drjoe

Kubo Yoshihiro was the most recent smith to be awared Mukansa! https://markussesko.com/2018/08/11/mukansa-ningen-kokuho-list/

definitely crop circles

Kubo Yoshihiro was a student of Yoshindo Yoshihara. He has won some major awards such as the 2017 NBSK Chairman's Prize. Nice little blade there.

that one's not the worst example by any stretch. check out the hamon on this one, by the same seller: https://www.ebay.com/itm/N45-Restored-and-Polished-Sword-Katana/292641602980 restored and repolished nihonto!? hahahahahahahaha.

This masterpiece can be had for 320,000 Y. But seriously, I’m not trying to bash this blade so much as I’m trying to understand if I’m missing something in terms of the smith’s intent.

Can someone explain what we're looking at here? http://www.sanmei.com/contents/media/H108558_S8909_PUP_E.html Obviously a "real" shinsakuto by Gonda Norihide 摂州住人則秀, but with the coarse jihada and hitatsura hamon in what I assume is a terrible polish, this looks a lot like some of Chinese fakes that we've been seeing lately. It seems like an eyesore, though perhaps in a better polish I might feel differently. Would make sense if this was an utsushimono, but it doesn't say so and my kantei skills are not good enough to know what the smith might be trying to recreate here. Certainly I'm aware that some smiths did and do forge blades with this kind of low-count damascus-looking jihada. The text says it's a "special order" sword though, so who knows what was requested. It does seem that this smith isn't afraid to get a little adventurous: http://www.samuraishokai.jp/sword/14151.html

chinese with wire brushed "hamon." worth maybe $25 USD. hope that's the asking price.

hmmm... i guess So Hiroshi is the same person as So Matsumitsu/So Munehiro/So Yasuhiro after all. confusing that he has 4 different names and I misread Masakitsu in the text as Matsumitsu. anyway, someone got a nice blade.

to be clear, i wasn't trying to say that this is a "good" piece compared to a real Japanese shinsakuto or nihonto, just that is looks significantly better and less cartoonish than most of the fare from these sellers, which are readily recognizable as fakes. i stand by the fact that many would be hard pressed to differentiate this blade from one made in Japan but for the signature -- its sugata, kissaki, jigane, and hamon are comparable to the real thing. in general ara nie is never seen in chinese fakes -- i wasn't trying to argue that the profuse ara nie that is spread all over this blade is a good thing so much as i was trying to suggest it does make it harder to differentiate from true nihonto. most of the komonjo blades look strange and asthetically off in various ways. likewise, the changtian-sword items often have significant forging flaws and also cartoonishly ridiculous hamon. this one doesn't really have any of those features. i think most of what we've seen to date are failed attempts in one way or another, but overall the quality is getting better. but i certainly agree, as with the komonjo blades, that these are deliberate frauds and bad for the art of nihonto in general. i also agree that were they sold without a signature or with the seller's actual signature/stamp they might very well sell at a pricepoint above what these usually go for. instead, this appears to be a work in progress with a deliberate attempt to mislead and one that's getting harder to detect.

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/24821-the-other-komonjo/ the sword you posted actually looks pretty good and diverges from the usual characteristics of these "fake" swords. this one has a natural-looking hamon and an unusual amount of ara-nie throughout the blade. the jigane looks good and the kissaki is well-formed. were it not for the seller and the signature, i'm not sure it would be readily identified as a non-nihonto.

