Vermithrax16

LOVE this sort of thing Ed, thanks for posting! Did a bit on this tonight, always fun. Masahide has many examples of course but that just makes it harder to compare across his work span. Hate to be a shinsa team when one of his comes in for inspection....... Alas, my guesstimates: Shoshin: #5 (close examples in the 1796 time frame and very close to an example from 1805) #8 (very close to an 1818 example) Others: #6 close but ana placement is incorrect #3 looks 3rd gen Masahide (~1865) to me, but didn't evaluate to save time Ready and happy to be shown to be way off, as usual

Michael S. No. Yamato on left, Norikatsu on right.

As best as I can do I tried to give the OP a side by side comp of a Koto sword vs a newer era sword. In this case, Shinshinto. As the example he posted is Yamato Hosho, that's always going to get my attention. Below are the best picture comparisons that I have from my files. Both swords belong to me. Sword 1: Yamato School; if you lean towards Tanobe Sensei and his teacher Kunzan, this is a Yamato Hosho sword (sayagaki says "masterwork"). If the NBTHK is more your thing they say Yamato Tegai Kanekiyo. I would welcome anyone to show me a Kanekiyo that looks like this sword, I have yet to find one anywhere even remotely close. In any case it's a Koto era Nanbokuchō work around 1300 or so featuring running masame hada. Sword 2: Suifu Ju Katsumura Norikatsu (my favorite smith so there is that). This sword was made in 1867 and his later works are his finest masame hada examples. I believe this sword has only seen maybe 2 polishes as the hamachi notch looks brand new.

I will throw my own Jean Pierre inspired comment in for the fracas: Muromachi swords are NOT Koto. This is my own take. Koto ended with the Nambokucho period. There are perhaps a smattering of a few good smiths/works in the Muromachi period, but to me, it's not the level of work to qualify as "Koto". And of course this is the era where all the Kanesada, Sukesada, something-sada works come from that end up taking so much bandwidth here on NMB and FB with questions like "is this THE something-sada, the good one?". Usually, no it's not. Darcy of course explains this better than I ever could here: https://blog.yuhindo.com/visualization/ Key Chart; all Juyo and higher blades by era. The Muromachi period is the wilderness:

More sublime touch by Ford Hallam:

Not masame work, but nice.

I am still new to fittings, but that kurikata looks like it's made of paper. Level of detail is singular.

Darcy again blows things out of the water. The kurikata in this set has captured 3+ hours of my study, it looks so real. Well worth a look: https://yuhindo.com/otsuryuken-miboku-soroikanagu/

Longest running debate in Nihonto. Nothing to ad. Great works can be found across all the era's. The accepted rule is that the better Koto era blades are better works than the other era's. In the end it's going to come down to what appeals to any one collector and what they are after/find they desire.

High class to me, a pair by Tomohide:

It's not policy here to comment on price I believe. Omori is like Goto to me. It needs to be papered or you really need to know what you are doing with those schools to have a feel for the work. I like the set, well done. Agree with George M, not the high end of Omori, at least to my eye.

Thanks StevenK, always like your input.

I have been looking for a whale themed piece for a long time. They are indeed rare. This one is up now at Touken Matsumoto: https://www.touken-matsumoto.jp/eng/product_details_e.php?prod_no=KOZ-1796 So hang ups are: - can the kozuka be removed from the gatana? Maybe it's stuck? - the dragon add on motif seems out of character for whale themed pieces I have seen Just sharing a few thoughts.

Nice Steven G!

Just returned from vacation, all my best for Ford and his family.

Just got back from vacation, will check this out!

Full package, nice deal!

Yes, darker lighting and you need to get closer. Maybe Steven K or others can offer assistance with DSLR.

Try to darken the room. Use a black or red background. Use the flash a touch away from a clear section of masame, then see what you have. You need to be closer or use zoom on phone. Like this:

We love the rabbits Charlie!:

Nice Charlie!

Top row; second from left is really cool!

Used them 5 times no issues. But I have seen numerous complaints along same lines, so yes, know what you are getting into.

Tried to grab this F/K set but went over where I wanted to pay. Like the set though:

Well done Piers D