Jussi Ekholm

I got multiple offers and ended up doing at least 1 great trade with fellow member. Thanks NMB community

Sesko Kantei set is sold.

Like in the title I am looking for Tōken Bijutsu issue 249 (刀剣美術 249) This is the october issue of 1977. I will happily pay 50€ for this single magazine. I am closing in on getting very amazing running set of the NBTHK magazines, as I have been collecting them for several years. I have actually bought this 1977 year twice from Japan but both times this magazine was missing (for one set it actually read in the sales ad but I didn't read it fully). Getting the bulk buys of magazines shipped from Japan is not too fun trying to get a single magazine. So I thought I'd try if someone here would have one and would be willing to sell it. If someone wants a trade it for other NBTHK magazines I would be more than happy to do it if I have some issues you like. I could easily trade that 1 magazine for 20. I have sold some but I should still have somewhere between 100 - 200 double issues (that is the pain of buying bulk when goal are just few missing issues).

Seems like a very nice sword, I am bit puzzled why it would be unsigned. I am not huge fan of extremely specific mumei attributions even though that is the Japanese style but I think it would identify this is above "general" Takada work of the period.

I see several really good books in there

I am surprised how fast the books arrived this time as shipping was lot faster than last time. I think for TJ books as a set missing number 1 is a big bummer. If they dont sell I might try to look that one from Japan with time to complete this set to 1-10. Of course then I think I would have different price as it would be much more desirable.

Perhaps you can post pictures and measurements of the item?

With the current status of NBTHK shinsa acceptions I think minimum time from without papers to Jūyō submission would be c. 8 months. You would need to get Hozon in March session for swords, then get Tokubetsu Hozon in June session for swords in order to be possible to try for Jūyō shinsa in October. And I believe the reservation for shinsa is currently in the beginning of previous month so spots for March shinsa would be reserved in early February. So I feel currently for us international people outside of Japan the process is very complicated in overall. Of course I have never sent an item to any shinsa so I cannot really speak from experience in that sense.

Sesko Swordsmiths are sold. Knutsen spear book is also sold.

I am having really hard time letting go of my books. I understood that when I was thinking what I can sell as I will have some new books coming in fairly soon. I will list prices for each and postages will be added on (Finnish Post aint the cheapest one and some of these are heavy books). I prefer bank transfer but can of course do Paypal and perhaps some other payment methods too. I am having duplicate copies of these books from Markus Sesko as they are amazing. I will list each individually but I think getting all of them together would be a good purchase for someone looking to start with books. Priced quite cheaply as I checked how affordable getting brand new ones from Lulu is, Markus provides amazing stuff. Markus Sesko - Swordsmiths of Japan (this is the new 3 book edition), condition is very good to excellent as I haven't read this copy of the set much at all. SOLD Markus Sesko - Kantei-Zenshū set (Both Kotō and Shintō & Shinshintō books), condition is very good for these. 200€ Markus Sesko - Meikan set (3 books), condition is very good for these. 150€ And as I said I can cut a small deal for all Sesko books combined for 400€ +shipping. It is c. 140€ cheaper than getting all of these brand new from Lulu. Roald & Patricia Knutsen - Japanese Spears, Polearms and Their Use in Old Japan, this one is in very good condition. It is my only copy of the book but I have all the info in my Japanese language spear books. SOLD Swords and Accessories - Treasures From The Tokugawa Art Museum No.6. This features 100 swords and 80 accessories from the Tokugawa Art Museum collection. It is my only copy of the book but I have 3 other books from Tokugawa Art Museum, so I have all the items in this book in other books. Great book with amazing items. This is in good condition, soft cover book with small corner bump. 50€ Tokubetsu Jūyō books 2-10. Number 2 has some staining on cover and few first pages. Other than that I think books are in good condition. I think these are pretty rare to find outside Japan. As these are my duplicates I can cut a sweet deal 50€ per book or all 9 books for 350€ TJ 2 - 32 items TJ 3 - 26 items TJ 4 - 42 items TJ 5 - 51 items TJ 6 - 65 items TJ 7 - 65 items TJ 8 - 37 items TJ 9 - 36 items TJ 10 - 41 items

Thanks Paul and Robert for doing great collaboration with Matsumoto-san. I have greatly enjoyed your presentation as Tōken Matsumoto always has very interesting items. Hopefully you will continue working together in 2024 too.