Sold

still for sale

nice blade made by the modern day Muto school. the lineage as described is a bit confusing -- So Hiroshi aka So Munehiro aka So Yasuhiro seems to have been a student and possibly a relative (nephew?) of So Masumitsu the father of So Tsutomo. in any case, nice ara nie and kinsuji here.

yes, it's often said that modern smiths are trying to recreate koto blades including bizen ichimonji and Sugita-san's utsuri seems to be another check-mark in that direction. but he's hardly the only modern smith able to recreate utsuri and even non-Japanese smiths like Pavel Bolf are making important contributions to revealing the secrets of utsuri and other "koto mysteries."

i knew there was an english language film out there that featured him -- found it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6SMRaKMtFY

Yes, i believe so. Many smiths seem to do this. In The Art of the Japanese Sword video (different than the one above), Manabe Sumihira suggests that he cannot reproduce bizen ichimonji with NBTHK tamahagane. I suspect Sugita san felt similarly.

and some glamor shots of a blade:

i seem to remember a version with english subtitles, but can't find it. here's all 4 parts of the Japanese version: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBD4B2D64D2264DF5

hi tom -- sugita yoshiaki used to have his own website with blades listed, but that went inactive following his untimely death. he seemed to favor hadaki-yaki (quenching without clay) and was able to create dynamic, turbulent hamon in the style of bizen den midare choji. this seems to be an old archive of posts about/by him: https://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/sugitatoushonokai/folder/ here is a video of him doing yaki ire: in addition to the blade from mike yamasaki's page, check out these: http://www.meikoukai.com/contents/town/06/6_36/index.html http://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords3/TT327577.htmhttp://kyoto-katana.com/archives/4632/ https://www.seiyudo.com/ta-030612.htm http://www.tousyoukai.jp/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/5_toushin_9.jpg and here's an old post started by me when i first learned about his work and didn't know anything about hadakayaki: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/9387-sugita-yoshiaki-juka-choji/ you can find more if you search his name in Japanese: 杉田善昭

Anthony spent some time in Yoshindo Yoshihara's forge and learned a thing or two.

anthony discristofano (sukemitsu) - http://www.namahagesword.com/

yes, craftsmanship is dwindling overall and has been for the better part of a century, but it's an overgeneralization to say that no one studies anymore. also, though certainly not a substitute for traditional apprenticeships and hands on learning, in the age of the internet one can learn from others in ways not previously possible -- no one is really self-taught even if they claim to be. i completely agree that there are many, many people out there making poor approximations of nihonto, but here are some who are doing very respectable work with links to Japanese teachers that can stand up next to Japanese work. this is obviously true with koshirae, but also true of a handful of bladesmiths out there. here is a good example: https://0j.b5z.net/i/u/2043896/i/lmb_omote_1pu.jpg

Although many western bladesmiths miss the fundamentals of sugata or are not working with tamahagane/orishigane, there are a few examples of smiths making Japanese-style blades in a traditional fashion. Some have spent significant time, if not a full traditional apprenticeship, with Japanese smiths. So, the internationalization is already happening. What prevents widespread globalization is that economically, being a swordsmith is very difficult and the market doesn't need more, especially as China, per its usual manufacturing model, drives prices (and quality) down and volume up. For all the collectors on this site who are keeping nihonto "alive," how many buy/collect shinsakuto?

in my opinion, that hamon is "all over the place," poorly formed, and ugly, but to each his own. but the plot thickens... here's another seller who, like the topic of this thread, was selling a shinsakuto ken with a patinated nakago. he claims his swords are located in rockville md, except when you click on his ebay membership page, it says he's in china. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-Samurai-Sword-Ken/292446327785?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D49917%26meid%3D38b311f535ba4b1e927be6125d7091d7%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D232651766892%26itm%3D292446327785&_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850

i don't see another post about this (but didn't look very hard). and i'm not maligning mike yamaguichi, though certainly you could make an argument that his sale of "grey market" gimei swords stretches ethical behavior. i'm just starting another post about some odd looking swords on the market that appear to be similar to the ones mike sells, but are coming from another seller. as for the topic at hand, I agree that this one is almost certainly a modern made blade with an artificially aged nakago and extra mekugi ana to make it appear as if old. the ken currently listed by the same seller is another head scratcher. suriage with signature, but he recently sold a very similar looking ken that was obviously modern.