Jussi Ekholm

Easy way to check the paper without even any knowledge of Japanese language is by the numbers. Those starting with 1 & 2 are Tokubetsu Hozon and those starting with 3 & 4 are Hozon (blades & fittings). Sometimes the color can vary a bit due to photography & lighting. Or are you talking about some sellers calling some completely unrelated papers as NBTHK judgement papers?

What would be your approximate budget? Would you be accepting for an Edo period koshirae for the sword? Pre-Muromachi koshirae tend to be mostly owned by museums & shrines / temples in Japan as surviving full examples are very rare. There are few packages for sale that come fairly close to your standards that few Japanese dealers have currently in their inventory (there have been more in the fairly recent past but have been sold). I think Dai Tōken Ichi in Japan would be the best place to seek such an item as I believe pretty much all the "top dog" dealers are present. I think the search for an item like this that is excatly to your liking could take several years. And at least for me the search is always very fun part.

This sold recently, just putting it out to show the scope of things that are around. If you are not in a hurry, more options will pop up. https://www.samurai-nippon.net/SHOP/N-809.html

Here is the Nanki Shigekuni from Tokubetsu Jūyō 8. Unfortunately I haven't got time now to check Jūyō Kotetsu swords right now, I can possbily do it some time next week. I don't have all of the books yet but I do have lot of them.

Well here is one that Tsuruginoya has by Tairyūsai Sōkan but I didn't post it earlier as it is in shirasaya and the OP is looking one with koshirae. 3,5M yen, both signed for 6th month of 1867: https://www.tsuruginoya.com/items/a00066.html

Here are two nice possibilities that are up for sale currently in Japan. 3,2M Yen - Nobukuni (Shigekane) 1717 & Moritsugu 1708 : https://www.sanmei.com/contents/media/K6997_6998_S2226_PUP_E.html 2,0M Yen - Kiyohide 1848 & 1849 : https://www.touken-matsumoto.jp/ja/product/shousai/DS-0007 This is not my field of collecting but I feel that package from Matsumoto is very nice.

Mumei sword attributed to 兼先 - Kanesaki. Kanesaki smiths worked in Mino province around late Muromachi to early Edo period. There were lots of various Kanesaki smiths during Edo period but I would think mumei attribution to Kanesaki without any added on info would refer to late Muromachi and Mino.

It looks stunning in the pictures

Could the missing one be Tane 胤?

I think it is a nice sword regardless of whom made it. I can understand the Hoshō attribution very well and due to the strong masame I would personally have gone that was too. As I do not know the fine details amongst various Yamato smiths, going default to Hoshō with strong masame would be my guess. However I think one obstacle in identification is the extremely small number of signed tachi from Hoshō school. I think I have 3 so far, Jūyō Bijutsuhin by Sadayoshi, Tokubetsu Jūyō by Sadaoki and Jūyō Bunkazai by Sadatsugu. I feel regardless of the attributions (good or bad) it is sometimes very fun trying to figure out what would be the factors that made shinsa team (or someone else) choose that specific attribution.

It is interesting and really complicated subject. I would follow up with what Jacques wrote above. So far I have only found 2 signed tachi by Tegai Kanekiyo and both are suriage. One is 69,5 cm and passed Jūyō 35. This is pointed as late Nanbokuchō work, and described having (板目肌つみごころとなり) Itame hada "becoming insdiscreet" I am not sure if it could be translated like that. Second is 62,1 cm and I am not sure of the provenance of this but is featured in Tōken Bijutsu 377 and on Tanobe's Yamato-den book. This is considered to be Ōei work and described as having masame hada. While it does not happen everytime I believe NBTHK somewhat often state in their papers late Nanbokuchō to Ōei for mumei swords they attribute towards Tegai Kanekiyo - Mumei [手掻包清 - 時代南北朝末期乃至応永]. I am personally liking a lot that they are adding these informations in brackets.

I remember your other thread got a lot of negativity. I will try to avoid that here. In my opinion it would be a good sword for cutting. What must be noted that these very wide hira-zukuri blades excel at cutting tatami mats. Some might say they could be called as "cheating" as they perform very well. I am not a martial artist but I do think people might have bit too strong restrictions about sizes. All around the world various historical cultures used blades of varying sizes. In my opinion something like 10 cm difference in length does not mean too radical change. Of course mostly I feel the size differences come into play when drawing the sword from saya and also when performing combination cuts / kata or other movement drills with high speed and variation. I've done some amateur cutting with Japanese style replicas from c. 20 to 100 cm and as you understand the differences in size it isn't in my opinion too much different, with very long blades body physics alter some cutting angles etc. and you can be more creative with shorter blades. Of course if you practice some specific tradition it is of course advisable to discuss with your teacher and his/hers teacher etc. as they can help deciding on a fitting sword.

