Rivkin

Well, I am not sure about this one, but it might be that some really bad things are coming to the US side and the free days are basically over. Or it might be just an aberration (hope so), so independent confirmation is very much needed. Or most likely we will just have to learn how to coexist with a problem. To give certain background, I am selling off quite a few items, nothing really major coming from a dumpster diver like me. But I had a few people I know in Europe interested in the items. Everything shipped before Dec. 1st arrived with no issues. Shipped after Dec. 1st - 50% rejection rate by airlines. Maybe there is something as random as a new x-ray employee. But quite possibly new guidelines. The statement I received is that x-ray requirements are now absolute in the sense that if there is any doubt - reject the package. No possibility to appeal as the law shields airline from damages for any rejections. The items in package have to be CLEARLY visible to x-ray (not on top of each other), IDENTIFIABLE (??) and adhere to whatever airline internal requirements are. Result - armor rejected because the package's content was "shielded" and x-ray operator could not discern whether there was something undeneath the steel. A package with a book and tsuka rejected for the same reason - the book "shielded" the tsuka. Package with kozukas - rejected because x-ray operator could not figure out what these pieces were. Yes, non-identifiable contect is an option to be checked on rejection slip. So now I have a neat collection of rejection slips from different airlines. They are different, which I guess makes things even more complicated as some are ok with carrying x, but others are not. Kirill R.

As always in Japan, there are 10 versions of what really happened, and none is official. In fact the official statement in such cases is limited to someone retiring. And yes, unregistered swords were found, but there are different versions regarding what it meant. My very personal take: Don't consider anything from 2x Juyo sessions overly seriously. A lot of ko mihara and strange looking Takagi Sadamune there. If you buy green papered Suishinshi Masahide, Naotane, Kiyomaro, or Kotetsu - you are buying good quality Gendai work with a fake signature. Green paper Muramasa will have tougher times being repapered today. No crookery, just the standards are different. Green paper to Masamune and Sadamune with good sayagaki more likely than not denotes an upper grade early Soshu work, which quite likely will not paper with Masamune name today. The reasons are mainly differences in kantei. That's about it. The notion that green papers to Muromachi Uda and the rest of the stuff available in troves are somehow concealing a major Yakuza operation is basically false. Yes, if you submit them today chances are you will get another Muromachi smiths. If you resubmit modern papered 20 years ago, mumei sword, the chances are you will also get a slightly different name. If different Muromachi attributions more or less give you the same monetary value, it is painful when green papers to major names in Ichimonji today are papered as just Yoshioka Ichimonji. I've also seen plenty of the opposite also - Ichimonji green papering today to Saburo Kanemune. To me its more or less natural oscillation between attributions. The main problem - that in Japan the appraiser, dealer, government and museum advisor is one and the same person, was not and will not be addressed. Kirill R.

Aleksandr, I am hesitant to offer a definitive suggestion since I am not aware of a signed example like this one and thus all the conclusions are speculative. But generally mother of pearl inlay on black lacquer, usually with Chinese scenes, but often mixed with "Islamic" motifs, is a Korean style of lacquer. Yes, there are islandic items that are similar but they are quite rare. Regarding katana stands like this one, there are very many being offered for sale in Japan. For example, https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/b433025713 The prices are modest. They are all relatively identical to one another - maybe two-three variations of the vertical one, and two-three variations of the horizontal one. They cost little and condition wise more often than not show considerable ware, but the type of ware is not consistent with quality, old lacquer. For example, often the black surface has areas where the lacquer is worn out, or delaminates from the surface altogether, small cracks in wood and surface - something one does not get to see even on Momoyama pieces. My personal opinion is that all of them, Bonhams item included, are XXth century works, from about the same general period as when Shibayama style was popular. They are relatively cheaply made but have impressive appearance. Were they made in Korea or Japan is difficult to determine. There are definitely many Taisho to early Showa export pieces that were made with mother of pearl in Korea, and quite a few for Japanese market specifically. But it can be also an enterprise that functioned in Japan itself. Kirill R.

Did not want to make it sound dismissive. Its more - been there, unfortunately, not once not twice. No, I don't work with these people after such experience. Kirill R.

Very personal: As far as I know, almost all non-European countries (Japan being a very rare exception) - China, India, Turkey, Iran, Russia, etc. etc. generally prohibit shipped export of anything antique, in some cases unless there is an extensive paperwork procedure that is being followed. Compared to this the situation in Europe is a great relief. But the problem with Germany is that anytime-anything cultural or historical goes into dispute there, the prism of what happened a century ago immedeately paratroops in. And then the chances of having it reasonably resolved, no matter how little the problem is, are gone. There is instead an immediate need to first prove that what happens now is in no way a semblance of what happened then. Which is done with limited grace.Some of such posts get deleted here, but overall I can't remember the case at least with regards to myself and some German event, where in some form this would not creep in. May be an outside person just gets exposed to this more. Still, if one is on lecture trip from Vienna to Basel through Germany, there is an observable difference. Kirill R.

