Takezo

🤔🤔🤔

Type (Tachi, Katana, Wakizashi, Tanto, Naginata, Other) : Katana Ubu, Suriage or O-Suriage : Ubu Mei : (Mumei, Signature) : 肥前国佐賀住源吉房 (Hizen Koku Saga ju Minamoto Yoshifusa) Papered or not and by whom? : NBTHK Jūyō Tōken + NTHK ◎ Yūshū-saku (90-94 points) Era/Age : Kan'ei era Shirasaya, Koshirae or Bare Blade? : Shirasaya with Tanobe sensei sayagaki Nagasa/Blade Length : 73.8cm Sori : 1.4cm Mekugi: 1 Width at Base: 3.11cm Width at Yokote: 2.12cm Thickness of Rim: 0.69cm Weight: 775 grams Hamon Type : From Tanobe sensei: "The hamon combines choji and gunome in overlapping patterns, creating a lively and undulating design rich in movement. The nioiguchi is deep and rich with abundant nie, with ashi and yo clearly present." Jihada : From Tanobe sensei: "The jihada is ko-itame, finely forged with well-distributed ji-nie, forming the characteristic konuka-hada. The blade is bright and clear in appearance, healthy in condition, and of particularly excellent workmanship - truly representative of the finest achievements of this smith." Other Hataraki Visible : Sunagashi, nie-suji, hakoba (box) style hamon in places, skillfully tempered on both sides with gentle, flowing activity reminiscent of cumulonimbus clouds, creating a striking visual impression. Flaws : None Sword Location : USA Will ship to : Worldwide Payment Methods Accepted : PayPal, Bank Transfer Price and Currency : $25,000 USD - shipping with insurance included Other Info and Full Description : From Tanobe sensei (sayagaki): "This blade was designated as Juyo Token at the 12th Juyo session. It is signed Hizen no Kuni Saga-ju Minamoto Yoshifusa with a nine-character long signature. Yoshifusa was a disciple of the first-generation Tadayoshi and is regarded as one of the most outstanding craftsmen among the Hizen smiths. The jihada is finely forged ko-itame with well-refined ji-nie, displaying an attractive, tight konuka-hada texture. The hamon combines choji and gunome in overlapping patterns, creating a lively and undulating design rich in movement. The nioiguchi is deep and rich with abundant nie, with ashi and yo clearly present. The blade is bright and clear in appearance, healthy in condition, and of particularly excellent workmanship-truly representative of the finest achievements of this smith. It is said that he may have produced works on behalf of his master. This piece appears to date from a period close to when the first-generation Tadahiro was signing blades in place of his father." I do not have the original NTHK paper, but I do have the original book that published this sword as Yushu-saku This piece is featured on page 244 of Yūshū Tō Zuroku (Excellent Swords Catalogue) published by the NTHK. I can provide a copy of the page or you can find the book yourself to verify. It should be noted that only around 20 swords from this smith are known to exist. This blade stands out as one of the finest among the Hizen swords, not only for its artistic qualities but also for its value as a historical reference piece. I had my friend host all the images and video here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14hKxsjXN-6NhqJnKNry_1NW_uECye9_l?usp=sharing

You can also use this website and filter to see the whole (almost) market: https://nihontowatch.com/?tab=available&cert=Tokuju&sort=price_desc

Without a doubt they are whalefishing. The prestige of the auction house name resonates for people unconnected to the Japanese market, among other nuances mentioned in the thread I would bet. Same with prestigious American auction houses, like for example I believe there were quite a few overpriced pieces here: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2025/important-Japanese-swords-and-armour-from-the-paul-l-davidson-collection?lotFilter=AllLots Going back to Tsuruta's blogs, if they are to be believed at face value, it seems good swords are becoming harder and harder to come by, but I am sure that is cyclical as old collections release their holdings. But I have to believe that over time the prices will naturally rise as some of these swords are lost or damaged to bad stewards, stolen, destroyed by family inheritors that don't care or know of what they have etc. The existing pool becomes smaller and the general Japan craze continues to sweep the world, statistically putting more eyes and money into swords as people want a piece of a culture they admire.

Well, mine is signed so it is not much of an issue - Hizen Yoshifusa (Shodai Tadayoshi student and daisaku/mei artisan for him).

Continued...funny thing to me is that the NTHK session 22 oshigata is much more accurate for hamon than the NBTHK Juyo session 12 oshigata

Definitely would be awesome to have for this one! Also, it would be interesting to see a database of blades with dual Yushu / Juyo rankings. I actually have one of these also, rated "◎ Yushu-saku" which is second highest Yushu rank. @Jussi Ekholm you don't have something like this in your wealth of data mining do you?

If you have an excuse to fly to Japan from the USA, or are already going: Depending on the price of the sword(s), flying there and bringing it back yourself can often beat the import tariffs...fly into a busy US airport you often get waived through customs with nothing to be paid. I won't elaborate any further than that, but worst case you pay the price you were going to pay with a carrier anyway, best case you pay nothing.

Actually I am pretty sure all of those high end blades on the top row are from Seiyudo....I wonder if they took them to Utrecht and didn't want to re-import them to Japan? Alternatively, maybe someone bought them all with hopes of flipping them.

The long katana Tadahiro with koshirae was also on Seiyudo just a few months ago, I remember that awesome tsuba it has. Seiyudo had more detailed pictures, but it's a really spectacular gold inlaid dragon on iron.

If you read Tsuruta’s monthly blog, he consistently says that sword prices have gone up. However in one of the recent ones he also mentioned the weak yen and how Japanese swords were essentially at a deep discount for the USD. So both can be true I guess. Maybe he’s speaking over a longer time scale. Personally, I have been consistently buying for the last 2 years to take advantage of the weak yen…but I am in the USA, so I can’t speak for other countries.

Re: motohaba and sakihaba - It is easy to fall into the bigger is better thinking, but I am much more impressed by a slimmer sword that is balanced and feels perfect in the hand than one that is wide (and maybe has more jigane to see) but feels clunky.

Yeah same, someone please proxy an upvote for me

Dang, too slow

@Grey Doffin Will take the Nihonto Koza as translated by Harry Watson. All 6 volumes