I am not a tsuba guy but there are some in there that feel interesting to me. I just feel the pictures and info are very limited and by those I would hesitate buying even a single tsuba let alone 114. :D At the current price it would be roughly 25,000 yen per tsuba. Can't say if that would be a good deal or not.

Looked at the previous thread too, looks like very nice sword with regular sanbonsugi. That rust on the mune is unfortunate as apart from that it seems to be quite well preserved.

Well I was having bit boring time in a fever, and I won an auction in Japan for a book about swords of the collection of Kurokawa Institute, as they have some amazing items. So an idea came to me that what if I look on some of the most impressive museum collections in Japan and gather that info in a thread. As I have already collected this data actually scooping it together was pretty fast and fun. Here are some absolute top museum collections in Japan, in no particular order. I will mostly list the number of Kokuhō (National Treasure) Jūyō Bunkazai (Important Cultural Property) and Jūyō Bijutsuhin (Important Art Object) swords in the collection. Many of these museums feature amazing items that do not have official designations, and also many have multiple NBTHK designated items. Tōkyō National Museum - https://www.tnm.jp/ Of course it does not need introductions, collection features 19 Kokuhō, 56 JūBu and 6 JūBi. Kyōto National Museum - https://www.kyohaku.go.jp/eng/index.html Similar to above not too much info needed, collection features 3 Kokuhō, 25 JūBu and 2 JūBi. NBTHK - https://www.touken.or.jp/museum/about/collection.html The Japanese Sword Museum houses an amazing collection of items. NBTHK is well known for their appraisal papers. The museum collection includes 3 Kokuhō, 13 JūBu and 13 JūBi, and also several Tokubetsu Jūyō swords. Tokugawa Art Museum - https://www.tokugawa-art-museum.jp/en/about/treasures/sword/ Museum houses over 10,000 artifacts that have been collected by Owari Tokugawa Family. Collection includes 7 Kokuhō, 19 JūBu and 21 JūBi. Sano Art Museum - https://www.sanobi.or.jp/bijutsukan/collection/japanese_sword.html Established by Sano Ryūichi in 1966. I think many know their famous exhibitions and amazing books published on them. Collection includes 2 Kokuhō, 8 JūBu and 36 JūBi also several Tokubetsu Jūyō in collection. Seikado Bunko Art Museum - http://www.seikado.or.jp/en/ Seikado Bunko Library and Art Museum houses Iwasaki family (founder of Mitsubishi group) collection, founder started collecting in 1892. There are 1 Kokuhō, 8 JūBu and 23 JūBi swords in the collection. Eisei Bunko Museum - https://www.eiseibunko.com/index.html Houses the collection of Hosokawa family, public museum was opened in 1973. Collection features 4 Kokuhō, 1 JūBu and 1 JūBi. Kurokawa Insitute of Ancient Cultures - http://www.kurokawa-institute.or.jp/ Research institute established by Kurokawa Family. Collection features 2 Kokuhō, 9 JūBu and 30 JūBi swords. Tōken World - https://www.touken-world.jp/ This newly established museum in Nagoya has acquired stunning collection of items in fairly short time span. Museum was opened in 2020. The collection has 1 Kokuhō, 10 JūBu, 41 JūBi and 58 Tokubetsu Jūyō swords. Japan Sword Museum Technology Research Foundation - http://www.nihontou.or.jp/collection.html This foundation was established in 2015. The collection includes 2 Kokuhō, 20 JūBu, 11 JūBi and 11 Tokubetsu Jūyō swords. Of course there are lots of other amazing museums in Japan that feature excellent swords and related items. And I did not include any shrines and temples in this list (some of them have spectacular items), as I might do a followup list on some of those. The current location of Kokuhō and Jūyō Bunkazai items can be tracked in here: https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/index as I believe their ownership is required to be informed. For Bijutsuhin items tracking down them is lot more trickier but for them I used the historical info that was on the 80's book series that featured every Bijutsuhin sword, as well as more modern info acquired from several Japanese books and magazines. Of course for the bottom 2 new collections it was easy as they list the items they have. They have acquired lot of Bijutsuhin from previously owned privately and other museums. I would also think that after some older owners have passed away some Jūyō Bijutsuhin swords (and Tokujū etc.) would have been donated to Tokyo & Kyoto National Museums, as well as NBTHK and other museums as well. I hope this might be interesting to at least some people. :D

I am not an armor guy but I believe in the brackets after the description of the armor it says (大和高田 吉川家伝来) Yamato Takada, Kikkawa family denrai. So it would have been owned historically by Kikkawa family. Here is link to wikipedia entry for Kikkawa clan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kikkawa_clan I think the description of your armor would be - 紺糸胸取五枚胴具足 I believe the exhibition was - つわものの美 大和の甲冑武具展 - Exhibtion of Yamato Armor

