Hoshi

Assuming it's not a dressed-up blade, I'll stick my neck out and say Chu-Mihara. Shape: Hard to tell without measurements, but I tentatively agree with Robert's observations Hada: Mokume mixed with Masame from what I can see, some chickei. It's hard to discern but the grain seems larger and more irregular compared to the archetype. Difficult. Hamon: Suguha, there is sunagashi... Boshi: Ko-maru, but hard to tell where the Kaeri ends... Horimono: late addition, throws me off. Freshly-drilled mekugi ana: false flag to make us believe its a trickster blade

Red flags for weaponized shinshinto. Proceed with extreme caution. 1. Looks ubu to me, with extra drilled mekugi-ana to make it look suriage 2. Deceptive hadori job 3. Cleanly drilled mekugi-ana, as opposed to chiseled. One of them is even fresh without any patina. 4. Horimono rubs me the wrong way. Gives it a 'koto vibe' while looking way too fresh and awkward to be koto. Now maybe I'm completely wrong and I'm just struggling with the pictures. But from what I can discern, the attributes of a weaponized blade are present.

This is fine blade by an excellent smith. Such opportunities are few and far between.

Well played Jussi. that Hasebe is fantastic late gen work and beats the kagemitsu out of the water in my opinion. The date is wrong though, it's probably Muromachi / late Soshu.

It's a strange question. Price is a function of how much something is sought after. So what you're asking for boils down to 'How can I spend 10'000$' to acquire value equal or in excess of 10'000$. That's unlikely to happen unless a combination of a) you are lucky b) your knowledge exceeds that of the dealer and you can beat the market more often than they beat you or c) you tap into the altruistically provided expert knowledge and it gives you a small edge on the odds against the House. On the dealer front the Kagemitsu tanto in this regard was good advice, but these happen once in a blue moon. Sometimes dealers will mix a good item in the middle of less good items to keep interest going high. I think ultimately you've not figured out what you personally like. In that regard don't just go with what you instinctively 'like' - but take in expert advice on what is good, and use this to create your own blend. Taste changes, and if you study long and hard enough it's likely that your tastes will converges at least in part towards the preferences of those who have seen thousands of swords. Maybe you'll end up acquiring something you don't completely understand, but then its value with slowly reveal itself as you walk down the path. Be patient and study. Good luck in your quest.

After discussing this I don't think it would pass Juyo, the Bo-hi was most likely added after as an addition to make it appear more in line with his best work. Later addition of a bo-hi is sufficient for a rejection on a shinshinto sword. The old TH also tell you that someone most likely tried and it bounced. Despite that it's still very good work.

It's a massacre. Total loss of value. It's hard to buy the ''appeal to westerner taste'' argument. Retempering + fake polish, that's expensive. You're not going to get your money back easily especially since the odds that the fraud is spotted are pretty high.

It's early work. I think the vast majority of the top-rated Naotane works were done during the tempo period. I think it shows how creative Naotane was already during this period, and his capacity to emulate a wide variety of koto methods. I like to think of this smith as a great experimenter and a little bit of a mad scientist. It's a fantastic school who really broke all the boundaries in their effort to recreate the old blades - culminating in Kajihei who could fake just about anyone and fool even the best experts of the time, and even frequently faked Naotane... As for the blade itself, I am no fan of the Horimono - but that's a preference thing. I haven't studied enough examples to chime in on the price. I don't have much of a strong opinion on this one...

It's the best korekazu I have seen. This one really goes back to the Chogi school soden-bizen style and tries to replicate the jihada, and does a very good job at it. Unusual for a Shinshinto smith, 7th gen Korekazu has a couple of Juyo and is highly regarded. This blade has a shot at Juyo shinsa in my opinion, and the price is very fair given its potential. The only thing holding it back is its size, and its a big 'but' as Shina is very sensitive to it. He was active between 1830 and 1890, this was made in 1861. It's mature work. Whoever made that solid gold habaki on a shinshinto sword which isn't Kyomaro agrees...not to mention the polish is astounding. The Sa blade I am no fan at all, its in fact rather impressive that it passed Juyo. Given the price Sa school work usually fetch, this is really a bottom tier juyo that passed between the cracks. Stay away. The reason it passed is probably that it has very, very distinctive features which can be directly attributed to a specific Sa student, which is quite rare. The Yamato blade is indeed very fairly price and a great beginner sword or a way to get into Yamato work without breaking the bank. Fantastic value.

Mindblown. Again we see the 'gambler's premium' being paid for those items. The 11k mumei shinshinto tanto is beyond comprehension. Someone must have had it in hand and thought there was a chance for it to be koto. Then a few others had the same idea and fought over the privilege to send it off to the shinsa gamble.

