Gerry

It looks like an iaito hamon to me. Here's an example. https://tozandoshop.com/collections/iaito/products/tozando-full-custom-iaito

I've seen Aoi and Nipponto reference this gendai smith Hizen koku Yoshihiro as a mukansa smith, but I can't find him anywhere in the mukansa list of swordsmiths: https://sword-auction.com/en/product/25761/as24223-薙刀：肥前国吉廣無監査刀匠/ https://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords9/KT338937.htm Are both these websites confusing him with Seto Yoshihiro? This Hizen Yoshihiro has a rather childish way of carving his mei, whereas Seto Yoshihiro has a much more refined looking mei.

And here's a 2nd gen Masanori mei from a sword I own.

This sword currently at auction is very similar to your sword: https://www.jauce.com/auction/x1187215879

I've had a few koshirae made recently with Nosyudo in Gifu with great results. About 200K yen for a full katana koshirae with modern fittings. Koji-san is very fluent in English, and their current turnaround time per sword is about 6 months. https://nosyudo.jp/ info@nosyudo.jp

This sword has a rather pronounced reduction of the cutting edge...would a responsible togishi perform such a polish? https://www.jauce.com/auction/n1186309098

Is this a ChatGPT response?

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.

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.