Jussi Ekholm

I think the sayagaki on "Jasutzuna" says 相州住定? Sōshū jū Sada? (could be mune for last character but I didn't find Sadamune from Sagami with these kanji)

Pretty wild hitatsura, I wouldn't have guessed Bungo Takada. Flashy one for sure, I like it too.

The nakago condition is horrendous for Shinkai. That is really unfortunate and greatly devalues the sword in my opinion, after all this is not a very old sword. There are lots of wakizashi by Shinkai and getting one in top notch condition would be priority for me if I would aim to collect swords around this period. I would think that the nakago condition would limit this to Hozon level. There are just so many Shinkai wakizashi still around and I'd think Tokubetsu might be too much to ask for as the state of preservation is not high. I was about to post as there was wakizashi few cm shorter (if I remember correctly) for sale at IidaKoendo, it was signed to same year & month, in excellent condition and had Tokubetsu Hozon papers. Asking price was 5M but it probably sold over the weekend. I still have the page in browsing history on my phone but the item is gone now. Some good items sell really fast. Personally I think Iida has had many swords over the last year that I would rather go for at that price range but people have so different taste which is a good thing. As Matt said above I feel the same way. If you have a sword of signifigance then old papers just don't make sense financially. I guess I might step on few toes here but I'd dare to say that current NBTHK papers are only ones that make sense financially. That is why generally you see that pretty much all high end swords have modern NBTHK papers. Yes there are some amazing swords still without papers. I read some time ago that some collectors in Japan do not want to paper their swords as it makes them commercialized items. It was on some public sword group discussion as I don't have facebook. Buying expensive items without papers is a gamble, and I am not experienced nor rich enough to take it. Of course it depends on the situation but I would not like to spend many thousands on gamble while few thousands might be ok. If a sword I'd really like would not have papers or just had old papers I wouldn't really care if the price was right. I saw one really nice unpapered sword at Utrecht but it was way above my budget. I am sure it will paper nicely and get a decent attribution, would have been nice to get it papered. But it was already in the second - of Matt's post, you could already get a decent mumei Tokubetsu Hozon of similar age for the price of that unpapered sword. But in short even if the sword in OP would have modern papers I would strongly dislike it due to condition of nakago compared to other works by Shinkai.

I do not collect WWII swords or have much interest in the stuff of this period. However I had thought that those with iron tsuba would have also iron seppa & fuchi? I usually use Ohmuras site for reference for the military stuff. http://ohmura-study.net/792.html http://ohmura-study.net/957.html In the original listing I think I see extra seppa added on, and the tsuka does not have black fuchi. So maybe the last seller thought people wanted the ones with iron tsuba and changed it to this one? And now Showa22 changed back the tsuba that had originally belonged with this tsuka? In the end sword has been tinkered multiple times regardless of the final outcome... Not defending the seller in any way as I have never looked at his listings before as military swords in general do not tick my boxes.

Congratulations Barry! I am sure everyone participating had lot of fun. That Ko-Hoki sword was nice puzzle, I did not expect it to be that early. I think Matts Ko-Bizen guess was extremely good on that one.

Pete is correct, in their Japanese site they have the length correct in Japanese numbers 1 Shaku 7 sun but they have made error when converting it to cm's (they accidentally have it as 1 shaku 0 sun 7 bu).

I think it is decent looking sword in overall. The small ware is very minor and while it is not optimal I would overlook small things like that. I am not really into koshirae but I do seem to notice that there might be another hole that has been covered? To me that would usually indicate that the tsuka is not original to this sword. Dealers and collectors sometimes tinker koshirae to fit the sword to make them more desirable package to many potential buyers. And of course the unfortunate opposite happens too that original koshirae are split from the sword...

I really hope we will get lot more entries as this is incredible opportunity and lots of fun at the same time. I was sure that we would have 100+ entries for the raffle but so far I counted 15 entries. I hope towards the end we will get people jumping in.

Might be bit far out thought but what if the sword is middle Muromachi work by an unknown sue-Hōshō smith Sadayoshi? I think I would personally lean towards c. 1450 - 1500 for the age just a feel by looking at the pics. And while there is strong possibility of gimei I just feel that there are still plenty of unknown smiths out there.

Some nice looking items in there. I am not sure if you know Krystian but Poland has a strong & healhty sword community: http://nihonto.com.pl/There are some nice items in Polish NMB members collections too.

