Jussi Ekholm

Here is a fuchi & kashira made by him. I have at least 3 other F&K by him in books. As I am not a fittings guy I am surprised he is so highly rated as his work seem quite scarce at top level, maybe they are really rare? When going through books I thought he was just a good maker but I didn't think him in same league as makers you mentioned in OP. Of course I have never seen his work in real life so cannot say much.

The signature seems to me to be 備前国長船住景光 - Bizen kuni Osafune jū Kagemitsu, unfortunately I believe signature to be gimei (forged signature).

鯰図縁頭 - Namazu theme fuchi & kashira - Mumei 古金工 (Ko-Kinkō) 赤銅石目地 高彫 金色絵 - Shakudō ishime-ji takabori [Kin iroe??]

Would be nice to see more of the sword Robert, seems like a great find. And it is always astonishing what Ray can figure out.

康光 (右衛門尉) - Yasumitsu (Uemon no Jō)

I think it is 貞文 - Sadafumi

The ones that pop up with Google searches are not made by 1st generation Munemitsu. They are (at least on my searches) actually mid-late Muromachi period pieces. As I mentioned earlier this is so far the only surviving tachi by 1st gen Munemitsu from Kamakura period that I am aware of and it is by attribution as the mei has partially eroded. Signature on this is 備前国□□住 (Fumei) and it has been attributed to Munemitsu who was of Nagamitsu school.

Adam can you post the examples of 1st & 2nd generation mei you mentioned, and what references you are using for information on them?

There is partial fumei long signature tachi that is attributed to 1st Munemitsu at Jūyō 20. Other than that I have 0 info on 1st, 2nd or 3rd gen.

I believe they are Dha swords from Southeast Asia, Thailand, Burma etc.

I think trying to compete with others is not a good way to go in collecting. If someone just starting collecting goes to top dealer and gets a top item, that is just fantastic. I think the achievement in owning something might be that you have just personally set a goal like that. Even though you can get amazing items by top tier makers in a day (if you have the finances and in some cases connections too) as you put it, can you get the exact item you will want? As an example I have personally a quest for a blade from Hōju school, I know there are some top ones of that school that will be forever unobtainable for me, and probably in the last 10 years there might have been around 5 Hōju tachi for sale that I would really have wanted to own in my collection. Unfortunately the timing was never right for me at that time when the items were sold. Now if I just would want to own a Hōju blade there are probably 10+ items for sale in Japan at this given moment by various dealers, the thing is just that I don't really like any of the ones for sale that much. Of course I am not even in buying position at the moment, hopefully I will be when I encounter an available Hōju tachi that I like, be it 5,10 or 20 years onwards.

I think it is fun idea. Here is a 9 item collection (excluding the possible koshirae from the count) I came up with. In perfect world all items would of course be ubu. I think excluding the ōdachi and ubu naginata, the rest can be achieved fairly easily, and I left out any makers in order to make the basic format easy to see. And I am not personally yet too drawn into any specific makers, as there are so many interesting smiths and schools throughout the history. I realized it easily shows my preference of item types over specific schools. However I must say in reality I would probably cut the Muromachi trio for another earlier item but I included them to this fantasy format as I thought 9 items like this would give a nice view into different item types as well. Kamakura 1. Naginata 2. Tachi 3. Tantō Nanbokuchō 1. Naginata 2. Ōdachi 3. Ko-wakizashi Muromachi 1. Yari 2. Uchigatana (daishō koshirae) 3. Wakizashi (daishō koshirae)

Ray was super fast as usual, here is a reference sword: http://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords4/KY329076.htm

I do think a lot is riding on the signature or the attribution, as all things are not equal.

I think lots of things go into Tokujū submission, those that have done it can explain things much better than I can. Darcy has written an excellent blog post on the subject. I do think in general people who will have a go at Tokujū shinsa are often people with great knowledge, and they have done the background work and are prepared for the submission. And of course the item sent in is in most cases very good. Jūyō shinsa (while quite uncommon for average collectors) is still much more relaxed compared to absolute top at Tokujū. I believe It is much lower bar to try a good quality Tokuho item for a chance to Jūyō, where as in order to to pass as Tokujū the item would need to be among the top quality of Jūyō items. Hozon & Tokubetsu Hozon are just bit "generic" as you can see by the numbers of them passing every year. Of course things are not black & white as there are still great items at just that papering level. However on the other hand there are plenty of weak Tokubetsu Hozon items too. I think here in the West we are sometimes too concerned about the level of papers, and often in discussions we bring up the NBTHK papering levels (yes I am often quilty of that too), instead of focusing on explaining the item in other ways. I know it would be convenient to but things in boxes but I think some of the boxes are too big. For example as there is about 1,500 - 2,000 swords passing Tokubetsu Hozon every year, there is lot of different swords in that yearly bunch, and some amazing items will be passing every year, along with some that will barely make it, while the majority will be everything in between those extremes. However all that I am saying must be taken with grain of salt, as what I am writing is purely theoretical. I have not yet submitted a sword into a shinsa by any organization.