MEENag

I decided I was happy with the Chiyozuru blade at Aoi and have made the purchase. Thank you for your comments in this thread.

Swung and missed at two shops today. The first was small and did not have a lot of options. The second had a lot of items, but customer service wasn’t great. I think he was just hoping I would go away, but when I didn’t, he finally came to talk. He showed me a few swords that weren’t papered or had koshirae, even though that is what I requested. He spoke no English. As I was leaving he said to come back in a couple of hours when they would have an English speaker there. I had no availability to go back. I’ll see if I can make any Osaka shops work in our schedule tomorrow.

I’m not an expert, but a few thing I remember that stood out. Great Kissaki shape Had a good weight to it Koshirae was ok Hamon gets very close to edge at one location. What I assume are kitae kizu at at least one location.

I’ll do my best to get there. Thanks!

We’ve made it to Kyoto and I see there are several sword shops near me. Even though our schedule is packed, I’m going to hold off on bidding for Chiyoruzu before the bidding ends tomorrow, even though it is at the top of my list. There is a store that says they always have 300 blades for sale and they do not sell online, so I’m hopeful of adding another option or two to my list. I’ll try to hit some of the other stores as well.

Sukaira I appreciate the suggestion in Nagoya and would love to see it, but it is too far out from our planned activities to be practical. I’ll actually be in Nagoya in the next hour or so, but only as a brief stop on the Shinkansen headed to Kyoto. I wish I had looked at Rai Kuniyasu in person while I was there. Yes, $10k is the top of my budget for my first one, but I don’t want to spent to the top of the budget if I don’t have to. Thanks for the suggestions. Bugyotsuji, For the first Kamakura sword that I started this thread with, I didn’t know why it was still available after a full year and for a reasonable seeming price, so I asked some experts. I’m not knowledgeable/experienced enough to recognize blade size “irregularities” from the numbers in a listing. YBBB pointed out the small size, which I confirmed in person. Even without YBBBs excellent posts, I would have eliminated it because of the size. It did not feel, in hand, like a sword I wanted as my first. Sitting next to the Chiyozuru blade and another Gassan blade didn’t help. I hesitated for a couple of days about asking about the Chiyozuru sword here because I was happy enough with it based on my in person handling of it to rank it as one of my top two options. As I continued to read old threads here, someone (sorry, no attribution) had a list of mistakes new nihonto collectors often make. One of them was not asking on NMB until after the purchase, so here I am. Thanks for your thoughts. Jeff

I would appreciate any thoughts on the Aoi listing below. It is the Koto period option I mentioned in my previous post. Handling it in person, l liked the shape, size and weight of it. I really like the age of it, which is a trap I know a lot of newbies like me fall into. I know from Googling that Chiyozuru is not a premium attribution, but I’m not sure that is as important to me since it brings a Nanbokucho/Early Muromachi sword into a price range I favor. I could go higher, but not if I don’t need to. The Koshirae could be better. I like some aspects of it visually, but the fittings seem too clean to be Edo period as they stated when I was in the shop. I handled the blade and koshirae separately, so I don’t know how the fit is, but it seems like the tsuba angle relative to the saya looks a bit off to me. https://sword-auction.com/en/product/27099/as24845-katana-mumeichiyozurunbthk-hozon-token/ The two Edo swords I liked were : 1) A katana signed by Yukimitsu that has a great papered koshirae. I had a great experience viewing this sword in person. It is a good bit more expensive than the other two. 2)A katana signed by Yoshimasa with typical looking, but almost certainly old, koshirae. I know less about this one because it is at a small shop that I walked into and the owner spoke little English, but was very accommodating and has stayed in touch via email. Both are Tokebetsu Hozon. The main compromise for these two would be that the age is not as old as I’d prefer. As I mentioned in my first post, I want to select my first nihonto while I am here in Japan. I have another week in Kyoto/Osaka/Hiroshima and I will try to see more if convenient (family trip with lots of stuff already scheduled). Picking in person certainly limits my market, but I am ok with that for my first. I’m not the type to ever sell things, so getting my money back out of it is not a concern. I’m just hoping not to make a big mistake. Thanks again for any input you may have! Jeff

I failed to mention in my first post that I am in Japan now. I have already had a meeting at Aoi Art to see this sword and two others. I really wanted to like it, but I went in with YourBabyBjornBorgs info from his fantastic first post in my mind and boy did it match his description. It isn’t a bad looking blade (from this newcomers perspective) but it sure did feel tiny next to the other two options I was looking at. I don’t believe it is right for my first katana. Aoi did have another Koto Hozon papered option that I liked a lot, and I have seen two Edo period blades with Tokebetsu Hozon papers that I like a lot as well. I think I will be making a decision between those three. Thank you for all of your input! Jeff

I’ve been researching Nihonto for several months in anticipation of my first visit to Japan, where I plan to select one in person. I’ve watched many katana on several sites come and go but this one is still here after many months. It seems like a Kamakura era Nihonto with a Tokebetsu Hozon paper would have sold by now. What am I missing? Thank you for any help you can provide. https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mumei-attributed-to-ryumonnbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-token/ Thank you, Jeff