Vermithrax16

Dave, I exempted that one example as it does not fit the other 25 or so I had found. Maybe some other Norimitsu's signed this way, but which one or ones? Later era? Want to add to the conversation? Weigh in. The original poster asked if it fit an early era, and I have no idea, my skills are not that good. Just going by mei work here. Picture examples from that page and a close up of the 2 kanji mei.

Never seen anything like it! Thanks Barry!

My kantei skills are limited to polished swords as I need the details to even get somewhat close (meaning no where close), so like Barry suggested a window may help you in your quest. Any major Bizen name (Masamitsu, Katsumitsu, here Norimitsu) has a lot of info to draw on. I did my basic scan (Sesko Koto, Koto Fujishiro, online) tonight and I cannot find one example that signs with the 2 kanji mei. The big guys all had full mei or on top of that added the "something-zaemon" as well. The later Muromachi school swords often had the 2 kanji mei done. Good luck!

I vote Enju but I imagine Jussi is throwing a curveball at us. These are fun!

I would plan on something else Guillermo. Grab some books and look at examples of works you like. Then buy.

I like the Kanenaga Raymond had better than this one. Better pictures would help in a real evaluation.

We are off base, I learned this week that a collector has bought 10 swords from Komonjo and ALL papered at the Minnie show shinsa.

Improving with the zoom function on phone's camera:

Not a straight forward question. Not a fair question. Was this sword Shinto or later? Signed? Then yes the results would be weird. If it's a Koto blade let me point you towards member Jean's Hosho/Tegai blade as an example. Not one to debate NBTHK but that's a Hosho sword to my eyes.

No worries Grev, like I said, glad to see your posts!

Regular board members know my affinity for mokume tsuba works. After not being able to acquire several wanted pieces (not mokume) over the last 4 months (various reasons) I was looking forward to the arrival of this example. I really like this one and a big tip of the hat to NMB member Stephen for making me aware of it. New tsuba is an iron mokume work by the late Edo maker Masanao, of the Bushu Ito School. I have worked on the mei and I believe it's authentic, but this is a lesser known smith so I only have 4 examples between Sesko's meikan and the Wakayama references. Reference examples lack the "Ito" kanji above the maker's mei, but it's the school so makes some sense. In any case, I will let the pictures speak for the tsuba. Mokku gata shaped tsuba. The patterns on the obverse side are amazing, and really jump out in hand. The edges follow the grains well, and the patina is in ok condition. I really like this one, glad to have it. Dimensions: 8cm X 8cm X 0.4cm

Great tsuba Frank!

I have crossed over to the dark side. After intense study and cost/value/what I want in a sword analysis, I think I am a Shinshinto guy. Hate all you want

Timing on this post Peter is great, as I have been trying to figure out my next steps in this study. After jumping in blind and buying 2 not that good swords, over the last year I moved those along and focused on a singular goal of 1 particular style of work. I was very fortunate for things to fall in place for a buy. Since since I have working on expanding my tsuba collection and adding more high quality pieces, but that's been hit or miss (not finding the right ones, losing at auctions, not much that I am after seems to come up). But depending on end of year sales I may be ready for another sword buy. Certainly by spring. So what is next? What is my goal? Thanks for the post as I think I had sort of stuck this needed process in the back of my mind. I need to get back to it.

Yes, it is.

I am not sure if what the point of this thread is. Yes, there are old papers swords that are good. No, not all are good. Case by case basis and the longer term folks here know how to do that. The basic math in the thread we have all seen 100X is solid. You want to show it's not? Buy at random 10 green paper blades (from Ebay preferably, it's where they show up most) and resubmit for new papers. See conversion rate. Not 10 you did a ton of work on, just 10 randoms. Simple experiment.

Markus Sesko can do a wonderful translation of papers usually in a day for $25 if I remember. Any item I am considering I get all the paperwork translated up front.

For me, oshigata can be helpful but it's not a good visual aid for me. Others glean way more from them than I do. As time goes on I see examples (online of course) of thousands of swords. It's from that well that I draw a general guess towards a maker. Then I go from there to check other examples, oshigata, etc. I imagine we all do it different. Rayhan's kantei was fun for sure. Those 3 swords were all strange ones and I don't think many here got many of them correct however they go about kantei.

Just to jump in here, but if anyone has issues 453/454/599 in English, you can keep the magazines, but I will pay for a scan of certain pages.

Great activities in the blade. I like it. YES, always be aware with nihonto swords, they bite if you don't pay 100% attention!

That's a great save Chris, well done. Send me your Paypal, next 6 pack is on me!

While outstanding, this one Mike has, to me, is even better: http://tetsugendo.com/swords/MS_214_Tameyasu.html

Fred P., That is so cool! Looks like it was made from a meteor or something. Love it.

Eric, I believe (and anyone jump in if I am wrong) the higher end NTHK shinsa services are only done in Japan.

I need to figure out my work calendar. I think I am gonna have to go.