Lewis B

Don't think so. The channel was really rough and irregular both sides with some red rust embedded in the contours of the fissure on the side pictured. No telltale in the nagaso or at the machi

I inspected a sword at the recent Japan Art Expo with a very similar indentation described as kirikomi, and in a similar part of the blade, about halfway along. It was over a cm in length with quite a jagged appearance

I agree, there is some further investigation needed here. The dealer called it utsuri (and it does have some characteristics such as the fading in and out depending on the light and angle of viewing) but to my eye its just too intense, especially as I now know, for Shikkake. I read Markus Sesko's treatise on utsuri and I will use this a basis for further investigation. I don't think it was the chemically applied as a means to deceive as the jihada stands on its own. The togishi I showed the video to suggested the polish might have accentuated this effect, so further study is necessary and to provide a plausible explanation. The jihada in the screenshot is representative of the entire blade and its consistency is what caught my immediate attention. There were no ware that I could detect unlike the 'good in parts' Ko Uda I inspected.

So if I interpret your comment, with all other aspects being correct for the school, the utsuri is likely 'enhanced' as there are examples with that feature (see below) and will largely disappear the next time its polished? Andrew I. brought this subject up a couple of years ago saying swords were appearing with chemically applied utsuri. Being a surface treatment, they will disappear when the blade is polished as real utsuri extends deeper into the structure of the blade. Tanobe's reaction I would have expected to be less than complimentary as he would certainly have recognized this inconsistency within the school. If thats the case here then its not too concerning as the rest of the blade is in nice condition and without kizu. Although utsuri has been described in late Kamakura Shikkake blades like this Juyo papered one as well as several others. https://www.aoijapan...kkake-yamato-school/

Thanks. I appreciate the comments. The videography was less than ideal. And the lighting also quite poor. You're right the hamon is not the most active although it is possible to see sunagashi and short kinsuji in real life. This could be that sword. The papers are over 3 years old. It has 3 mekugi-ana and the nakaga is really clean with a nice even black yokan-iro. Tanobe gave it a positive sayagaki and told the dealer it had a good chance of passing Juyo (for what that is worth).

Found this sword at the Japan Art Expo. Attributed to Yamato Shikkake with Sayagaki by Tanobe. Approx 70.6cm Nagasa, 3.03 Motohaba, 2.2 Sakihaba I won't have the sword in hand to take more detailed pics of the blade or nakago but these are a couple of screenshots from the video I shot. Hopefully I made a good choice and happy to receive your thoughts.

Any idea if thrusting action into armor might have caused this damage. A similar gouge in the same place could be seen on the opposite side. Ko Uda katana. This is a screenshot from the video I took. Personally I think there was more extensive damage and this is the remainder that couldn't be erased due to its position so close to the bohi. Also the boshi can't be seen on one side.

Its worth persisting. Andrew I feel is either a photography master or one of the best (certainly outside Japan) togishi currently working. I think its a bit of both based on what I've seen. You are lucky to have him in your backyard.

I attended that lecture too as well as the one on armor. Both talks were very informative and the Juyo Ko Uda from Henk was a really nice example. I thought the talks were a little light this year. Previous years had many more on both the Friday and Saturday. This year only on Sat. I think it would have been nice if we all had name tags and not just the exhibitors. Udo D. had some really nice swords on display. As did Nick Ruppero. His 28? cut test wakizashi/short katana with Marko Sesko writeup was the standout piece. What a beast of a blade. I ended up buying my first Koto blade. It was the first blade I inspected at the show and I spent the next 2 days doing some research and viewing everything else on display, before committing. It is late Kamakura Yamato blade attributed to the Shikkake school with TH papers and a nice Tensho style koshirae with papered Tsuba and new black Urushi saya. There was a shirasaya with sayagaki by Tanobe san that the vendors had done when they visited him at home last year. Nakago approx 71cm. The blade shows a strong utsuri which had me a little concerned but it does fade when viewing the hada directly. It has that ethereal quality giving the impression it floats above the hada. I will post some pics when I collect the sword next week. In the meantime I will try to upload a closeup video I took of the blade. The same dealer also had a Ko Uda with Hozon papers which had many interesting features. What put me off was the boshi was not existent on one side and there were 2 weird deep scrapes approx 7 mm long on one side and 5 mm on the other. Same place on the blade but hard to see due to them being sandwiched between the tip of the bo-hi and the edge of the shinogi. The explanation offered was it was damage that occurred from a thrusting action through armor. Not sure if I was buying that tbh.

Tomorrow is the day and I have just arrived at a nice parkup beside a lake near Utrecht in my VW California. Hopefully I will get to meet a few of you over the next couple of days at the Expo.

Those images are exactly what I'm looking for , especially the detailed shots under different lighting conditions. I wonder what aspect of the blade moved it into Den territory.

Well obviously sugata and boshi characteristics are very different and these are often characteristic for the smith. Thanks for the link. Thats another book I need to acquire, but it's so expensive.

Thanks Ray, Good detailed descriptions but pics were not available to me. Are you able to access them?

I've looked everywhere online and I can only find low rez pics of his long swords. Tantos are quite common but of limited use for study. I would like to find some pics showing Hada and hataraki as part of my due diligence into this smith. Darcy had some but those are currently unavailable. If anyone has a link it would be much appreciated.

Good call. That is a really nice looking piece with excellent activity in the Hada. Fine polish too.

I don't have a particular interest in koshirae that are often bundled with swords in shirasaya. I feel like less than premium accessories are being bundled to pad the already high retail price. I inquired with one dealer if I can remove the koshirae and fittings for a lower price. In the end the discount was only 100k yen on a 2M yen sword, and probably adds more than that on the secondary market if decent quality.

OP how was the sword advertised? If it was described as a Japanese Nihonto and you paid with a credit card, initiate a charge dispute and return it. If paid for with cash please use it as a learning experience and spend a few months understanding the finer details of nihonto before considering another blade.

Sorry for bumping a 6 year old thread but this is probably as good as any to express my regret from a couple of years ago. I had the opportunity to buy this Norishige which was languishing at a dealer in Vermont or Montana. As they say timing is everything and it came on my radar around the time I lost my job of 17 years. Still think about it 4 years on.

That's terrible. Are they using camera equipment from 1880?

Please take a look at "Token Sugita Europe". Lets just say they are not selling Nihonto or Nihonto related items Bushi Art Osaka also seems to be inactive.

I can understand why you don't want to name the dealer so no need to confirm or deny, but the images look a lot like those found on the Katana no Kura website. They seem to consistently overexpose the images to minimise the finer details on the blade. The consequence being that buyers can be disappointed when they see the sword in person. AOI seem to offer for more naturalistic images that more closely match reality. Caveat emptor.

I concur with others. Looks like rust that has had a treatment to remove the active corrosion. I have seen high grit silicon carbide power used to clean up surface rust, without leaving scratches. Anyone else think the dealer supplied photo looks filtered eg softening, to minimise the defects on the blade?

It was just a couple of hours.

Great read Paul. As with other artistic media, art is in the eye of the beholder. The maxim you know it when you see it, I think applies to swords too. Having just experienced 3 Juyo papered swords, one in particular evoked a visceral reaction. It was beautiful expression of the swordsmiths skill and artistic expression. I could have walked home with that but for the price. The other 2 were very accomplished too, exhibiting many of the characteristics of their respective schools, but they just didn't stir the soul like the first one.

Yes, it's a thing. They have their preferred shippers and if that happens to be EMS then the UK is now persona non grata. Did you ask if alternative carriers were available or were they saying it was a blanket embargo?