Rivkin

Challenge accepted. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15953967?fbclid=IwY2xjawMBQs5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFtRWMyUnI4aUtydkx3bThTAR6_1HOeBSs_1GYItQgwobxwYDyJHcLvs_zP9zpNKQ592IUXpMo9DkbyCLTIvQ_aem_3NhTCRC0hdK_5BvUwFo71Q No exception for blades. In year we'll have American utsuri, full of ji nie.

No, boshi is fine but everything needs a photograph with the light from the side. What we see know is hadori.

Both of these blades have a bit of "beginner" friendly characteristics. They are forged in a way which is very forgiving to viewing angles, conditions, light etc.. Powerful, vivid imagery. I personally would go for o-kissaki blade - I like its forging a bit more and overall its unusual shape which can be quite attractive by itself. But echoing Ray I do not like the horimono, its a bit too much frankly. Judging by these blades I suspect you'll like Okayama Bizen, Munetsugu/Sokan or Soshu hitatsura works. They can turn out to be better investments, but moneywise, probably your first purchase will not be great in any case.

There are few swords made in Genroku as Japanese economy started to drain and interestingly enough sword market collapsed long before the lacquer and inro market. It has fumbari but is not straight, this is usually seen as 1640-1650 sugata. But its basically a guess.

In general its a very rare school with some connection to other early Kyushu works, especially Bungo Yukihira. Is it desirable - its neither high nor low attribution, you have to look at the blade. But high end Miike will be desirable.

Thank you very much for a nice exercise!

This is a strongly nie deki blade which shows much more at an angle than from above. This means its either tired or hadori is quite bad. Because from above you can see hamon in places and in places you can't (i.e. nie is too small), its tired. Same for jigane. It is likely was a high tier blade but it aged. It is also not the most classical Yamato Shizu. There is a lot of very periodic gunome, rough jigane. Someone else (say NTHK NPO) can possibly attribute it as Mino Kanenobu, or even Shikkake (though NPO seldom attributes to Shikkake), it does not look like it has darker jigane, otherwise even Fujishima Tomoshige would be possible. But take in mind it is a custom to criticize Japanese dealers and their stock considerably more openly than other dealers.

Really jealous to see this tanto! What a piece. My personal take, in regards to the school itself, I did not have the opportunity to study any, but books do list a few Shikkake smiths with known signed blades, most prominently Muromachi "Suke" smiths but also earlier examples like Norikuni[?]. Still if it is not Muromachi there is almost nothing which is not Norinaga and by default all pieces till Oei should be Norinaga. In regards to popularity of attributions, I feel that there are not too many other options for the classic style. With small gunome it can go Nio, and indeed there is some interplay between the schools. If gunome is wide and irregular I've seen alternative opinions going Mino. What else is there - Houju? It would have to be very aperiodic hamon and dark jigane. Similar direction for Uda. If its very prominent gunome, there are other options like Tomoshige, but then again its unlikely to be attributed as Shikkake in the first place. If its notare or pure suguha, then indeed other options are plentiful but also it is not a classic Shikkake and not very often attributed as such. Overall the school's attributions are dwarfed by those to Tegai, which is reasonable. In regards to generations, this could be like Nobukuni or Kaneuji a reasonable large family shop working under the same signature name, in case of Shikkake a clean cut separation between the first and second generation is more so a matter of convention.

Positive: it has chikei, which usually points to an upper grade item. Chikei, yubashiri are not especially common in Shikkake, so it can be a stronger nie work overall with well controlled, bright jigane. Also nioguchi reference is something expected of Juyo but again not always accented in Yamato, since Tegai for example is not known for great nioiguchi execution. Negative: Sayagaki makes no assertion of quality, does not particularly praise the sword, it is also a rather short text. Setsumei is also scarce on wording, but this is often the case.

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.