Yama Arashi

Down - $5400 shipped/insured worldwide Open to offers, no trade please

Drop $5500 shipped/insured

Down to $5600 🙃

Bump @ $5700

No - apparently I need to stop taking handheld pics over that surface 😂

Nakao (Koku Ju) Kazuyoshi swordsmith Utsushi Kiyomaro, Saga prefecture, Heisei period 1992 In shirasaya, solid silver habaki - pristine polish, no flaws 74.1cm Nagasa 8.5mm Motokasane, 7mm Sakikasane 3.6cm Motohaba, 3.1cm Sakihaba 1.95cm sori, 1307 grams (with habaki and shirasaya handle) Hizen Koku Ju Kazuyoshi is a swordsmith of Saga prefecture. He was born in Showa 14 (1939). His real name is Nakao Kazuyoshi. He has won numerous awards (two Yushusho prizes, four Doryokusho prizes, and twelve Nyusen prize.) He is the son of Nakao Tadatsugu and a student of Horii Toshihide. $5900 USD - includes shipping and insurance

Up/reduced. $5600 shipped Open to offers.

Have a sword inbound from Tokyo via EMS/priority mail express international. Accepted by Japan Post last week on wednesday June 23rd, and departed the export office on saturday the 25th. No updates since (technically only on the 3rd business day in the U.S. at this point) Will update as I'm expectantly watching.

Sale/shipping within CONUS only at the moment. No trades please. Kazuyoshi shinsakuto katana Mei: Hizen Kuni ju Kazuyoshi saku Utsushi Kiyomaro November 2006 - Nagasa 75cm - Sori 2.1cm - Motohaba 3.6cm - Sakihaba 3.1cm - Motokasane 8.0mm - Sakikasane 6.5mm - Nakago 23.5cm - Blade weight with shirasaya handle and habaki: 1330 grams Huge stout blade with shirasaya, in pristine polish - solid silver habaki. I was in the process of trying to purchase this blade from japaneseartswords.com (https://japaneseartswords.com/gallery/140) but as it happened, it was going committed along with a number of other items to Bonham's auction house, where I managed to acquire it. The photos showing the blade on the plastic table are from the auction house. $5800 shipped Please PM/reply with any specific questions or requests. https://i.postimg.cc/fTRfSvvJ/1.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/DypdrbC5/2.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/tJCWPXWL/3.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/T38hvdhf/32-B73-D80-3-FAA-468-D-BFD7-278-BE156126-D.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/DwWQByHh/5.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/rmTSVGmy/8.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/Kz946t3H/833-D1-D36-0-D4-C-4332-960-C-9-F4-B046-E58-D3.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/j5hyLWwH/9.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/vmfrw2GS/9a.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/D0jsPtcm/9b.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/tR2hbxHy/9c.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/kXHK6P4p/9d.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/nrgrzZkK/9-D8-EBAF0-CFC5-45-C1-BC25-90-F4-CFA9-A4-DB.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/NjrTRC2f/9e.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/BQb2nnqF/9f.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/W4GkHD7B/9g.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/NMbrQWSb/9h.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/d1JyPqHL/9i.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/N0qXD8R8/9j.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/cCHtCFNW/9k.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/SRv2McyM/9L.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/h4y76R9t/9m.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/X7ry018c/9n.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/DyR4fQpV/DSC-0062.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/VkMrJS2J/DSC-0064.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/JhLyZrWP/DSC-0065.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/tCn7cZqB/Kazu-Kiyo-a-2.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/4ymnsnzN/Kazuyoshi.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/k5v2y0J9/Kazuyoshi-shirasaya.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/k4MBYTGS/Kazuyoshi-ura.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/zXTHBbsV/Kazuyoshi-omote.jpg

$6300 🤷🏻‍♂️

Tough market apparently. Further reduced to an asking price of $6500 A donation will of course be given to the forum if it moves here.

$6800 shipped/insured Open to offers, but no trades please.

Some more blade/koshirae photos. Same smith discussed in a thread from earlier this year: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/35772-yasuken-swordsmith/

Dojo group buy. Have another in the works. Everybody is quite impressed with the quality and price.

You can order them through her direct email (gmail address shown on her business card in francois2605' post - 10th down on this page) She will also answer through Facebook messenger. I've ordered around 25 bags so far - top notch quality and materials. She will also make custom lengths as requested (waki, jo/bo, etc.) with or without leather end caps on the bottom.

$7000 shipped/insured.

