Robert S

Hoshi: I totally agree that this wasn't a "Daimyo level" sword that he was talking about. I'm guessing it was more like what today would be a TH level blade, or maybe low Juyo. The top of the top end has always been astronomical, and even high end swordsmiths then had prices which were much higher - Marcus indicates that one smith quoted 100 kan for a new blade, so something like 22 ryo, way above the 5 - 7 ryo quoted by others. The swords that Mori Masana was buying seem clearly to have been "used" swords... could even have been koto. So not (originally) necessarily "off the peg", but also not "name" swords, and in the early 19th century, clearly available from "everyday" sword dealers for lower prices. Robert

Markus Sesko wrote an excellent summary of samurai incomes and sword prices (https://nihonto.com/samurai-income/), which identified how high sword prices from known swordsmiths were, relative to samurai real incomes ( net of enforced borrowing by Daimyos, retainer costs, etc.). He quotes prices of 5 - 7 ryo and up for new swords, which could, depending on the income level of the samurai, be multiple years of potentially available income. And that is only "potentially" available income, because many samurai, even those with incomes above the lowest level, were chronically going into debt. I have recently been doing a lot of research into samurai economics and culture during the Edo period, and came across another reference to prices of used swords in "Tour of Duty", a fascinating book by Constantine Nomikos Vaporis on the impact of the alternate attendance system. He provides actual ledgers from various samurai of both their regular expenses, as well as of purchases during their period in Edo. A samurai named Mori Masana, who clearly had more money than most, although the source of his money is unclear, bought three swords during his Edo tour in 1828-29 (as well as something like 20 tsuba!). In his ledger he noted priced for two of the swords: 1 ryo 2 shu, and 1 ryo 1 bu. Of the latter sword he notes that it is "a fine sword that I can wear with pride", which given that he was clearly higher up in the ranks of samurai, certainly means that it wasn't a used low level "off the peg" sword, although unfortunately he doesn't give any further details. While this is a very limited sample, it does indicate that even pretty decent used swords were available for a price much lower than a new sword - in a sense, (and obviously with the exception of masterpieces) it sounds like they depreciated with age - probably because they were somewhat "out of style", or didn't provide the boasting power of "look at the sword I had made"! Robert S

A whole new area of study - the little known Japanese steel boomerang.

Yup. I do a lot of silk dyeing with natural dyes, many sourced from the woods around me, and all of those guidelines are indeed useful to preserve color. Even so, some colors just fade. I'm sure the Japanese Dyers back in the day were fully aware of all these issues.

Wow! I suppose at some level they are real (possibly in the form of real modern fakes), but on my personal aesthetic scale they all rank between hideous and scary bad

It's well recognized, including by the NBTHK, that there was a period when "market forces"... possibly including organized crime... let us say "influenced" the award of their papers - the infamous NBTHK green papers. In order to attack this problem whey re-organized their whole system. Does this mean there is no possibility of such influence today? Probably not, but so far the system appears to be producing results which, while not unquestionable, are at least honest.

That's what it showed when the auction closed. It's entirely possible that the sale fell through, so it ended up being unsold. Looks like who-ever backed out at $36K was probably wise!

But none of the well known smiths using these characters for Nagayoshi seem to have used a niji-mei (two character signature) except perhaps one back in the Heian period, which I think can be ruled out. So it would seem to be either gimei or an undocumented smith.

I wonder if the sword you have is in this photo. I believe these are the Japanese officers surrendering at Tientsin. General Worton had a rather interesting meeting with Chou En Lai during this period.

Super curious to see the sword itself! That's a really interesting piece of history and provenance!

Heike monagatori certainly tries to reinforce notions of loyalty - retainers repeatedly saying "we owe everything to you, we will never abandon you"... but it is also completely full of betrayals, clans switching sides, retainers abandoning their lords... It also contains examples of the betrayals of the other side of the deal - lords betraying and eve hunting down those who have served them loyally. Lots of Heike would make Machiavelli proud!

Very useful to something I'm working on currently!

It's not that, it's that the hadori work completely obscures and disrespects the actual, rather marvellous, hamon. For a significant juyo level nihonto, this sort of work is verging on amateur.

That polish is a crime.

Just like zen, or martial arts, in the end we come back to beginner mind, beginner eye, without logical discrimination

That sounds like the time I had to give a presentation at a meeting in Honduras... in Spanish... and realized afterwords that I had referred to myself in the feminine gender the whole time. Huge kudos to all attending for keeping a straight face

Outstanding! The RHPS (Rocky Horror Picture Show) of tsuba.

It does look a bit like a slightly acidic liquid may have gotten on the blade at some time. Don't think it's a forging (deep) issue.

Interesting thought. I think there's a subtlety here. My 50 years of experience with craftsmanship suggests to me that when you get really good at something, as the great swordsmiths were, you've gotten there because you have always danced on the edge of loss of control... and you want to cross that edge constantly, and lose control just a little bit. If you're not doing that, you're probably not learning anymore, and it gets to be rote. The better you get, often the harder it is for others to see where you've let the process and the object take over, outside of your control, but you know. One of my professors many moons ago used to say "no threat no thrill", and I think that's pretty universal. I'd add "no threat no learning". Clearly swordsmithing is not raku... but neither is a pure industrial process, where absolute repeatability is the goal.

To my mind, it's a sword that exemplifies the best aesthetics, forging and metal for its place and period. Sometimes its also a sword that was part of breaking new ground in practice or aesthetics. Speaking as a craftsperson, there's also the personal masterpiece of a given smith - that one blade where everything just came together at a level at the limit of their ability, or almost magically beyond it. Often now we know too little about the smiths and their history to be able to identify that piece, or it is long lost, but at the time the smith, other smith's around him, and his customers will have known that there was one blade which just stood out.

I have a suspicion that tsuba like this were never designed to be mounted - they were always show pieces... which considering the craftsmanship is fair!

I really like that approach. Not all blades can be fully brought back to perfect condition, but they can still be preserved and appreciated.

The problem that I see is that if a full polishing was done which eliminated those chips, the boshi would be close to running off the edge... and once the pitting had also been dealt with, it probably would run off the edge. Just based on these photos, the blade is edging toward being unrecoverable, although of course it can be preserved with the chips and pitting remaining, but stabilized. Did Les have any thoughts on that?

My experience is that if someone thinks history ended in 1945, they're on the older side, like me, and actually probably believe that history ended with the end of the Vietnam war. Some younger people I know seem to believe history began when the internet began, and everything was effortlessly online. Everything before that is prehistory . They have a certain point . My nihonto will definitely not be buried with me. I love the idea of gifting them to a younger person who is excited about them, but has limited capital. I have so many amazing things that I've inherited from previous generations - that kind of passing things on is really meaningful to me.

I wonder if there was some collaboration there - two makers.