is yakitsume. On one side the kaeri is indeed almost absent, there is sort of just flame of hakkikake extending along the mune, but on the other side there is kaeri. Took me 10 minutes playing with lights to detect, but its there. Very thin but actually reasonably (but not too) long. Kasane is not too informative here, but what you are stricken to discover in hand is that the blade has almost no niku. Its in perfect condition but no niku. Very light and the center of mass is towards the nakago. Utsuri - well there are areas much darker than others, but they are also chikei-rich. Can it be called utsuri - hm....

All are welcome - we have at least two more attributions to go through! Negative on Shikkake.

It is "typical", the issue is how this group of smiths is attributed, which creates a strong potential for alternative interpretations. The blade has 4 attributions, all somewhat different, issued by: Honami Tenrai Honami Koson NBTHK Tanobe san The attribution Yamato Shizu is cited by Tanobe san as a possible alternative. My congratulations - it is by no means an easy blade. But the main attribution is different.

There are obviously those enjoying the proper type of kantei. The shijo comics released by the mainstream organizations. Yet I know there are those hungry for the crack feeling of kantei by photo. It must be illegal! It cannot be done! Only the shijo can capture the true secret of the nihonto! Yet we just can't stop ourselves. Again and again we must feel the stream of image bytes flowing into our system. Today I present to you the blade so controversial, in NBTHK journal no less it was stated that this type should not be used for a judged kantei competition! Whether in shijo or in hand, it shall remain a forbidden fruit! But I am sure real crackheads will not be stopped from guessing by such cowardly words! Go ahead, enjoy the show. Who will get the first atari? I will add that on the other side the kaeri is not nearly as easy to observe. First image is probably the key. Tape is included in the overall photograph for dimensions.

The thread is obviously not controversial enough. The first rule of going to any sword club, Japan, US or whatever if you own really high paper blade - bring one. Show it to club's senseis with a shaky hand and a begging voice - "could you help me with my sword". You'll be told its Muromachi. Not a bad blade. Real samurai stuff. A short lecture. Then in innocent voice add "I got what you call... papers? for it". Take it out. In every major religious institution there are folks patrolling in search of neophytes. "I saw you praying alone... We usually don't do this here... Do you know why? Do you actually know the real meaning of prayer, as taught by Him?" The mentor (who obviously denies such status out of modesty, for he is but a lowly student of Him - the Exalted Hermitian Sage of sacred living), is willing to part with his knolwedge... as long as the student promises to obey and never again pray in an inappropriate manner... maybe brew coffee ones in a while... Everywhere there is an unseen hierarchy: the gurus, they first circle of bitc... hm... followers, their apprentices, finally the (few) unforgiven ones who read the books and pray alone despite all the notices. For others its 10 years of serving coffee to a mentor so they can become mentors to the new crop. The choice you have as a neophyte - institutions where the duties are coffee, cleaning and "learning", and those where they involve... a different manner of service. Before you feel bad about the "victims" - the second type promises much faster advancement through the ranks and much more aggressive support system. In the old times at least the graduates of such thus institutions were often locked out into their own eco-system, but today's world rejects the bigotry. Every edge weapons collecting community has its cloud of "humble students". No personal collection - just tales of 100$ sushi. 3,000 messages and not a single opinion on the blade, general and generalizing statements only. Decent commandment of Japanese. Lots of mentorship pretense, though obviously - "after 50 years I am but a humble beginner". I stopped going to clubs in Japan after being aggressively torpedoed by the local gaijin-on-crack crowd. Some had a secret polishing technique (if you don't use one the blade gets physically destroyed!), one was a successor to Tanobe and a curator of dozen US museums, others were also selling some crap - not even theirs. You are what your friends are. If you have to constantly tell yourself "Yes, BUT Jim deep inside is really ok guy" - time to take a real close look at yourself.

