waljamada

In 2025 from my perspective it was a better time to be a buyer than seller. Even with me feeling that way I've been reluctant to invest too much because I worry the Nihonto market, while actually rather stable in the long run, will remain somewhat stagnant even into the future. Nihonto has such a steep learning curve, lack of tradesmen so everything is so expensive to procure (just to name a few: polishing is the biggest one, re-silver foil something, repair saya, have shirasaya made, have tsuka made or repaired, have habaki made or repaired etc...and each blade being unique in sizes makes it hard, if not impossible, to standardize anything), a market with forgery landmines, blade certification being so slow and essentially only in Japan is also a rather big wall for the market....and I could go on but basically because of Nihonto's unique facets its a really hard market to develop steady growth in and bring in new buyers that stick with it and dont get too burned along the way to burn out. Out of all my "collections" my returns when selling are always (by a pretty large margin) the smallest with Nihonto and I feel like I always risk at best selling for what I paid or at worst even less. In the end though...even with all that said...I personally think my Nihonto collection is my favorite thing I collect. It just seemingly wont help me retire one day like my other collections will. I mention these things because a healthy market would want today's gunto buyers to become future Juyo buyers and the more blocks and burns in a market the more buyers will fade out before getting to Juyo. Nihonto is a tough field and not for the faint of heart and wallet which will always play a role in the market and it's future capabilities.

Just had a blade polished that ended up having an ichimai boshi on only one side. It's a shin shinto blade signed by Ashu Ju Michimasa from either the 1716 or 1804 generations. Couldn't find really anything about the smith though. Never took post polish pics but here are some befores.

I totally made a go at this blade. Didn't win it. Always wanted a kogarasu maru. My only hesitation was that the seller didn't seem to know much about the blades.

I can speak Japanese conversationally and generally say whatever I would want to but it wont be perfect. I think the key for me in the beginning was understanding the grammar and conjugation...the general structures of the language. Once you have that in the bag the words become plug and play. So start at the foundation and then decorate with vocab. As to the second part of your question, I lived in Japan for 7.5 years (and didn't speak a word when I first arrived for college) but the "foundation" part probably took like 1.5 years for me to really lock it in with all the vocabulary I was learning. I could have gone faster but I was also busy just taking in every experience I could and good ol socializing along with my other non-Japanese language college courses. Oh and learning hiragana and katakana is really important because it also gives you all the sounds and syllables to the entire language which will allow you to pronounce things correctly.

I second Lewis B's request to see pics of the 33 inch nagasa with bohi Miyamoto Kanenori blade! Have a mumei katana as well with hozon papers to Miyamoto Kanenori. Also know of someone who had a kogarasu maru blade by Minamoto Kanenori in gunto fittings I always wanted to see pics of.

I think the hobby and the market adapted and refined itself a bit. The days of barn finds and treasure hunts in the wild have largely dissapeared and nihonto moved past it...furthermore the knowledge, research and market side of things has, beyond becoming just more available, been vetted/curated/organized etc...to turn a simplified/generalizing phrase; Nihonto left the attics and went to the galleries. Those of us "newly" arriving into the hobby find quite a different landscape that still has its magic in the "hunt" (be it mostly online) but I guarantee the thrill of finding a sword in an attic, researching it and discovering its something "special" will always be so much cooler than buying that same blade papered online. I feel nostalgic for the nihonto time/experience/market you describe that I never even got to experience. Nowadays there are categories (low end/military/mid/high for example) and its hard to break the barriers between them without paying for the difference. The top will always be buttressed up as akin to an art market and the bottom more utilitarian. There is something for everyone for the most part. Its a mapped out and curated world out there. The magic will still eternally reside in learning the contexts and holding/seeing the real thing.

Maurice, Thanks! Was watching it till the end but knew I was gonna let it go after it got a bid. Not a tanto collector but still would have purchased it at its starting price. Adam

I ended up buying this koshirae and actually managed to find a blade to fit it at the Chicago Sword Show! The menuki on that tsuka aren't the gunto ones so have always have wondered about it.

Maurice, Thanks! That hamon actually makes it quite tempting. Don't own any tantos but that one would be a great first. I did end up purchasing that mumei nbthk Miyamoto Kanenori papered katana I posted above in 2022 (I couldn't resist the price) as a placeholder. It is a truly elegant blade and beautiful in it's simplicity with steel that has a cool blue hue but I found it didn't quite satisfy my desire for a signed katana by him. In a perfect world it would have the mon he used in his later/final years but a mei with his age stated like on that tanto is just as cool to me. I'll debate it and my natural urge to wait for a katana. Hamfish...ahhhh the ones that got away...

Bump. Still looking!

I remember reading someones post not too long ago that illustrates a relevant point to this and also kinda made me chuckle. The gist of the story (with a bit of storytelling embellishments since i dont fully remember it anyways) went something like: A respected collector in Japan was selling a historically significant and truly special blade by a top smith. The owner of the blade (which would make juyo or toku juyo) didn't go through the papering process past hozon for the simple reason that they simply wanted the shinsa "proof" of its authenticity and beyond that it's value is already apparent due to the blade/market itself. The buyer walks out after purchasing the outstanding blade for a very large sum and says to his friend with a smile, "seems really expensive for just a hozon blade'. I will say through that katana length tokubetsu hozon blades don't often pop up under 3k. So there is a higher "floor" for toku hozon than hozon.

I do find Koa isshin swords interesting for the fact that they are a Japanese scientific/engineering/swordsmithing attempt in the steel and construction to improve the katana for practical war/battle usage. So essentially it may be the last time the Japanese apply their swordsmithing with more modern materials/technology specifically for actual war/battle use. Kinda neat.

Ah the kogarasu maru....one of my "grails". Only seen less than a handful for sale but that one is actually a bit more interesting than the others. I get the allure.

The only thing about this variation that bucks the standard Rinji trend to me is that it uses some materials that they were switching out due to supply at that point. Brass on the tsuka and aluminum for the seppa.