eternal_newbie

Very nice! Good luck, and hopefully we can see some pictures regardless of the outcome

Good pick. Fuyuhiro is also a possibility.

Fair enough. Unfortunately, paying for a pristine gunome-itame (i.e. Soshu-den or Mino-den) shinsakuto with a sense of completeness will likely require a higher investment than you currently have, unless you get lucky on eBay or an estate sale. To give you an idea of the market, here are some of the closest I could find: A little under $1000 USD, but not gunome: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/53862-special-order-modern-tanto/ A little under $1000 USD, but the tip has been reshaped slightly: https://shop.nihontou.jp/products/detail/31853 $1250 USD: https://www.samuraishokai.jp/sword/23611.html And that's about all I could come up with on my own. Good luck, and happy hunting!

In general, yes. However at the price range you're looking at, assuming the blade is in good condition, any assembled koshirae you're getting won't be worth much more (and in many cases, worth less) than a decent quality shirasaya. If I may take another direction - why shinsakuto in particular? I ask because it is possible to find tanto in reasonable condition around the US$1000 mark from earlier periods.

If this topic interests you, @Hoshi and @Markus have an excellent Substack entry on the Ochiba ("Falling Leaf") Sanekage: https://nihontology.substack.com/p/the-falling-leaf

Absolutely, yes. And having two large monitors next to each other means I can view most blades at "actual size" (playing with the zoom until the on-screen measurements match the measurements in the description) across the two of them. "Actual size" in quotes because the proportions will usually be at least slightly warped due to the perspective of the scanner bed or camera lens.

Fun fact: apparently ABC (the American ABC) are now producing their own version of this!

It's possible within that price range, but you'll likely have to contend with condition issues (e.g. this tanto on Touken Komachi: https://www.samuraishokai.jp/sword/24615.html), unless someone on here is willing to give you a really good deal. However, at around the 250,000 JPY (~$1500 USD) range, your options on the open market increase considerably, such as this tanto on Aoi: https://www.aoijapan.com/tanto-inaba-toko-tenryuji-hidetoshi-heisei-gan-nen-10-gatsu-hioct-1989/ Or the tanto blades in the "Newly producing swords" section at Usagiya (you'll need to scroll down close to the end): http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/catalogue.html

Not just you - they look the same to me.

To avoid derailing the thread too much - this Den Go was previously discussed in another thread on this board:

Hmm... I was answering a topic somewhere else and remembered this anecdote by Ted Tenold: And now I'm wondering, because the dates certainly make it a possibility...

Reading this story reminded me of an anecdote shared by Ted Tenold many years ago on this very board: I remember a story relayed to me about a Japanese swordsmith that was a visiting guest here in the US. He has made a few small tanto while here and was signing them the morning after a long night of libation. As he was inscribing the mei, he made an abrupt stop from his pace. He grunted and shook his head obviously annoyed by his misplaced strike of a single stroke. Looking up at the observers he laughed lightly and said, "In two hundred years, this is gimei!", then went back about his business. https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/4357-signature-comparisons/#findComment-38825 Useful reminders that for all their artistry and consistency, the great artisans of old were still human and subject to the same pressures as us; a slip of the hand, a bit too much sake the night before, the infirmity of age and sickness.

It was probably easier to see a ghost than a Go in pre-war Japan. To see a Go you'd need to be nobility or the trusted servant of one; to see a ghost you just needed (mis)fortune and working eyeballs.

Great stuff, just one small thing - the measurements for the Nagayoshi are off: I assume this should be 70.9cm, 2.67cm and 3.15cm respectively?

Agreed with Brett... even when nihonto are labelled as such, any documentation or provenance are usually kept with the blade or passed along to the destination as well.

A couple more examples for your perusal: https://www.giuseppepiva.com/en/works/shinto-sunnobi-tanto-takahashi-naganobu-1846/ https://sanmei.com/contents/en-us/p2265_Wakizashi-signed-Takahashi-NAGANOBU-zou.html

Yep, Sukesada was considered synonymous with Bizen swordmaking and swords in general, like how kids in the 90s would just refer to their sneakers as "Nikes" regardless of the actual brand.

When it comes to Japanese swords there are several dimensions of evaluation: shape, steel, hamon, balance, sharpness etc. If you're talking strictly about cutting performance (i.e. tameshigiri or battlefield durability) that's not really something we can know without a cutting test of similar blades by this lineage of smiths. I would venture though that this blade was not made with iai/kata training in mind, as it seems quite solid (note the slightly raised shinogi in the habaki) and lacks a bo-hi to reduce the weight.

Is this a modern-made sword without a signature or is it just the photography that makes the tang look new? Because the appraisal criteria is drastically different for newly made blades compared to antique swords.

Keep in mind that "Bizen" and "Soshu" function like brand names which are more or less a known quantity. Think of all the counterfeit Casios and Seikos at the night markets in Asia. Why not put all your effort into making fake Rolexes? Because it's easier to fake a lower-end item from a well-known brand and sell it to someone at a price that seems cheap. The seller makes a decent profit off something that's less labor intensive and has fewer material costs, and the buyer gets to show off their brand name product to folks who won't know the difference at a price far below the market value of the real thing.

I also can't help but wonder if an AI/LLM was used in writing some of the descriptions. I've seen such shortcuts being used in other fields, no reason why museum curation should be any different.

I assumed as much, given the sword itself is listed as "mumei". I have occasionally also seen papers given with 銘不明 (mei fumei - signature illegible/unclear) for swords where some trace of a mei remains. I'm not sure whether the "plausibility" of the traces of remaining signature has any bearing on mumei vs. mei fumei.

Now that's a tsunagi!

Interestingly, another one was discussed here not too long ago:

He's been doing this for a while. Not just good photography, but also regularly seeks out notable exhibits and gets footage of the best blades in the room. One of those essential bookmarks for collectors who can't regularly make it to Japan to see these exhibits in person.