Mikaveli

Sword looks like 宗重 - Muneshige?

粟田口近江守忠綱 Awataguchi omi no kami Tadatsuna If I'm reading that correctly?

Thanks, I've now ordered a copy. Does it cover many of the smiths, or just the Kotetsu story?

Many of us will be familiar with the story of the Shinsengumi, Kondo Isami and his famous (gimei) Kotetsu... Kondo was also known as somewhat of a sword connoisseur, and by all accounts, had many others. However, I don't see too much in the way of provenance data - more often it's just included in spiel from online sellers. So, I thought I'd see if anyone can point me to anything more concrete? Docs, pictures, links, museum locations etc. So far, I have the following: Mutsudaijo Miyoshi Nagamichi 陸奥大掾三善長道 Reportedly in a private collection, no other details. Tanba (no) Kami Fujiwara Terukado 丹波守藤原照門 Also in a private collection (原家 Hara family?), although I found a few mentions of it being displayed temporarily as part of two museum exhibitions in around 2015 and 2016. Yamatonokami Hidekuni (Motooki?) 大和守秀國 Shinshinto - apparently known for having crafted swords for Kondo Isami and Hijikata Toshizo. In the Inoue Genzaburo Museum (井上源三郎資料館). Ashu Sukeyoshi 阿州吉川六郎源祐芳 Another Shinshinto, apparently in the Ryzen Museum, Kyoto (霊山歴史館). Banshuu Fujiwara Munesada 播州藤原宗貞 No other details - I wasn't able to find exactly which smith / era this was? Osumi (no) Kami Hiromitsu 大隈守広光 Shinshinto - the order for sword was preserved, with a picture.

The videos are a big improvement. One of the biggest drawbacks of photos, is you tend to need so many - to see detail across the sword, different angles and lighting etc. I'd say it's possible to get some indication from photos, but there's usually a lot of detail that's easy to miss. Just look at the sellers that are able to take selective photos to mask flaws etc.

Junk. All those photos are from a commercial seller, who won't be claiming that it's a genuine Japanese sword.

Likewise, my experience is old papers, with a smith you'd pay in the thousands for, there's a very high likelihood of gimei. Especially if still in Japan, as shinsha access is simplified.

For ji nie, I'd start with Markus Sesko's summary: So, evidence of uniformity or deliberate application. Still somewhat subjective, especially if we're trying to establish the very best, rather than a boolean split into high and low quality.

Examples, as we had earlier, prove the point either way. Do we have many good examples of artistic merit only Juyo swords? And conversely, swords with issues that would usually preclude them, but have history or other provenance that awarded Juyo.

Potentially much older than that, if the blade matches the smith Ray linked to. Early Edo - circa 1675.

Between the Kami and Kane characters, there's 4 more Kanji - but I can't make them out.

That's kinda what I'm getting at, in a roundabout way. What I'd like to imagine, is as Jacques said - it's the sword that obtains Juyo, but my concern is whether that's the reality. As you, and others have said - papers don't constrain a blade - just because it "only has Hozen" doesn't mean it's not higher quality etc. I've seen a couple of blades that (in my head at least), stand out as potential candidates - certainly great examples of their smith. Last year I saw a number of Shinshinto pass - but I think the overall success rate was only 8%? It'd be interesting to see the rejected examples and understand why etc.

Bonus question, what's the biggest delta in quality seen from a single smith? One smith making both a "masterpiece" and something little better than a bundle sword?

Thanks Jussi, very interesting. So, maybe a difficult question to answer precisely, but what percentage / absolute number of Juyo would you have expected for Kanenobu? Would you expect all (well preserved) extant works at jo-saku to be able to achieve that level, 75%, 50% or 10% etc. Just as a rough finger in the air. Likewise for chu-jo, jo-jo and sai-jo? It seems like we've seen lots of examples of good smiths the Fujishiro ratings missed out, but are their examples of a chu-saku rated smith producing Juyo winning swords?

So, I was reading a Darcy article about rating systems, and it said that in current convention, only Fujishiro "Jo Saku" rated smiths could obtain Juyo, with some exceptions. Does anyone have any Chu Jo Saku (or below) rated Juyo swords? I'm also interested in any damaged / flaws that have made it through (run off boshi) for koto blades. Or, modified or suriage shinto blades.