Shinsakuto daisho by Gendai swordsmith Iyo Matsuyama Ju Seiken - Dated July 1988 Katana and wakizashi in full koshirae, along with shirasaya and koshirae insert for saya, and matching brocade sword bags. (pattern pictured behind menuki photo) Kogatana with the wakizashi. Simple fuchi-kashira with mountain/shrine theme tsuba and kirin menuki. Polish on both blades is pristine. No damage and have never been used to cut. Both sword still have ubu-ba. Impressive swords in both size and weight - gunome midare with heavy sunagashi and kinsuji worked in the ha. "The real name of the Yasuken (Yasukuni) swordsmith is Gouda Toshiyuki, born in 1926, living in Heiwa-dori, Matsuyama, Ehime. He learned Soshu-den from the family of living national treasure swordsmiths Tsukiyama Teiichi and Takahashi Sadatsugu, and was introduced to the swordsmith Torio Hiromasa in 1939. In 1944, he began making swords at the Torio Gunto Forging Factory. In 1970, he was introduced to Sakai Shigemasa, who further refined his sword making skills. He is a member of the All Japan Swordsmith Association and has received many awards including the Special Prize and the Award for Effort." According to this resource, this smith has been papered by either the NBTHK or NTHK. https://www.japaneseswordindex.com/gendai.htm Please see attached photos of blade in hand, as well as the original photos from the seller in Japan, which include specs/dimensions. Additional specific photos available upon request. Please PM with specific questions. Looking to ship/sale within the continental United States. $7500 shipped/insured. A couple link examples of the same smith from other vendors: https://www.aoijapan.net/wakizashi-iyo-matsuyama-ju-seiken-hori-dosaku/ https://www.trocadero.com/stores/meijibijutsu/items/1215403/Katana-Koshirae-by-Iyo-Matsuyama-Ju-Seiken https://www.e-nihontou.com/html/upload/save_image/esg20101158049314589.jpg

I have ordered a few as well. Can they be purchased directly via email or facebook? (vs. her having to pay ebay fees)

I am in in the US. I actually haven't needed to have anything sharpened up to this point, but I also have other modern blades that I cut with. Various monosteel, etc. The Kazuyoshi is/was still in original polish and is quite sharp - the original owner was an Iaido practitioner who never used it to cut. As to your specific question, and attempting to be careful knowing the general forum views on cutting with nihonto, and polish work by anyone other than a togishi; based solely on what little firsthand work I have seen from the states, and strictly where only a cutting edge is concerned, I would have no issue with Josiah Boomershine or Walter Seton. (Josiah has edge honed a shinsakuto wakizashi for me as well.) I can't speak to his work with more intensive polishing, but as for myself, I wouldn't be sending a nihonto to anyone outside of the few known Japanese trained polishers for an art polish and such. (and even then, I may just prefer to send it to Japan.) For reference, I'm aware of a sword by Yasuhiro Kobayashi that has been used to cut tatami and bamboo for the past 43 odd years, and has never been sharpened. I started typing a paragraph here about various gendaito/shinsakuto that I have cut with over the years (including a Nagamitsu that may as well have been a spoon, and still would cut tatami-omote and bamboo just fine) and the niku/geometry of a traditional Japanese blade not requiring the kind of paper slicing razor edge that so many are obsessed with in order to cut well (as is seen on a lot of modern competition oriented blades with geometry catering to soft targets, nihonto or otherwise) - but such tangents and/or opinions never seem to bode well for the thread.

Sharing a few examples of my shinsakuto by the swordsmith Hizen (Nakao) Kazuyoshi. It can be a challenge digging up detailed swordsmith information, and often, even moreso with shinsakuto. I have found a few excerpts, and it seems his father and one of his brothers both achieved Mukansa status, but the little info that I've found is mainly from google translated pages and often has to be kind of puzzled together. I stumbled upon this particular smith in my early travels, and I always found his work quite appealing. Thus far, I've ended up with 5 of his katana and 1 tanto. A few other examples have been popping up recently on the usual Japanese sword sites. 176cm Odachi 1972 (this is my main tameshigiri blade, and the only nihonto I have that I actually cut with) 71.4" Nagasa, 7.2mm Motokasane, 3.3cm Motohaba, 2.4cm Sakihaba Next to a Sabatier 1992 Utsushi Kiyomaro 74.1cm Nagasa, 8.5mm Motokasane, 3.6cm Motohaba, 3.1cm Sakihaba 2006 Utsushi Kiyomaro 75cm Nagasa, 8.2mm Motokasane, 3.7cm Motohaba, 3.2cm Sakihaba

I'd say gunome if someone asked me; perhaps gunome-midare.

I've been lurking a lot longer than participating, and it's always enjoyable seeing people extrapolate the steel as it were. People/you guys can be quite impressive with the ability to determine a tight time window based off of specific features. (Hence kantei of course, but most of what I've seen in here far exceeds my own ability with such.) I posted this same sword a number of months back, and have had a few other well learned individuals look at it, including a professional togishi, and anyone that has sounded an opinion has pretty much sourced it to the same school/style and era. I'm not concerned with the value, and it will stay in my collection irrespective of what the consensus is; I'm more curious as to an official answer on quality, era and school , and have been seeking opinions without being blinded by the mei, so to speak. The only question/doubt that has been raised, are whether the mei cut and nakago condition are almost *too good*. So it's heading off to shinsa, for what is hopefully a definitive answer. Frankly, even if the sword is to come back gimei, it won't bother me, as it's a ludicrously great piece in my opinion. I own a small number of fantastic blades, including 3 hozon and 2 tokubetsu hozon, and this particular sword is still my favorite. Here are a few other photos from the original source, better showing the jigane/hamon detail.

In the vein of posts by other members, namely Rivkin; I'd like to submit this blade to the forum members for opinions/kantei request-challenge. This sword is heading to shinsa to get a definitive answer - but in the interim, I am curious to see the opinions of members, and what swordsmith/era/school you think it might be attributed to. Specifications: Nagasa - 28.75" / 73cm Motohaba - 1.24" / 3.15cm Sakihaba - 1" / 2.55cm Motokasane - .248" / .63cm Gunome midare, nie-deki, very apparent sunagashi and kinsuji (perhaps inazuma / imozuru) Midare-komi boshi https://streamable.com/2znwpy