Gerry

24 minutes ago, Rawa said:

$2,500 in 2000 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $4,642.84 today, an increase of $2,142.84 over 25 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 2.51% per year between 2000 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 85.71%. 

Is this a ChatGPT response?

18 hours ago, rebcannonshooter said:

I too am a fan of Yasukunito! And I also own several, including a Yasu-Mitsu. The price of $6300 was about what I expected it to go for. Years ago they were way under valued, but today as Gerry noted, they're binging high dollars.

Tom 

I remember back in the 2000s when Yasukuni-to were not uncommon on eBay, and were going for around $2,500 each.

Prices of Yasukuni-to seem to be holding up pretty well. $6,300 for a Yasumitsu that's not particularly long.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/356842593695

It's way too much work to get a new kai gunto koshirae made for a Kanefusa blade. You're looking at at least 6 months of turn around time, and probably $3000 after everything is done. It would be much easier jus to buy a kai gunto intact with koshirae.

On 4/30/2025 at 4:27 AM, Promo said:

Thanks for sharing these pictures!

 

Looking through the catalogues of the exhibition it was my understanding that there were two "sessions" of this exhibit, the first lasting from 8th March to 13th April, then 15th April to 11th May -> https://www.touken.or.jp/english/#exhibition

 

What I didn't fully gather, item #52 from that 1st session/first catalogue was described as Kiyomaro Daisho too, but they didn't list the signatures separately for the Wakizashi and the Katana, as they did with the Daisho that you have pictured above (item #45)?

I didn't attend the first part of this exhibition, so I didn't see this other Kiyomaro daisho.

The HTS code for antiques over 100 years is 9706. You don't need to pay US custom duties if you use this code.

It really was an quite an impressive exhibition, and I found the displays of Masahide's instruction books of how to forge swords particularly interesting. His calligraphy style was very elegant and well written.

As requested!

The Naotane kagarasumaru daisho weas so bad-ass that they were displayed even with sub-par polishes...

I just visited the NBTHK museum exhibit showcasing works from Kiyomaro, Naotane, and Suishinshi Masahide.

There were 2 daisho from Suishinshi Masahide that were sublime, and an exquisite kogarasumaru daisho from Naotane. Pictures below...

This one on Yahoo Japan seems like a water quenched hand forged example:

https://www.jauce.com/auction/o1180603965

Nice looking blade, and it looks like a wakizashi, since the torokusho states the cutting edge being 5?.8cm. The mounts are very nice, especially that area of the ray skin that looks like a chrysanthemum flower. This is probably a sword that came from a collector in Japan, judging from the attached torokusho.

BTW, the tang is ubu, not osuriage.

Here's horimono that you don't see everyday...a katakiriha wakizashi with some sort of plant motif horimono the hirazukuri omote side.

https://www.jauce.com/auction/h1180089848?allow=1

https://www.jauce.com/auction/h1178916285

Seems like gunto can be quite popular even in Japan, given the final selling price of 665K yen for this Yoshichika. I thought the frayed tsukamaki might turn some buyers off, but I guess the colonel's tassel and double ashi saya made up for it.

https://www.jauce.com/auction/m1176613035

Here's another oddity on Yahoo Japan, a very early (1931) shobu zukuri katana by Endo Mitsuoki, when he was probably still honing his skills as a self taught swordmith..

The torokusho is from Showa 37, so it's probably too early to be a gimei Mitsuoki blade.

It looks pretty rough, with a big ware on the mune, and the mei oddly has Kunimune inscribed on it too, so not sure if Mitsuoki was going for a copy of a Kunimune shobu zukuri katana.

It ultimately went for a steal.

This listing for a koto nagamaki was quite interesting.

https://www.jauce.com/auction/b1177089370

It looks like a beefy shobu zukuri ubu blade, with a very thin suguha hamon. The jigane seems a little odd with patches of what looks like core steel, but when I inquired with the seller about the weight of the blade only, he said it was 1,312g, which is pretty heavy.

It didn't go for too high of a price eventually.

It's pretty easy signing up for Jauce.

It ultimately went for 3.6M yen...I guess some people must really like long swords.

Ha ha...ah, seeing the feedback left on the other thread, I'm not the only one seeing red flags for this auction.

https://www.jauce.com/auction/h1174332059

This odachi is getting a fair amount of bids. Swords of this length don't show up too often on Yahoo Japan, but the nakago oxidation and pitting looks a little off to me. What do you all think?

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses, and it's very reassuring that I'm not the only person buying swords purely based on (not wanting to sound like Marie Kondo) sparking joy, ha ha.

This has always been a question I ask myself especially when I'm looking at gendai blades that I really like.

It's always a conundrum to me when I purchase non-papered gendai blades, because there's a very likely chance that the price will go down when I try to sell them, even for non-papered Mukansa level blades.

Oh, I didn't realize that there was a habaki thread, and I'll make sure to post it there too.

The mantis is such a recurring motif in tosogu.