eternal_newbie

I don't know about cheap but I've been using this one without issue: https://japanesesword.net/collections/accessories/products/sword-oil-large100cc It looks like you can get a smaller bottle here: https://japanesesword.net/collections/accessories/products/sword-oil-small20cc If someone else has a source for better (or cheaper) stuff I'd be interested too.

In the future you might also consider putting up multiple listings (e.g. all menuki) in a single post; not only does it make it easier for people to view but some people may choose to buy multiples at once

This is the usual practice; kirikomi generally aren't seen as flaws but rather badges of honour. Check out the chunks missing out of the mune of the Ishida Masamune on Markus Sesko's article (scroll down for a picture you can enlarge): https://japaneseswordlegends.wordpress.com/2015/09/30/ishida-mitsunari-and-two-masamune-less/

They made bags out of all sorts of fabrics that were no longer fit for their original use. Obi, kimono, yukata, banners... if it was cloth and sturdy enough, people would find a way to reuse it.

There's something comforting, almost meditative, about observing master artisans doing their work.

By all means, I wasn't sure if regular members could do that or if it had to be an admin. I'll be sure to remember next time.

Two of my favourite Nihonto texts are the MEIHIN KATANAEZU SHUSEI and the SOSHU DEN MEISAKU SHU - both extra-large books with large, glossy photographs of masterwork blades and filled with expert commentary. It always bothered me that there's easily found English indexes available for the former, but not the latter, so I spent a bit of my free time skimming all the notes I've been collecting over the years of using the Soshu Den Meisaku Shu as a reference and put one together. It's probably not as vital now as it would have been when I first bought the book all those years ago (thanks to the rise of things like Google Lens) but I hope someone finds it useful. If anyone notices any errors or omissions, please let me know either in here or via private message. Also, at some point I may revisit it and add more information such as blade length, smith rating and/or historical provenance. Soshu Den Meisaku-Shu - English Index.pdf

From a historical and artistic perspective, certainly. From a monetary perspective, it is a massive upgrade (or downgrade, previously, to Norishige if you prefer to see it that way).

Yep, I also use a safe (a repurposed gun safe in this case). Keeps my swords safe and inquisitive visitors, and their kids, safe.

If you want some display eye candy/inspiration, check these guys out: https://en.katana-case-shi.com/photo Definitely not for newbies as these displays can be more expensive than most low to mid-range blades, but you can get an idea of how the customers at the top end go about displaying their treasures.

This being a consignment, my guess is that the consignor is insisting on the price and hoping some wealthy Westerner with money to burn will snag it mainly for the privilege of being able to show off a recently papered Masamune, and Aoi Art is simply one of the best sites for selling to such a market. As many younger/newer collectors will attest, it is typically one of the first dealers one encounters online and uses to learn the ropes, simply due to their constant rate of listing. And to add to that, Masamune is one of the very few smiths who is famed in the West *outside* Nihonto circles due to the presence of his swords in video games, manga and anime. Edit: I say "westerner" but I would be remiss in not mentioning the Chinese and Singaporean markets which also have more than their fair share of whales with deep pockets.

In its current state? Not as a Masamune (remember that it has to be compared to other examples of high level Soshu work and be considered in the upper range, not just in quality but in state of preservation). Not unless there's a particularly special historical significance to this particular sword, which doesn't seem to be the case or it would surely have been documented in the listing to help with the sale. It could potentially pass as a really good example of a lesser smith, in which case the listing price would lose a couple of zeroes, but I suspect the fallout of such a move wouldn't be worth the hassle for the current Juyo committee (or the person trying to sell it at its current price). Much easier for all parties involved to just say "it's old, it's worn, this is as good as it gets for what it is, take it or leave it".

You will also find that meeting people in person will provide more data on the market that you might not be able to access on the internet, as not all of them will be very online (especially in a field such as this which tends to be dominated by older eccentrics).

