Surfson

Mark, if this were my sword and I was in your situation (family treasure that I want to have restored regardless of cost), I would send it to Mr. Kenji Mishina in Japan for restoration followed by shinsa at the NBTHK. If I have misread your situation and you do care about the cost-benefit ratio, then I would take the more cautious steps; I would submit it to NTHK shinsa in Chicago or another US sword show (I prefer the NTHK-NPO shinsa led by Mr. Miyano). If it gets papered to Shigemasa, hopefully they will tell you which one and which era. My personal opinion from the shape is that it is likely to have been made between Keicho and Kanbun eras (1596-1661 or so), when the swords were fairly straight like this, with little curvature. If it does paper, I would send it to Japan for restoration, after which it might be worth the cost of restoration or more if the polish comes out good with few or no flaws in the blade. If it doesn't paper at the NTHK shinsa because of doubt about the signature, I would consider about whether it is worth sending to Japan for restoration. In that case, it would likely involve another submission, this time to NBTHK. If it doesn't paper there due to the mei, then the next step would be removal of the signature followed by polish, followed by yet another submission to NBTHK shinsa. Note that if the NTHK shinsa team rejects it due to some kind of fatal forging flaw, then I would just have the mounts restored as well as I could and just keep it in the US and abandon my plans to restore the blade. Just my view of it, and you will get as many opinions as people that care to reply. Either way, it is a nice old blade with good mounts and I do endorse your plan to treasure it!

It looks like a legitimate samurai blade to me by the way, and the mounts were once very nice.

There are nine Shigemasa smiths listed in Markus Sesko's bood Swordsmiths of Japan. Some are in Bizen, others are in Seki, Bingo, Sagami....

Any summary takeaway observations you can share Bazza?

I think that it might be an interesting sword based on the photos you sent. Do you have more of the whole blade (for sugata) and the nakago? Also, the dimensions would be helpful.

Volker is a friend and I have bought and sold swords from and to him. He is also a true expert on shrine swords from Yasukuni and Minatogawa. Good to see you on here Volker!

You have done very well Michael! Most of these swords are authentic samurai swords that would make respectable starter swords for a collection. While there are a few that may be worthy of restoration, I don't see any that would recoup the cost of polish (meaning that after a polish, shirasaya and maybe habaki, none will be worth more than you have invested in them). This is just my quick assessment of the collection. If I were in your situation, I would take great pictures of all of them and sell them one at a time on ebay. You should have proceeds in the range of triple or quadruple your money I would think. You can then take the profits and buy yourself a beautiful sword in nice mounts in full polish with papers. You can sell them in a couple of weeks with slightly more work than you put in to post them here. And hey, nothing wrong with picking out one or two of your favorites and hanging on to them or even restoring them if you get the urge. Congratulations on a great find!

Bob Benson is there and has an active business. You should probably contact him in advance, as I don't think he has an actual store. You can reach him through his website. https://www.bushidojapaneseswords.com/index.html

My pleasure Ken. I bought all of my favorites from him on ebay when he first started selling them. I picked out groups, contacted him directly and bought them from him at a group price. I bought a lot of his books too, to be sure that I have a copy of the book for each tsuba pictured in the book(s). I really like nearly all of them. Especially the early Heianjo have both power and appealing art, at least to my taste.

Never mind Steve, I found him. He is seller GDME; here is one of his listings, and the others can be found easily. https://www.ebay.com/itm/384240123111?hash=item59767efce7:g:EJkAAOSwElhfTkwr

Hi Steve. Where are they available? I haven't seen them on ebay for a while. He did have a very nice collection of Heianjo, Onin and Yoshiro tsuba.

Hahah Allen. You got me to thinking. Without a doubt, the first four cars I bought were all a POS! Best of luck with your collecting. Let me know if you need advice when you decide to buy a quality blade.

Welcome back Joe! I do recall when you were putting all of your swords up for sale here on NMB - I was sad that we may not hear from you again. But here you are, like a phoenix rising up! Have you considered shifting to samurai era swords? Shinshinto, shinto, even koto? There are some collectors that stick with gendaito all of their career, but it is a common evolution. I'm just saying.....now that you have a clean sheet, maybe you could at least build a collection containing great examples from all of the eras.

One important question is whether the hagire/crack was present at the time of purchase or arose after. If you can find it on the original photos from the listing or that the dealer sent, then you have a strong claim for a refund, in my view. If not, then the dealer can take the position that it had no hagire at the time of sale. Sorry if I missed a detail in the thread as I skimmed it.

As you look for swords, condition is very important. Poor condition can result from abuse by past owners (chips, broken tip, alterations to the sword, bends etc.), by the ravages of time or battle (sword strikes, rust, pitting, loss of steel by many polishes or fire damage) or sometimes by poor forging techniques (ware, fukure, poor finishing of the tang, poor tempering etc.). It is helpful to recognize these condition issues and try to avoid them in general.

Well, Allen. NMB members are generally kind, and after you stated that you love this sword, it becomes hard to criticize. I think that most collectors on NMB would find those "issues" to be distracting (to put it kindly). There are threads about first blades though, and about half of us have held on to our first blade, even though most of those blades have "issues" too. I hope that you have advanced your collecting.

Well done Rob, you worked your way through it very successfully. Slough is just a selective compilation. I remember when he was going around at sword shows taking oshigata. Obviously mostly represents the common and rare blades that he ran across.

Jon, a couple hints are that often the core steel is composed of shingane, which has less carbon in it and is "softer", making it more malleable and ductile and protecting the overall sword from the likelihood of breaking since it isn't brittle like harder steel. This core steel can often have a slightly darker color, which is what Grey is referring to. Also, in my experience, the shingane also has less "hada" or grain in it. It may be that shingane is not folded as many times as skin steel (kawagane) or that since it is softer the polishing stones don't bring out the grain. I would love to hear from others about this last speculation.

I agree. I have watched that video more than once - it is magnificent. Also, you might well have the largest collection of original Hallam work around. Do you actually own the two tsuba in those videos? You are a true patron of a great modern artist.

Not touching that one Luis. Collectors care about length, without doubt!

I just "discovered" this thread. Wonderful pieces and fabulous discussion and input. I will have to check back as they keep rolling out.

I like the choice of menuki Glen, as the clams fit in well with the ebi theme. Be careful of kokatana on Yahoo.jp. First, there are many fakes. It apparently is pretty easy to fake these things and make them look old. Second, be careful how they describe them. I am having a problem with one right now where the seller included the word "sword" in their description, and Buyee is so inept in their automated way that they keep telling me that it is a prohibited item. Just an FYI.

I agree with Jussi, Georg. As Geraint mentioned, this one is also signed tachi mei, meaning that it may well be a bit older than the rest, possibly made during the 14th century. Also, the tang is very long, presumably since they kept the mei on when it was shortened. The tsuka is very long as a result. I get the impression that the sword is not particularly long though. Do you know the length of the cutting edge?

Thanks for sharing these. Georg, your friend has some nice blades, all but one of which are hand made true samurai swords it appears. I agree with Geraint's quick, but clear comments. I gather you are surprised by the few responses. I suppose that you are spoiled by having the first sword you post on NMB turning out to be a "sleeper" Kiyomaro. That certainly gets our attention and excitement!

I concluded that it was likely too short to consider restoration.