Alex A

Nope. Why, when you don't have to?

Japan? Id assume its failed shinsa and someone is looking for a sucker. Best way to think, then you wont get burnt. Nothing interesting about it anyways.

No, but did bump into a vid on youtube regarding the school.

Id be leary too if those are the only pictures you have.

Good on him

That's good to hear, Piers. Kind of unusual to hear for me, as in comparison to European guns where a name on a piece seems to be the first thing folks look for. Thinking about it, European guns without a signature seem to pale into insignificance, don't even remember seeing that many without a name unless mediocre. See plenty of cannon without a manufacturer, but heard the reason for a missing manufacturer name was to avoid any repercussions should it fail.

As per title, asking because i don't know. I'm assuming guns off the castle rack, probably not.

You always see the odd non Japanese seller with a Japanese ww2 sword, tanto or whatever. On rare occasion something really interesting but usually out of polish. The ones i can remember were a Yokoyama wak in WW2 mounts, the guy wanted £600 or best offer and a very old Koto sword in WW2 mounts for £1100, something like Uda. Seen plenty of Edo swords with decent antique koshirae, usually something needs doing though, whether a polish or re-wrap the tsuka. You never know what you may come across, i guess that's why i like to go.

Looks fantastic, looks a good turn out. Never been there but been to other smaller fairs in UK. As for Japanese swords at such fairs, without papers, they have to be priced to sell or dealers are taking them home.

Really like how the pines are done on the Akasaka. Grev.

A lot of desireable goodies in this line up!

Id also be tempted leave it as my thoughts are they wont pass it if stands out as an oddball from the norm. Also points others have made. Looks a real nice blade though, the hamon very much reminds me of an Hizen Tadakuni blade, as mentioned. This is the trouble with buying unpapered blades. One always owns it with questions and a demand for authentification. A lot of Mumei blades can have the same issues, even with papers. As in narrowing it down to one smith. So long as you paid gimei money for it then i guess most here would be happy to own it. Would suggest assuming gimei, look at the work and see if anything else fits better. See what else comes up. Still, i cant get away from thinking its maybe a oddball Hizen with a ? If you do send it to Shinsa then i hope you prove us doubters wrong but the odds are not in your favour. Maybe try NTHK if your going to do it.

On a side note, there were smiths working at the Hizen forge that you have likely never heard of. Came across a yari on Aoi a while ago, described as Hizen. It was signed Tadasada, worked along side the bigger names. A nobody, Aoi described him as an apprentice That wasn't Konuka hada either. Point being, with such folks learning the trade and what not then there must be an array of swords knocking about made at the Hizen forge that come with ????????? Many other reasons.

Yes, i suppose so, likely once sat on a single handed Uchigatana. Cheers

How early i dont know. Its Muromachi, Utilitarian, 2mm thickness. Like the design and also attracted to nakago ana that show changes in use. Just adds a bit more appeal, for me.

Looks like a yari to me, nice, polish looks good.

Was only joking, sometimes forget humour isn't universal but at least a few laughed. Like all Japanese sword threads, even ones about rivets/fixings. Particularly like the tsuka.

Must admit, this is a riveting thread, Boo, get him off.

I have a bunch of Samurai era coins but doubt they are what you are looking for, they were not expensive. Just old coins, think maybe one small silver coin. Had a phase of buying them many years ago, think maybe several. A few of them

Parcelforce here made you declare the value so everyone could see, which was annoying. Recently used UPS online to send a knife to the US, the only way someone could have seen a price was if they opened the plastic wallet with the invoices for customs (which i suppose is easy enough) Though the package left my home without any visible price, which was kind of reassuring for a change. I guess all the info available could be pulled up via the barcode by UPS, as it was booked online.

UPS have their own customs, they will deal with it. If i were you i would remove the invoice above with your details.

Looks good, What you need to remember Ronen is that what you are doing is perfectly legal and owning them is perfectly legal. The **** with Royal mail seems to have everyone over panicky. Chill out.

Ronen, should be ok, UPS are pretty good Cheers.

That's what i was thinking.

To be honest, I'm unsure about how much the police would take into account any evidence involving air tags. Maybe I'm disillusioned by police efforts in the UK, they don't even turn up for burglaries. So im already at the "they will do nothing" stage. Hope things are better elsewhere, just wouldn't expect air tag evidence to be any kind of Sherlock Holmes miracle reveal. Good thieves will check anyways. Bad thieves, maybe seeing an alert to air tags on the box will put them off. Sending stuff abroad, your dammed if you do and dammed if you don't.