JH Lee

Requesting a clear close up of the boshi please.

Could you please post some better shots of the blade itself? Specifically would like to see the tip. Thank you.

Something I've always wondered-- Unlike katana/wakizashi, where the saya remain in the obi after unsheathing, the saya of the yari and naginata are not worn on the person. What did samurai do when they needed to unsheath their yari/naginata for battle? Toss the saya into a collective bin and sort through them later? Toss them on the ground and hopefully find them afterwards? Squeeze them into the right side of the obi? I'd imagine the samurai who could afford the fancier stuff also had other retainers/assistants to hold onto those things for them. But what did everybody else do?

Could you please post an overall picture that shows the entire sword at once and not just close ups?

Looks like something from Fred Chen/Huanuo/Dynasty.

I have been a student of JSA for 22 years. The vast majority of my practice is still done with a simple bokken. For iai kata, a Japanese-made iaito from alloy is more than sufficient. For tameshigiri, there are also tons of good options, none of which involve using an antique. In those 2 decades, I have met many hundreds of other students of the sword. NONE -- not a single student, regardless of skill -- would contemplate using an antique sword of this caliber for any kind of training. The oldest blade I've seen used in JSA context were some WW2-era showato and gendaito, and even that very, very rarely. Antique nihonto are finite in supply. There are no more being made. Arguably, they are getting fewer in number every year due to amateur "polishing," poor preservation techniques, neglect, theft, abuse, etc. Please heed the well-intended advice and feedback you're getting and not use an antique for training. It's just unnecessary and not a good way to preserve these irreplaceable works of art.

I second this. Very helpful and professional.

There has to be some kind of dishonest (fraudulent?) software the seller is using that drives up the bids on his items. It's just so weird and unbelievable that all of his stuff always gets so many bids. Just my opinion.

I like that seller. And I like that wakizashi.

Still gorgeous and nice to appreciate.

BEAUTIFUL blade. I love absolutely everything about this, including the koshirae! Congratulations 👏

Yes. Lesson learned. It was the first and hopefully the last time I do something preventable and stupid to one of my blades.

I was cleaning a modern custom blade a few months ago, not really paying attention (watching a video at the same time tbh), and scratched the blade badly with the uchiko. And that was a very tough W2 tool monosteel blade. So, yeah... definitely caution and care needed before applying it to an actual nihonto.

I prefer the term "craptana" myself... 🤔

Looks purdy to me~ <3

Looks o-suriage to me. In the past, I would have shied away from such slender blades, but when they are well preserved, I have learned to appreciate their individual elegance.

It's bad enough that the purveyors of craptana/chinatana continue to spread ignorance and dilute the market.... now they're just engaging in willful STUPIDITY out of greed.

Congratulations! Becoming a father has been the best and most rewarding adventure of my life so far. Again, congratulations! I would absolutely liquidate my entire collection without hesitation to be able to give you your full asking price. But probably someone else with deeper pockets will snatch them up now.....

Papers or not, it looks really gorgeous. The whole package. I would've paid 2800+ if I had the money.

That might be among the most beautiful nihonto I have ever seen. Ever.

Good point. And I just also noticed the vomit-inducing "hada" next to it. Ugh.

How to tell the difference between a Chinese fake and a JP fake for tourists? I only ask bc the carvings of the woman and child are actually aesthetically pleasing to my eye.

Exactly. It would seem to largely defeat the purpose of this innovative method if the outer jacket was traditionally folded steel....

I didn't know that these had hada??

Looks like a very elegant blade! Could you please share its dimensions? Nagasa, moto/saki-haba, moto/saki-kasane, etc?