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Hoshi

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Everything posted by Hoshi

  1. A typical kanteisho issued by Swindle-San from the pre-facebook sensei era.
  2. And indeed, most "Koshirae" today you'll see on sites such as Aoe Japan are patchworks bought by the kilo, and fitted to the blade by filing inside of the tsuka. The reason is obviously business: swords with koshirae sell better than single swords. The biggest difference between Japan and the West is that the Japanese see these items are naturally separate, whereas we Westerners seek the full package. Preserved high-level Koshirae from late-mid to late Edo tend to follow a single theme, or more specifically a single story with motives following tradition. You'll find flowers and shishi, waves and marine life, dragons and clouds, tigers and bamboo, chinese sages at different moments of their journey, dragonflies and pond foliage, deities with auspicious symbols, etc. More often than not, there is a real fable to each and it needs to be read in context. Each piece contributes to the whole. The closer you get to Meiji, the more conspicuous the expression, the greater the relief, the more daring the interpretation. In the wake of Somin's creative (and norm-shattering) genius, offspring schools specialised in certain themes: birds and foliage for Ishiguro, waves and marine life for Omori, etc. Early to mid edo, conventions were much stricter. There you'll see most often Clan Mons and formal attires. Sometimes multiple Mons are present to celebrate a particular union between clans, such as weddings and new allegiances. Another classic come to us from the early Goto masters, where formalized designs were repeated with little (but significant) variations between the early masters. Then you have Higo, which was its own world really. Higo had a classical form of mix-and-match: you'll see Ko-Goto Mitokoromono, often sea themes, with F/K and Tsuba by a Higo master. These reflected the austere tastes of the tea ceremony, and for many it is an acquired taste. For the Shoguns of the early days, mix-and-matching did occur quite frequently. A nobuie tsuba with solid gold F/K comes to mind. Not everyone was allowed to play with such formal things! A good way to think about Koshirae is in terms of sumptuary laws. Only few were allowed to do this, and the rules became quite formalised over time: you simply weren't allowed to go with the fashion of your choice at the Shogun's court. Treasured swords had multiple koshirae for different occasions, reflecting the social code of the time and the rank of the wearer. See here for an example - one koshirae for the most formal of occasions, and one for the more relaxed setting. Older koshirae of the muromachi and nanbokucho period often had flower motives engraved, the so-called Ezo and Ko-Mino classical themes. Unfortunately, the curse of knowledge makes it that once you've gained familiarity on the topic, you never quite can get satisfaction back from those patchwork koshirae. Beware! Finally, the tradition of "boxing" tosogu didn't start with 20th century collectors: Old Daimyo families did box their precious Ko-Goto Mitokoromono, and these were accepted as gifts for special occasion - and spare part for the fabrication of new koshirae. In old family catalogues, you'll see remnants of this practice, with vast collections of Tosogu preserved in boxes and documented by the Goto family for their provenance, makers, and various notes. Nowadays, breaking up a Koshirae to make an extra million yen on the sale of the box breaks my heart, but financial incentives being what they are - and with sufficient time - it is probably the case that the few remaining Koshirae will suffer the same fate at some point in the future. Pity!
  3. Early Juyo setsumei need to be further contextalized. They are often quite "critical" especially compared to more modern ones - I believe they benchmark their comparisons to the Jubun/Kokuho, and everything else feels a little tired in comparison. This is a great sword. Early Juyo with Daimyo provenance. I especially like the Boshi's nie structures and the well-preserved, ultra-fine hada.
  4. Koshirae feels Meiji to me. Omori inspired certainly and well executed, but Teruhide? I have doubts. Good question...
  5. NGMI. Translate first, then buy the sword. The setsumei is critical to any purchase/collecting decision. If you can afford a Juyo blade you can afford a 50$ professional translation.
  6. The price is SO good that it CANNOT POSSIBLY BE GIMEI. HARKEN! The TYRANNY of the NBHTK is getting between us and our TREASURES. Their reign of TERROR with their so-called "SHINSA" has brought nothing but grief and desolation upon our HOLY TROVES. A click of PROFITEERS in cahoot with DEALERS! How dare they assert our treasures as GIMEI? I have spent decades with MY blades, studying them over the glimmers of moonlight practicing ANCESTRAL UCHIKO RITES. I know what I own better than anyone else ever could. Remember the good OLDEN TIMES OF GREEN PAPERS? Before the adversary's foul plot to spread PROPAGANDA to discredit them and enrich themselves at our COST? We must return to older, purer days. RISE UP! RISE UP NMB! Together we shall issue a new form of paper, a PURER FORM! One born out of TRUE KNOWLEDGE. Down with HOZON! Down with JUYO! Let us issue our own NMB Kanteisho! Down with the TYRANTS! Unite. Rise up. I will show you the truth. Join my Facebook group. I'll show you some blades, and if you're lucky, I might gift one to you for a fraction of its true value.
