Jean

Rivkin, When you go to lesser quality blades, kanteisho are just papers and you don’t pay thousands for them. The old papered or non papered blades in dealers shops are the ones which are not judged worth a shinsa price. Now for the others (corner shops) bundled swords, naginata, yari are not sold as papered swords but rather as souvenirs Arnold, I entirely agree with you, there are real experts/scholars in both NTHK organizations and I am sure that their kanteisho are as valid as NBTHK ones, even if in the Nihonto world they are not considered as good as NBTHK ones for historical reasons rather than objective reasons. I am sure that some green papers are valid but should I be in the States, I shall double it by an NTHK kanteisho as the North American market is used to them. You described exactly my mood about sending a blade to Japan for papering, too much hassle/too expensive. I don’t need to have my blades upgraded from Hozon to TH as their quality speak for them. That is the reason why I buy my blades in Japan and have them papered before sending them to France. In Europe, NBTHK prevails...

John, Just for your information and it is free: http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/military.htm And to help you decipher the yellow kanji (which are numbers for assembling) the koshirae parts): http://www.japaneseswordindex.com/kanji/number.gif

Feel free to ask any question Oliver, even in French by PM to me. We are keen to answer any inquiry (if possible) as there are real experts on this board ...

John, The policy here is to give free opinions, no money involved, unfortunately for you, on this board you will find the greatest experts in the field of WWII blades, so any paid expertise on this sword will be wasted money. In Nihonto field, Most of the experts I have met were not professionals but amateurs driven by passion. NMB members are driven by passion and not by money, you will be surprised that some of our members are able to discuss at length and for pages (sigh) on the validity of a screw, or handle. The signature of this blade coupled with the Seki arsenal stamp betraid a non traditional nihonto. If nobody else have answered, it is because nothing more has to be added. Ite misa est... If you know what you have, no need to ask ... what is important is that you don’t pay too much for this sword and that you’ll recover your money.

If one refers to Japan, serious dealers have 99% of their blades papered, more than 90% of these papered blades are NBTHK papered with the « new » NBTHK system, remaining papers are NTHK, Fujishiro... papers. It is normal as NBTHK is the dealers’reference. NBTHK makes the market. Go to DTI if you want to be sure of my sayings. Now, Japanese dealers don’t even think over old certificates. They put the swords directly to shinsa. I am not going to be more royalist than the king if all Japanese dealers are going for new NBTHK certificates putting the old ones aside. Right or wrong, I don’t care, my opinion does not count, I follow the trend as the trend drives the market, that is what I call common/good sense... The fact that an old certificate is valid or not is irrelevant, that’s just a fact.

I am posting this just to draw the attention on the yasurime and the danger on dating a blade by them. This is an Eikyo Bizen wakizashi. Look at the ura side, forget the date and the kiritsuke mei. Concentrate on the yasurime. They look fresh and could be shinshinto, the blade is koto. https://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashi-bizen-osafune-norimitsueiroku-4-nen-2-gatsu-hi-kiritsuke-mei/ To sum up, nothing can be kanteied from this nakago.

Impossible to say if the blade is mumei or not because it is the opposite side of the mei (if there is one or not) which is pictured. Now, we can say it is mumei, otherwise Dwain won’t have posted it for information. Impossible to date it from this picture. Now even dating a shinto from shinshinto wakizashi from sugata can be very tricky....

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/17414-achieved-collection-gokaden/page-1 https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mumeinaoe-shizu26th-nbthk-juyo-paper/ Pictures of Naoe Shizu, I am afraid that my pictures are far better than Aoi Art scans

Steve, I would have said: Hear, Hear

Kitsch....

Try the ZDP 189 steel Dwain

Could match this kogai https://www.aoijapan.com/kogai-mumei-ko-mino34th-nbthk-juyo-paper/

Happens in sue Bizen

In fact the equation is easy to solve. Are old NBTHK papers still valid? According to NBTHK itself, no. So these old papers are nothing more than TP. If people don’t want to send their blades to Japan for new papers, they can submit them to NTHK shinsa. Nobody right in his mind is going to pay any amount of hard earned cash on an invalid certificate furthermore 34 K$. In other word, at the opposite of what is often said, you buy the paper (at the lowest level i.e. Hozon) for the guarantee you are not going to be cheated and pay the right price, meaning the one you are ready to pay for the real thing. In Japan, this blade will be considered non certified and nobody would buy it at this price. There are certainly old papers valid but nowadays they are obsolete, we are in the 21st Century. The « buy the sword and not the paper » only means that you are willing to buy uncertified blades at uncertified prices, because noone is going to take the gamble when several k$ are at stake

Yes Oei is fascinating, the horimono and the sword sugata are a give away for Oei. https://www.nihonto.com/11-5-14/

Stegel, I want to thank you for this topic which shows the excellency of some NMB members who can claim (but will never ) the name of experts. I feel all the more free to make this comment as I am not interested in this topic but like to understand and you have made a very clear, thorough demonstration, easily understandable for the layman I am so congrats.

It works, I have had this article in my files for years. How do you think Aoi Art makes its scans, Peter ?

Stegel, This is very clear and wish you have posted this from the start because for a layman in this type of collecting, it is pitch dark

Sorry Neil, but I don’t see any number on the pictured iron tsuba and if it is different of all the other part of the koshirae. I am collecting firearms and know the importance of all pieces bearing the same number. Nothing indicates in this picture that this iron tsuba has a number and if yes, the same as the other part of the koshirae. That’s all. This did not imply that Stegel is wrong in his saying and Showa22 has a sufurous reputation.

Congrats Barry

Koshirae are always a problem. Nobody can be sure that some kodogu have not been replaced along the years, same for tsuka. Now, who can say if the iron tsuba shown in the first picture is original to the koshirae?

Variation of uchi uke

DEH, Please sign all your posts with your first name and an initial as per the Board rules. This is the friendliest of all the Forii and we like to call people by their first name

Be aware that in France, for example, you can buy any blade, concealed or not. BUT, according to the Law, you are not allowed to have one on you, being it a pen knife, a sword cane, or a Bowie knife. You can be sentenced to jail and fined.

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