Jussi Ekholm

I have been buying books with Jauce for some years. Might not be the cheapest one but it is very easy to use and I have found it very good for books. Of course the downside when buying big heavy books is that shipping is super expensive if you don't use the cheapest option. But as many of the books I've bought have been very rare and expensive I'd rather pay expensive fast shipping than go for 90 day transport. Of course for very large cheap bulk stuff that cheap option is good. As you dont need to stress about those too much. Haven't found many issues. I think only one is that some of the sword books have been listed as swords, so I need to make an application for them that they open the bidding on the item. I assume they need to check it manually as it sometimes can take quite a bit due to timezone differences etc. That might be a big issue if an interesting auction is near ending and you cannot bid on a book etc. as their system sees that as a sword item...

I think here in Europe we have quite high prices in overall for Japanese swords. Sadly I must confess that I look European dealer offerings less and less as I feel you can get much better quality for the money from Japan (note that this does not include unique high end items). It is just a personal observation. I understand multiple factors that go into making these items available in for the public here where there is relatively quite little demand. Might have been bit harsh on my comments about putting most of the risk for the buyer but basic research should be fairly easy and recommended if someone is investing 10,000€+ on a sword. Just typing Fujiwara Takada and/or 藤原高田 to Google will get you results you can start going through. You'll probably find multiple Fujiwara Takada attributed swords being sold at any given moment in Japan. Then if you decide to dig bit deeper you can dig up some of the sold ones too. I know I have tracked the prices for the swords relevant for my interests for several years, and I believe (and know) many others do similar things. Unfortunately I haven't really looked into swords like the one in the example as they fall outside my interests but I can say without even looking deeply to it that 400,000 yen (c.3,200€) that Aoi has it for is reasonable for NBTHK papered mumei katana with koshirae. However 15,700€ (c.2,000,000 yen) Is not a reasonable price at all for that particular sword in my opinion. The sword seems to have old NBTHK papers to Yoshimitsu (賀光) which would mean a Muromachi Bizen attribution. Seems like it was fairly recently put through the new shinsa where they gave the current attribution. While bit harsh comment I don't feel it has financially too much difference if the sword is mumei Muromachi Yoshimitsu 賀光 or mumei Fujiwara Takada 藤原高田 from early Edo period. Kirill I agree on your view that Japanese swords are not a good investment. I feel they should be collected because of the passion for them, and not stressing too much on the monetary value (of course that is totally unreasonable in real life as they are expensive luxury items). I cannot comment on comparisons for different fields of fine art as I have 0 interest in them. However I would assume (maybe wrongly) that those involved with for example extremely expensive paintings are also doing research and not just buying expensive stuff as it has been sold by huge amount previously? I personally think Aoi Art is fairly good sword shop. 1 of my 2 swords is from them and I am very happy with the deal I got from them. Made me feel like I "beat" the market, while in reality they of course made profit too and I got a feeling of great deal. So total win - win situation. Of course they deal with huge number of items and there is very large variety in quality. You can get very good deals and you can get less favorable ones (of course lot of that is opinion based).

I think it is understandable that dealers & resellers need to make profit in order to keep doing what they do. I know it might be bit harsh but I will personally put a lot of responsibility to buyer too. Why are you buying something, if you don't know what you are buying? That being said we have a great board in here where people can ask for assistance, many clubs & communities around the world, other good places in the Internet too where you can ask for help. I do think people might often be afraid that if they post something someone will snatch it in front of them. While that is of course a possibility I still think it will be better to ask if feeling uncertain than to jump in to what might be too deep water. I know many people like auctions and on the other hand I am personally not a big fan of them. I much prefer the current field where you mostly see items in the hands of other collectors or dealers. As I don't actively buy or sell items the initial price won't matter that much as long as it feels good for me. I would much rather pay a "premium" on an item I like than get better deal on an item that I don't like. Of course the higher you go the financial risk will be higher, just losing 10% of value is quite a bit more drastic if the item is 10x the price.

I would feel late Muromachi Bizen is a quite reasonable guess.

Can't comment on the modern mystery items but I do know he possibly works with some Japanese dealers on higher quality stuff as his papered swords usually appear on Yahoo JP or on the dealer sites.

Very difficult to say without pictures. However based on your description I would rather put it in the late 1400's to early 1500's. Most of the signed Kaga Yukimitsu tend to be of the later generations. Here is quite rare signed tachi that NBTHK evaluated as the work of early Muromachi Kaga Yukimitsu.

I think it might be possible Michael, the ana are bit different and I skipped it but sometimes the oshigata are not 100% similar. This is one of few with plausible length. Of course it can potentially be a "hidden" Kuniyuki too. As signed tachi by him are extremely rare, I haven't documented too many of them only 5 + 1 kodachi. There are some amazing swords in Japan (shrines, museums, private etc.) without any designations.

Thanks for the additional pictures Grev, very interesting piece. I tried to compare to the known Taima Kuniyuki around this length but I did not have this one. I also did a comparison to Rai Kuniyuki tachi around this length that I know of but there was not a fit in there either.

