Lewis B

Check Nihonto Info > links from the dropdown menu at the top of the page. There you will find plenty of respected and reliable dealers from around the world.

15 hours ago, MassiveMoonHeh said:

First two off the ranks:

 

https://www.jgauction.com/auction/261-fine-Japanese-art/lot-1-koto-katana/ - Juyo 25.7M YEN for Katana before taxes and shipping (Must be a nice Koshirae)

https://nihontowatch.com/listing/616 - 7.7M YEN for a Tachi before taxes and shipping.

 

https://www.jgauction.com/auction/261-fine-Japanese-art/lot-4-koto-katana/ - TH for 20.2M YEN before taxes and shipping.

https://nihontowatch.com/listing/491926 - Juyo for 25M YEN before taxes and shipping. 

 

These kids are having a laugh - whilst I would love for prices to start rising like this across the board you cannot pull this kind of stunt without harming the industry - without the confidence of knowing you can sell these blades at these prices it just makes the whole industry look bad as ultimately none of these blades will sell at these insanely elevated prices giving the impression that the whole market is dead. This is not how you stir up excitement or demand. This is how you make people ignore it.

 

Unless of course they fake all the sales and so set a new price benchmark - it has happened before, look up Heritage Auctions and the original Unboxed Nintendo Mario game. Their fake sale to themselves started a new collecting mania. Perhaps that is their plan?

 

Could this extravagant pricing be an attempt to take advantage of the draconian shipping restrictions of nihonto into the UK? There must be non-savvy local buyers with deep pockets gagging to buy a Juyo or TH with a big name attribution. It will be interesting to see if these lots get any nibbles. 

12 hours ago, Lareon said:

I didin't sell no, i was looking at it too.

I can see the appeal. Appears Sadakatsu was aiming at Yamato Hosho utsushi with all that masame hada. Shame the boshi isn't clearer to be sure.

The Sadakatsu was also offered for sale at Sotheby's 18 months ago with a 20-30k estimate. Can't see if it sold.

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2024/art-of-Japan/a-katana-signed-osaka-ju-gassan-sadakatsu-kinsaku

17 minutes ago, Bryce said:

G'day Guys,

I recognize the Gassan Sadakatsu from "The Japanese Gallery" shop in Kensington, London. I suspect this is where they all come from.

Cheers,

Bryce

Correct

https://japanesegallery.com/katana-signed-gassan-sadakatsu-taisho-era-nbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-rp01

Plus these

https://japanesegallery.com/katana-signed-musashi-daijo-fujiwara-tadahiro-nbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-rp04

https://japanesegallery.com/katana-signed-soshuju-tsunahiro-nbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-rp02

9 minutes ago, Takezo said:

Actually I am pretty sure all of those high end blades on the top row are from Seiyudo....I wonder if they took them to Utrecht and didn't want to re-import them to Japan? Alternatively, maybe someone bought them all with hopes of flipping them.

That crossed my mind too. But I don't remember seeing a Den Kagemitsu in Utrecht. Den Chogi, yes.

JG Auction must think they're Bonhams

The Sadakatsu seems like the best deal of the bunch. Tanobe gave a nice writeup.

34 minutes ago, Jussi Ekholm said:

 

Lot4 - Kagemitsu

https://web.archive.org/web/20240531042531/https://www.aoijapan.com/katanamumei-attributed-to-osafune-kagemitsu-nbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-token/

https://web.archive.org/web/20251008162340/https://www.seiyudo.com/ka-091325.htm

3x price hike in less than 2 years. Not a bad return. Beats gold and stocks. 

Now its 24milJPY without any paper upgrade. Nuts. 

15 minutes ago, eternal_newbie said:

 

Out of the high-end swords, the Den Osafune Kagemitsu is ironically (while still expensive for TH) the most reasonably priced, given the maker, health and general quality of the work, and is also my favourite of the items in that lot.

Should sail through Juyo but $150k is silly money even with Juyo.

Some nice looking swords. I especially like the Den Osafune Kagamitsu. But prices seem rather...... ambitious. Factor in VAT and 24% Buyers Premium....Ouch

16k sterling (thats at least 23k after fees etc)  for a Fuyuhiro tanto and later generation too, is absolutely crazy. Or I had a stupendous buy with my 3rd gen Fuyuhiro yoroidoshi

What are the 2 -3 oval areas on the omote? Umegane?

Approx 300 yes's so far. Lets keep them coming and make this happen.

Yes 

Issues logging in here from Germany this morning

5 hours ago, YourBabyBjornBorg said:

Looks great! Although, is anyone going to tell them that they wrote 雞刀 (chicken blade) instead of 薙刀 (Naginata)...? 

 

As opposed to a gyuto or cow blade

Yes, its a wonderful blade showing so much activity. I would say Tanobe is offering a more positive reaction than is suggested by your translation, placing it more in the camp of a masterwork within the corpus of works attributed to this smith. 

I saw this in Utrecht and its a very fine and healthy example of Kencho's work. Just look at that hataraki. And if you like bling, the tachi koshirae has it in spades.

https://nihontowatch.com/?listing=549080&utm_source=nihontowatch&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=saved_search_alert&utm_content=listing

5 minutes ago, Brian said:

Try not use tif. Use Jpg, so they display directly.

Normally I do, but comparing the two the .tif were noticeably better for showing fine detail in the hada as its a lossless format whilst jpeg uses lossy compression, resulting in a blurring of the image.

IMG_1551.tif

IMG_1549.tif IMG_1545.tif

IMG_1556.tif IMG_1546.tif

Some better images

IMG_1550.tif

IMG_1547.tiff

What a wonderful story of a swords discovery and restoration. Thanks for the update and photos after the recent polish. Sounds like our swords will be partners on the Shinsa journey in Sept. Wishing you a very successful outcome. 

20 hours ago, Marcin said:

If seller is the one who bought blade from Pablo I don’t think he „will go Wesker” if You know what I mean.

Pablo had not given permission to use the copyrighted images and description. The seller on Catawiki just copied and pasted his photos and description word for word. Just lazy and not cool without getting permission first.