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Valric

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Valric last won the day on April 9 2019

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    Christopher H.

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  1. The topic of mumei Kyomaro has been covered quite extensively in the past. It never made any sense, at any point in history, to erase a Kyomaro mei. You can take the best of Kyondo, erase the mei, and NBHTK might pass it as Kyomaro as this is the closest stylistic match. This is probably what happened with Tsuruta's mumei blades. We are way past the age of 'honest' suriage. At the end of the day attribution is a judgement on the quality of the blade. The sword is way above the average of what is generally shared here, and expresses sand-like grains of dispersed ara nie, which is a style that appeals more to some and less to others. Along with flawless standing out hada, these are generally traits that have a great appeal in the West, and less with Japanese collectors, with caveats applying to certain makers. Also the name-calling exercise here, calling people "nasty morons" reflects poorly on the entire hobby and turns people off. Reality is that there aren't many knowledgeable old sword collectors willing to chime in online in the first place, and these types of interaction will shrink the pool even further towards topics of lesser interest.
  2. I'll bite. Pre-requisite: Get a tsunagi made for your sword (a wooden copy) to high levels of fidelity. Option A: American-saku Koshirae - Carry the tsunagi around and use it as a go/no-go rod to prod into F/K's and Tsubas. - Remember that it's a whole. Fuchi needs to fit the tsuba dimension wise. Pro's: - Express your inner self. You want a pink wrap? go for it. - Honestly the most fun you can have. The value is in the journey. - You can use this method for non-standard size blades Con's: - You can get into Frankenstein territory and end up with an amelican skool koshirae. As you go deeper into the hobby you'll come to realize you've messed up pairing theme X with Y, school A with B, etc. - Set your money on fire. This is the cost of expressing your inner self, the next owner most likely won't have the same taste as you. - Hard to visualize the end result. Sometimes the dream is better than the reality. Option B: Tsuruta-saku Rattler - Source the "Koshirae by the Kilo" merchants. Usually you'll find a bunch of old, near valueless, koshiraes in the back of dealer shops kept to make ensemble. Use your greatest diplomatic skills to ask if you can prod around with your handy rod. Once you find one that has an approximate fit, you go in with a wood file, add filler seppas (usually from leather), and patchwork it together. Dealers have experience with the ol'wood file and can help you. Pro's: - CHEAP. You can get away sub 1K with this, all included. 500$ even. Con's: - Your sword could get scratched or worst when visiting this saya. Old Sayas can be full of a mucky, abrasive mixture of oil, dust and fine sand. Beware Sword STDs. - Get ready for the RATTLER. Since it hasn't been fitted properly, it'll rattle and give off all sorts of signs of awkwardness. Option C: Edo Retrofit -Carry the Tsunagi and prod into all the koshirae you can find as your go/no god rod. Once you find an approximate fit, you get the experienced sayashi confirmed it's doable, and exercise his craft. Pro's - Perfect fit. The best Sayashi can achieve marvelous degrees of fit. - Authentic koshirae. You can get a good, historical, and valuable koshirae. - Sayashi will clean the Saya so your sword doesn't get AIDS. Con's: - Adds 1K above Option B - For standard length, motohaba and sori. - Since you're spending to make it properly, you're likely going to be spending much more on the Koshirae to get a good one. - Need to navigate Japanese cultural waters. If you show an tiny Aikuchi tanto koshirae to the venerable master Sayashi and point to some massive Odachi dinosaur slayer and ask "Can you fit it?" chances are you won't get a clear no and your project will sit on the sidelines for six months in deep cultural awkwardness. - Just like polishing a sword, once you've adjusted a koshirae, you've drained some life out of it (and modified a historical artifact). Now, most end up murdered and boxed up anyway at some point. Koshirae life is rough to begin with. But that is still a moral price to pay. Most of us pay our dues and start with the Tsuruta Rattler or American-Saku path... Good luck in your quest.
