Robert S

This series is mostly a summarization of Tale of the Heike - it's a bit disappointing, as they clearly didn't do large amounts of research beyond that. Their overview of the Tale is pretty good, although occasionally has minor issues, but I highly recommend to anyone who is interested to read the actual original. It's an amazing piece of literature, maintained and grown for centuries as an oral tradition, rather than written, and to my mind much better than some of the comparable Chinese classics like the Tale of the Three Kingdoms. The Royall Tyler translation, as with so much of his work, is very well done!

I think there's a good chance that the surface texture of the steel was largely deliberate, and not caused by corrosion

There's some story there - it's curious that the axes of the lattice are not consistent across the piece. I can't think of why a craftsman would have done that even if, say the piece was started, work stopped, and then resumed later. Puzzled!

One thing that we sometimes forget is that iron, copper and other metals were much more uncommon a few hundred years ago than now. Take the example from Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book (late 10th/early 11th century) where cupboards with hinged doors were much more "high class" than cupboards with sliding doors... because hinges required both metal craftsmanship and metal. That becomes relevant when we think of koshirae from the Muromachi/Early Edo or before. I suspect that if they were of ordinary craftsmanship, and had gone our of style, they were often recycled. Hence the relative lack of older koshirae.

Or alternatively, if you have a really nice set of tsuba and other metalwork for the koshirae, and you don't mind the cost, I would simply ship the koshirae parts to Japan, and get craftspeople there to make the saya and tsuka and fit and assemble the entire package. Trying to do it piecemeal is a recipe for frustration...

I would be put off by that polish, which is a crude treatment of a magnificent hamon. The blade deserves much better.

Lovely polish, though.

Stunning! Whether Omori Teruhide or one or more of his students, who-ever (singular or plural) did that work was seriously talented - not only the quality of the workmanship, but also the quality of the design. I suspect that as with similar products from western traditional workshops, asking who actually made it within a workshop led by a great master is probably meaningless. There were probably many hands - specialists in one or more areas of work - being directed by the master. We tend to think more in the post renaissance western art paradigm - the solitary great artist. But it's not necessarily the way that a master with a strong team would work. I do wonder if the character variations actually indicate the lead hand on each piece.

This reminds me of something we used to do for etching - spattering resist off of a large brush, giving a wide range of sizes of "speckles and blobs". As regards the viscosity, lacquer or another resist could be thinned. You don't need a very thick layer of resist to get the desired effect.

I don't think I would be completely adverse to owning a nihonto with such marks on it... but I also don't think it would increase the value for me. I own a world war one Lee Enfield with notches on it which, if not genuine, appear to have been made within the same period, given the wear and patina. They don't make me uneasy... but they also aren't why I own the gun.

If anything, Bruce might be guilty of understatement . The combination of the exquisite work in each of the pieces with the accompanying documentation, including artist's sketches, must be completely unique... and priceless. And the cherry on the cake is that the previous owner was Linus Pauling. I mean, talk about provenance!

Just a detail, but it's also worth nothing that in most cases acid etching doesn't result in a vertical sides groove or area, like you show in your illustration. Generally, the exception to that rule is dutch mordant on copper, but that's a whole other story. You're also unlikely to get a smooth surface left where etched, due to differences in metal composition, acid movement, etc. The surface shown on the tsuba illustrated is pretty typical. Robert

Hmm... that may make creating new koshirae interesting, given that we may not be able to import ray skin now. I have experience with CITES on the wood front. For instance, export and import of cocobolo is not permitted, unless it is plantation grown. But I don't suppose anyone is farming rays :-). I wonder how rapidly this will impact the ability to import most nihonto with koshirae, or if there is an exception for articles more than a certain number of years old. I know that for ivory there are no exceptions of any sort. I have ivory articles that have been in the family for more than 100 years, and they are now completely unsellable.

I've also noted that sometimes dealers who have a sword in this situation go back to the NBTHK and ask what generation the attribution was for, and the NBTHK has some comment to make on that - presumably from notes associated with the shinsa process. Might be worthwhile reaching out to them to see if there is more that they can say!

Some context around the prevalence of radioactive elements : I had my well tested last year, and they found Uranium in the water. Had me a bit worried until I got some context : The level of Uranium was an order of magnitude less than that found in your average bottled water! After that, I relaxed. Given that older Japanese iron may have been made from iron sands, it would not be at all surprising to find some radioactive elements in the mix... not to mention small amounts of gold :-).

You should probably put this post in the translation section, not here.

Lovely work, and very much in the style that I like. Well done!

It does not appear to be acid etched, but the polish is relatively crude.

The best comment I saw on that video was "Blink twice if you're being held hostage." The presenters had not expression what-so-ever, but certainly managed to mix in a reasonable proportion of misinformation, just to keep "up" standards.

I have a collection like that too, Jean, except mine are mostly western, not Japanese. Bought a huge assortment as a lot from a roadside antique dealer in Wisconsin about 10 years ago - it was something like $60 for the lot - steal of a deal!

I'm at the extreme other end of that spectrum. I love sharpening! And so of course have the most complicated sharpening system possible... diamond, ceramic, artificial stone, natural stone... Robert

Or with those names, going from TokuHo to Juyo simply wouldn't provide any increase in value. In cases like these I suspect the value's in the name, not the paper.

I for one am extremely glad that this group insists on real names. Keeps the discussion real. Back to the topic, I found the discussion in the Kitamura et.al paper (Control of Slag and Inclusions...) that Brian linked extremely interesting. I had always assumed, due to the temperatures involved, that tamahagane accumulated by a sintering process. However, that paper indicates that that was probably only true prior to the 17th century. From the 17th century onwards, the paper posits that much or most of the tamahagane was created by crystalization from molten pig iron. This would imply that there ,may have been a meaningful change in the nature of the steel, broadly associated with the Shinto period. It also raises the question of inclusions versus alloying that Jean raised earlier.

Not at all. The first step is to appropriately oil it to stop red rust, which is eating the blade, and convert it to black iron oxide, which can be stable As you're rubbing the oil in repeatedly over months with a soft cloth, any dirt, loose flakes and scale will likely come off, leaving you with a blade which is stable and clean, and can be preserved without further deterioration. There will still be pitting if the previous corrosion was serious, as it appears to have been in this case. That's the point where a togishi steps in, when you can afford it. The issue is both maintaining the shape, as discussed above, but also that repolishing to remove pitting is a very precise craft - it's easy to remove too much metal, or to end up with a slightly undulating surface. I have a blade in my possession which was treated with sandpaper (by someone in Japan!) - probably even a power sander. It was already a tired blade, and post sanding it's close to unrecoverable .

The battling attributions are interesting. Beyond my knowledge level to understand exactly what characteristics led to that difference.