  7. Danger zone refers to the liquidity in the market and the time horizon needed to conclude a sale. Liquidity concentrates at the bottom (0.5-5K blades) and at the top (ultra desirable rarities), the bottom of the ladder of each categories (e.g. "CHEAP" JUYO or "CHEAP" Big Name) and the roulette blade (no papers, green papers, etc). The reason for the top categories is that there are a couple of big whales in Japan with museum-level ambitions that will gobble up the top of the inventory of each dealers and leave the rest for them to "sort it out" with broader retail. Sometimes the whale leave something precious behind, sometimes someone doesn't want to deal with the whales, etc. They aren't gentle whales, but rather great whites one could say. At the bottom you have constant demand due to the collectors who focus on having a lot of blades and new entrants in the hobby. There will always be a market there. This is self-explanatory. Then you have the bargain seekers who see a Juyo blade for 1.5M yen and think it's mispriced and will jump on it immediately. Often the blade in question will end up being something like a Juyo 21 Yamato Shikkake Wako which is fugly and unremarkable overall, with no chance of passing Juyo today. Cheap Juyo is a very liquid market in the West because what you're doing is essentially sending signals that you're undercutting Tsuruta, and since everyone uses Tsuruta for price discovery, it works very well and sells fast. Danger zone is when you're not anywhere near any of these three categories. A good shinto smith like Nobuhide with TH paper is right into the danger zone. Too expensive for new entrants, too expensive for the bargain cheap juyo hunters, and undesirable by the whales. The only way out is to flush is by taking a substantial loss, or sell it on consignment and wait for eons. The roulette blades also appeal to a broad range of bargain hunters. In some cases, it's even advantageous to toss the hozon (small name) in the bin and to put up the green papers (BIG NAME) in the auction alongside with some dubious old provenance to get the apes to gamble. Especially for things like HIROMITSU (green paper) / Shimada (hozon) or MASAMUNE (green paper) / mumei shinto (hozon) etc. These generally find a good home on Yahoo auction, but you'll find them sometimes in big auctions in Europe. Most important is that the blade needs to look somewhat like an old thing. Add a coffee-stained "honami origami" and a fake Sayagaki and you're in business. I wouldn't recommend going there... And there is nothing wrong with collecting the danger zone. if anything it's the honorable pond to fish in because it's born out of love and not greed. Just know what you're getting yourself into.
  8. It's a question of business model. Having a shop in Ginza with a dozen employee will have a minimum margin requirement to survive compared to solo operation with website real estate. Competent dealers in Japan have very clear internal systems of pricing. These are "discovered" in the Japanese internal auctions. Dealers will pay what they believe clients will buy at minus the risk premium of not selling the item and the opportunity cost of capital. Once all of this is factored out, there needs to remain a profit or the dealer will go bust. "hmm...Yukimitsu, early Juyo, 72cm, I can get XX at Japanese auction". Note that these are heuristics but there is a relatively high degree of inter-dealer correlation. The price expected in the Japanese auction forms the baseline value, or the fallback value in case the item doesn't sell and the dealer needs liquidity and the items needs to be flushed out to the next dealer. The rest is a matter of business model. It's a tough and extremely competitive business. There are too many dealers given the relatively small population of aging collectors, where a few whales reign supreme.
  9. Afraid it is gimei. I think shinto, kanbun period likely. I am doubtful if this is utsuri, it appears too bright on the photos. It certainly isn't Bizen Osafune midare Utsuri. I can barely take photos of Utsuri on a mint Osafune school sword however hard I try personally, and certainly not at the top-down angle. I think it is a polishing effect, similar to the ones you see on Yahoo JP! once and a while.
