cabowen

I never met him but he seemed a kindred spirit in his efforts to share and help others; such sad news....My best to him in the next life and to his family and friends....RIP...

I would suggest laying the safe on it's side if possible to store them horizontally. There is a company in Japan that markets a safe specifically for swords and it is a horizontal one....You could set up a pulley system to aid in opening and keeping the door open if it is heavy, as most beefier safes tend to be....Of course it depends on how much space you have....

I think you will find that the value associated with them depends on who you ask as well as who did the sayagaki.

I haven't tried to sell anything on Ebay for a long while but decided to clear a few things out recently. I put three things up for auction. I received payment from one. The other two -one from Taiwan who wanted the item shipped to Guam and didn't want to pay the postage quote I received from the PO; the other from Russia with a Netherlands address who just strung things out without explanation, were deadbeats....Anyone else have this kind of experience?

Bushu Shitahara ju Hiroshige. 武州下原住広重 Highlight above for the signature... Curious as to why the dealer couldn't provide this info???

Maybe 一流 政寿　(kao) Masatoshi 政寿 is the artist's name....

I'm sure Steve will be along but I would suggest a google search...Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia: The next major period in Japanese history was the Muromachi Period, pointing to the rise of Kitayama Culture (ja:北山文化 Kitayama bunka?), centered around the gorgeous cultural world of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and his villa in the northern hills of Kyoto (Kinkaku-ji), and later during this period, the rise of Higashiyama Culture, centered around the elegant cultural world of Ashikaga Yoshimasa and his retirement villa in the eastern hills of Kyoto (Ginkaku-ji). This period saw the budding of what is generally regarded as Japanese traditional culture as we know it today. The Japanese tea ceremony developed as a "transformative practice", and began to evolve its own aesthetic, in particular that of "sabi" and "wabi" principles. "Wabi" represents the inner, or spiritual, experiences of human lives. Its original meaning indicated quiet or sober refinement, or subdued taste "characterized by humility, restraint, simplicity, naturalism, profundity, imperfection, and asymmetry" and "emphasizes simple, unadorned objects and architectural space, and celebrates the mellow beauty that time and care impart to materials."[6] "Sabi," on the other hand, represents the outer, or material side of life. Originally, it meant "worn," "weathered," or "decayed." Particularly among the nobility, understanding emptiness was considered the most effective means to spiritual awakening, while embracing imperfection was honoured as a healthy reminder to cherish our unpolished selves, here and now, just as we are - the first step to "satori" or enlightenment.[7] Murata Jukō is known in chanoyu history as an early developer of tea ceremony as a spiritual practice. He studied Zen under the monk Ikkyū, who revitalized Zen in the 15th century, and this is considered to have influenced his concept of chanoyu.[8] By the 16th century, tea drinking had spread to all levels of society in Japan. Sen no Rikyū and his work Southern Record, perhaps the most well-known—and still revered—historical figure in tea ceremony, followed his master Takeno Jōō's concept of ichi-go ichi-e, a philosophy that each meeting should be treasured, for it can never be reproduced. His teachings perfected many newly developed forms in architecture and gardens, art, and the full development of the "way of tea". The principles he set forward—harmony (和 wa?), respect (敬 kei?), purity (清 sei?), and tranquility (寂 jaku?)—are still central to tea ceremony.

Yes, I think there is enough visible....

They are assembly/arsenal markings. The "4 bars" is possibly a 1 and then 3, meaning perhaps "13"......

Blade appears to be o-suriage Koto, maybe Mino from what appear to be peaks in the hamon. Tsuba is signed Soten and looks to be one of the many poor quality copies.

Contact Fred Geyer. I believe he owns multiple blades by each generation of Nobutaka. I would imagine he would be able to offer some valuable insight.

It is hard to say for certain from the photos but the katana looks to have been in a fire....

They used the oroshigane process in their forge to add/subtract carbon as needed. Or gave it to their buddies in Soshu to mix in with the hard steel....

tamahagane is the generic term for steel made in the tatara process. Shingane and kawagane are both tamahagane. The difference depends on the carbon content and the quality. When a load of steel is made in a tatara, you get a variety of steel out....

No doubt at some point tsubako had the tech, materials, skills, and tools to produce work with great fluency of expression and could make either simple, monometal, technically simple work as well as the complex multimetal tour de force sculptures that we see later. But I do not think the early artists, say tosho or katchushi, had the tech or skills to compete with the likes of the Goto or later soft metal artists. They worked with what they were familiar with... Look at how sword signatures evolved. Most of the early mei are quite rustic. We do not see (at least as far as I know without data mining the Juyo Zufu), for example, fluid sosho mei in Kamakura era blades. I would think that if they were capable of it, we would have seen it somewhere... I think we see a distinct development in tools, techniques, and materials through time. While I agree that tastes and preferences shifted through time, I think too that the palette of materials, techniques, and tools also expanded, allowing artists to expand the envelope of expression. In other words, I have to think that techniques and tastes developed together, perhaps in a symbiotic way... One important reason these early blades and tsuba are so dear to the Japanese is because of their simple, natural, unassuming character, which appears to border on the rustic. They often contain a "naturalness" that later works lack. To again use the ceramics comparison, we find some of the most valued tea bowls to have been made by Korean potters for everyday use as rice bowls. They weren't made as "art", quite the contrary. These early swords and tsuba weren't either, in my opinion, but became, like the rice bowls, appreciated for their honest simplicity and naturalness. They harken back to a much different time...The Japanese 懐かしい, "natsukashii" is the feeling they stir, an almost melancholic longing for the past....They also frequently have that quality called 渋い "shibui", which Yanagi Soetsu called, "the beauty that makes an artist of the viewer". This is a very big part of the appreciation of these early works. It is a different beauty that what we see in later works where the technical virtuosity often grabs our attention first... To try yet another comparison, think zen ga versus Momoyama Kano school painting....

There are several theories out there concerning marugitae and the change to multipiece constructions. Some think that the switch from monosteel to a separate core and kawagane was done to conserve precious high quality steel, others as a method to improve the performance of the blade. It may be the case that it was done to conserve high quality steel originally, but then an improvement in performance was noted which spawned experiments with varied, multipiece construction that culminates with the so-called Soshu construction which uses many separate steels. I don't think you will find much written on this in English though there is quite a bit in Japanese.

Tokugawa Museum blade:

Tokubetsu Kicho. It is signed.... There is a very similar one in the Tokugawa Museum....

Don't recall; will check...

We have winner! Muramasa, signed, NBTHK papers.... Very unusual work for his group. The hamon at first blush appears to be a large, Ishido school choji, similar to that also often made by Ono Yoshimitsu, but close inspection shows that the hamon is more a midare-notare with the choji like elements actually in the ji forming a hitatsura more like Akihiro or Hiromitsu. Interesting blade. I hope this was of interest....

Nope....I will give the answer tonight...

Period is close, Den is correct, group is wrong...location is going the wrong way from Shimada....

Getting closer but no....

Jeremy was closest but not correct....

Not Shin-to was a hint! I do not have any other photos.... Another hint: Jeremy was closest....