Rivkin

Unfortunately can't see jigane. Evening, light from a side can fix that. I like what I see though, probably Soshu imitation. Regarding the signature I would deal with it after studying the work itself.

I have to apologize for being straightforward, but I will mention right away that I also would appreciate having a sword with horimono like this and looking at it from time to time. But this is a very recent style, 20th century, possibly early Showa. The elements are flat rather than 3D to the point that most elements are just accented as contours, you don't see actually scales of the dragon etc.. Ambitious but the execution is fast.

Away from all my books, thus shooting from a hip: well known Yasuhiro from Ishido school did not use takanoha. Also one of the ana hints koto. Unlisted smith Yasuhiro, end of Muromachi, Mino.

I will try to post it tomorrow. Since I sold it and don't have a clear position of the new owner how comfortable is he discussing the attribution, I'll post only partial shots and general descriptions, but its one of those cases which feels very educational and I still don't understand the whole picture. Her angled photo was nothing like the blade in hand, yet it captured things that only two of those who studied the blade (NBTHK and one kantei person) fully identified, everyone else observed only a portion of those. To make things more complicated kantei person rendered very different attribution compared to NBTHK, though it sort of matched mine. I wish I had the knowledge to fully understand this complicated case.

Its an interesting point and I would say that: 1. The novelty of forums is gone and people came back to their own small interaction circles. They read, but do not participate. 2. Once they have papers they don't need to discuss things, or so they feel. 3. It is very common for someone posting photographs to receive a substantial dose of insults, ranging from you can't form an opinion based on a photograph, to its junk which should not be used as an example etc.. 4. Politics. The place used to be entirely liberal and very nasty to those who are not. I am far right and very nasty. 5. The number of educated people who could contribute significantly is grossly overestimated.

I am sorry the discussion got out of hand. At least Eric got a taste of what being a collector is like. Run while you can. After the first blade most still can get out. The third one gets you.

Is yasurime takanoha? It also does look like end Muromachi or early shinto. With takanoha at this time you usually deal with Mino blades which is not a stellar match for the name. Will be interesting to see the sword itself.

Her from above shots are realistic, I don't exactly understand how she does the angled ones, which do tend to be aggressive. This being said, I had a blade which had in her photo prominent utsuri and lots of ashi. I could barely see the ashi and could not see the utsuri. Neither could NTHK, in fact they did not believe much in ashi either and treated it as a simple suguha-notare and gave it Kaga appraisal. However, NBTHK commented - yes, utsuri is clearly seen, ashi is abundant. I like her accented at-an-angle photos because it shows everything the blade has. Its not simply Photoshop, there is a photography light angle (probably multi-shot) management here which accents utsuri and nioi activities, which are normally an exceptional pain to deal with.

I personally much appreciate this point being made, but in return have two things in mind: late (Meiji?) horimono do drift around stylewise we don't know the basic sword quality. there are couple of things I like about it, there are many kizus, but there are even more unknowns. It will never be Juyo (but miracles happen), I personally don't have clear understanding when and who cut the horimono versus made the blade etc.. I would be interested in studying this blade in hand, with 95% of swords I studied I learned at least something new. I like what little is seen jigane-wise.

It is an interesting question or better to say an issue I always had, and maybe with your wealth of knowledge about signed blades have a position on this. Considerable portion of Ichimonji makers have signed tanto, to lesser extent naginata where hamon is suguha based, with some notare or midare. I find these blades, especially when tired enough the hada becomes rough, to be exceptionally ugly. Am I missing something? Is there a good understanding regarding such stylistic choice? And would not one be interested primarily in a daito which shows classical choji work rather than one of those blades?

One thing I would note is she is a fantastic photographer. If the blade does not show something in her pictures - it means it does not have it. at all. If you don't see hada, its gone.

Its not affiliated with NMB. But has significant cross-correlation in membership.

The forum wins over FB in maintaining long term, extensive discussions. It looses significantly in short term outreach. Sales will never be popular, unless there is a drastically different software tool which displays all items for sale at once, with custom sort and filter options. Like a real aggregator site for stores or auction houses. People will not submit their blades photographed. Because people in nihonto don't do that. They have papers = no need to discuss what they have. Private clubs... Interesting idea but it does not offer much. They have email lists. There is already a "secret" forum for "select" people and discussions. Commercialization is .... very difficult. Nobody found a great way to do it. Has a high chance of killing the space. Keeps making it more and more "pro-dealer" environment.