  10. Empirical data > Books. Don't believe everything you read, even reference material makes mistakes.
  11. There is a lot of appetite on the market for masterworks at the moment. Look at online dealers, they're running out of masterworks. It's becoming harder and harder to find them, due to whales in Japan accumulating and buyers in the west sniping what passes through their nets. The danger zone is right in the middle though, be careful there. As Michael so eloquently put it, macro-economics trends and new wealth means there is demand for art of all kind as both a diversification strategy and a hobby. Kirill please open a business for those 60K hozon Masamune! Let's not kid ourselves here and give beginners a false sense of hope. If its a beater Masamune that wouldn't pass Juyo, it wouldn't get Masamune attribution in the first place because the condition would preclude any such conclusions from being reached. Even a Masamune with no Boshi left is going to be an automatic Juyo - and any remaining Hozon exists solely to give the Japanese owner discretion. "Not that rare" - well, in its existence the NBHTK has allowed 33 Masamune Katanas counting Juyo and Tokuju together, with half of them having issues (To mei Ga Aru, Soshu Joko No Saku, etc) and attributed to Masamune out of respect for the great edo judges with big glowing red disclaimers in the Setsumei saying in a Japanese way that its unlikely to be Masamune. That leaves about 15-20 legit Katanas with supporting setsumei that can be bought and exported outside Japan. Out of these 15-20 Katanas, more than half are locked into museums and whales collections such as the Sano Museum or the Sawaguchi collection. Now you're left with maybe 5-8 legit katanas that could ever surface on the market and the pie is shrinking fast. Every few years, one might change hands discreetly in Japan and if you're lucky you might hear about it in hushed tones from Japanese dealers. So yeah, they are as rare as rare can be. And no, you won't find a Hozon Masamune for hozon bargain price. That game stops working at the topmost level. And to return to the original question, when stocks run dry it's the best time to sell on consignment, and now is such a time.
  12. Tanobe Sayagaki > NBHTK > …..> the rest… Pretty clear hierarchy to me. the gold standard is of course to have both. if Tanobe does not think the NBHTK’s attribution is good, he will not do the sayagaki. So having both is a great cross-panel validation.
  13. The upper piece has a typical soden-bizen hamon. Fine swords.
  14. I've inspected in hand two. I did not see at least visually where the fame comes from. Kotetsu flies over my head in terms of appreciation capacity. I keep thinking it's like Kiyomaro. Quite a few of them are drunk Kiyomaro forged with sake, and a few pieces really do stand out as masterworks and made his reputation.
  15. I can't tell from the photos. Both swords are eerily similar to me in design, construction, jigane and sugata.
  16. Both fine shinto blade. I honestly do not see much of a difference. Then again, I neither studied nor understood Kotetsu. The ones I've handled haven't left a mark - and when I raised the point I was told "yes, but you haven't cut with it"
  17. Time for the reveal! Many good and close answers. The majority nailed the period and tradition. A few of you nailed the school. Sue-Sa or Sa Ichimon would count as Atari here, so I think the board was very close to succeeding here (and Brian can PM me his Ether public key) The sword is attributed to the Sa Ichimon. By tradition, Sa school blades with a relatively calm suguha or cho-notare are attributed to Sa Sadayoshi. Due of the wild monouchi and ichimai boshi, the attribution is prefaced by "Den". So we have here a piece attributed to Den Sa Sadayoshi. The smith has 21 Juyo pieces, and half of them are accompanied by Den. His signed works are extraordinarily rare, and the attribution within the ichimon follows tradition. There is significant overlap between Sadayoshi and his father, Yoshisada, in style. To sum up, there is significant uncertainty when attributing within the Sa Ichimon due to the lack of daito with a preserved signature and the majority of works attributed to his students and the master are prefaced by Den. The thick and bright habuchi with sparkling ko-nie is a strong kantei point for Sa school. The boshi of Sa school is often quite distinctive, with a sharp and long kaeri. Here we have a sharp kaeri, but more intriguing is its ichimai characteristics, which is unique amongst Sa School published work. What I find particularly appealing is the wild but symmetrically tempered boshi and monouchi. In combination with the early end of the bohi, we have here a deliberate design choice on behalf of the smith and essentially would give the blade a second life in the event of a broken boshi. A point of particular interest is that there is a single prominent kinsuji on both sides, at the same place. These features are unusual for the Sa ichimon, and point to the influence of Go. An attribution to a student of Go is also plausible here, but that is not within the practice of the NBTHK due to lack of an extent historical corpus. The blade was once part of the a museum collection and came with an old inventory tag on its sayagaki (further research required here, I was told Tokyo