I am yet to hear a story about something being done on a sword that did not involve at least "and though it took half (or two) years more than intended....", but possibly also cost overruns and often very unexpected results. Kirill R.

Regarding the titles, passport data etc. - never encountered this to be of any help with mail, couple of times I was asked for tax number, gun license etc. of the recipient, but those were unusual cases that were expected to attract scrutiny. Otherwise, these days they do x-ray every single package send through air-mail. The rejection by airline is pretty straightforward - they either can carry swords+, or can't (minority of them). If they see a blade they will always check the customs form. If it says antique folk metalwork, 90% chance any European airline will reject it. However when crossing a border with an item, the titles do help a lot. Sometimes customs suspect this is a business transaction and thus has to make a decision how much paperwork and fees do they want to collect. At this point they actually will directly ask you what do you do, who are you, what titles, and can even ask some more personal questions. If they are satisfied this is not your main business, you just go through. Once though I had to sign a piece of paper which said I am to not resell the item within 2 years. I don't know what would happen if I refused. Regarding Kulturschutzgesetz and similar laws being interpreted in the nature "what is not explicitly allowed is forbidden". It is my policy to stay away from Germany. For one reason or another whether on this forum, on elsewhere in life there is a considerable amount of strange behavior accumulating in the German antiques and militaria scene (Germany and abroad included), I don't know why, but that's my experience. Well, I do know why, but that would be political. My experience was that if the items are expensive and thus were cleared through export permit in Japan, then there is very little potential for problems in Germany (I am not German, might be wrong). Somewhere there is an official paper (with a seal) attesting to export rights, and that's fine. If not - they tend to concentrate more on Asian/Middle East countries (again, its a political thing). Quite a few public entities will not want to deal with your items if there is no government seal somewhere, and customs in deep theory can start asking weird questions as well. Kirill R.

9706 tariff was indicated. Regarding classifying things as Art, or simply antique, used to do that a few times, very high chance of refusal by airline with a statement content does not match the description. I never encountered the item being destroyed in either case, rather just returned to sender. Kirill R.

Antique Japanese dagger dated 1850 with a certificate.

Precisely! Somewhere along the way the item gets in queue to be shipped using airline X which does not allow the shipment, and that's the end of the line. Kirill R.

I think the greatest question is what is being compared. Solid construction to a hallowed arc with no weight consideration - solid material will always be stiffer. With weight given a consideration it will be the other way around, but the question then becomes does it make sense to actually leave the weight savings as is. A while ago I did a large table of weights including swords with and without bohi - and for the same period they were basically on top of each other. So instead of securing the weight savings, the sword would likely be proportionally scaled along some other dimensions - producing stronger weapon for the same given weight. Overall the weight often tends to be rather narrowly fixed to a certain range for each weapon and each length. You don't often see a koto katana with 70cm or so nagasa that goes beyond 800 gram by itself, and they tend to be around 670-750 gram on average. Shinshinto will be somewhat heavier on average. 1.1kg seems to be the absolute maximum weight that a truly mass-adopted blade would take, and for some reason in Asia those were universally popular specifically in the 14th century. Kirill R.

Discovered a very troublesome development. Airlines placing their own restrictions on all luggage and cargo shipments they carry which explicitly prohibit weapons, including all manner of swords and knives. And the shipped item basically travels back to you snail mail because somewhere along the way it was supposed to get on the airline which bans these items - and was rejected. So you get it with airlines label "rejected - sword inside" and the note that it is your responsibility to insure that airlines are allowed to carry the items you shipped. So far I encountered it twice, the last time with Bratislava Airlines. Fedex still flies their own planes, so it should not be an issue - except they don't insure/declare value on antiques above 1000$, and obviously exactly 10 times more expensive than EMS/airmail and such. Kirill R.

Very erroneous and personal take. But I've seen the tanto in hand. I very personally believe its a late Muromachi item. The hada is very rough, and it has typical Muromachi itame-nagare/o-mokume/masame sandwich. Yes you find it in Hasebe, for example, as well, but not in this rough-wide manner. In Rai you would hope for tight itame (or what they correctly call o-mokume). In some Yamato influenced pieces you would have less mokume and more masame, things like nijuba in the hamon. And most Yamashiro schools post Nambokucho are Yamato influenced - Nobukuni, Ryokai etc. This one is neither - to me its just such a typical Muromachi jigane. Regarding the ha, its neither Yamato, nor really Rai, as there are some togari or gunome peaks close to the nakago, kind of what you see on some Mino-Muramasa in suguha. Yet patchy blackish-utsuri jigane and mitsumune to me suggest Uda. Which can be miles away from the correct answer. But I am yet to receive an identical shinsa judgement for a Sengaku jidai mumei piece. So they have big problems sorting them out as well. The signature can be real here, as there period Kunimitsu's. Kirill R.