  3. This isn't reflected in reality - "Itame that tends to nagare" or "itame that is mixed with nagare" are common terminologies used in Setsumei describing Soshu Joko. Sadamune, Masamune, Go, Norishige, Sa and so on. "The nioguchi is not subdued" - again, second tier soshu bucket attribution have, at times, subdued nioguchi described in their setsumei. This goes for Tametsugu, but also Sanekage and others. It is expressed in context of the in comparison to the clarity (saeru, often expressed as "bright and clear") of the top master, and serves as one of a few other differentiating factors (e.g., from Norishige to the Sanekage bucket). Note that "bright and clear" is not restricted to Soshu, but is a general trait of grandmasters and a point carrying the highest degree of appreciation. Also note that 'subdued' is a tricky term to capture in English translation, and has different meanings in different contexts. First gen (Norishige, Masamune, Yukimitsu, and all the forgotten ones...) have broadly different styles and artistic expressions. This is part of the beauty - they were all grandmasters and created their own unique styles. When you know you know. And let's not forget the archetypical midare hamon. The Midare Shintogo is considered the first piece of Soshu work, and the earliest iteration of the tradition. high-class chickei, perfection in the nie, uroi kitae (wetness), midare hamon - these are the archetypical traits. And as Michael rightly points out, it all falls off quickly after just two generations, never to be seen again.
  4. Zufu session 13, signed Fujiawara Tametsugu Saku. Ubu as well. There is also a Naginata Naoshi.
  5. The above is akin to saying that Shizu worked in Mino-den. "Shizu was the founder of Mino-den" is something one reads once and a while from various historical source, but it is not correct, and ultimately confusing, and it's the result of trying to fit a square peg in a round role as the approximative Gokaden fails here. Shizu worked in a Yamato flavor of Soshu-den. Naoe Shizu is an off-shoot of Soshu-den that follows Yamato-flavoured Soshu-den with more gunome elements and less pronounced activity. Mino is a problem in the Gokaden system. And Mino is not the only problem: while Taima is a Yamato school, it's closer in worksmanship to pure Soshu-den (The Yukimitsu style of Soshu-den specifically) than it is to Yamato-den. "Tametsugu" works in Soshu-den. There is one signed daito by him in the Juyo Zufu and it is in Soshu-den. I put Tametsugu in brackets because it's a bucket attribution for Nambokucho Soshu work. Plenty of swords get the Tametsugu attribution and it is best understood as a style, period and a quality attribution than a specific smith. At the end of the day the Gokaden is pretty good. It's an entry point, and over time one learns where it breaks. It's confusing because it links provinces to lineages and styles, and that linkage only takes you so far. Ultimately don't fixate on the Gokaden. The next level isn't hard to reach either, ten to twenty great schools/lineages, and it fits the data much better than the Gokaden "Beginner friendly" approximation. This conversation is like a bunch of modern-day physicists trying to fit newtonian models to explain the movement galaxies while being well-versed in the Standard Model.
  6. Anyone knows why smiths changed sugata after the mongol invasion? I know of third hand written reports of old swords being inadequate against mongol armour. I'm curious. They have must taken mongol gear, tested somehow, and decided they needed a longer kissaki / change in sword geometry. Curious if there is any experimental archeology on the topic.
  7. This is something which personally interests me. Does anyone know of an academic paper that compares the steel composition of top smiths in different regions and compares light reflection? The steel "hue" enigma truly puzzles me. Blackish steel in the North, Bluish in the south, etc. We need a formal analysis of steel composition between different regions / periods, and link this to light reflection. IV: Nakago powded beneath the hamachi (edge side, mune side) x Region (Bicchu/Bizen, Sagami, Kyoto) x period (Mid kamakura vs Late Kamakura vs End of Nambokucho/Early Muromachi) DV: steel composition + light reflection The loss of luster of Sagami steel, the rise of hitatsura, similar trends observed in other schools. We need to figure this out. Some material ran out and it's a big piece of the Kamakura Golden Age enigma.
  8. Aggregating statistical information from different sources (Tukuno, Fujishiro, Pass factor, Kokuho counts...) is the wisest path. One must keep in mind their sources (monetary values of observed sales, historical appreciation, NBHTK's pass factor, ministry of culture...) within their particular historical context and access to source material. None of us here have sampled enough blades to come to approximate the statistical distribution of excellence. We have seen only bits and pieces of the elephant, here and there. Some of us more, others less. But in the grand scheme of things - nothing compares to what some established scholars have handled through history. Stay humble and keep an open mind.
