klee

@Mushin Thank you for the great bits of insight ! Can I ask a question since you collect sue bizen as well ? Is it reasonable to assume a particular smith made a blade according to the time period in the meikan and also Markus Sesskos version ? I ask because I like to collect Kiyomitsu and I bought a piece at the end of last year dated Eisho 10. According to the Meikan and Sessko, there is only one Kiyomitsu at the time. Is associating the blade to a smith a reasonable assumption based on this ? The dealer says yes but im sure it s probably a lot of "dealer speak " Another thing that makes it difficult is that the blade is signed "Bishu Osafune Kiyomitsu Saku"and the meikan states that he did sign this way on some pieces instead of using his actual name. Im not sure if there are Katsumitus that fall in this category Thank you for your Insight -Kevin L

Thomas I love Sue Bizen blades ( esp Kiyomitsu ) and I 100% I agree with your view. I love the time period and the practical nature of their blades and I always enjoyed finding the few good ones out of the many rough samples. My most prized possession is a Tokubetsu Hozon kiyomitsu I purchased last year for roughly the same price as the ones above. It s just so surprising for me to see ones like above being priced in the same range as Tokubetsu Hozon Late Kamakura/Nanbokucho works. I am both happy to see that people find the appeal in them but also bummed at how high the prices are lol. One thing I can understand is the appeal of Ubu signed koto works. For some reason mumei suriage/O-suriage blade has started to bother me a bit lately. I think it s the idea of something being greatly altered and never being 100% certain of it s maker/school. Thank you for your input on the thread 🙏 -Kevin L

Good Afternoon I ve always enjoyed collecting Muromachi/Sue Bizen blades and I know they are usually associated with being less desirable compared to older koto blades. However, I ve noticed this year that Sue Bizen blades are being priced very high and I notice they tend to get bought fairly quickly. Here are 3 I found that are currently listed. https://nihontou.jp/choice03/toukenkobugu/katana/1722/00.html https://www.toukenkomachi.com/index_en_tachi&katana_A010125.html https://www.toukenkomachi.com/index_en_tachi&katana_A051124.html They have all been listed this year, all Hozon and I dont know why they are priced around 1 million yen. Am I missing something ??? Hozon Sue Bizen blades were nowhere this price range when I purchased my last Kiyomitsu last year. - Kevin L

Good Afternoon I was very curious to learn more about a blade on Aoi ( not that I can ever afford it ) to see if I could gain some knowledge. https://www.aoijapan.com/katanamumei-kanemitsu18th-nbthk-tokubetsu-juyo-token/ The blade is a Toku Juyo Kanemitsu. It s obviously stunning but the entirety of one side looks like mokume while the other side is entierly ko itame. And the hamon on either side looks very different to me on the oshigata. Both jigane and hamon look beautiful on either side but also very different. What could cause this. I assume one side isnt all core steel if it has Toku Juyo -Kevin L

Thank you for the insight Jussi 🙏🙏🙏 !

Good morning I was wondering if anyone had or if there s a source for a definitive time frame for the Hokke school. I ve always admired their blades whenever I see one so I was hoping to learn a little more. Their blades seem to be a less elegant Mihara but with a far more powerful and practical atmosphere which I prefer. I know that it is an offshoot of Mihara but there seems to be a lot of contradicting dates of origin and end. Many citing it was started in late kamakura by Sukekuni and some saying late nanbokucho/ early muromachi. Also have seen different suggestions for an end date with some citing pre 1500 and some saying they lasted all the way to Momoyama period. I ve seen Hokke with NBTHK certificates saying just " Hokke" and some specifically saying " Hokke-Nanbokucho " but im not sure if it s a way to separate muromachi and nanbokucho blade like they do with Ko Mihara and Mihara attributions Thank you for any info -Kevin L

Thank you Jacques for providing the term. Made it a whole lot easier find and look at other examples

Hello Im looking and considering this Mihara Masanobu ( end of nanbokucho ) and wanted to ask for some opinions on this bo hi . I ve never purchased blades with a bo hi so im not very fond of them but this ones seems awfully close to the kissaki border. My first thought was that the kissaki has been reshaped significantly in the past but the boshi looks very healthy and similar to other ko mihara blades i ve seen. Thank you -Kevin L