Just got my magazine in mail, wonderful feature article

I know some people might have very negative view on the old papers while others will have quite positive. I'd be somewhere in the middle grounds, I feel they are a one valid opinion given to the item. As far as "Jūyō" quality goes, I'd wager most very high quality items with old papers residing in Japan would have been already converted to the new NBTHK system. That is just following what I feel as common sense. Of course there could be that 1 in 1000 item that still comes out every now and then. Outside of Japan I would have bit more relaxed view on items however note that it might be incredibly difficult to tell when the item has left Japan. On sending tsuba and other fittings to modern NBTHK shinsa in Japan, note that current fee for Hozon is 17,000 yen (c.130€), and you'll need to add all the other expenses related to submission for that. I am not too well versed in tsuba market as I don't own single one nor look to buy one at the moment, however if I would be planning for an international submission of tsuba for shinsa, I would save it for good quality ones even at the basic Hozon level. If I would own a tsuba with green papers and it would be an ok one, I think I might not feel the need to send it for modern shinsa. Granted if I would be living in Japan I feel I might want multiple opinions from different organizations and people for my items, for learning and fun. I am just not a fan of sending expensive items internationally, and in modern day the costs are quite high (well tsuba can be shipped in smaller packages compared to swords ).

Could you perhaps get a bit clearer picture of the signature? I would think it could be late Muromachi period sword from Mino province with the smith being Kane X (signature 兼X作). Unfortunately I cannot clearly identify the middle character from the picture. I have few potential guesses for the character but as I am not totally sure I would rather wait for a clearer image first.

I can't find the actual source right now but I am fairly positive Markus Sesko has written a bit about historical prices of some fittings, if my memory is not playing tricks on me (I know Markus has done so on swords). Some fittings such as Gotō school sets etc. were way above your average samurai back in the day. I know some Gotō family origami have valuations that they gave to the pieces.

Awesome job Glen. As tsuba and other fittings are not my forte, if you guys find any errors you can message me and I will correct it for the next update. I was trying to look into the Nanban tsuba that is being discussed, unfortunately I can't get the text typed in today and trying to figure it out. It has been attributed to Momoyama period by NBTHK. The size of it is 7,4 cm X 7,3 cm.

I think for me the most important thing about collecting is passion. I don't really care about the "level" of the collection but it is easy to see passion of the collector. You don't really need big ticket items as long as you are happy for what you have. I've been watching some trading card collecting videos from Youtube lately and you can easily see how much passion some of the collectors have and can be hyped for example on 50$ card even if they are owning 5000$ cards etc. I know investing has creeped into many forms of collecting and I just feel pure collecting is a joy to see. I used to collect ice hockey cards when I was a kid, however I've understood that I can not enter trading card collecting anymore as I feel I do not have the needed passion for it nor the sports the cards are based on. Likewise in Japanese swords I know I will only seek to research, focus and even possibly occasionally collect those items that I have the passion for. As far as stories go, I would rather hear from the person collecting than the items he/she has collected. It is very fascinating to hear whya person has made the decisisions he has in collecting, while looking at the items alone you could perhaps not understand the reasoning behind them.

Looks like a very nice item Dominik.

That is how it is commonly how change in signature side is thought to have evolved that when swords were starting to be worn through the belt in opposite direction from before. However it would have been just as easy to mount blade in various ways regardless on how it was signed. As well as there were forms of suspension and ways of tying katana to be slung from waist like a tachi. I think most dealers in Japan know what premium NBTHK papers bring to table compared to others in financial sense. I personally like NTHK papers and it is nice that they provide more info in their paper than NTHK so you can follow their logic more easily. However on big name items I would definately go to NBTHK. While I am not too focused on financial side of the hobby, I see the financial upside just so much larger with NBTHK compared to other organizations. However I must say there is of course potential in NTHK papered items, and they can often be acquired for lower cost. Although I couldn't afford a certain partially signed tachi that had NTHK papers with Japanese dealer some years ago, I am still kicking myself a bit over it as it went on to get NBTHK papers to different smith of the same school and price doubled... I know you hear often buy the sword not the papers etc. but authentication brings certain amount of confidence to the field. Regardless of the organization authenticating they do carry value in market point of view. Having few different opinions on an item is in my opinion better than one even if they would be different. Personally I am wondering how Japanese dealer would not send a quality item to NBTHK (as I feel it greatly adds marketability to the item) but people have different views on things. And like on my example above there was that tachi with NTHK papers up for sale at Japanese dealer site for several years, so I guess I wasn't the only one standing idle. Smith like Tomomitsu is a great attribution and the blade most likely shows something good in the opinion of shinsa team.

I think it is indeed Umetada but using these kanji - 梅忠 See few references here: (unfortunately couldn't find NBTHK paper for mumei using this kanji fast) https://www.kandatoukodo.com/tousougu/tsuba42.html https://tokka.biz/fittings/TS720.html