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Promo

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Everything posted by Promo

  1. Thanks for the comments so far. I'll ask him to clean the tang with oil soaked clothing, maybe this makes the signatures better visible/readable and would allow better judgements. In the meantime a personal comment on the first blade: the hi look very poorly executed, different depth, not really straight, etc. Or am I'm too critical upon those and for the period they originate they are good enough?
  2. In a German forum a collector of German Militaria posted of an estate he had purchased. He had to buy all of the estate, so he ended up with three Tanto, which he originally did not want to have. Since his English isn't the best he had approached me if I on his behalf can post them in here to get additional opinions on the blades. The deceased owner seems to have purchased all three in Japan from the nowadays still existing dealer Japan Sword Co. Ltd. One blade was purchased in 1966 whereas the other two were purchased in 1968. All three come with "appraisal sheets", stating by who they were made and from which period they are. Since neither though comes with NBTHK certificate and the "appraisal sheets" only mention the inscription and not go into detail if gimei or not I'd appreciate any opinions on authenticity of them. They all appear to be out of polish and seems they were stored in their fittings ever since purchased. For the size of the files (and the huge amount of pictures he had provided me) I uploaded them to Google Drive. Please therefore follow these links: Tanto (quite long at 30cm) attributed to Kanetomi: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QKPIjkgnkCafNMSB4edjEzsQFOWzo90E Tanto attributed to Soshu ju Yasutsugu: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DhaYeIoleRFVyyog9by1ynwI-mJZIUoJ Tanto attributed to Rai Kunitoshi: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AZCmYe3AGzIfeJvN77X26bfVV1e73dz9 Thanks in advance (on his behalf)!
  3. Promo

    Tachi Bringback

    Well, since it is now Tuesday up for the "solution" (or what the NBHTK thought it is) - the Hozon papers attributed the blade to Hokke-Ichijō (法華⼀乗). Period-wise some were fully spot on, including @Jussi Ekholm. I hope this was some fun for all those who gave their opinions. Now it only needs to come back from Japan for myself to see it in hands.
  4. Promo

    Tachi Bringback

    @Ken-Hawaii, @Valric, @Kawa, @Katsujinken, @Surfson, @SteveM, @PNSSHOGUN , @geekman, @vajo & @Bazza - you had previously commented in a specific direction on this blade in this thread. Would you want to give a more updated guess, or would you stick with your previous comment anyway? Planned to "unveil" the NBTHK attribution on Tuesday, so some time for you to see if you with the blade now in polish come to a different period/smith/etc. Thought this "Kantei" would be real fun, especially since some opinions are so much different (period-wise) from others. @Jussi Ekholm thanks for your guess, noted! If less tough you may also make a period/school/region guess or more than just one particular name.
  5. Promo

    Tachi Bringback

    I forgot to mention - the blade was papered by NBTHK which attributed the blade indeed to a particular name. So there is a solution (well, if the NBTHK is correct with their assumption) to this as well. But for education and fun I'll wait with posting this until maybe next week so hopefully all that participated in there can give a second guess and see how they compare with that. Thanks for the participations so far, hope to get many more
  6. Promo

    Tachi Bringback

    It seems they get a bit out of order when uploading, not my fault - sorry. Now keen to hear what you think!
  7. Promo

