eternal_newbie

A guide to spotting fakes, with helpful visual examples: https://www.jssus.org/nkp/fake_japanese_swords.html

Klee's on the money with that advice. For Muromachi and $4.5k I'd want a longer and/or signed blade. Seems like most of that price is going into the fittings and the "fancy sheath", as you put it. Which is probably fine if that's your area of interest, but it sounds like the blade itself is more important to you, in which case you can probably find something better for the same money.

For me personally, the only issue I've observed is that the site seems to become unresponsive around 12:30am my time (GMT +8:00). This lasts anywhere from 5 minutes to half an hour. I assume it's the server doing some sort of maintenance, and since it's consistent I don't really mind.

This link appears to either be deleted or incorrect, it just redirects to the imgur homepage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_rand (converter here: https://www.x-rates.com/table/?from=ZAR)

Incidentally, Peter Dekker has a Juyo Iga no Kami Kinmichi (first gen) wakizashi on his site with a good writeup on the smith: https://www.mandarinmansion.com/item/juyo-iga-no-kami-kinmichi-wakizashi

That's what the NBTHK certificates say, yes. TokuJu (Aoi Art) is by the shodai, and TokuHo (Eirakudo) is by the nidai. Momoyama period: 1573 - 1615 (late 16th century to early 17th century) Kan'ei period: 1624 - 1643 Enpo period: 1673 - 1681 Neither of the generations appear to be, at least anywhere that I can see.

Yep, context is key - either it's signed tachi-mei, or it's ubu and from a period in time when blades of that shape and size would have been used as a tachi (i.e. worn edge down and likely used from horseback). Basically if the most recent usage it saw was likely as a katana (due to being shortened by a more recent owner, being too short to begin with, or being from the middle Muromachi period onwards) then it'll be classified as one. Exceptions exist, naturally, but there's usually extenuating circumstances such as well-known documentation or oral tradition about the blade's usage, or a particularly famous accompanying tachi koshirae.

I remember Darcy Brockbank mentioning that there's a few pairings between the Soshu grandmasters and one smith from the generation below them who would often reproduce their style of work. Masamune and Shizu Kaneuji: wild and bright hamon, intense and varied hataraki and ji-nie as far as the eye can see (Shizu is generally considered to be the closest to Masamune in style, even if Go is closer in skill) Yukimitsu and Sadamune: finer, Awataguchi-like jigane, more sedate hamon, in a sense themselves shadowing Shintogo's style but with more experimentation and flair Norishige and Go*: Influenced by their Etchu backgrounds and devoted to replicating ko-Hoki * Go unfortunately died young and so was not around to learn from the later works of Norishige where he had perfected his matsukawa-hada. Nevertheless there are several later Norishige works that show distinctly Go-like traits; it's possible the influence may have gone both ways since they were close enough that, according to tradition, Norishige adopted and taught Go's son Tametsugu after Go's untimely passing. Lewis's comment about Sanekage sometimes being elevated to Go hints at the commonalities between Go and Norishige, since Sanekage is typically used as a "not quite a Norishige" attribution by the NBTHK.

Hope I'm not stepping on your toes or anything, but using the info you gave (the attribution and rough price range of the Juyo blade) I was able to track down the listings for the three blades in case anyone else wanted to see more details/other photographs:

Having read Hoshi's excellent answer, I thought I might expand a bit more on my thought processes too:

I'll bite...

In a way it's almost nostalgic, I haven't seen an engraved hamon since the very early days of Chinese fakes on eBay

Google Lens translation on a phone works reasonably well for Japanese labels. Some of the literal transitions can sound like gibberish but with commonsense mental replacements (e.g. "nie" for "boiling", "kinsuji" for "gold lines", "Nanbokucho" for "Northern and southern courts") the general gist can be gleaned.

Seems fine to me now, but I have noticed it a couple of times on newly listed pieces that then look crisp a few hours later. Maybe it's a bandwidth thing, or they accidentally uploaded thumbnails/placeholders and then rectified it later.

公益社団法人 (Public Interest Incorporated Association) So the full translation is: 段位記 Dan-rank record 公益社団法人日本空手協会 The Japan Karate Association (a Public Interest Incorporated Association) JKA English website: https://www.jka.or.jp/en/ More information on Public Interest Incorporated Associations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Public_Interest_Incorporated_Associations_(Japan)

平安住雲仙子貞秀作 Heian-jū Unzenshi Sadahide saku 文久三年八月日吉 Bunkyū san-nen hachigatsu (August 1863) Hiyoshi [cut off at this point]

That wasn't my opinion, just explaining what "20c Seki" meant. All I can say is you have a genuine nihonto in koshirae which at least doesn't seem to have any major flaws, so it's worth at least what you paid for it.

For that price I think you did pretty well unless there's a fatal flaw somewhere that we can't see.

Made in Seki in the 20th century (probably the first half)

It's referring to the claying techniques that result in steel that is うるおい (uruoi, also written 潤い) - it looks wet, or moist, due to the distribution of the ji-nie and hada catching the light and mimicking beads of water on a wet surface. It was, and is, a highly sought-after feature and kantei point for many high-class makers in Koto blades, and naturally something that more modern smiths worked hard to recreate.

I may be mistaken but I think the issue is their photography (or post-processing) rather than the polish. You can observe the same weird artifacting in some of the closeup photos of the Norishige they have listed, especially the second-to-last one: https://katanahanbai.com/en/katana/katana-norishige/

Small caveat - "hard steel" (and "soft steel") has a specific meaning for togishi. Whether this meaning is the same as the ones dealers and appraisers use is another matter.

Note the difference between mekugi, the wooden pin/dowel (usually smoked bamboo) that holds the blade in place, and menuki, the metal ornaments on the tsuka (brass in this case but often copper, shakudo or even gold). The mekugi is always what holds the sword and tsuka together; the menuki are typically for adornment only, except in rare cases.

Worthy candidate for the Sold Archive