Man, whats happened at NBTHK-ab??? Personally I would say the best way to learn is to have one or two experienced people looking through swords and making comments. Its very important for collectors to visit each other and look at blades tet-a-tet. Then handling blades by yourself, photography, looking at various dealers webpages, fromn Japan. Reading kantei exercises. Binge reading of Ph.D. thesis on pre-Sengoku topics since those can contain the views impacting swords genealogies yet never internalized by the nihonto community. Message boards can be extremely useful when you get 2-4 knowledgable people who are active and argue with each other. In nihonto the participation is more anemic I think because: a. There are very many people committed to comments that one cannot comment at all on a blade... it needs to be shown to "an expert", polished and papered. b. People are afraid they'll make a guess and then it will paper to something else and they'll feel stupid. In non-nihonto there has been message boards which were phenomenal in their impact... and they never lasted. Usually the dealer community and other "official experts" eventually get really upset and organize an extraordinary campaign to silence the participants. Or the forum's moderator decides one day he is the greatest guru - because technically he can enforce the status. Or you get a flood of bozos who band together and try to collectively take down someone they consider the most respected.

Not for anime purposes, but these are the swords that actual clans carried. For example, Hattori were real people with real swords - they are just not what you see in movies.

Surprisingly with all the nonsense that goes with the ninja subject, there are swords which were supposedly ordered by the heads of some of the most recognized schools or those heavily associated with such families. Standard swords, on a straight-short-heavy side. We are talking about Edo period here.

Edited: On hold pending payment.

I don't see the details that well, but I personally like it. Definitely something Yamato-Soshu influenced. I suspect however it might be along the lines of Muromachi Uda. It does look a bit coarse.

First, all titles need to be abolished. It always been a bane of nihonto - lots of titles (including fakes), not too many people. You look at some of the letterheads from 1980s and they have printed the founding president, teaching president, active president, active vice presidents, president emeritus... and the names themselves for today's generation are frankly unrecognizable. You don't need to be a director of outreach to be active. Arguably except for the treasurer and organizer (president?) no title is required. This can do much to diminish the motivation of people to retell the chapters from the same old Japanese books. Yes, often on Rai and other cliche topics. Which is both good and bad, there are obviously some joining specifically to get this kind of content... Second, a group is only as good as are the people, topics and blades. Do the analysis of what people can/willing to bring and discuss. Investigate which topics they like. For example, I can do reasonably good with topics like Senjuin, Soshu, Houju. I will be more a listener on Bizen. Never enjoyed the school, frankly speaking. So what is interesting to the participants. Third, be aggressive in exploring new venues. Go after the rich people who can show good swords. Go after the museums (this one is painful). Go after Japanese contacts (also painful). I am all hands for the elitism, it just needs to be backed by the blades not oshigata and deep theory. These are all frankly difficult things to actually do. Don't expect the old crowd to suddenly do the hassling. More to the point - I would not do such hassling, why someone else should. When I was much younger and much more romantic I've tried to do things like these... and quickly learned I can just as well do them for myself only. In terms of time invested/outcome received. P.S. No pretense that this is how things "should be". Its just a bunch of personal preferences.

Back on the market due to disagreement on payment type.

I thought attracting young people is a job for Kenshin san or whatever his name is. Remember the times when there were but three serious collectors of the middle eastern in the entire US. The only issue was that the market was anemic and a lot of pieces were just lying around with random people since selling them was difficult. Otherwise it was ok. One of them was Compton's friend and had a strong opinion a relative popularity of nihonto did not do much to improve the collecting experience.

On hold pending payment.

Sold.

I can only repeat the same very personal interest points I always stated: Interested in roundtable study and discussion of upper end blades. Arranging for study of such pieces in museums and Japan. On my own end can offer some help regarding some of these aspects. From "... bring your most controversial" or "... bring your most favorite" blade to specific topic, maybe assembled country-wide. Almost no interest in lectures, plenty of venues supplying those. Interested in publications only if they contain things beyond nihonto koza, Markus Sesko's "Swordsmiths..." and other well established texts. No interest in activities which are best described as "outreach".

The subject! Interested in active, good condition Houju (Mogusa), Yamato Senjuin and Sa school blades.