Grev can you post a picture that shows the tang? As the length is given I can check it in comparison to similar examples I have.

Not familiar with armor but I've seen Japanese style reproduction stuff for so long, I'd guess this to be Hanwei's version of Takeda Shingen armor. I don't think they carry it in their lineup anymore. Here is link to a one listed up at European reproduction sword shop. https://www.celticwebmerchant.com/en/hanwei-samurai-armor-of-takeda-shingen.html

Thanks for the great comments. It has been fun project and I think I'll do an updates on it when I have added more named swords to it (I know I have missed some). I have the same book as you Ian. I think it is great book as it features all of the National treasures. By quick check I believe the last one designated was Kikkō Sadamune in 1964 if I read the database correctly. You can see entry for it HERE For Bunkazai items there have been later ones. By quick search I believe last ones were designated in 1989. HERE is an entry to one of them. As a funny fact there is actually an item that is Jūyō 21 > Tokubetsu Jūyō 2 > Jūyō Bunkazai, a tachi by Kagemitsu that was designated in 1979 and before that had made Tokujū.

Happy New year folks! Here is a project of mine that I think some might enjoy. This PDF should have all sword related National Treasures (Kokuhō - 122 items), Important Cultural Properties (Jūyō Bunkazai - 792 Items) and former designation Important Art Object (Jūyō Bijutsuhin - 1096 items + 5 EX blades). I have written all of the names in Latin alphabets but I have always included all of the kanji, so you will find lots of signatures in this one. There can be an error or two in the mix as I wrote all of them in by hand and there are thousands of characters to type in. However while doing so I got to check for errors like if years actually are correct, etc. So I kinda did checkup at the same time. There should be 137 Named swords - for which I used term Meitō in this index. There are probably some more in there but for these I have 100% confirmity as I have them in reputable books or online sources from Japan, as well I have the Japanese characters to all of these named swords. How does this work. Well you have 86 pages of swords & items indexed. At first it might seem that there is logic and there is not. First we start with National Tresures, followed by Important Cultural Properties and last the Important Art Objects. This part is logical but the actual placement of items in first two categories are not. As you can see the number in front and you will most likely wonder what it is, here is the explanation for that. I have checked all my data entries to database of Agency for Cultural Affairs. You can find the said database in HERE. They have assigned a number to each item, and I have gone through all the items in crafts section and added them in number by number to make sure there are no duplicates in. The database is only for current designations and as a former category Jūyō Bijutsuhin items are not featured. However I have the old set of books that feature all of the sword related Jūyō Bijutsuhin items, and I have typed them in numerically as they appear in the books. Just note that this is just an index. However you can find some info per item from the database I linked above. Likewise I should have extra information for I guess at least 90% of the swords. But this is just an index and I do have some far superior work in progress to this going on for multiple years. The format is very simple and this should be extremely easy to use. Item number - Item type - Maker - Signature. Few notes, I did not transliterate fitting or koshirae themes as I didn't feel I would get them correct, similarily I didn't type in kinzōgan or kiritsuke mei etc. However for those that I have the data I typed in the kanji so items that you might find interesting you can use the kanji. Same goes for long signatures on the swords. The format is simple, there is just maker and possible year. Signatures are typed in kanji so you can research more on your own. Check it out and I hope it is a fun one, might be totally boring to some. Kokuho & Bunkazai Index.pdf

Just got my answer in. There is time until 5th of January for this one. This online submission has been very nice add on for us international members. While sending the card by post was not too troublesome it is still easier and faster to participate online.

Here are the extra additions I've seen on Mumei tachi & katana attributed to Uda Kunifusa Ray's tachi has: 時代南北朝末期乃至応永 - Late Nanbokuchō - Ōei Jūyō tachi has: 時代南北朝 - Nanbokuchō Tokubetsu Hozon katana with: 時代南北朝末期 - Late Nanbokuchō Tokubetsu Hozon katana with: 時代南北朝末期 - Late Nanbokuchō There are some items that are signed by Uda Kunimitsu and some mumei that are attributed to him (even 1 dated tanto to 1321 that is thought to be his work). However it might be difficult to define the generations. The most famous signed tachi is Jūyō 23 & Tokubetsu Jūyō 7, and it is written to be by 1st gen in TokuJū. You will find this tachi featured in many publications. I believe the signed tachi in Jūyō 22 might be 2nd gen and Nanbokuchō. There seem to be signed Jūyō tachi in sessions 34 & 45 and a mumei tachi in session 41 (that is attributed to 1st gen). but I haven't got more detailed info on them so far. There is also a tachi that is Toyama Prefecture Bunkazai but so far I have 0 info on it aside from designation and signature.

I think I worded it out bit badly. There are about 10 mumei Ko-Uda Jūyō in fairly recent sessions. In total there are 50+ that have passed. There has been a fairly regular Ko-Uda pass(es) in sessions between 9 to 51. Of course the few very large sessions had the largest number of Uda passes in total. Session 23 being the largest of this school by numbers, 4 signed ones and 8 mumei passing in it, so 12 Uda works in that session.