eternal_newbie

Keep in mind that zaimei, ubu (signed, uncut) Kamakura and Nanbokucho blades are considered unicorns, the best of the best - and they will be priced accordingly, even from less-prestigious schools. Here are some examples currently for sale: https://eirakudo.shop/232837 https://eirakudo.shop/409863 https://www.aoijapan.com/tachimorihiro22nd-nbthk-juyo-token/ If those prices don't scare you, there are likely to be some dealers active here who will have stuff around that level or better.

100% fake, most production Chinese blades have a better shaped tang than that. The metal around the hole being broken is another giant red flag for both safety and quality. I need to stress here that the AI is not analyzing the blade in the photos you are providing it with; it is analyzing the questions you are asking and providing you an answer it estimates you will like. In particular, it is blatantly lying about: Kissaki correctly shaped, not reshaped or clipped (the kissaki is not at all correctly shaped) Brass sukashi tsuba, Kyoto kinko-influenced aesthetic (the tsuba is a standard military style, with bits cut out, and waaayyy thicker than anything you'd find in kinko) Blackened samegawa showing age-related shrinkage (the samegawa is white and is not shrunken but panelled) The other inaccuracies at least could be forgiven in a real person who doesn't know enough to discern between good and bad quality, but those things above are straight up wrong, "don't believe your lying eyes"-style lies. Regarding the question of age - fakes such as these were commonplace when I first started collecting 20 years ago, and at that time plenty had already been around for 20 years. That's more than enough time to collect wear and tear, especially if used by a backyard warrior to cut bottles or branches over the years. That said... for 100 Aussie dollars, you at least didn't get hugely ripped off, so I agree with you on that part; it's a reasonable enough price to pay for something to put on display or liven up a dull corner of a room.

I disagree entirely with that AI assessment, but as you're satisfied with the blade either way I won't belabor the point. To your question about removing the tsuka, I wonder if the release button for the latch (which I assume this is) itself also functions as a mekugi somehow: However I agree with Doug that it may not be worth the risk of damage. The one useful bit of info the AI generated is that the peg may be concealed, likely under the panels of rayskin, in which case it's likely to be a screw of some kind (which, again, you wouldn't see in a Japanese sword, which are designed to be easily dismantled for maintenance).

I also believe it to be a reproduction, likely Chinese. Aside from the lack of visible mekugi (which suggests a rat-tail tang or a glued tang, neither of which are generally found in authentic Japanese swords), the grain of the blade looks far too unrefined, the kissaki shape is all wrong, and while it could be the lighting or photography, the shinogi (ridge-line in the middle of the sword) looks uneven and poorly defined. https://www.jssus.org/nkp/fake_japanese_swords.html

In keeping with your discussion of counter-theses: there is of course a school of thought that believes Go did not actually die young, and that this was essentially a marketing ploy invented by later collectors to make his blades seem even more rare and mysterious. The template of the meteoric artist, a generational talent tragically cut short, is well-known and well-worn and in the swordsmithing world repeats itself centuries later in Kiyomaro, whose works are (along with Masamune, Go and Kotetsu) some of the consistently highest-selling and sought-after blades on the market.

Nice pics @Lewis B, always good to see some quality (and interesting) Yamato work. Also worth considering that another reason we see the similarities between these earlier schools and Soshu is that it wasn't just the Soshu luminaries who tried to reproduce the old Ko-Hoki masterpieces, which were also known for their lively hataraki and extant examples of ichimai boshi. We know that Masamune, in addition to his own inimitable style, also produced works that were very obviously inspired by Ko-Hoki; it's possible that this may be one of the things that drew Go and Norishige to Kamakura, but it may even be the case that they they were the ones who introduced these techniques and appreciation of Ko-Hoki to Masamune (or at least fanned the flames of his desire to do so).

If it has been obscured by scratches or rust, a new polish will most likely be able to restore it. If it is gone due to fire damage, then yes, the blade must be re-hardened (saiha) to restore a nioiguchi. If it is gone due to tiredness then the blade is beyond recovery - too much material has been lost to even attempt re-hardening it. You can see an example of this re-hardening process on the Usagiya website: http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/sword6.html

Excellent writeup, to which I can only add that there is a compelling case to be made for Go's father or original master being a Senjuin smith named Yoshihiro. You can find some discussion about this, and other speculation regarding Go's Yamato heritage, here:

However you managed to type the first post of this thread, use that method from now on if possible; it seems to be formatted correctly and easily read, unlike the follow-up posts which have a very large font that doesn't even fit a sentence on my widescreen desktop monitors.

As far as the hamon is concerned, it's the nioiguchi that's most affected by tiredness. It can fade in places or be completely gone if the blade is tired enough (this looks like picture 4 in your diagram, but without the scratches - it's just that the hamon becomes weaker or vanishes in places). That said, it's also dependent on the school and the smith; some smiths have a subdued or hazy nioiguchi as a kantei point, while others are expected to have a nioiguchi so clear and bright you can practically see it from across the roo The differences between 1, 2 and 3 can be the result of polishing, but they can also be the result of the makeup of steel and activities within the hamon (some will have an almost machine-made straightness and absolutely no variation in steel colour or activity; others will have all sorts of different steel, nie and nioi colours as the various steels interact and form activities).

I'll have to remember to try some next time I'm in the area!

