Gerry

https://www.jauce.com/auction/q1196384750 It's the first time I've seen a kai gunto in wakizashi koshirae. The seller says that it's not a reproduction koshirae, but couldn't provide a photo of the tsuba and seppa. I was almost interested in bidding, but the plain sarute didn't sit well with me, and the blade itself is pretty worthless, though it ended up not going for a high price at only 241,000 yen.

I've never seen a katana with this type of mune/blade shape before. The seller is calling it "hobori-otoshi technique". https://www.jauce.com/auction/p1195435273

Honestly, I wasn't even aware that there's a taboo against saving for a sword. I just buy whatever excites me, whenever a piece like that comes along. Hobbies don't need to be taken so seriously, even if you're spending 6 figures on an item.

I have always had my EMS sword shipments go through the Chicago USPS customs location without any issues. Fingers crossed that your sword arrives soon after all the duties are paid.

Just checking, did you receive the sword via EMS/USPS, or a courier service like FedEx/UPS? I haven't received a tariff request using EMS/USPS.

Just checking, did you receive the sword via EMS/USPS, or a courier service like FedEx/UPS? I haven't received a tariff request using EMS/USPS.

Unfortunately, this is a Chinese reproduction sword. It's evident from the supposed mei.

Damn you'd have to be a crazy huge Himura Kenshin fan to dump 1.25M yen on this. I wonder how the smith compensates for the curve that appears during the yaki ire process? https://www.samuraishokai.jp/sword/25142.html

Just came across this odd looking nakago on a nagamichi katana. Does anyone have any idea why they would weld on an extra piece of nakago to original one? It's like the opposite of a suriage nakago.

I've never seen a gunto with a leather covered saya with fittings: https://www.jauce.com/auction/e1192352718?allow=1 It seems like the leather shrank over the year, and split from the kojiri at the tip.

He usually has those suspicious Hon'ami papers with the blades. Every once in a while he'll have legit looking NTHK papers. He sold a realistic looking signed fukuoka ichimonji blade last year with NTHK papers for only 1.3M yen.

And he has excellent feedback, but suspiciously, many of the feedback for his swords have the exact same text. Here are some pictures of the other swords he's recently sold... A masamune: https://auctions-yahoo-co-jp.translate.goog/jp/auction/m1190204643?_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=ja&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true A bizen nagamitsu: https://auctions-yahoo-co-jp.translate.goog/jp/auction/p1188449281?_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=ja&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true A sanjo munechika: https://auctions-yahoo-co-jp.translate.goog/jp/auction/t1187516715?_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=ja&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true

The swords being listed by this seller are rather perplexing. He's able to consistently list a large number of swords that are either "masamunes" or "sanjo munechikas", etc. The thing is, the swords are actually rather nice, with lots of koto looking activity in the hamon, and sometimes even having koto jitetsu. But many of the swords are extremely healthy with ubu nakago, long nadasa, thick kasane and prominent hamachi, so it leads me to believe that they're shinshinto copies. But they're really good quality shinshinto blades. And he's able to get some pretty good prices. Does anyone here think that these blades are indeed koto? Or if not, how the hell is he able to get his hands on so many high quality shinshinto blades? Here's his current live listing, a "Rai Kunimitsu": https://www.jauce.com/auction/f1191102591

It's crazy that he paid 1.4M yen for this sword, and with the Jauce fees on top of that. I wouldn't think he'll recoup his $11K back on eBay. It'll be interesting to see how much it goes for. He already relisted it this morning.

If there was ever a case of humble bragging... Just kidding! Sounds like an impressive collection though, and in Singapore too, where owning swords isn't very well looked upon by the government.