Katsujinken

I thought the first character might be Kane but I just couldn't get there... :-P

A friend sent me these photos. I've got the date, which is simple enough at Showa 18 (right?), but the two character signature stumps me because I don't know these smiths very well and struggle to read this kind of chiseling. No stamps that I can see. Thoughts?

You’re not wrong in principle John, but this blade is also traditionally made with tamahagane — the only material that can be used to make a sword in Japan. It is simply a modern blade, a shinsakuto.

My $0.02: Take a small bit of that money to buy a few books (plenty of recommendations here if you search) and save more in the meantime. By the time your budget is sufficient you’ll have a better idea of what you like and how to go about acquiring it.

No.

A bump for the week

This is a great point.

Many factors go into pricing something like this (Mumei? Condition? Quality? Overall health? Sayagaki? Koshirae? Level of paper and nuances of the attribution, etc.) , but the price you see on that old page is in the ballpark of where something like this would start. The yen was stronger then so I’d call it $5000 US to be safe. Tanto often command a premium because there are relatively fewer of them.

Given the lack of age many of the pieces could have been in better condition, and most of the work simply isn’t that skillful in my opinion, especially when compared to the work of earlier soft metal masters. The prices some of the lots achieved, especially with the premium added, were outrageous. But hey that’s the free market for you!

I saw all of these lots in person, and I would not describe any of the tsuba or koshirae lots as “top quality.” All of the koshirae had issues. I don’t know who was buying them or why, but I don’t understand the prices they were willing to spend. That said, auctions are a good route to go if you’re short on time or knowledge, but have plenty of money. I don’t think any of these lots were so unique that you couldn’t track down comparable or better pieces with a dealer and/or in Japan for the same amount of money or less. I suspect we are seeing some foreign money at work here, and I say that without a value judgment implied.

Only if the blade is machi okuri: http://www.ksky.ne.j...sumie99/suriage.html And this would still have occurred hundreds of years ago, leaving plenty of time for more polishes.

Yep, exactly. Compare to my photo up above.

It’s Aoi. You can tell from the photos. https://www.aoijapan.com/katana：mumeigassannbthk-hozon-token/

Personally I want to see a bit more hamachi on a blade, but the workmanship is good in my opinion. That said, something about that kissaki feels weird/out of proportion to me... anyone else agree?

I thought that looked like Gassan work. :-P It's not a bad package for 600,000 JPY (especially with the weak yen). The kizu are about what I would expect for a blade of this age at that price point from Aoi Art. Seems like a good example of the school's work. You could certainly do a lot worse.