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Jussi Ekholm

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Everything posted by Jussi Ekholm

  1. Hello! Yes I mean that smith. Unfortunately his work seems to be super rare. So far in all my years tracking down old items I think I have only came to see 3 items signed by this smith. Here is attached the only one of those that I have picture other than the signature so some working style can be seen. While being so rare and would be a very uncommon attribution it is probably the only Mitsuhiro (光弘) smith I can think of.
  2. Steve is correct and I believe the NBTHK paper is fake. However I must admit it seems to be a good fake. Here are some things explained that I see as problematic. 1. Like Steve said if there is signature on both sides, then there will be oshigata or picture of both sides of the nakago. 2. NBTHK stopped using oshigata in mid Showa 62 (1987), after that they use pictures. 3. While uncommon as the length is so slighty above X shaku NBTHK actually uses 0 on the paper when it is X shaku but under 1 sun and features X bu. 4. The number of the paper is hidden in the picture, however it seems to have 6 numbers. Hozon papers for blades from 2015 have 7 numbers, 300XXXX and very late in the year they start to be 301XXXX. 5. There actually was no Hozon/Tokubetsu Hozon session for blades in 6th month of 2015. The blade sessions around that time were in May (5th month) and July (7th month) Out of curiosity where did you purchase this sword?
  3. Could it be an old attribution towards Nanbokuchō Kozori smith Mitsuhiro?
  4. I think Andrew gave very well thought and written reply to you. In Australia you could try to message Jigoku Studios about shirasaya & habaki. Unfortunately never done any business with restorers in general so I am not much advice in there. Or you could try asking Nihonto Australia if they know any local restorers in AU, John is a great guy. However I am in same boat with Andrews advice that spending money on item restoration would be something that you won't recover and perhaps would be better saving that money towards another item, and trying to enjoy the Kunimune blade in the current state as much as you can?
  5. It is still fun to guess on threads like these, even though it might be just guesswork. I admit I would have been totally wrong on this one.
  6. I don't think NBTHK has published an amount of failed blades per Hozon/Tokubetsu Hozon shinsa session. The fact that 100,000+ blades have passed their evaluation makes the possibility of an error or two being in the mix very likely. However as we human are as we are, I don't think 90% of us would complain if they would paper a signature that we might feel is gimei. On the flipside you can easily see how negatively people can react when signed items do not pass, and yes by the probablity of an error most likely a legimate signature has been bounced back and perhaps passed another time. NBTHK is not the only authority when it comes to Japanese swords and there are various opinions on things, museums, shrines, organizations might have different views on things. For some smiths you can literally find hundreds of validated comparison mei, while for some you might struggle to find 5 reference ones. That will make things lot more complicated when it comes to evaluating the signature. Then there are blades that would be atypical for the smith, and if the traits would not fit that particular smith if the sword would not be signed it would most likely not be attributed to that specific smith. I do feel that market is very much pro NBTHK papers and their attribution for mumei blades will affect the price very much. That is pretty much why I have not decide to go after high quality because I cannot afford it and focus on items that I like. You can get quite similarish blades from lesser schools for much less investment and for me the attribution itself isn't that big deal. I always mentioned that I have never sent an item to a shinsa and probably wont for few years at least (it is just quite costly and complicated vs. the benefit for a basic item). There are swords that have been reappraised by NBTHK on later date and for example the smith has changed. Or mei that was at first needing more research is confirmed authentic. Example for the first one would be an ōdachi by Yoshimune (吉宗) that was at Jūyō shinsa judged as Yoshioka Ichimonji Yoshimune but at Tokubetsu Jūyō it was judged as Ko-Bizen Yoshimune. Another example would be long tachi by Sukemori (助盛) that was judged Ōmiya work at Jūyō but reappraised as Ko-Bizen Sukemori at Tokubetsu Jūyō. There is an example ken where the smith was first passed as Takafuji (讃州高藤作) at Jūyō 27 then reappraised at Jūyō 52 as Yukimitsu (讃州高藤行) [光] being cut off. With really old stuff proper identification can be extremely difficult even for the experts.
  7. I have heard that it is spectacular exhibition.
  8. I am really enjoying this collaboration. For people interested I advice acting fast. I have been looking at Matsumoto site for a long time and they sell interesting items often pretty fast.
