TheGermanBastard

Which leaves again the question to WHY !?

No, you should also be wary on none conseigned items. You should be wary all our life when doing business. I take any bet that AOI Art is way more knowledgeable on swords than I am or most folks - but for sure more than I am as that is quite easy. He is a dealer who handles in one month more blades and on many occassions of higher quality than probabyl 98% of all other peopen = all none dealers. You can not beat the dealer. Not in the casiono nor in the sword market. Of course can believe you can ... but then you probably also do believe in Santa bringing you something through your chimney. If he says "This is very good sword. We recommend very much. It is equal Juyo token quality" ... the you have to wonder why he does not get a Juyo tolen and sell it to your for way more. Simple answer: Because he can't. You can find good deals on AOI Art. But you can't beat the dear.

Wel said. There a good deals on Aoi Art and ones that you should beware of. You just have to ask yourself why a blade does not find its audience in its home country but is to be sold abroad. That my be for different tases, a flooded market or a more or less obviosu problem. With teh first two reasons you can strike a "bargain" ... with the later one you a struck and stuck ...

Why? I thought it was a Japanese Sword!? But to be serious: Japanese swords have been messed with for finding a sucker buying into them for centuries. This just keeps up that tradition. If Nihonto was a field of great honesty and ethics we would not need any papers to determine a blade to be Gimei or Shoshin but just take signatures for true as given. I do not know what the percentage of fogeries there is in other fields of art ... but in Nihonto it is a shark tank for sure. Personally I must say that it gives me a certain thrill - otherwise we wouldn't have an interesting topic like this one. It is verys good to have a place to discuss like this and learn from eachother.

Hello jean, this would be the only reason aside from the blade recently having been in a fire - which would however also have altered the tang. However Retempering and repolishing the blade involves additional cost which I do not see to be reclaimed by added value easily. hence it remains a mystery to me as to why.

Hello jean, thank you for bringing this up. I fully agree to your / Darcys observations. The only thing I wonder about is WHY it got retempered? Any suggestions?

Hello Hamfish, thanks for your post. It could also be etched. I have seen both - anyway it is well possible that we are only looking at an "artifical" Hamon ...

Well, we can not posses everything! Where shall we all place it!

Well said Alex. Infact I was even considering buying this to set uo a Daisho with my recently acquired Katana but simpyl forgot about the auction.

hello christoph, mei is typical as with many showatos ... so I would say probaby yes. The Hadori is so heavy, it could be only an all drawn Hamon. The Boshi is well preserved but again I see only Hadori all the way.

Very well said jean! The sa looked much better in the none-daylight images! By the way, an "interesting" thing just turned up: https://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashi-bishu-osafune-yasumitsuouei-34-nen-2-gatsu-hi-february-1427 I leave it to the audience what to consider interesting about it.

Well, the point is that there are folks who buy swords by reputable smithes like 1st Masanori in reasonable Koshirae at around 300.000 Yen ... and then there might be folks who will spend the same amount of money on swords by below medicore or average joes guys work at best that is housed in junk koshirae. Isn't this amazing!? I would have bought the Masanori. The Koshirae wasn't bad. Only the Soten Tsuba wasn't a keeper. This smith has an excellent rating for sharpness which is a want have with many collectors. Infact I just bought one ... but it was a Katana.

The smith has some talent: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-Samurai-Sword-Gendaitou-Wakizashi-/292298834737?nma=true&si=yfB0yxRCk307INYl4YtbtpA1sUU%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 A good deal at the price

China

Maybe you will need to write some small software to do a database and analyze the data. This could prove to be a fundamental work for reference Depending on your research you may consider doing a book publication on this smith.

This is great news. Fantastic job! Keep up the good work!

The question is what people are willing to pay for something. Will someone pay 3500? Sure! People mary someone just to findout it was a bad choice ... like with a marriage you have to observe the market and see if you find something better to attach yourself to ... and I think there are sexier thinsg with more bang for the buck on the market. I would put that sword at below USD 1500.00 ... would I buy it at 500.00 USD? No because I see no sense in buying such a blade at all as it not sexy ... but then again I am just an old pervert probably with a bad taste ... In the end the old advice to buy a sword not a paper should always be considered. And if you are into papers you best look out for a recent NBTHK paper. In my cheap oppinion the next best thing is NTHK NPO, Fujishiro, NTHK Yoshikawa and then it pretty much gets academic but for some old Honami papers. This is just my own personal oppinion. Personally I would hold up the oppinions of quite a few people in very high regard and it is often sufficient for me. But again it is just oppinions, You can take mine for what it is worth ... since it is free don't expect anything.

Soemtimes the more expensive a piece of advice, the better it is remembered

Well said Jeremiah!

Well, my answer sounds funny but I think it is defacto the most logical and rational reply that you can get.

Because he says so

Hello Michael, you are right ... it is just as elite as when we talk Juyo - which we probably do too often as hands down we collect sword like we drive a car - which likely isn't a Ferrari on most occasions. I think Darcy has a figure where he has analyzed length assocaited with Juyo. Overall the longer a blade the more likely it did not get shortened or the lesser the length it lost thus the closer it remains to its original condition. So aside from teh pur elength we are in the end probably talking about how much a sword remains its original condition, hence how well it has been preserverd. The better an antique is preserverd, the unaltered it is, the more desireable it is. I believe that the two cents summing up the length problem. Sometimes a Suriage can be a bargain as it will heavily cut the price but you can still get the exclent work of a smith considerably cheaper.

Well said 70 cm is maybe a bit elite ... but overall that is true. When having a choice you should always go for the big guys. Again I think we shoudl not always take the focus on a piece of paper called Juyo, but indeed there is a significant correlation of size and Juyo issued. If too short you have hard time in general. 70 cm is ineed a good size as pointed out by Guido.

I see .. because quite franky I do not see why anybody would have paid a high price for this blade without recent papers. Don't get me wrong. A qualiyt blade without any doubt ... BUT if it comes out of Japan from a guy who is not a dummy on swords and it has NO recent papers then it is has a 99.9% chance of being no good for what ever signature it may have

Did you buy it?