Hokke

Kanji was adopted from the chinese

I agree of course, I dont think ANY animal should be illegally hunted for any one thing, whether it be horn, tooth, tusk or skin. However, since elk have a much shorter lifespan with a much great population, it is far easier to find and harvest their ivory versus that of an elephant.

Ah yes, you may be correct. When I did my initial search I looked only to see if the lines were unique to elephants only, which of course they are not. However, thanks to you and making a deeper dive, looks like you are correct, elephants and mammoth only.

Had to look that one up, great question. Its seems yes, the lines are present in all naturally occurring ivory, however, the angle of the crisscross will vary. Learning something new indeed.

As I understand it, there is no way to distinguish elk tooth ivory from elephant ivory, they are the same composition. Not all elk teeth are ivory, only two per animal, but still a more sustainable source of the material for small things like netsuke.

they look small enough they could be made from elk teeth

If you contact Markus Sesko here on the forum he will send you the translation and have it laid out in both kanji and english for a VERY nominal fee.

My eyes arent the greatest, but I dont see anything there that says made in Japan. Looks simply like someone with some basic skills decided to try their hand at making a knife with hamon from modern steel....and succeeded

Seems logical that the angle would also allow for more clearance of the hitsu to make sure there was no rubbing on the tsuba

Looks like a thin film peeling off the blade. Doesn't looked chromed to me but more likely polished with compound and wheel. For $895, like others said.....hard pass is the right choice

Dreadful? Soooo.....youre a suguha guy? Not judging, just curious in your choice of adjective.

I agree, to me those lines look like ware, rather than just a colored wrinkle.....not a very good picture though

Exactly, new papers are only *new papers* until they aren’t. In 2075, the papers of today will be ancient and this conversation will remain ongoing.

I agree, if authenticity is the only parameter, new papers would be of little benefit in your case. However, if condition is a parameter, old papers have less value since they reflect condition at the time of evaluation only.

Precisely……because people will always prefer to keep a big name, regardless of origami age. Plenty of folks out there buying nihonto who just need *something* on paper, regardless of the color or age. The flip side of that is when someone has old papers with a lesser attribution, but good reason to believe that modern papers would attribute it higher. Those folks are the first in line for new papers.