Curran

Ludolf, With many of the Sue-Seki, some argue that they can be sub classified based on hamon and jigane. My Mino books are in storage for the summer, therefore I cannot take a look for you and try to guess how they say 'Kaneharu'. As to the 9 generations.... phew.... on an unsigned blade, your guess is as good or better than mine. When I was a younger collector, I had a nice signed 'Shimosaka' where I thought I would pinpoint the generation. Dozens of books later, I never did.

Jacques: The inspection at the Marshalls was Monday. I considered going to see it, but an old friend/mentor just entered Terminal Hospice. I decided the sword wasn't worth my time. I like Omiya very much and TH with cutting test was very interesting. However, as hearty as Omiya and Oei Bizen are in surviving centuries of polish- really got to see them in person to know the diamonds from the rhinestones. One or two very small kizu or grain openings would not be unexpected. They are more common in Omiya than Oei Bizen. However, blisters and shintetsu are difficult to believe. You can polish many Oei and Omiya until they are nothing but butter knives. They are much much much (totemo) more resilient than your Hizento after a few polishes. From the geometry in the photos, I didn't think it looked like it had been polished down that much. I am not bidding, and have no financial interest whatsoever in this sword --(1) It is supposedly from the De Simone Art fraud case. If one he legally purchased, then it is 'free and clear'. If one of the fraud ones never paid for.... I don't know if it is free and clear outside of RI. Debatable. --(2) The others who were defrauded by De SImone haven't gotten their swords back, so I am surprised this one is up for sale. It may or may not be able to infer that this one isn't evidence in the fraud, but rather forfeited property. Up to you to find out. --(3) There is an undisclosed 'Reserve' on this auction. Bidding starts at $3k. I have no idea where Reserve is, but I would sell my own favorite papered Omiya - gold habaki, Japanese top level sashikomi polish, great shirasaya, for $7500-$8000 privately. I'll be curious where the re-seller has set the reserve and how high it goes. I hope someone will be kind enough to report the Reserve and Final Price later. Might be a nice deal, but I couldn't bring myself to chase my tail on it when I already have a nice one here. Omiya aren't quite Oei Bizen, but they can be really beautiful.

Unfortunately, the description gives none of that information. It is very "just the facts", including measurement, mumei attribution to "Kaneharu", identification of what sort of blade it is, and date of the paper. I am only reading 90% of the paper, and relatively sure there isn't more information in the two bits I would need work harder to translate.

Adam- I am in Manhattan for the next few months, on Maiden Lane next to Wall Street. If you can take any raw photos of the current condition of the blade, please post them. There is a good New York club. They meet near Times Square several times a year, but I don't think the next meeting is until September. If you and I cannot meet up, then you should hook up with the club. Of the NYC Club, Kunio-san should definitely look at the sword. His knowledge is much broader than mine. I've focuses on certain schools, but am fairly comfortable with the time period that the signature implies. There is another gent who is _extremely_ knowledgeable, but private / protective. It the sword passes initial inspection, I'd force him to look at it. He won't otherwise. This sort of blade would be right up his alley. Warn you that he is the tough oldschool NYC type. There is also a stateside "Shinsa" in San Francisco this August. You could take the time and expense to submit it to that, but on a "big name" I would *really* hesitate. It would almost be reflexive to ding it... FYI: the 1717 is the time period of the cutting test. The actual sword itself is *supposedly* from much earlier. But before that blows your top-hat, we are accustomed to looking at things up to 1000 years old. Not too uncommon to see a 600 year old blade; but gets significantly more rare at 700, 800, 900...

Big name smith and very interesting sayagaki (writing on wood sheath). Adam, -please treat this one with care and get at least a few knowledgeable people to look at it. It may or may not be what we call a "sleeper". We don't want to get your hopes up, but they do happen. Seen a few over the years.

Tobias, As he said.... the most common one. Go with your first though on the "most common". Given estimates of over 20million Japanese swords produced and the largest share of them come from a certain area, I'd be willing over 1million swords have this character as their first character in the signature. Especially if you go through all the WW2 Seki blades.... This character gets chopped so many different ways... but is almost always the same. Learn this one. This exercise should cement it in your brain for the next 20 years.

Herr Richter, http://www.nihontocraft.com/japanese_sw ... se_sword_2 Your Kaneharu papers are very standard Tokubetsu Kicho papers. Not much specific detail. Did you have a specific question?

For whatever cosmic reason, my experience is things seem to pop up in sets of 3 before disappearing again for a while. #1: David's #2: http://page4.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/d117044346 #3: Was flipping through softcover version of Tsuba no Bi and saw another of this identical design, classified as mid-Edo.

My quick read of the tsuba was something Kyo-Owari ? I felt the theme was probably http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsushima and probably one of those that were seen in the wake of Matsuo Basho's poem and the praise of Hayashi Gaho (sp?). This was a sort of wave rising in the late 1600s. I do not believe I have seen this design on tsuba older than this time period, but stand to be corrected. I had an Akasaka version of this one. Probably c. 1725-1775. Pleasant theme saddened by the 3/11 Tsunami impact on Miyagi and the concerns for the survival of certain pine trees after all that happened. I am certain I have seen a one similar to David's in the books, but not sure which book. I would have thought the Nihon to Koza a likely suspect, but my copy is not accessible at the moment. ---------------- or, I could be very wrong. Given what looks like a gentlemans hat (?) being blown away, I still think it is the Matsushima theme. But what I took for Matsushima pine trees also look a bit like tree leaves? Design could just be more of a late summer / early Fall (festival) theme?