I would say late Muromachi... At this point the schools mixed up among each other quite a bit, but I would guess Mino... Or even Uda. Actually on second thought, Uda is more likely. Kirill R.

I would throw out something like what are peoples' most favorite swords. My triad I guess is: 1. Probably Fushimi Sadamune. 2. Cetainly Shintogo Kunimitsu TJ tanto. 3. Probably Heshikiri Hasebe. Kirill R.

A very impressive collection, specializing on cutting test items I presume! Much obliged to see them. Kirill R.

Steven, there are probably very many ways to collect these things. At least judging by what kind of blades people prefer. I will hijack the discussion probably, or just troll it a little, but I think the question of what would you want your first sword to be is actually quite deep. Say if I were to go back years and choose for myself the first sword and lets just say limiting myself to what touken komachi sells, that would personally be something like: https://www.toukenkomachi.com/index_en_tachi&katana_A090618.html or https://www.toukenkomachi.com/index_en_tachi&katana_A010519.html and in daito class, let's just put some readers into great distress: https://www.toukenkomachi.com/index_en_tachi&katana_A070718.html yes, crazy signature, but looks like a good Uda to me. but actually the best choice for me would be (salivating! but that's all just a fantasy now) https://www.toukenkomachi.com/index_en_tachi&katana_A030519.html or https://www.toukenkomachi.com/index_en_tachi&katana_A030817.html Each of these swords offers to someone like me a great wealth of "stuff" to study. But since others choose very different swords as their first, I assume they are guided by very different approach in terms of what they want to collect. Kirill R.

Does not look to be showato though with such hamon could have been there. Sugu boshi - probably shinto. So basically a run of the mill shinto mino. Without looking into books regarding the signed name - out of laziness. Erroneous and personal opinion. Kirill R.

Ook, even though I am looking on the phone, there is some fumbari here and maybe a tint of koshizori, at least the upper portion is more straight. 1380-1400 or so now looks promising. I.e. - its worth money! Kirill R.

Paul, my comment on o-kissaki was with respect to late Nambokucho, with regards to Oei yes you are right - there were thin suguha blades, thank you for the correction, though I personally would be more comfortable with a slightly earlier date this being the case, but that's all highly secondary in nature. My main concern here is that lets say there is no signature. Lets say one just looks at the overall shape. Does Oei or late Nambokucho come to mind? To me what comes to mind is a classic late Muromachi profile. A great fit for the period. If its Nambokucho to Oei - there are questions. For Oei - Its not koshizori, it has absolutely NO fumbari. And so on. Yes, late Nambokucho short tachi is a possibility here, Mr. Ekholm did great work digging out the numbers. Do I personally like the shape for it? Not particularly. Maybe some of it is due to photography angle. Kirill R.

The curvature is very uniform, which is sort of weird for Oei swords, and also not too common in late Nambokucho, especially as there is no o-kissaki. And the length is unusually small for the early swords. Both however do fit Sengaku. At the same time the ha is thin suguha. Again, not something that was done in Oei period (very wide), there were some earlier examples like that, but it was done now and then in Sengaku. A personal and erroneous guess. Kirill R.

The problem is tha the lens has quite some distortion, so identifying the center of curvature is difficult if sword is photographed from a side. The only solution I would see is to place the camera right above the blade and right in the middle of it. Otherwise prominent fumbari in waki size usually points closer to kambun, but its hard to guess by such pictures alone. Kirill R.

Very personal and erroneous - black jigane (uda, houju, hoki etc.) is the only color which significantly stands out, and it also tends to be non-uniform so some part of a sword is darker, and the contrast is quite visible in the areas with ji nie against the blackish background. Bluish and greyish tint is much harder to catch, and in photography it will likely be dominated by color balance... And it almost never definitively sways kantei. Kirill R.,

Signed, ubu, really old, with as few kizu as possible... Sounds like the top priced Bizen swords. Maybe Yamashiro once in a while. Almost eveything else pre-Muromachi will be multiple kizu, tired in places, and likely unsigned. I am very open to admitting a "shameful" fact that I own two unsigned and non-ubu shinshinto swords, both with considerable blemishes. Will be selling both, but simply because I decided to concentrate elsewhere. If we are to talk about money, 25 years ago there were plenty of tokujus on the market for 400-500k usd. Today you see them offered retail for 200. Very seldom, but you do see them auctioned off in dealer's auctions for 10 million yen. I am not going to pretend to be very knowledgable of the market in this price range (above my pay grade), but from where I am standing that's the price dynamics. And knowing people with money in Japan - it does not come as a surprise. I bought some books from Dmitry to be used as gifts, and then basically stopped as it was just a waste. Kirill R.

Its signed and papered, but the work is rough, inconsistent and unabmitious. The seller has a few good pieces though. Kirill R.