    Tachi Bringback

    So I had sent this blade to Japan for Polish & Papering. It still is there and waiting for the export - but I already got pictures! Considering how wide spread the opinions on it were in this thread I thought it would be a fun idea to make some Kantei on it and post pictures of the polished blade only and see if those that have contributed with a guess in here would keep their opinion, or if they would change. And for those that had not participated in the past, maybe they would now give an opinion themselves. Therefore please find attached pictures of one side of the blade. Due to file size limitation in a second post the pictures of the other side.
  8. I admit, I'm very late to this topic - and once again I'm surely not the one with the best insight on the cutting tests. What I might add though, as my first blade already carried a "cutting test" it indeed as a first reaction was quite weird to learn on such a method of proofing something. Why would they need to cut a human body, and not something else? The more I thought about it, the more I could put it in context of their period and culture. Not too long ago many had slaves and actually didn't bother to use violence on them. I did notice some approaches on various locations that tried to "change history" by pulling statues, etc. to show we do not concur with what they did back then. While some can pull the objects, they though will not change history and what had happened. But pulling them might make us loose to remember and be able to learn from the past, and that isn't a good thing. How should we learn on how cruel Hitler and the Nazis were, if we are to destroy, delete and remove everything reminding us of what they did? I always tell my employees that you are not stupid if you do a mistake, unless you do it twice. So why not learn from the past and try to change to what, according to our current society, morals and views (or even only personal view) is good, by giving these examples from the past? To the OP: thank you for posting your blade. As already initially said, I know way too little on these to comment in depth. It is very interesting to me (and what you had pointed out) that the blade underwent a cutting test twice. I really wonder why and what for? Did the current owner at the second test feel the necessity to proof again how good it is? Did he thought it would make it even more exclusive? Or did the cutter, due to the previous cutting test, thought he could do even better than the first cutter and therefore performed a tougher cut? Did you get it papered? If yes, I'd love to hear which papers it received and what they say on the blade. Looking forward to find out on the other one you mentioned you recently got ahold of!
  9. Promo

    Old blade ?