  9. I was going to comment that regardless of the attribution to Aoe or Mihara it will be a nice sword from Nanbokuchō period. I am really pedantic about attributions while classifying items however in reality I am extremely lax when it comes to them Most important is to enjoy the items. It was really nice to see such sayagaki from Tanobe and Steve can give you many good pointers with better translation. Here is the tachi that I believe Tanobe is referring to
  10. I think it depends what you are willing to accept. Looking for verified signed tachi from Heian you are looking at big bucks even if the condition would be off. Signed (verified) Kamakura tachi by unremarkable smiths occasionally appear for "reasonable" prices. If you are willing to go for shortened and attributed swords then things are more doable, however there is always the uncertainty factor even if the sword would be professionally attributed. Do you have a budget in mind?
  11. Awesome like always Moriyama-san. I think you are doing very well Chris, this is very difficult handwriting and translation and you are doing it
  12. I believe the term would be 四所物 - Yondokoromono However it can be bit complicated as there are also sets that are classified by NBTHK as Mitokoromono & Tsuba or Mitokoromono & Fuchi/Kashira.
  13. Giordy and Steve gave some solid advice. I would recommend at least 500,000 yen budget if looking for old signed tachi. Here are few (authenticated by NBTHK) examples in that range, not that none are these are very desirable items but they show that can be achieved for small budget. Hidekage: https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/m1064309208 (unfortunately sword dealer had took the info down on the site when it went to Yahoo JP) Tsuneie: https://www.aoijapan...fune-ju-den-tsuneie/ Moriyuki: https://www.e-sword....katana/1910-1012.htm Hisamitsu: https://www.e-sword....katana/1610-1080.htm
  14. Whoa, thanks for information Now I must resist the temptation to start Yahoo JP hoarding...
  15. What would be your approximate budget? You can find signed old pieces for reasonable amounts as Giordy mentioned above,
  16. Were you planning to use an agent for bidding? I don't believe Jauce, Buyee or other proxy bidders will be able to allow swords for bidding, as the de-registration process is bit complicated.
  17. I believe the signature would be 江府住立花圓龍子藤原義秀作 / 元治元甲子(X)八月日 Smith is Tachibana Yoshihide and dated to 1864. Unfortunately I am not confident in the one character that I put as X but someone will fill that blank spot.
  18. I feel the main question is what the sword is in general and how do you feel about it? I own a sword with problematic bōshi. Got it from fellow forum member who is a great sword dealer, after realizing the flaw on inspection he offered a huge discount on the item (so flaw like this affects the price by a great factor). I am super happy with the item and I would much rather own an unique item with huge flaw than a pristine item that is not to my liking. It just depends on how do you feel about the item in general, at least for me. In my league I cannot afford items to my liking that are close to perfect so I need to search for items that are available in my range that I still want to have.
  19. I feel late Muromachi could be plausible for the sword.
  20. I do not know a thing about these other than having seen few old ones. However I am liking your work and I think you are talented.
  21. I think based on those pictures it would be impossible to me to say almost anything. Just on the size of the sword & nakago I might guess later part of Muromachi.
  22. I think the signature style 高田住XX - Takada jū XX is very rare. I have a book of Bungo smiths and there are the 2 different Yukihisa smiths mentioned with small brief info on them but I cannot find a reference mei for either one. There is only one similar style mei in the book 高田住国久 Takada jū Kunihisa in the book but it seems even less info on this smith. How long is your sword from the habaki notch to the tip in straight line?
  23. Perhaps you could take a high quality picture of the signature and another of bottom character directly from above. There were some good possibilities that could be plausible smiths of the item. Your sword seems to have the old NBTHK Kicho paper that was issued in 1972 (昭和47). Back when the old papering system was in use by NBTHK then also branches around Japan could issue the papers. Even though these things have happened much before I was born I have looked into it as I am lucky to have the NBTHK magazines from this time. For example in 1969, there were several local branch shinsa every month. Now as I have the magazines there were problems in that method of shinsa, and local branch shinsa were stopped few times, before altering the system to the current one. I believe one local branch shinsa termination happened at the end of 1972. I think sending to NBTHK might not be worth it, as Kirill said. Even though I am a member and big supporter of the organization and I do appreciate their current system, unfortunately currently just the cost and difficulty of sending an item like this from outside Japan is just too high in my personal opinion. I do think there is a high chance that NBTHK would have some info and references on the smith if they can read/guess the character. They do have their own records of papered items and I think Hozon blades are 120,000+ currently but I believe they do not share those records. I feel you have nice and interesting item, hopefully you are enjoying trying to figure it out. I think that is one of the fun parts of this hobby.
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