Why are these made? Is there any particular reasons? It is particularly hard to make that it is used as a display of general ability?

I don't buy the whole postmodern nihonto argument. For (some) modern art, OK. Valuation is based on purely social considerations. I also think that for some of the wabi-sabi iron tsuba, we're veering towards the modern art criteria as well... - but that's another topic. There are standards of quality for sword. Tiers of craftsmanship. If something cannot be reproduced today because the technique has been lost, that says something about manufacturing difficulty (and hence, skill) and not social appraisal. Craftsmanship is a preponderant factor in determining quality, which factors into desirability heavily. Nobody can copy norishige today. Naohide/Kajihei was the last to come close. If the top experts in Japan tell you this work and that work is of supreme quality, its not the same thing as some haughty New Yorker Art critic vaunting the qualities of the latest Klein Monochrome for sale on Christies.

Interesting perspectives. It's also the case for asian martial arts, something which I had overlooked. Like the Latin of science...that's also an interesting point. True, it facilitates communication across borders where language may be an impediment. Useful for something which is very much an international hobby with linguistically scattered groups. koshi-sori yokote, good one!

Something I've been wondering about lately as I showed a blade to a friend. I can't quite think of other hobbies where the words used to describe elements of that hobby are in a foreign language. I can see an advantage of using these words at one level: the lack of their one-word equivalent in the English language. But the vast majority have perfectly fine English translation. size, width, curvature, tip... Others need a little bit of an assemblage: martensite crystal granularity, tempering line geometry. Skin steel, tempering line, welding pattern... Some are plainly impossible to describe without a full sentence (funbari anyone?) Finally, do you think it is an impediment to the hobby, a barrier to entry? especially when it comes to attracting new collectors? Or does it add a "je-ne-sais-quoi" of mysticism which can also be construed as misguided elitism... Discuss.

Agreed Jussi, lot 24 and that's it...

I wouldn't be surprised if this intentionally part of a selling strategy. Christie has a lot of experience selling art where authenticity may be unclear...

Here it is Christies doesn't mention if papers accompany the blades. I would surmise that most aren't papered. I have to say I'm somewhat disappointed, but then I just had a quick glance and further study is needed to see if there are any hidden gems in the pond, which I doubt. Some easily recognizable gimei...

On top of the factor's mentioned above: Seller expectations adjust slowly. Nihonto Antiques is not a high throughput market - that means the process of price discovery and hence expectation adjustments takes longer. Low to mid-tier waks are on a downward trend due to increasing supply from Japan being dumped on the western market + post WW2 old collectors passing away with shinto wak troves seeking new acquirers. It's all supply and demand at the end of the day. A more general point: People don't go into collection nihonto 'at random' historically. There are periods of booms in demand and interest - such as the post WW2 treasure hunting era where baby boomers (and the previous WW2 vet generation) began to produce demand. That baby boomer period is coming to to an end and big collections are going to be increasingly dumped on the market. The real supply of some items being hoarded will be discovered by the market and prices will drop. New, young western collector are scarce and won't be able to produce as much demand as the previous generation. It's a gradual process...

https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-ishidosekido-korekazu-seitan-saku-kore Pleasing blade. Notice how the edge is itame, and the body is mokume.

nice find

Hi Curran, Could you show me an example of something you think is better? (not wabi-sabi, I don't understand these very well on an emotional-aesthetic level. Grey's Higo Tsuba is beyond me.) Cheers Chris

Fantastic, thank you! Astonishing work... Is there any kinko artist who even comes close to him?! this is leaps and bound above to what I've come to expect from tosogu...

Indeed, I'd love hear it. I am guessing you refer to the knot about the menuki, and the spacing between the final knot tied to the kashira. I think we could all benefit from expanding our appreciation of what constitutes a fine tsukamaki

Hi all, I was recently blown away while researching tosogu by the work of this artist. Natsuo used to be my favourite tosogu artist, but now I'm veering towards Masayoshi. I was wondering if any of you had any pictures of his work you could share. I've exhausted google images, and I could only find a couple (including the most beautiful Tsuba I've ever seen, sold at Christies in 2005, in fact if anyone has a high resolution image of this one, please share). The finesse and crispness of the brushwork, details, shape and composition is just otherworldly. I haven't seen anyone come near in terms of birds or plants.

You need to be very careful with collecting Wakizashi. There are those worth collecting and those that aren't, and most fall into the second category - Darcy has a great post on it. These points aren't necessarily obvious so it's worth a read. Generally speaking, I think that waks in the lower price range (1.5-4k) are overvalued given that they are extremely numerous, especially shinto-era ones. The price on these things are dropping lately when you look at auction results. The market is adjusting to the supply. It's the same with iron tsuba in the lower price range but that's a different topic. In both cases I would be extremely careful about such purchases.