I think this is one of those cases where there are enough features of Masamune (relatively heavy ji-nie and wild hamon activity, even after being polished down to a toothpick, and kinsuji/inazuma so thick they look like black rivers flowing through the hamon) that they were willing to honor the existing Honami attribution with a "den". Given that the attribution was personalised for the previous owner and references an old koshirae, there was probably some provenance and/or politics involved in the original attribution that may have made a "Masamune" judgement more likely. Were it to go to Juyo there would be more opportunity for them to add one of the usual qualifiers like "this is certainly the work of a high level Soshu smith" or "theoretically a Masamune attribution is valid" but given the blade's condition compared to other Masamune-den pieces there's a good chance it won't get that far.

It was almost 10 years ago! Check those timestamps, folks

And to add to Colin's points above... we, the collectors outside of Japan, have no leverage to effect any real changes and would likely wind up on several blacklists if we tried. Work with the world you've got, not the world you'd like.

Not for a while yet, though. Refer to this topic I posted recently, in which AI appears to have hallucinated an entire upper-grade line of Soshu smiths

Yes, that is very much the Japanese way. Word of mouth, privately brokered trades, favoured dealers and clients. The best blades in Japan will change hands, but never on the open market.

Private sales being the key here. My understanding is that the big Japanese collectors have been consolidating, meaning that more and more of the top quality swords end up in the murky private dealership network in Japan; consequently the blades up for auction in the West are increasingly the leftover swords that weren't good enough to be snagged by a big fish. This is especially true as we reach a point where the number of salvageable WW2 trophies left outside Japan is decreasing rapidly. As recently as the early 2020s the late Darcy Brockbank was freely talking about sword deals "behind the scenes" in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. There's also the fact that Japanese collectors seem willing, on average, to spend more than Western collectors - he cites a ko-Bizen Tomonari he was unable to sell in Europe and the States, only for a Japanese collector to snap it up for twice what the Western list price had been.

I figured that might be the case, just wanted a second (human) opinion to be certain. Hallucinating an entire Soshu grandmaster and his inheritors out of thin air does sound like something ChatGPT would do.

I was browsing through some old blog posts on the Tozando website's blog, and found this article on the Soshu-den: https://japanesesword.net/blogs/news/the-soshu-den-exploring-the-pinnacle-of-Japanese-swordsmithing Strangely, the article mentions on several occasions a legendary and historically significant Soshu smith - in fact a whole line of them - named "Sadashige", ranking him alongside Shintogo Kunimitsu, Masamune and Norishige. Is this a translation issue where AI (or human error) accidentally substituted "Sadashige" for "Sa" or "Nobukuni"? Or is there a whole chapter of Soshu-den that I've somehow missed in my years of study?

I can vouch for Grey, he's a consummate professional and over the years has helped many folks here with their valuable antiques, myself included.

By quality, I mean "properties", not that it's necessarily better or worse. While I don't have extensive experience with shinsakuto, the steel used by the Akamatsu Taro smiths has a somewhat darker color compared to the blades typically produced using NBTHK-supplied tamahagane. It also seems to produce chikei and kinsuji/sunagashi somewhat more readily, which I imagine would be critical for a group that prides itself on Kiyomaro-utsushi (although admittedly this could also be due to technique, or a combination of both). The jigane can be observed in the close-up photos at these listings: https://www.toukenkomachi.com/index_en_tachi&katana_A090823.html https://world-seiyudo.com/product/ka-050420/ https://www.aoijapan.net/katana-higo-koku-yatsushiro-ju-akamatsu-taro-kanemitsu-saku/ https://world-seiyudo.com/product/ska-010125/ https://katanahanbai.com/en/katana/katana-higonokuni-akamatsutaro-kanehiro/ There are also some great pictures and more information about them on this listing by a fellow NMB member: Scroll down past the first post for more detailed photos and discussions. Disclaimer: I have a shinsakuto made by Akamatsu Taro Kanemitsu (Kimura Mitsuhiro)

That said, some measure of experimentation/research is allowed since there's nothing stopping you from making your own tamahagane, as the Akamatsu Taro clan of smiths do (and their steel does indeed have a different quality to that of swords forged using the NBTHK's tamahagane).

Poor Tosa Yoshimitsu and Mihara Masamune... I wonder how many well-meaning folks have dismissed their work or erased their signatures from history thinking "yeah, there's no way this is a high-level Awataguchi/Soshu blade"