eternal_newbie

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

Example where the nioiguchi is more than an entire kissaki-length outside the yokote: https://www.aoijapan.net/katana-mumei-tametsugu/

Nope, that's a *second* Ayanokoji Sadatoshi (Juyo). The first one (TokuHo) is still there and listed for 3.8mil: https://eirakudo.shop/token/tachikatana/detail/090291

Mine too.

You Someone put a video of it in youtube with more closeups (as well as the other swords in that category): https://youtu.be/VR4hTdhOk24?t=1098

https://web.archive.org/web/20240113073202/https://www.aoijapan.com/img/sword/2023/23761-2.jpg https://web.archive.org/web/20240113073202/https://www.aoijapan.com/img/sword/2023/23761-3.jpg https://web.archive.org/web/20240113062400/https://www.aoijapan.com/img/sword/2023/23761-4.jpg https://web.archive.org/web/20240113062400/https://www.aoijapan.com/img/sword/2023/23761paper-1.jpg https://web.archive.org/web/20240113062401/https://www.aoijapan.com/img/sword/2023/23761sayagaki.jpg

Now I remember why I stopped posting here years ago. All I was trying to do was wish a fellow traveler good luck and approve of their taste. Guess I'll see if people have become less defensive and unpleasant in another 5-10 years.

Correct! I made a guess, which turned out wrong (Soden Bizen instead of Yamato Shizu).

I'm suggesting that buyers buy things which they will like regardless of what other people say. That way they won't be disappointed and feel like they've wasted their money when the experts change their mind or there turns out to have been a mistranslation of what the experts originally said. OP seems to be doing just that, so I wish them well.

Just a few reasons why this might be the case: Wakizashi in general are less popular than daito or tanto Papers are often out of date even when legit (a Tametsugu Hozon blade may have gotten downgraded to TH Ko-Uda, so the seller conveniently "lost" those papers and sold it as Tametsugu) Condition issues (tired, hagire, ware) that aren't listed ("please check the photos for the condition of the sword") From the above two items, a blade might be unlikely to go any higher than the papers it already has Relatives of a deceased collector consigning items to be sold as quick as possible to sort out financial issues And in general, eBay is much harder to sell nihonto on now unless you're a reputable seller, because the market is flooded with so many fakes, scams, Chinese shinken etc - far more so than it used to be 10, 20 years ago.

And when it comes to mumei blades, that's ultimately true of NBTHK and NTHK attributions too, unless the provenance of the sword is known (and sometimes even then it gets "downgraded"). Buy blades that you like, and if the shinsa groups agree with you that's a bonus.

That's a great attitude. In the end what matters is that you like the sword, and this one, whether it's Kaneuji or one of his students in Yamato Shizu or Naoe Shizu, is certainly a sword anyone would be proud to have. Good luck with your purchase!

That would be #2 on Darcy's tier list - Yamato Shizu Kaneuji. So I guess "not quite a Masamune, with solid Yamato influence in evidence." Although that assumes the NTHK have a similar mentality and criteria as the NBTHK when it comes to attributions (I don't have much experience with the NTHK so I can't comment on that).

Soden Bizen? Looks superficially like some Osafune Kanemitsu blades I've seen.

Useful advice. I haven't had one break yet but that's good to know.

Pretty sure they're chrysanthemums, yep. Specifically Chrysanthemum japonense (the long five-lobed leaves are a good indicator)

I've seen people use a large segment of PVC pipe as well (you can get endcaps used for sealing the pipes to use as covers for both ends)

Some worthwhile insights on buying gimei blades by the late, great Darcy Brockbank: https://web.archive.org/web/20201201114903/https://blog.yuhindo.com/gimei/

Some discussions in these threads about konuka vs. itame and nashiji. In the end, nakago shape and ageing can be altered to make blades look a different age than they are; sugata, hada and nie on the other hand are much harder to change without destroying the blade, so prioritize those first. Unless you're absolutely sure it's Hizen, itame/ko-itame is a safe bet.

I don't have a current one but I did buy a couple of eBay swords way back when that had "base thickness" as the full shinogi width rather than the motokasane (and in fact one of them was apparently measured using the gap in the habaki). No huge loss on my part as they were mostly rubbish blades anyway. Again - not saying it's the case here, certainly Aoi-Art is well-known enough that they wouldn't need to (or risk) deceiving customers like that, but I can see why someone burned like that in the past might be a little hesitant.

More examples of Ainu weapons, many with detailed descriptions and historical information: https://www.mandarinmansion.com/culture/ainu https://www.mandarinmansion.com/article/knives-and-swords-ainu

Yep... but some dealers will report the thickest part of the sword, whether it's shinogi-to-shinogi or the actual motokasane. Not saying that's the case here but it's just one more element of risk in an online sale judging from pictures alone.