    Bit late to this thread, I assume you bought it in this auction: There are some comments to various blades from this auction in this thread, maybe therefore helpful for you too.
  10. Oh sorry for my confusion. That is what you get for translating a Japanese news using Google Translator and understanding an item to go from Australia to Japan from an estate with additionally the picture looking very similar to the one of an auction company in Australia that is just selling an estate. Very happy to know I was wrong. Far from the expert, but I can only agree that this appears to have been an accumulation rather than a collection (this applied to basically anything that guy has had). He bought of any condition of any make as long as it is arms related. Plus it seems he preferred quantity over quality. Not noted down the results for many items, but the few were all VERY expensive. Since others did, can anyone share the final results of all items I had linked to in the starting post? Any other items that went way overpriced and might be worth mentioning? And did someone in here actually buy an item, except for the one that was already posted?
  11. Apparently the guy wrote in his last will that one of the blades shall be sent back to Japan for being a kind of "national treasure". Since I can only read it myself with Google Translator I thought it would be better to share the link to it, for others to see/read themselves: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/5f0b23ec4e499c7cf7f62ab17c784c1dfa41e2dc This auction company is very unusual by not displaying the result. The last bid I saw on the Tsuda Echizen no Kami Sukehiro was AUD 32,000. Plus 16,5% BP this adds up to 37.280. This equals € 23.894, $ 26.938 or 20.091 Pound.
  12. @Ray Singer would be keen to hear what you think on the other blades!
  13. Seems there is a giant collection of Arms for sale in Australia, I gathered the link originally from a firearms forum where it was discussed since there were hundreds of firearms for sale from this collection. The guy seems to have had everything, including tanks, mortars and machine guns! Unfortunately I was a bit too late with the firearms auctions all over, but noticed there was a separate auction (well, due to the amount everything was split into 15 separate auctions with 100-600 items per auction) for blades - and the one for the blades got postponed, hence still two days left for bidding. They are poorly described and poorly taken pictures of, so nothing for unexperienced persons like I am. But maybe some in here might find something that attracts them, hence just look yourself at it here: https://www.lloydsonline.com.au/AuctionLots.aspx?smode=0&aid=29125&pgn=1&pgs=100 I did the opposite, for being close to the end of the auction I checked which items already got high bids upon. There is a single blade in that already got massive bids on it (and from a quick check it seems one of very few/only one that actually got the signature translated) which is said to be signed "TSUDA ECHIZEN NO KAMI SUKE HIRO" and dated to 1681. It is this one here: https://www.lloydsonline.com.au/LotDetails.aspx?smode=0&aid=29125&lid=3329832 Another blade with higher bids (AU$ 5200) is this one here: https://www.lloydsonline.com.au/LotDetails.aspx?smode=0&aid=29125&lid=3329774 .. and this one at AU$ 5700: https://www.lloydsonline.com.au/LotDetails.aspx?smode=0&aid=29125&lid=3329841 .. and this one at AU$ 5228: https://www.lloydsonline.com.au/LotDetails.aspx?smode=0&aid=29125&lid=3329804 Would love to see which items you in here might like/enjoy, or what you think of the four that I had pointed out!
  14. Thank you! As you might know better than I do there is a lot of meaning to the particular Kanji being used - and Markus was kind enough to let me know in very deep detail on my sayagaki. He told me that mine is classified as "yūhin" (優品), what represents the highest level that Tanobe is using. According to him there is also "kasaku" (佳作) or "ryōsaku" (良作), which as well can be translated as "masterwork" or "excellent work". He though also mentioned that a very rare exempt (and superior to yūhin) would be "saikō-kessaku" (最高傑作), what can be translated as "biggest masterpiece of this smith" - but he also mentioned that Tanobe stopped using this term a few years ago.
  15. Markus helped me with a proper English translation of the sayagaki. It reads as:
  16. That, to my surprise went very fast this time. The Sayagaki by Tanobe is already done - and I even have a nearly full (since opposite side missing) translation by @Markus for it. The Japanese reads as: Or I did get a German translation to this as well, but maybe @Markus can help for others in here with an English translation since I doubt I am able to translate a Japanese to German translation to English without making any errors.
  17. Please forgive for not updating a longer time. It missed being submitted to Juyo, so the first try then will be this year - another year in Japan! The time will be used nevertheless with sayagaki. I though got some additional pictures that show more of its beauty and make me look highly forward to it. Find them attached.
  18. That one is interesting in that the Tsuba is also fully leather covered whereas the one from @PNSSHOGUNs link isn't. Plus it also comes with TH papers for the Koshirae (... and the blade is a Juyo blade, wow). I really wonder how the blade would look like back in polish.
  19. Having personal experience with costs for Polish, Habaki and Shirasaya I do know approx. costs, and I'm afraid these are around € 2000 for a Katana (/Tachi, since it seems it may be called either), if done in Japan. And while in Japan one would also get it papered, so another € 500 atop. So the costs for the restoration and papering of the blade only will already be at € 2500 - and I don't know if Koshirae should be sent along too for restoration, since it should afterwards still fit the blade, plus the wrapping has some minor damage so that it maybe should be restored as well. I can deduct this from the value of a fully restored blade, but I honestly do not know how much it would be worth.
  20. @ROKUJURO thanks for the clarification - that is what I know and had understood, but the previous post by @PNSSHOGUN confused me for him calling it a Tachi. Thank you for naming a number btw, does this one refer to both or only the Katana? Adding in the costs of a polish and considering the cleaned nakago it is way more than I thought and makes me wonder if the polished blade afterwards would indeed have this value. @Alex A thanks for the compliment. Having had to professionally picture firearms for literature provided me with enough experience to do advanced pictures. But the highly glossy and silver finish of blades is a tough new challenge, I'm not very pleased so far with my results.
  21. @PNSSHOGUN is it now a Tachi or a Katana in Tachi mountings? I had considered this too, but I still would need to know what either of them is worth.
  22. ... and better pictures for the Wakizashi too.
  23. So the first blade isn‘t a Wakizashi but a short Katana in Tachi mounts.. seems I got it as much wrong as possible! Thanks for clearing this. And special shout-out to @Ray Singer and his incredible deciphering skills! If I found the correct one it appears there were two (father and son) using this name, is the first generation the correct one that I had identified? Prior going to bed I wiped down the koshirae of both with oil soaked clothing. Now they look much better, first one now is black with a light brown touch. Just did the better pictures of the blade, this time with the camera and not with the mobile. They do it more justice. Notice I slided the front swivel ring on the scabbard a bit back in the second picture, to show it isn't sitting on the retaining ring as it should be. I hope this allows to give a better judgement of the blade.
  24. To help keep separated another post for the second blade, also a Wakizashi. It is remarkable shorter than the first one at 49,6 cm total length and 37,4 cm cutting length. It is not signed. The Koshirae is pretty simple (though I really LOVE that duotone Habaki! Very cool combination which I had not seen before). Please forgive me the cat hair on the kissaki area, noticed it after the pics were taken. Same question on this one, but since unsigned of course I would appreciate any guesses on period and maker as well as on potential value and simply anything else you could tell me on it. Thanks!
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