Based on the pics you provided I'd guess this came from eBay seller Daimyou54eb? I'd guess it is late Muromachi / early Edo period wakizashi with false signature of very famous smith added sometime during it's lifetime like I said earlier. The thing with Daimyou54's eBay sales is the prices are attractive as they are quite low but the downside is that condition is usually quite poor. Yours seem to be in quite good overall condition (basing this on the pic where sword is in your lap). The wares that he sells often have a bit "hazy" polish, are in rough condition and flaws are to be expected. It is often that proper restoration for them is not financially viable or the swords are just worn out. He generally knows quite well what he is selling (at least it seems like that to me). So you won't most likely discover any hidden treasures. I think you can enjoy this wakizashi in it's current state as details seem to pop up a bit in proper angle & light.

Based on those pics I think sayagaki is 相模国住人行光

There were good posts made there above. I would also point out that there are not too many super long signed tachi left today by early Uda smiths. For the ??? I am unsure of the designation (but they are high cultural designations I believe) but as it is middle of the night and I have to get up to work really early I don't have time to spend on them tonight. I will read them later when I document swords from that book. Tokubetsu Jūyō / Uda Kunimitsu / suriage 69,1 cm, sori 1,6 cm Jūyō Bijutsuhin / Uda Kunifusa / suriage 64,2 cm , sori 1,8 cm ??? / Uda Kunifusa / suriage 71,8 cm, sori 2,1 cm ??? / Uda Kunifusa / suriage 63,9 cm, sori 2,1 cm ??? / Uda Kunifusa / ubu 88,2 cm, sori 3,2 cm Jūyō Bijutsuhin / Uda Kunifusa / ubu 70,3 cm, sori 1,8 cm Jūyō / Uda Kunimune / ubu 70,9 cm, sori 2,3 cm So I think the sword discussed being 62,2 cm is no problem at all as it is very high quality. However given my own fascination of swords that are near ubu I do think bit critically about large suriage as I feel it alters the sword a lot. And given the choice between 65 cm ubu tachi and 85 cm ubu tachi I would go for the longer one as I do appreciate big early swords. But give me the choice between that 65 cm tachi and 77 suriage katana from same smith I'd rather go for the short tachi. People are just sometimes weird in things that they appreciate when they collect. For example I get really hyped when I see really wide (3,3 cm+ motohaba) and long 70 cm+ suriage Nanbokuchō swords that have little profile taper.

Well here are my guesses Sword 1 - Koyama Munetsugu - Shinshintō Size and hada combined with the state of preservation would point me towards shinshintō. Chōji-midare was popular during this period and many made it. One thing that would make guess Munetsugu against the others might be just due to pictures as bright nioiguchi is often listed as a point of his work. At least I am seeing it very brightly under the hadori in the upper portion of the blade. By reading kantei explanations by NBTHK it is easy to understand how close the worksmanship of shinshintō smiths who worked in Bizen tradition is. Sword 2 - Mutsu no Kami Tadayoshi - Middle Edo I do not have a clue about this one honestly. I think sword has been shortened as others before stated too. I don't really think the sword is exactly Hizen work but that is the feel I get every time I look at it. I am not too well versed in shintō swords so I might as well go with my first guess that is Hizen as I can't get it out of my mind. Sword 3 - Rai Kunizane - Late Kamakura This one I think is from late Kamakura period. I juggled back and forth late Kamakura & early Muromachi calls for date. In the end I just have a gut feel that this is a suriage sword from late Kamakura period. I think I am seeing ko-itame hada in most parts. I can't see too much under the hadori but I think there is lots of activity in hamon underneath the white. I am thinking the sword is from Yamashiro tradition but it is quite "bold" in hamon execution so I can exclude quiet schools & smiths. I tried to look from Yamashiro book by Tanobe Michihiro for possibilities while it is a great resource it didn't have "lower tier" Rai smiths included. As I think this is bold sword I would go with little bit less known Rai smiths and after browsing my own Koto database I thought that Rai Kunizane would be my pick.

Yep looks like there is signature of Sadamune & Gentoku.

If it is Sadamune gimei then Gentoku makes sense, and it probably is. Early dates in general are quite rare while dates such as Genroku are common. I can't really say anything about the age based on those pics, could be Muromachi could be Edo, anyones guess is as good as mine.

If I'd have to guess based on that pic in op I'd guess it reads 元禄二年八 月日 - day in 8th month of 2nd year of Genroku (1689). At 13,9 inches it is just c. 35,3 cm so just slightly over tanto classification in length.