  9. So this is more or less, the canon of the top 10 if memory serves: Masamune (2) Go Yoshihiro (2) Ko-Hoki Yasutsuna (0) Awataguchi Yoshimitsu (1) Sanjo Munechika (0) Ko-Ichimonji Norimune (0) Ko-Ichimonji Yoshifusa (0) Osafune Mitsutada (1) Ko-Bizen Masatsune (0) Ko-Bizen Tomonari (0) In parenthesis, what I've had the chance handled. Sadly not a lot. Some of these smiths are incredibly elusive. Now, personal preference, purely based on what I've been impressed with in the past, or which I am familiar with and that you can reasonably find: - great Aoe - great Taima - Kencho - Hiromitsu - Anything awataguchi - Sa Ichimon - Kagemitsu - Yamato Kanenaga/Norinaga - Nosada Things that are appreciated, but just don't do it for me: - Run of the mill Ichimonji and 'Rai Kunimitsu' - Kinju & co. Anything that gets close to Seki...Seki is the cursed place where the art went to die (exception: Nosada)
  10. My experience has been a welcoming one I must say. Foreigners have an advantage over Japanese: we can walk into a sword shop without second thoughts, visit a famous collector with the right connexions, and basically move freely far outside of the strict norms the Japanese must observe. In my experience there is far more friction between top Japanese collectors than from Japanese collectors to foreign collectors. There are complex webs of intra-dealer/intra-collector dynamics in Japan, and being outside of these webs gives us far more freedom. We are strange creatures outside of their world, and seeing foreigners interested (and most important of all, knowledgeable) in Nihonto is a point of pride and brings joy. Demonstrating knowledge and understanding opens many doors. As for prices, well, this thread inevitably promotes "ladder theory" in one way or another. There are shortcuts but they are noisy. One needs the Zufu volumes, and to study them to contextualize a blade. Translate setsumei, sayagaki, etc. Look for the devil hiding in the detail, and understand where the work sits within the corpus of the smith.
  11. Wonderful to meet more local people interested in Nihonto, thanks for tagging and suggesting.
  12. If you're still on the hunt, here is one which is affordable features an O-kissaki, from the Nambokucho period: https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mumei-hokke-nanbokucho-period/
  13. Relic of the past. Digital libraries are far more efficient and instantly searchable, not to mention much cheaper. Ipad with an instant library of a thousand volume searchable, the cognitive gains are simply immense. The current practice of reading entire volumes containing lists of smiths and work is an incredibly inefficient search methods, and impedes learning. Motivated beginners nowadays can learn at a rate unimaginable in the past and reduce the knowledge asymmetry immensely (and as a side-effect, horse trading income). Paper is tied to demographics. Collectors are a venerable population, in the US I would think it is mostly boomers who could enjoy the bounty hunting period of history. So paper will slowly die out with the cohort. The question is whether or not new blood will enter the overseas market of if it will concentrate back into Japan, which faces a similar albeit extremely skewed population of very wealthy whales competing for the top. Same story with NBTHK papers really. Should be at this stage digital certificates, but the tastes are driven by the demographics. Everything with swords moves slowly due to the preferences of the cohort. In fifty years we might see blockchain-issued NBTHK papers. The new reality will take time to manifest, and Nihonto will probably be one of the last collectibles to shift into the new digital epoch. Which is unfortunate because it reduces the immediate value and appeal of the hobby with newcomers.
  14. It's just badly organised tech-wise. We should have videos at this point of swords, the sort that Ohira-san makes. The problem is that all of this costs money, running a website, doing the videos, documenting, collecting votes in an interesting way, keeping a leaderboard, giving clues, etc. What's the business model here to sustain it? I don't know.
  15. Valric

    kantei

    Give hints when it's veering off-track by providing some broad clues. It's hard to operate kantei on the internet due to the varying degrees of photographic quality and styles. Another way to give hints is to describe the visual elements on the photography, such as the utsuri, or the boshi. These are traits which are hard to infer upon from photos.
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