eternal_newbie

Depending on what it's made of, the non-Japanese shirasaya might be a better fit for the climate and temperature you're in. Otherwise, glad to see it found its way back to you in better condition than before. I often try to spot blades I've owned before to see how they've done since passing them on; so far no Juyos but I've seen a couple move from Hozon/unpapered to Tokubetsu Hozon.

I believe it's 信四郎 Nobushirō. Shinshirō typically uses a different kanji (進 or 慎) as the first character.

Almost certainly a forgery or another smith that signed Munechika. There were many unremarkable smiths who were simply never recorded in the history books, just like the artist who made that painting of a fruit basket on your auntie's wall

Often to fit the blade to a pre-made / salvaged koshirae where the holes in the tsuka were in a different position

Embarrassing AI fail here - a blog written with AI help invents an entirely new line of Soshu master smiths:

To prevent rust from advancing, give the blade a good wipe with a microfibre cloth and isopropyl alcohol (you can get both from your nearest hardware store) and apply a very light coat of mineral oil: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/faq/question/3-how-to-oil-and-maintain-nihonto/ While you're doing that, you can take some photos of the bare blade for identification by the forum - at minimum you'll want the following: Closeup of the right side of the blade tip Closeup of the left side of the blade tip Overall shot of the right side of the entire blade Overall shot of the left side of the entire blade Closeup of the right side of the tang Closup of the left side of the tang

The description says the hamon has a bright and clear nioiguchi in ko-nie, yes.

Old thread, but it looks like one of the Shizu from the notoriously selective Juyo Session 70 has just popped up on Eirakudo, where it's described as a strong candidate for Tokubetsu Juyo: https://eirakudo.shop/196585

Here: https://markussesko.com/services-fees/

Agreed, not only is the eBook easy to search through, but it's much easier to carry around to sword shows and meetings on a laptop, tablet or eReader than it is to lug around all 3 hard copies!

No, that's a book with general information about Japanese swords. You want "Swordsmiths of Japan". It is an eBook at $89.90, yes - but the printed versions are even more expensive as it's large enough to be split into 3 volumes (over 1400 pages in total): https://www.lulu.com/shop/markus-sesko/swordsmiths-of-Japan-aki-kuni-intl/hardcover/product-1kmvpddw.html?page=1&pageSize=4 https://www.lulu.com/shop/markus-sesko/swordsmiths-of-Japan-kura-sane-intl/hardcover/product-1z4mprzm.html?page=1&pageSize=4 https://www.lulu.com/shop/markus-sesko/swordsmiths-of-Japan-sato-zen-intl/hardcover/product-19k5g8wv.html?page=1&pageSize=4

It's not so much that he's obscure or lesser, more that a) his work is much rarer than Kunimitsu and Kunitoshi, and b) as a hybrid style (Yamashiro Rai with heavy Soshu flavor) he doesn't really fit the template of the "archetype" or "exemplar" of the Rai school, so when talking about good examples of Rai work people tend to refer to Kunimitsu or Kunitoshi (who hew more to the classical Rai tradition). Incidentally, Dmitri Pechalov has a good writeup on Kunitsugu (as well as the other Jittetsu) at his website: https://nihonto-museum.com/blog/rai-kunitsugu and Darcy's old website has another writeup, with a bit more investigation into Juyo statistics compared to the other Rai big names: https://web.archive.org/web/20211025161444/https://yuhindo.com/rai-kunitsugu-katana/

Tanobe-sensei is somewhat of an outlier compared to historical appraisers in that his sayagaki, when he approves of the blade or finds it interesting in some way, have essentially a setsumei with some thoughts that almost count as a classification level on their own (see past arguments over what "chin chin, cho cho" means compared to swords that don't have it); Kunzan and Kanzan tended to be much more of an attribution/authentication than a commentary. So in a sense there's a value-add in getting a sayagaki done by him because in addition to being a second opinion, often you'll find insights in there that aren't in the Juyo setsumei, or even (if you're lucky) an implication that the NBTHK's attribution was a bit too conservative.

Oftentimes they aren't a fan of it either but to a certain extent it's a matter of public expectation: [Yukimitsu, Norishige and Masamune:] these three master swordsmiths rank almost equally in terms of historical placement, status, and background nourishing them, and the three different attributions are actually pointing to the identical conclusion under the different nominations. Frankly, it would be most desirable that conclusions such as “either Yukimitsu, Masamune, or Norishige” could be accepted; but in this world such an indecisive judgment would never gain the public acceptance and satisfaction. Thus, the naming of an exclusive maker was forced to meet the public expectation, which is almost asking for the impossible. — Sato Kanzan

I agree, there are some nie activities in the kissaki but I would say they are part of the jigane rather than being an ichimai boshi. You'll want to get as many angles as possible on the kissaki to try to figure out where the actual habuchi runs; I've even seen some cases where there isn't one and the polisher burnished a fake boshi "to preserve the blade's dignity" (although it sounds like you got this restored yourself, in which case I would have expected the restorer to let you know about this before charging you). If you're really unsure, you can contact the person who did the restoration; if they still remember working on it they should be able to tell you exactly.

Nagare-hada near the hamon and in the shinogi-ji combined with the presence of ara-nie and sunagashi, and what looks like a somewhat raised shinogi, suggests Yamato influence. This could point you in the direction of Naoe Shizu and early Mino in general, which tended to be much closer to Soshu than what we now recognize as the classic Mino style. The weird spot in the last picture could be a fukura, possibly patched up with umegane, or it could just be a blob of tobiyaki floating above the habuchi (with the hadori making it look like it's inside the hamon when it's really just above it).

PM sent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryukyuan_lacquerware It's more a style, prevalent in the Ryukyu islands, than a specific technique. The technique for inlaying itself is called raden (as Charlie pointed out) and the material, mother-of-pearl, is called aogai.

One thing to be careful of is that some blades were retrofitted into shirasaya with sayagaki for another blade.

Assuming there's no fatal flaws and the price was decent, there's far worse you could do for a first sword. Wishing you luck!

Meirin Sangyo is one of the rare sites that allows you to sort by nagasa (the second blue filter from the left). Touken Komachi shows the nagasa of the swords on their main listing page (you're looking for katanas with as close to 2 shaku 0 sun 0 bu 0 rin as possible). The Samurai Museum online shop also has a few shorter length katanas: https://www.samuraimuseum.jp/shop/product/antique-Japanese-sword-katana-signed-by-minamoto-yasumichinbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-certificate/ https://www.samuraimuseum.jp/shop/product/antique-Japanese-sword-katana-signed-by-awataguchi-omi-no-kami-tadatsunanbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-certificate-2/

Good advice, especially if you think you might someday trade the blade out for another one, or if you have multiple blades but only display one at a time.

琉球漆器 - Ryukyu lacquer 杣田 - Somada, a school that was particularly well-known for their mother-of-pearl inlay techniques on lacquerware

皆焼き, mina-yaki - lit. "fired (i.e. hardened) all over" It's generally another way of saying hitatsura, or occasionally to describe a blade that has spots of hardening all over the surface but not enough to be considered fully hitatsura. Examples: https://www.nipponto.co.jp/swords4/WK327917.htm https://www.seiyudo.com/wa-021111.htm

If you're just getting usable koshirae for a shinsakuto / iai sword, you could probably get it cheaper (100-200k yen) going with one of the outfits in Gifu, e.g. Tozando as they'd basically just be using the generic iaito parts and labor with a premium for adapting it to your blade instead of the standard sizes of iaito casts. But you'd definitely want something more premium for a beloved antique blade.