Good luck for the shinsa, yours seems to be a good sword. I am quite clueless about these new swords and their rankings but the smith is remarkable for the period I think. The Jūyō sword is actually slightly wider than yours in profile having less profile taper, going from 3,1 cm to 2,4 cm. You can see correct data on their Japanese page: https://www.aoijapan.jp/%E5%88%80%EF%BC%9A%E7%9F%B3%E5%A0%82%E9%81%8B%E5%AF%BF%E6%98%AF%E4%B8%80-%E6%96%87%E4%B9%85%E4%BA%8C%E5%B9%B4%E5%85%AB%E6%9C%88%E6%97%A5%E7%AC%AC49%E5%9B%9E%E9%87%8D%E8%A6%81%E5%88%80%E5%89%A3/ I think Aoi sells lots of commission items as you can often see swords pop up for sale that have been previously sold by them. They have all the info ready so they often use the same info texts. I mined interesting stuff (in my view) from Aoi website and came to conclusion that their item number dates to the first time the item appeared in their inventory. Some items have gone through them at least 3 times over the last 10 - 15 years. So in this case I believe the Jūyō Korekazu sword was first in their inventory in the very late 2015. And you can see in the current item listing that it came to sale again 24.8.2018.

Congrats Francis and it is a fine sword. Ryūmon Nobuyoshi is a great attribution, would be lovely to see this one in person.

Jeremiah, look what just popped up at Aoi for auction. Stunning sword, about only negative thing is the length. https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mumei-kouda/

Looks like it was a blast.

I think signature reads 津田助廣作 - Tsuda Sukehiro saku

I think NTHK papers have different numbering methodology and this was about NBTHK numbering. I think for example Chris Bowen as US representative might be able to get NTHK numbers. Here are some more numbers. Jūyō & Tokubetsu Jūyō numbers are straight forward as they've been continuosly numbered from the beginning. For Tokubetsu Hozon I was able to quickly find 100,829 from 1985 (Showa 60) http://samuraishokai.jp/sword/17109.html, And before they modified numbers ranging into millions I found 155,315 from 2011 (Heisei 23) http://www.e-sword.jp/yari/1210-4001.htm . From 2018 Shinsa widest number range I found fast was 1,008,052 to 1,008,529 http://www.e-sword.jp/katana/1810-1080.htm , http://www.e-sword.jp/yari/1810-4010.htm Which would indicate about 500 swords passing Tokubetsu Hozon session. For Jūyō it is really straight forward as the numbers haven't been changed. Here is a sword from 1st Jūyō shinsa (1958), paper number 26, http://iidakoendo.com/6336/And here is one from 58th Shinsa (2012), paper number 13,272, http://iidakoendo.com/4386/ Tokubetsu Jūyō sword from 23rd Shinsa (2014) http://iidakoendo.com/5770/, paper number 1059. So all in all you could roughly say by these estimations that somewhat following number of the classes of current NBTHK papers for swords have been issued. (lost papers, repapered from other reason, duplicate papered items, etc. are all still in the count as once issued you cannot reuse the number) Hozon - c. 115,000 papers for swords Tokubetsu Hozon - c. 65,000 papers for swords Jūyo - c. 14,000 papers for swords Tokubetsu Jūyō - c. 1,200 papers for swords These are by no means totally accurate numbers but I think they give some idea of the numbers I believe are roughly in the range.

From the pic I'd guess it has been sold by Aoi-Art at some point. Signature could possibly be X貞 - X Sada?

It's an interesting question. I did some minor searching about NBTHK papered swords and I do believe that there are 100,000+ Hozon papers for swords (made a new topic for it not to derail this one). Of course some of them have gone Hozon - Tokubetsu Hozon - Jūyō route so they remain as "ghosts" in numbering as sword has papers on multiple levels. I think that only a portion of swords is papered by NBTHK or NTHK branches. You'll still see lots of unpapered stuff in Japan and all around the world. So I think the estimate in few millions might be a good one. When you think about it I have no idea how many thousands of swords are owned by some major museums alone in Japan. There are also some Shrines and private collectors with massive collections. You'll see tons of stuff being sold in Japan at any given moment. I think there are many thousands of swords being sold by well reputable dealers and many thousands on Japanese domestic market (internet auctions etc.). And of course you'll see good amount of stuff on international market too. Thousands of swords are being sold outside Japan too.