national museum had the same tags). It further had an early torokusho number of 4038. Not much else is known about its provenance. It is possible that it was passed as Go during the Edo period due to its prominent fully hardened boshi, or the work of O-Sa as is often the case with Sa Ichimon, and has been carefully preserved as a result. For an old blade, the state of preservation is close to Kenzen, with a few weak areas on one side. Often for Sue-Sa or Sa ichimon attributions, the hada can be relatively weak, and this particular work stands out here. It passed Juyo with the following setsumei: Explanation The Chikuzen-smith Samonji (左文字) was active in the early Nanbokuchō period and left behind the traditional, classical Kyūshu style by establishing a new style which was comprised of a bright and clear jiba and a prominent amount of chikei and kinsuji. Samonji had many highly skilled students, e.g., Yasuyoshi (安吉), Yukihiro (行弘), Yoshisada (吉貞), Kunihiro (国弘). Hiroyuki (弘行), Hiroyasu (弘安), and Sadayoshi (貞吉), who faithfully continued the style of their master and who flourished throughout the Nanbokuchō period. It is said that Sadayoshi (貞吉) was the son of Yasuyoshi (安吉) and that he was active around Bunna (文和, 1352-1356). Signed works by this smith are extremely rare but there are unsigned blades with period attributions to Sadayoshi which often show a ha that bases on a Sa School- typical suguha. This blade is ō-suriage but reflects with its wide mihaba, little taper, shallow sori, and elongated kissaki the typical shape of the Nanbokuchō period. The kitae is a standing-out itame that is mixed with mokume and nagare and that features much chikei. The hamon is a nie-laden chū-suguha with a wide nioiguchi that tends a little bit towards notare, that widens along the monouchi, and that is mixed with gunome and angular elements, and the bōshi is a largely undulating midare-komi with a pointed kaeri. We recognize thus the workmanship of the Sa School and as Sadayoshi is traditionally known for hardening most often a suguha-based hamon within this school, the blade can be attributed to him. The jiba is rich in hataraki and has many highlights, and particularly impressive are the powerful nie and the sharply pointed kaeri of the bōshi, features which both match the dynamic shape of the blade. Therefore, we have here an ambitious masterwork among all blades attributed to this smith. Tanobe sensei's sayagaki Jūyō-tōken at the 63rd jūyō shinsa Sa Sadayoshi from Chikuzen province This blade is ō-suriage mumei. It is of an Enbun-Jōji shape, shows an itame-nagare that features plenty of ji-nie and much chikei, and is hardened in a nie-laden suug-chō with a wide nioiguchi that shows kinsuji and yubashieri and that is mixed along the upper half of the blade with a gently undulating notare. The bōshi is a widely hardened midare-bōshi that is bold and powerful and as its kaeri is somewhat pointed, we recognize along the jiba all characteristics of the Samonji group, with the rather calm course of the ha of this masterwork attributing it within this group to Sada- yoshi. Blade length ~ 71.5 cm
  18. Warmer territory above
  19. Note that 2.5M is right into the danger zone. Not top tier and rare enough to elicit deep interest by big collectors, not affordable enough to have a exit market. Nobuhide, while a respectable jo-jo saku smith, isn't very recognisable either.
  20. We've moved from red hot to colder and colder. Soshu Nambokucho. Linked Masamune's Jutettsu. Best answer is still 80% atari.
  21. The answer comes tomorrow. Last clue: Soshu Nambokucho it is. Vast majority have gotten this right, so kudos! But where would the attribution point to? There are certainly competing hypothesis there.
  22. Further clues. I consider a certain number of the Kantei in the thread very close to Atari (80%). It is Nanbokucho, of Enbun-Joji sugata (1356-1368) according to Tanobe-Sensei. Here is a link to all high-resolution images: LINK (will be deleted after the exercise).
  23. Many good guesses so far I’m adding the description. Measurements Nagasa 71.5 cm, sori 1.3 cm, motohaba 2.9 cm, sakihaba 2.0 cm, kissaki-nagasa 4.9 cm, nakago-nagasa19.9 cm, nakago-sori 0.1 cm Description Keijo: shinogi-zukuri, mitsu-mune, wide mihaba, no noticeable taper. relatively thick kasane, shallow sori, elongated chū-kissaki Kitae: overall dense but standing-out itame that is mixed with mokume and some nagare and that features plenty of ji-nie, much chikei, and a faint shirake-style utsuri Hamon: nie-laden chū-suguha with a wide and bright nioiguchi that tends overall a little bit towards notare, that widens along the monouchi and that is mixed with some gunome, angular elements, many ashi and yō, hotsure, uchinoke, some yubashiri and tobiyaki, and a few kinsuji Bōshi: widely hardened and largely undulating midare-komi with a pointed kaeri Horimono: on both sides a bōhi that runs as kaki-tōshi through the tang Nakago: ō-suriage, kirijiri, kiri-yasurime, three mekugi-ana, mumei Keep up the Kantei flow!
  24. For high-resolution close inspection: LINK
  25. Either is has an old name, preserved through provenance, or it doesn't. I wouldn't dare awaken the wrath of the sleeping KAMI by misnaming it. All my swords have pronouns though, which I carve myself on the Sayagaki.
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