I took a look into my books and the smith lineage seems to be lesser known one. I am lucky to have "Bungo Taikan" so there was some info in there. I think there are 2 generations of Bungo Nagahide. 1st died in 1845 at the age of 72. 2nd gen died in 1881 at the age of 68. I have seen 延竜 (Enryū) in Nagahide signatures but never 延竜子 (Enryūshi) those that know the language better can probably explain the difference. Here are few more authenticated examples found online https://aucview.aucf...m/yahoo/m1079015330/ https://www.samuraim...u-hozon-certificate/ https://aucview.com/yahoo/n221631552/ One thing that seems to be in common on all few examples with Nagahide mei I have references on if the signature is with 豊後国 (Bungo no Kuni) then the original hole is around 国 (Kuni) character. I think it is an interesting item to research

Udo Drechsel is a good dealer in my books. He had great Munetsugu daishō at Utrecht.

I think one problem is that people are possibly talking about different things. I have the Tokyo National Museum book - Uchigatana Koshirae, which is amazing resource in this particular field. However it is important to choose if you are talking about Kamakura or Nanbokuchō or Muromachi period uchigatana. And there are variances even within the periods. Now for the later Muromachi period I personally see 3 different variations of long sword being utilized. I am leaving shorter swords and my loved big swords out of this. 1. 50 - 65 cm blade length - very common to see 2. 65 - 75 cm blade length - extremely common size 3. 75 - 85 cm blade length - quite rare to find especially 80+ cm in original length The TNM book has examples that are among the best remaining in Japan many which were owned by reknown historical persons, and even though many of them have extremely remarkable older blades within the koshirae, you can find historical koshirae examples of all 3 of the above categories in the book. And I have to agree with Michael about the mesmerising effect of the sword, the quality of it is stunning. Now I am not the person usually looking for extreme high quality as I prefer obscure stuff of huge size but seeing that sword at Tokyo National Museum definately left a mark.

The Kanesada smith who made this sword is quite unknown smith. He seems to often use the signature 野田五郎藤原金定 - Noda Gorō Fujiwara Kanesada, and working late 1600's to early 1700's. Worked in Mino and possibly in Owari too. Markus has also following mentioned in his index "he focused mainly on the production of kogatana". I am having difficulties in finding reference items from this smith, here are couple Wakizashi: https://www.seiyudo.com/wa-070123.htm Katana: https://buyee.jp/ite.../auction/g1087538057

They were not that common (and some of course got shortened) and maybe as I am researching big sword I have just noted them more than usual collector. Swords of this length often command a premium as they are pretty rare finds. And of course it doesn't really make any difference if it is tachi or katana as they can be practically identical size. I am not home at my references so here are few that I dug up online from top of my memory. Motochika 83,4 cm Kanesada 80,4 cm Fuyuhiro (mumei) 80,2 cm Chiyozuru (mumei) 77,7 cm I had few more that were online in my mind but I cannot find them online anymore so the dealers must have taken the pages off. And few I remembered incorrectly and were signed tachi but were still later Muromachi items.

I think it is ok sword but I don't agree with the price. I would make a offer for lot less and seeing how far apart I would be with the dealer, I wouldn't even make it as it would perhaps offend him/her. I think it fits for a Sukesada blade from early 1500's. Size would fit it well. Perhaps possibly some water damage/corrosion somewhere along the history would explain the dents on nakago. At least I've heard similar explanations for dents. To me it seems koshirae is just cobbled together and made to fit this sword.

Looks like this is currently up for auction the condition is unfortunate. I would think Muromachi more than Kamakura, there were long katana of c. 80 cm that were made during Muromachi too. There are some things that I find bit puzzling and it seems to be common to find blades in rough condition from this seller.

Hello Jon! I think many of us have spent so many years looking at signatures that they kinda flow naturally. Sometimes the characters are not exactly as their official character form. Here borrowed screenshot from Markus Seskos Nihontō Compedium that shows few variations of Kane character. I am limited to my phone during Christmas time so posting images is bit difficult.

Here circled I cannot understand why the picture just uploads as black screen. I just drew a circle on my phone to it. The third picture on your opening post has easy to see Kanemitsu.

Are you looking specifically Mihara items or what type of criteria do you have? It is bit unfortunate but I think Sue-Mihara as mumei attribution is bit undesirable, as it is kind of low end bucket group. I don't think attributions in the "low end" matter that much and in my eyes they are going towards the potential option. When you have something like Sue-Bizen, Uda, Sue-Mihara, Sue-Seki etc. It would in my eyes be common lower level item. In my opinion there is nothing wrong in collecting such items, and they offer an affordable variety. However as was said above you need to be quite careful with the prices. Of course in the end many antique items are worth what someone is willing to pay for them. Here you can see a Ko-Mihara tantō from Nanbokuchō period, it comes with quite nice koshirae and Hozon paper for 500,000 yen (c.5200 AUD), so it is cheaper than the eBay Sue-Mihara. Unfortunately this blade isn't top notch either but I think it is fairly attractive package. To me the best Mihara work I have seen is the Masaie Ōdachi at Yasukuni Jinja, spectacular and huge sword. There are also many good signed and also attributed Mihara works, some even late Muromachi work.

