nulldevice

I believe this is the other sword @Bruce Pennington was talking about made by the same smith, star stamped, and numbered 122. @Pav It would be great to see the rest of the blade and compare to this one.

No real sword expert who is trying to sell you a blade would conceal the swordsmith that made a blade that they are selling. Are you talking about an antique Japanese sword you are interested in buying?

That's a huge red flag if someone won't tell you the smith that made a sword you are interested. I'd 100% never trust that seller.

Simply put katana, tachi, and tanto command the most money and are the most collectible items typically. Even though they’re smaller than wakizashi, many top smiths only made tanto and many national treasures are tanto. the same can’t be said for wakizashi. Hence the difference in price. It’s not about the amount steel but the original intent and artistic/functional execution of the smith. tanto usually are ubu and retain their mei and we don’t have to imagine much if the tanto is healthy. It’s all still there.

筑後久留米住藤原武國 Chikugo Kurume ju Fujiwara Takekuni

I had a similar thought. The utsuri seemed to pop too much in the photos and looked painted on to me.

These swords are never real. There is always a story about a wartime bring back that has been just recently uncovered and now is available on the market in Japan without any modern papers. If a real Masamune were to show up in Japan, it would be sent to the NBTHK and paper, and it would make waves in the sword community. The seller removes themselves from all responsibility in the ad:

I’ve bought books from Aoi at a really good deal. 2x cheaper than anywhere in the US. he shipped fast and was super communicative.

My personal taste would prefer this over the Kotetsu. Or if I had that much money for swords I’d probably go to DTI and pick up a Juyo from each of the major sword making schools and still have some left over! No doubt this collection was top notch and I wish I could’ve made it out to NY to see them on display.

Did anyone ever find out what that Kanemitsu went for? I heard estimates from $500k-1.5M If I recall correctly, there were 2 $400-500k offerings at DTI last year. They were long gone before I showed up later in the day to even see if they were on display.

A Komonjo listing with a false sayagaki to Ko-Bizen Masatsune. The boshi looks like one done in a kaen or hakikake style with lots of nie particles. Something you won't find on Ko-Bizen blades.

I ran it by my wife, she said no

Indeed, thanks so much to Rayhan and Markus for giving all of this. I have my work cut out for me ingesting all of this information!

Its signed: 東神正茂作 昭和十九年三月日 Tojin? Masashige Saku A day in March 1944

Very informative, thanks @Brano! I just looked up chikei in Sesko's book and he describes 2 types of chikei, one type that does follow the hada which is usually tied to soshu-den referring to the darker layers of steel and another type which is not bound to the hada like you show above.