Jussi Ekholm

Thank you Piers, that ōdachi koshirae is wonderful. While not maybe on par in craftsmanship with others, to me it takes the cake in historical importance.

I think most of items in Aoi auctions end without any bids and the items will be in the inventory of their regular site. https://www.aoijapan.com/tantomuramasanbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-token/

For me collecting is unfortunately a spectator sport. I cannot really afford the things I would like. I hope the Mikazuki would by a miracle land to Nagoya Tōken World or NBTHK, or other Japanese museum that would display it in public occasionally, if it goes to private collector I think I and most of the public will never see that spectacular sword. To me more reasonable thing to collect would be Tomomitsu - Sadamitsu - Morimitsu - Norimitsu short sword combo. Out of those 4 I would feel the Morimitsu might be the best sword but personally I would have most desire to Tomomitsu as I like the smith. Unfortunately spending 30,000$ just at the opening bid is totally unrealistic for me. Then you need to add the very high Buyers premium that auction houses have (seems like Sothebys has 27%?)... I feel buying swords from auction houses is a rich mans sport. Will be checking the auction and see what happens. I just personally feel all the swords have higher starting price than I would be willing to pay for the item (aside from the 4 above mentioned short swords [However they would still have the buyers premium added to price which at these prices is a lot of money]). As an average guy spectating is pretty much all we can do on auctions like these, I feel level of items is just too high for your average collector.

Bart I think Jacques is thinking bit like myself, I am usually very hesitant to state anything, however Jacques has guts to say things straight. I think one thing to consider is that smiths that earned titles are mostly recorded to my understanding. And there isn't Ujishige smith to be found with this title but there is an Ujikumo smith with the title. So I think more research would be needed to judge the authencity. As a collector I am extremely small collector with tiny collection. Maybe that is reason why I keep good care of things. I cannot understand how someone would lose a certificate etc. I would expect in this modern world people would have pictures of the certificates saved on computers and phones, I know I have taken pictures of every one I have ever owned. So it would be very easy to present a picture of the lost certificate. The unfortunate thing is that there are lots of bad things happening in this hobby and I don't want to say anything negative as I do not know who the dealers have been for this sword or how the transactions have been. In general the buyer needs to beware when doing deals. Trust is a difficult thing, it can amount a lot in this hobby but it can be difficult to know who to trust.

A friend sent me these magazines so I have been able to complete an awesome set. I guess I will be posting the duplicate magazines for sale in the future. Just need to figure out reasonable batch sizes.

Thank you for the follow up Jedediah. It does look like a truely rare blade. Congratulations

I was about to write same thing as Jacques above. It is sometimes difficult as the romanization can feature lots of various names. I also think the English translation of Fujishiro possibly has a mistranslation in this case, I believe the smith 鎮盛 is read as Shizumori as swordsmith name. Blade that Lex posted is Shigemori 重盛 - however while I cannot find that particular smith anywhere I think the name is plausible as both 盛 Mori and 重 Shige are very common in Bungo signatures. I have lots of books including the Bungo book & Nihontō Meikan, however this particular Shigemori is not found in either.

Ujikumo seems to be very rare smith. Unfortunately I can only find this one from my books fast, this is in the collection of Atsuta Jingū and it is Aichi Prefecture Bunkazai. It was dedicated to Atsuta Jingū in 1608. I believe Owari province is written with 尾張 and it turns as Bishū 尾州. Personally I would be cautious about the signature of the blade in the opening post.

Nagato no Kami is a very rare title. I would assume the smith here should have been Owari province smith Ujikumo (氏雲), as he is one of the very few smiths that had this title.

I believe the research paper is correct. I am away from my books and while I dont have that many on koshirae I think they have the same information that most pre-Edo koshirae will have black lacquered samekawa, on top of my head I remember that it was stated that it also offered extra protection against elements as it was lacquered. There are few historical koshirae with red lacquered samekawa if I remember correctly. I can check the info from my books in few days time.

As it is dated it is extremely rare item. I did a presentation on Kamakura & Nanbokuchō naginata few years ago. Back then I had found 38 dated Kamakura & Nanbokuchō naginata & naoshi. Now I assume I have found few more since then but I think the number still remains under 50 in total. There are actually many old naginata that are around 40 - 50 cm in blade length. It is perfectly legitimate length and I personally own one dated Nanbokuchō naginata in this length range. However this is not my preferred size and shape range. And for Aoi Art blade the fact that the nakago has been cut makes this particular piece not that desirable for myself. Naginata in general are not really appreciated in traditional Japanese collecting/appreciation lore, which will explain the lower price they usually go for. As Steve said earlier NBTHK terminology has changed over the years. As the nakago has been cut so severely I personally would see this more as naoshi than a naginata even though the blade portion would be unaltered. For example I own another Nanbokuchō naginata that I believe to be suriage, the current blade length is 49,4 cm but the nakago is still 42,5 cm, so the sword still remains as a naginata. I just checked old naginata that I have data for and I have quite a lot of them. I found only 3 Kamakura & Nanbokuchō naginata with nakago under 20 cm, they were all NBTHK Jūyō and originally with much longer nakago (personally I would question if they are still naginata with such a short tang). Also found 2 early Edo naginata with similarily short nakago. Here you can see another Naginata (this one is naoshi) by Unjū that is made around the same time. This one is much larger and appealing to me a lot more personally. By somewhat funny coincidence it was also sold by Aoi almost 15 years ago. https://web.archive.org/web/20110408142928/http:/www.aoi-art.com:80/sword/sale/10599.html One thing that I can try to figure out by looking at these two very differently sized naginata (they are only signed naginata by Unjū I have seen so far), is the fact that it seems Unjū started his signature on naginata very high up on the tang. So in case of shortening the tang lot of the mei can still be preserved.

I can also recommend Isshindo. Last summer I had bit similar experience as Thomas above, I tried to find few very rare books that were supposedly in inventory of few other book stores in area (as I had checked that online). Of course my Japanese is limited but I had book titles in Japanese on my phone, and the store address, always the answer was that they pointed me to Isshindo.

I do have quite a few naginata tsuba from Muromachi period and some even possibly Nanbokuchō period in my books. As said before they are mostly very plain in design. However I do not think the purpose of tsuba in general is to stop the hand from sliding to the blade. I am not sure where this narrative comes from originally.

I would agree with Ray and Kirill that this is in my opinion a later ubu ōdachi, it is 99,3 cm so quite a big blade. I believe nakago has been artificially aged there have been items like this on Yahoo JP before. As ōdachi are my main research thing, it is fairly common for them to have another hole near the bottom of the tang. I feel there is a possibility the sword might have had a legitimate mei before the nakago reworking & patinating shenanigans. They are just trying to market it as Nanbokuchō ōdachi, where I see a lot of value for it even as a more modern blade.

Bumping this up as I am still looking for these 2 magazines. I have gotten some more duplicates and older ones for potential trade. Of course straight buy would be the easiest option.