I have been reading books this evening and by chance I encountered this Nagamitsu tachi in few books that will fit what Ray was saying above about various rankings by different organizations overlapping. Sword was originally Jūyō Bijutsuhin, then apparently it was in the US and found it's way back to Japan and passed Jūyō 22 shinsa. It is amazing ubu tachi of 80,5 cm by one of the top smiths... but apparently bōshi is almost completely lost. Another example would be overlap between NBTHK & NTHK, so far I only have 1 NTHK Yushu book but I intend to get rest of them some day in the future too... From that 1 Yushu book I have been able to match following NBTHK ranks for old swords 3 Tokubetsu Jūyō, 5 Jūyō and 2 Tokubetsu Hozon. I think perhaps also one reason for the change of view in papering is the ease of seeing things due to the internet. As many Japanese dealers and sites (yahoo auctions, museums etc.) are accessible now, I feel that I keep seeing so many Tokubetsu Hozon items every week as I browse the sites weekly I don't even note them too much, unless I see them as special towards my own intrests. As crazy as it seems I have noticed personally I even start to be bit oversaturated on Jūyō swords, and some of them don't evoke too much feelings. There are so many average sized high quality mumei swords by X makers. Yes very high quality items but for me they are just that... I have noticed I get hyped about lesser quality historical items more and getting info on swords from shrines & temples for example is super exciting for me. I think most of them don't even have any "official" designations, while some top items will be Kokuhō, Bunkazai, Bijutsuhin etc.

Steve is giving some amazing advice as usual I do think Kongōbyōe school might be a reasonable direction to look towards to. Unfortunately it is minor school with not too much information. I do think the "contrasting layers" on the blade would fit well within the craftmanship of the school. Also good to note that smiths of the school often signed Mori X However I think the signature itself might not be of the common style of the school. Kongōbyōe signatures are often quite large in size. Unfortunately I don't have Kongōbyōe Moritsuna swords on record. Here are some reference swords Moritaka: https://toyuukai.jp/products/金剛兵衛盛高作-特別保存刀剣鑑定書-katana-kongou-hyoue-moritaka-saku-品番-ｋａ Moritaka: https://buyee.jp/ite.../auction/h1107353776 Moritoshi: https://www.token-ne.../juyo-moritoshi.html Morikiyo: https://ginza.choshu...rikiyo_kongobyoe.htm Morishige: https://hyozaemon.jp...ct/minamotomorisige/

This is extremely interesting subject, and I am having difficulties in gathering my thoughts in somewhat readable form that is not flowing randomly. As some may know I do have bit OCD style data gathering tendencies for pre-mid Muromachi swords. And of course NBTHK papered swords play a huge deal in that, especially their attributions. As I am classifying the items by attributions. Now as a collector I am starting to have the opposite view :D I don't really care what the (mumei) sword has been attributed to if I like it. At the level collecting possible to me it does not really make a difference what the attribution is as the very high quality stuff will be beyond my reach. And I must admit I am not the greatest fan of Japanese style super specific attributions, although I understand there are many layers into the attributions. I think it used to be possible to send a sword for Hozon & Tokubetsu Hozon at the same time (I have never sent a sword to NBTHK or any organization). However I did not even know that this has changed, here is the current information As my specific data is for very old swords (that are generally highly appreciated), the data for Hozon vs. Tokubetsu Hozon is totally skewed. As I just checked I have at the moment record for 819 Hozon swords and 1772 Tokubetsu Hozon swords. That shows that for pre-mid Muromachi getting Tokubetsu Hozon is very common for swords compared to item being "just" Hozon. I remember some years ago I tried to figure out the NBTHK submission numbers etc. and discussed it with Darcy. There were of course some incompleteness in my logic & numbers as I don't have access to all of the data. However now we know that current limitation is 1,600 swords per Hozon/Tokubetsu Hozon shinsa session. Using my logic and calculations there would be currently 120,000+ swords passed Hozon and 75,000+ swords passed Tokubetsu Hozon, these lower levels are bit speculative. Now these high levels are 100% factual as I counted the items myself There are currently (Jūyō 69) 12,217 Jūyō swords (the actual number is tad higher as I didn't count daishō as 2 swords and did not count swords attached to koshirae). At Tokubetsu Jūyō level there are currently (Tokubetsu Jūyō 27) 1,200 swords. I like what Kirill is saying above that we shouldn't focus on the "level" of the sword as much as the rarity of the item. Of course that agrees with my historical view, so it is easy for me to side with it. Even though Jūyō swords are of very high quality there are 12,000+ of them and plenty of mumei X attributions, or signed items by popular smiths. Where as you could have historically important items with just Hozon papers for example having one of very few signed items by smith X.

My condolences to family & friends.