Mino Zenjo Kaneyoshi (Muromachi), 43cm, signed, old NBTHK papers, will guarantee new NBTHK papers, full moneyback if fails. Very clean and uniform forging. Possibly first generation (hoso suguha with very bright nioi-guchi, bo utsuri, itame with nagare). SOLD I was way too lazy not selling some of the items until yen collapsed... Now they have to be downpriced accordingly. Full or partial trade is of interest, but interested only in "interesting" items. Will be selling it at SF sword show, please see my table. All blades have habaki, shirasaya, sword bag. The work is very tight and clean, but there is always one week inspection period to make sure.

70cm nagasa, some (minor in shinogi-ji,as pictured) ware but overall the work is clean and in a good condition for Kamakura period. Different books give different dates for Ayanokoji Sueyuki, circa 1270 being one of the possibilities here. LOTS of activity. midare utsuri, chouji in ko nie with plenty of sunagashi, tobiyaki etc. Jigane has a strong white hue, mostly itame. You will not find another at the same price. 11K USD. I was way too lazy not selling some of the items until yen collapsed... Now they have to be downpriced accordingly. Full or partial trade is of interest, but interested only in "interesting" items. Will be selling it at SF sword show, please see my table. All blades have habaki, shirasaya, sword bag. The work is very tight and clean, but there is always one week inspection period to make sure.

Chikushi Ryokai (NBTHK), old sayagaki to Enju Kunisuke, nagasa 51.5 cm. Some rust but overall very clean work. Multi-layered shirakke utsuri, long masame throughout, mokume. Sayagaki: Enju Kunisuke Greatly shortened and unsigned Blade length a little more than 51.5 cm E – Top/upper 43 (i.e. shelf number). 1.5k USD. I was way too lazy not selling some of the items until yen collapsed... Now they have to be downpriced accordingly. Full or partial trade is of interest, but interested only in "interesting" items. Will be selling it at SF sword show, please see my table. All blades have habaki, shirasaya, sword bag. The work is very tight and clean, but there is always one week inspection period to make sure.

Yamato Ken, mumei, Yamato Tegai Kanekiyo (NTHK), Meio jidai (1492-). Ubu. Masame throughout, nie hamon. 28cm. 2.5k USD. Substantially below what I paid for it unpapered - I was certain it was Hosho! Very strong work. There is a scratch in the polish, otherwise condition is good, Japanese polish but not my favorite type unfortunately. I was way too lazy not selling some of the items until yen collapsed... Now they have to be downpriced accordingly. Full or partial trade is of interest, but interested only in "interesting" items. Will be selling it at SF sword show, please see my table. All blades have habaki, shirasaya, sword bag. The work is very tight and clean, but there is always one week inspection period to make sure.

For sale Iwato Ichimonji wakizashi (NBTHK). Circa 1320. 46.66cm nagasa. Very active (as shown in the third photograph), utsuri, chouji all the way to shinogi, tobiyaki throughout. Out of polish. Ware as pictured, direction of light was adjusted specifically to show them at the expense of suppressing the activities in the fourth and fifth photo. 6K USD in paypal. Shipping within the US included, international is extra. I was way too lazy not selling some of the items until yen collapsed... Now they have to be downpriced accordingly. Full or partial trade is of interest, but interested only in interesting items. Will be selling it at SF sword show, please see my table. All blades have habaki, shirasaya, sword bag. There is always one week inspection period to make sure.

Please don't take my words too seriously. I don't know much about shinto, I don't know how the second generation looks like. First generation might have the same contours of the hamon as here, tends to be less straight, less tapered, i.e. Joji rather than Kambun sugata. Could have tight itame jigane as one of the options. My main concern is the lack of nie. That's not typical.

Personally I would not take an observation "silver spreads more than gold" in koftgari as absolute. For some traditional makers Gold has a bad reputation for squishing if its hammered just a bit too aggressively, compared to brass with which one has much better control and sharper image. I would not bet against brass being the actual material in cases when something really stays in place and is sharp. Gold does tend to have more rounded boundaries but obviously more "goldy" look. Gold on the other hand does not bond well by itself to iron surface - it falls off rather than travels. At the same time I've seen lower grade silver in particular often "traveling" a lot over the surface and being more uniformly "muted" in color due to oxidation. Gold is more sensitive to mechanical wear, silver is more sensitive to oxidation and copper content. For some, brass in good hands is a very good material.