WTF? Blade looks like it might be real, but the signature looks like garbage.

Vaugh- Yes. Got shortened, and in the process lost part of the makers name. Lots of Seki WW2 smiths, so maybe Bowen or one of the Gendai smith knowledgeable can help.

Someone else will probably nail this, but looks like you have a bastardly version of "shige" So the name is "Shige _____" I cannot recognize the second character offhand, but first character is an offhand version of shige used by certain makers, mostly in 1800s.

Ah... listen to Chris B and the others. Once again I show my ignorance of Shin-Shinto.

Vaugh-san, Newbie clarification: (1) Is your blade real traditionally made Japanese blade? Evidence points to-> yes, very likely. (2) Japanese famous signatures are often faked. Is (Vaugh's) fake? Mmh. Not big name, so less likely to be faked. (3) Unshu = physical place Fujiwara= honorary title Naganobu= name of smith saku = made by Your blade is supposedly made by Naganobu during 1865. He is the student of a well known smith. Probably he has some talent too. Restoration of a blade is a difficult and expensive project- often the financial logic is ends up being more expensive to restore the blade than to leave it as it is. Your might be worth restoring, or selling to someone who will. Ps. Your sword is from the Shin-Shinto period (this means new new sword, or very new sword period). The major classification is koto (old sword) shinto (new sword) and shin shinto (very new sword). Like a person who is late teenager or early 20s... your sword is probably very healthy with little passage of age (if not used to chop the hedges, grass, trees, or gun barrels...). The mounts for your sword are from WW2. They are not as old as the sword, but probably have some value. Be careful with them too. Ie. do not rest them or the blade on slate, as in the photo. Kunitaro-san, Dr. Matt, and the others can probably tell you more. I am more interested in fittings, koshirae, mounts. Probably this is one sword you should consider keeping for at least a few years, and learn more about it. If you live in the USA, we can try to recommend a club to you, so you can go in person. Curran

Holy hana, Guido-batman. That pun was so bad, it rung my head like a Deacon Jones helmet slap. Let's face it- RKG can teach even me to do digital photography, but I have seen enough of the old art that Peter K, Reinhardt, and my wife all worshiped to agree something was lost with the /dark art/ of the pre digital photography.

Tim, I realize that your company is based in Indiana and arm's length 3rd party to this. Can you comment on whether or not this is one of the swords from the De Simone case prosecuted and evidence held in Providence, RI?

Really nice to see someone start on the right foot. I hope you stay with it, and end up as artistically addicted as us.

I replied privately about this, but guess it goes public. (1) I think the post is from the marketing company. Could be wrong. (2) Sword is in R.I. . From the De Simone case? If from the De Simone case, then the legalese is that the former owner can come forward and claim it later. My understanding is the service is selling you the legal liability in a fraud case. (3) Required to go to R.I. to pick it up before July 1st. I think it is an interesting deal, though the legalese is scary. However, I'll go on record as saying I will sell you an Omiya sword like this with papers at $8000. Omiya Bizen with little/no chance of Juyo is not same as Oei Bizen top shelf work.

Jean has a similar quality one, which is probably higher end Mito work or Umetada work.

Welcome. Very nice tsuba. After many years, one of my favorites remains a tosho tsuba with a similar story to it- former samurai who retired in late Momoyama / early Edo and took over making arrowheads, small blades, and some tsuba. I find the design interesting as it would look best when the blade is drawn. One question I have for others who read better Japanese than I do: is it not "Toshiyuki"?

Wrap is nice. Menuki design is interesting. The tsuba is perhaps worth more than the rest. I'd link to a similar but (my opinion) overpriced one on Aoi-Arts, yet site seems to be down at the moment. A little mismatch, but we get hung up on matchy-matchy in the west. As it is, the koshirae was probably rigged up this way long ago.

Please show the kissaki (tip) of blade, before we can comment. If kissaki is broken, it requires geometry shift of polish- which may increase expense. Others must comment on veracity of the signature. I have most koto references- very few shinshinto references.

That nakago. Cleaned within an inch of its life. Painful lesson to learn.

Brian- I was impressed by both BaZZa's and your guessed. The Ichijo students seem to command quite the wide spread of amounts, depending on which student and what theme. I didn't have a value in mine, though had seen 1 set of gold ones before- but on one of the higher mark-up sites. _A long time ago_----- I sold a hozon papered tsuba by this smith to one of the big dealers for about $4000. It had two family mon on it, and I got the impression (right or wrong) that the dealer wanted it for the mon as much as/ more than the maker. Otherwise was not a particularly good tsuba example of what this smith can do. Regarding Mike's: I wouldn't have guessed sub $3000 for signed, papered, boxed, solid gold ones that look in decent condition.

Fooled me. I was thinking Yasuchika having 'mailed it in' a bit on a doldrum week. Wasn't too sure because of the chidori being more (different) than I remember of Yasuchika. But I don't have the Nara San Saku or Yasuchika book, so didn't really check. If you say it is someone doing en suite with an existing Yasuchika work, makes sense. In other words, someone blending in? --------------------- (edit) I see Ford posted while I was typing the above. No idea then...