"hidden christian themes" *design straight from the stained glass windows of a church or cathedral*

It is indeed the high-water mark for Soshu blades, and perhaps Nihonto in general, outside Japan. Only Dr. Honma's Soshu-den Meisaku Shu exceeds it, and to my knowledge there is no translation of it available other than my very basic English index. In fact, several of the sources cited in Soshu Masterpieces are the same ones that Dr. Honma pulls from in his book, and while the photographs in the Meisaku Shu are larger, I believe the photography in Mr. Pechalov's book is of a better quality and shows the blades in more detail and varied angles than Dr. Honma's more typical museum catalog style. I fervently hope that more catalogs of important nihonto take some cues from this work and the various photography we see online from other enthusiasts. I also own a copy and naturally, it comes highly recommended from me as well. Mr. Pechalov is also generous enough to have published most of the material and photography (albeit at a somewhat lower resolution to make it faster to navigate through) on his website (https://www.nihonto-museum.com/) for those who are unable to find, or afford, a copy of this most excellent publication.

Also interesting is that the smith that pretty much everyone agrees was almost certainly taught directly by Masamune and inherited his style - Soshu Sadamune - is notably omitted from all of the various sources listing the Juttetsu. Which could be seen as evidence in favour of your "memory aid" theory, in that nobody needs to be reminded that Masamune's heir would also be working in Masamune's style of Soshu-den.

Norishige as well, although the general consensus now is he was more of a junior contemporary to Masamune rather than an apprentice.

@Bugyotsuji The NBSK are an organization that focuses on promoting modern swordsmithing, and offer certifications for newly-made blades that would otherwise not qualify for NBTHK documentation (both as a way of boosting visibility for the smiths under their umbrella, and helping to combat gimei targeting contemporary smiths). They also run an annual competition similar to the NBTHK's competition, and many smiths choose to enter both of them. https://nbsk-jp.org/english/ Here are the results of last year's competition: https://nbsk-jp.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/15th_kekka_e_02.pdf

To be more precise, there are several theories about the Masamune Juttetsu, none of which can be definitively proven or rebutted with the knowledge we currently have: They were all direct students of Masamune, and learned from him in Kamakura (common belief) They were all direct students of Masamune, who taught them outside Kamakura (Yamanaka's theory that you cited) Many of them had no direct contact with Masamune, but instead sent representative smiths to Kamakura to bring back his techniques (e.g. Dr. Honma's research led him to believe that Chogi and Kanemitsu learned Soshu-den techniques from their older brother/senior Nagashige, and likely Hasebe Kunishige did something similar) Many of them were not taught the Soshu-den techniques at all, but came up with good approximations by looking at Soshu-den swords that were in vogue at the time (this is generally thought to be the case for Sekishu Naotsuna, and Rai Kunitsugu's Soshu-influenced style has been found in at least a handful of works by his predecessors, suggesting he learned it from them rather than from Masamune) Disciple in the latter two cases can be considered more of a "follower" or "admirer" than an actual student; whatever their lineage, they were among the greatest smiths of the time who took inspiration from Masamune and showed it in their work. You can think of Masamune Juttetsu as describing artists who worked within a specific emerging movement (Soshu-dominated Nanbokucho works), roughly analogous to painting terms like Impressionists, Cubists and Dadaists. There is also, of course, the theory that Masamune himself did not exist and is merely a marketing concept/brand name invented either contemporaneously or by later collectors and appraisers (the Hon'ami and the Tokugawas are the two most commonly accused of such), and therefore none of the Juttetsu could have learned from "him".

There's a common saying in martial arts about this - you start with a white belt, get a black belt, as you advance further the black belt becomes white again from age and the dye being worn out, and as you reach mastery it becomes black again with all the dirt and wear and tear.

As I can't see any mekugi/mekugi-ana in the pictures, I expect the nakago to be a rat-tail tang.

Yep, unfortunately it is a fake sword, likely made in China. Here is a handy guide to telling the difference: https://www.jssus.org/nkp/fake_japanese_swords.html I would recommend against attempting to use it to cut anything, as these kinds of blades are known to have very weak tangs and have a habit of ejecting themselves from the handle if struck too hard.

https://www.viewingjapaneseprints.net/texts/topics_faq/collaboration.html I own one of these as well, a collaboration between five different artists from some of the less prestigious branches of the Kano school (if they were from the more prestigious ones I wouldn't have been able to afford it - although it could still be a reproduction nonetheless) and also of birds, although in this case each drew a different bird.

Bruno, for some reason that anecdote ended up being rendered as very large text in a very small scrollable area, so here's a transcript that's hopefully easier for people to read: To lighten the mood a bit, I'll tell you a story. In 1990, Dr. Sempé passed away, and his widow, fearing theft, hid his Andean archaeology collection, along with 70 tsuba and kozuka, behind a platform in their country house. Thirty-five years later, their daughter-in-law undertook renovations and rediscovered these completely forgotten collections. Naturally, all the tsuba and kozuka were corroded with numerous spots of red rust. Last Friday, I bought three of these tsuba at an auction. Here are photos of one of them before and after the cleaning I performed (washing with soapy water, scraping off the rust with bone, then lightly oiling). No corrosive products were used, of course.

I've seen this happen in real life! It's a behaviour called "mobbing" by ornithologists, and its purpose is to force out potential predators or competitors for resources.

Another casualty of the rapacious entitlement of the AI merchants (automated data harvesters for AI agents where overwhelming the site and they had to restrict search functionality to registered members). This is a win/win condition for the AI folks, because now the only way for the public to find that information will be however the AI models choose to serve up the data they harvested before Nihonto Club locked everyone out.

While there's always a market for the great masters, what's "in vogue" in the nihonto appreciation world does seem to oscillate between the refined jigane and elegant sugata of Kamakura and the vibrant hada and heroic (I've seen someone describe it as "masculine") sugata of Nanbokucho. And Masamune vs. Sadamune is really a question of whether you prefer a beautiful hamon or a beautiful jigane (Sadamune's is often described as the best in history, even surpassing his Awataguchi predecessors).