Which makes me wonder if its atobori or born this way. On the positive side in a few area where light glances rather than coming from the top, I think there is bright itame jigane with ji nie. So yes, many issues, but I've seen plenty of such late horimono executed way worse and while there are probably many kizu, there is something to look at. Why horimono was done? In late times like Meiji people did it a lot. Its not even trade with foreigners, foreigners judging by 1900s collections were more particular about the mounts. It was a garish-busy fab, and maybe there were a lot of jobless smiths who could at least do something. There is an ambition in this blade, sugata is attractive and I think copies well earlier examples. I would not judge this blade harshly, there is much to learn from it. Regarding why shinshinto blades were shortened, in my experience its either to pass as koto (quite a few Satsuma and other blades as Soshu), or to fit military mounts/particular size preference for military mounts. Can this one be older? Yes, but then there are two options and both of those make me wonder.

Wholeheartedly agree. Feeling charitable, I am willing to take this sword for 300$.

I suspect that's a sacred jewel (or a soccer ball) that the dragon is chasing after.

Its hard to be sure, but I think its not Bizen. Isolated togari. Late Muromachi, probably was not a long blade to begin with. Possibly Mino or similar provincial work.

Incense burner? I though there was ukiyo print about a dragon coming out of incense burner, but chathpt told me there is not

Shinshinto. The carving is on the one hand is sort of garish, on the other hand it is steady and the quality is above average.

The work itself is not seen - but there is something. Photographing needs to be done without daylight, with a light source on a side. Overall picture? but horimono are relatively late. Possibly end of shinshinto.

It was at one point common for some yahoo sellers to simultaneously place items on ebay and shill bid them higher in case if they get actual bidder + there were americans who were trying to sell active yahoo items for a considerable buy it now price, knowing they will most likely be able to buy it on yahoo if they have an offer on ebay. Is this a beginner piece? Sort of. Damage, etc., but I do think at least the koshirae is a proper late Edo piece, some portions are nice, kozuka... I don't know if its modern. Usually with modern pieces you see so many copies on yahoo it easily registers, this one I don't know if I've seen it.

Yes on late Muromachi, but other than that with just such pictures I struggle to pinpoint the school. This type can be Seki, Kanabo, can be Bizen, can be Kaga... With very detailed pictures maybe it could be resolved, but like this - beyond my level.

For Enju there are two things of interest - most important one is boshi, whether it has nijuba in nie there, whether its ko maru with a shortish kaeri, and overall if there is Yamato like activity somewhere in the ha. Otherwise, it does have quite an impressive hada, and unlike most earlier blades it is not tired or clearly non-homogeneous in its work. Very nice. I did not think its top Hizen because top Hizen would have very characteristic bland band hamon, but wide and bright nioiguchi which is very uniform. Here hamon to me looks more Rai koto style, its relatively wide, which is why I then thought it might be Nakajima Rai. Awataguchi has a few hada types, from rough with Kuniyasu, to very sand-like appearance, in a sense that both size and shape of jigane constantly changes, though it remains very fine and uniform in quality. Its very beautiful, here I feel the jigane follows a somewhat different direction. Very good ko mihara, some post Rai Kunitoshi works can be like that. I am surprised a bit with Enju because most Enju blades I've seen had more varied hada than pure dash-like itame - nagare, mokume, can be darker hue. But its very undervalued school, and I guess something like this is also possible.

The koshirae I think is ok, there is some damage to tsuka, but by itself its actually well made, this is the end of Edo. The blade is probably shinto. Yes, the signature is weird since the last two kanji are very differently spaced compared to rest and poorly written. As if someone was reading a template where he is familiar with the beginning, and then like "oh, I need to fit the rest of it somehow".

There are very many unlisted smiths around 1710-1750. Economy collapsed, nobody bought swords and the whole generation of swordsmiths struggled and disappeared without leaving much of a record. So Enkyo to me looks plausible.