Good afternoon I was wondering if anyone had a copy available for purchase or anyone that sells them ? " Sword Smiths Of The Kongobyoe School & The Warrior Monks of Chikuzen" The JSSC seemingly has them but they have not responded when I inquired Thank you all in advance -Kevin L

Hi Kirill The sword and seller is in Japan. Unfortunately I cant quite find a good image of the boshi. There are images that i think shows mokume. And I agree the sugata is strange. It reminds me of kongo hyoe blade and a bit of naminohira. Looking forward to seeing it in hand

Good Evening Recently purchased a very cheap blade and was wondering if some of the forum members would take a guess what it may be. The pictures are from the seller and not super detailed. Mumei: 71 cm . Mokume ? Again, a very cheap blade with no papers so I have zero expectations. Just curiosity.

Unrelated question but are these horizontal micro scratches from handling/cleaning or just part of the polish. They are not visible unless direct light hits it a certain way. Was curious since it seems like absolutely everything and anything will scratch tamahagane lol

I was actually looking for Tegai/ Ko Mihara but ended up settling on this blade which is NBTHK attributed to Ko Kongo Hyoe

Kirill, this one is still with the dealer in Japan and waiting shipment. Would you like to take a guess

Great guess with late muromachi ! It s a Sue Bizen Kiyomitsu . From another angle

Good evening Had my recently aquired blade out and wanted to post a few pics and see what others see in the blade as far as hamon activity and hada. Seller deacription only says Ko Itame but all I see is mokume. I ve always had a difficult time picking out the 2 when not side by side. Apologies if the pic is less than ideal

Good Evening Happened to stumble on this while browsing and wanted to see if these kind of things ever pan out / worthwhile https://nihontou.jp/.../katana/1306/00.html cheap, Signed, sugata looks old, out of polish but looks like it could be really good once polished. Would be about 700,000 yen ish total with polish and shinsa submission. Im sure the dealer would have done these things themselves if they thought it was worth it but I was curious if these ever pan out or are they avoid at all cost type of things. Thanks in advance -Kevin. L

Welp registration opened today at 10am and Tsukada San tried to register at 1030 and the shinsa was already full . So there wont be shinsa after all and we agreed to put the registration money towards a light polish/cleaning by the togishi before shipping. Honestly kinda feels better in a way knowing I wont have to anguish for months waiting for results.

it s a very strange term indeed lol

Good Afternoon Adam Yes Tsukada San from Touken Komachi was very kind to offer the service and the cost would be very cheap and most of it would be refunded if it didnt not pass TH. It is unfortunate being in the US and not being able to see the blade in hand but she does seem fairly optimistic. The shinsa is in September and according to Tsukada San it will take 3 months for the results and to ship. It would be great to have TH for the blade since the mei and nengo can be attributed to a specific smith but then again it really wouldnt confirm anything more than what the Hozon did

Good Evening I wanted to ask your thoughts and opinions on submitting for NBTHK shinsa through the dealer. The NBTHK Hozon certificate is rather old from 1992 and I wasnt sure if it would be worth the time and cost to try for Tokubetsu Hozon. If the blade is worthy, I find it hard to believe that no one has tried to submit it since. Are these types of submissions done regularly with success ? I am in the process of purchasing the sword from Touken Komachi. As I am a fan of finding decent Sue Bizen blades, this one was very unique to me. Here is the link to the sword https://eirakudo.shop/018294 ( please note the sword is being purchased at Touken Komachi but I found the same sword at Eirakudo which has much better images ) What I found interesting is that it s a Kiyomitsu that is dated Eisho which I have personally never seen before ( vast majority being from Tenbun/Eiroku ) Based on the the meikan and Markus Sesko's list as well as all other sources , only one Kiyomitsu ( Nomura Gorozaemon ) was active in Eisho unlike the mid/end of 1500. Would it be worth trying for TH while its in Japan or just ship it as it is ? Thank you in advance for your thoughts and opinions Kind Regards -Kevin

This was as far as I could get lol

Thank you so much Thomas ! Much appreciated

Good afternoon has anyone experienced purchasing nihonto from Eirakudo ? just found them today and they had several pieces I might be very interested in. Thank you in advance and kind regards -Kevin Lee

Thank you so much for finding this ! Never thought id come across the same sword on a different site !