Sukaira

@Jussi Ekholm needs to weigh in on this one - I know from his past threads he supports signed and dated BIzen blades. I will post the Tanobe sayagakai soon, once finished.

Aoi has a Kotetsu for around $390k right now if you have some cash to burn: https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-nagasone-okisato-nyudo-kotetsu-with-saidan-mei45th-nbthk-juyo-token/

Besides what others have said, I personally think the biggest problem is the lack of deep file marks on the nakago with your blade. Every single Sandai I have seen has had very aggressive filing marks. You can see my blade below, but also the one linked above has the same deep filing.

Here are the high resolution links: https://web.archive.org/web/20251104215232/https://www.aoijapan.com/img/sword/2024/24555-2.jpg https://web.archive.org/web/20251104215411/https://www.aoijapan.com/img/sword/2024/24555-3.jpg https://web.archive.org/web/20251104215411/https://www.aoijapan.com/img/sword/2024/24555-4.jpg https://web.archive.org/web/20250907044511/https://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashihizen-kuni-mutsu-no-kami-tadakatsu-tokubetsu-hozon-token/

@2devnul So the jigane will actually be done slightly differently on blades that do not have suguha hamon. For Tadayoshi blades with suguha, the jigane will be done in a very luxurious way, while the blades with hamon like yours will be done in slightly lessor way, for whatever reason. Maybe to let the hamon take more of the attention. I will post some more images of mine, but you should also inspect the images below, which are a Sandai Tadayoshi, with hamon like yours.

Good call! Will Tanobe sensei give an indication in regard to Juyo? I guess I am asking if it is a normal thing that he is alright with giving an opinion on?

@Lewis B I was able to confirm with Seiyudo the Tanobe sayagaki will be done.

I would have imagined that umegane patch was put on much later than the sword was made, but I could be wrong. I have also read pretty much everywhere that umegane is a pretty bad thing since it hides the real flaw and potentially creates a pocket of rust that is not reachable underneath, slowly eating your sword away.

Blade length(Cutting edge): 71.5cm Curve(SORI): 2.5cm Width at the hamachi(Moto-Haba): 3.22cm Thickness at the Moto-Kasane: 0.77cm Wide at the Kissaki(Saki-Haba): 2.55cm Thickness at the Saki-Kasane: 0.60cm

In general I don't think Aoi Art builds cobbled together koshirae for their blades. They deal in volume and I am pretty sure Tsuruta just gets these as-is for the most part as he runs all over the country picking up blades. That being said I almost always ask them to price the blade without koshirae and they usually knock off a few hundred to a few thousand USD depending on the piece. Sometimes its a more recently made or well kept koshirae though, and that is worth keeping.

I wanted to ask if anyone has sent a sword from Japan to the USA recently? The last one that came in for me was months ago and I have seen Aoi Art recently stopped using everything except for a carrier called OCS. Does anyone know what is really going on? Considering keeping my swords in Japan over there for a while until this clears up. Thanks

I think your suggestion for the Tanobe sayagaki is a must do! I will ask them to facilitate this. As for Juyo I am definitely tempted...any thoughts on if I should or even how long the blade would be held for (and out of my hands )?

I would be interested to see which ones if you could post some, that are koto and not mumei o-suriage. Original koshirae if we are talking koto seems questionable to me, but would love to see!

It really just checks all the boxes for me and I had been looking at it for a while but was just searching for something cheaper. I had originally been pretty close to buying this a while back https://www.aoijapan.com/katanamumeiunsigned-attributed-to-den-nakajima-rai-中島来the-17th-juyo-tokenmenukinbthk-hozon-tosogu/ I stopped however once I found out it has a big patch of umegane on the ji (not in the description but look on the image and you can see it, confirmed by Aoi Art). But I really enjoyed the sugata combined with the double hi, not to mention the Rai workmanship of this one. That lead me to look around for other swords with a similar style and I am a huge fan of Bizen (my favorite tradition) history, workmanship and style in general. I had kind of written this one off a bit because of the price, but it really has it all for me. Warring period, Bizen, uroi, utsuri, ubu, long signature, dated, healthy. I find the warring period Bizen swords especially interesting for a few reasons. You do see the Sue-Bizen description thrown around as undesirable by many, but this is mainly because of the overall average of work during this period and the writings about such. It is true, however multiple things can be true at once, and a key thing to remember, as evidenced by the rare masterpieces crafted during this time, is that the smiths did not "forget" how to produce swords with uroi, utsuri, they just weren't doing it for the most part. I am guessing due to time and material constraints combined with needs of the times and other things that have been mentioned in this forum. These were still essentially unbroken traditions and lineages of smiths before the destruction of Osafune. So when I see a Bizen masterpiece come out of that historically important and bloody time, it has always peaked my interest. I have a sword signed only Bishu Osafune Sukesada, but it is one of my favorite pieces in the collection and is overall one of the most interesting and beautiful Bizen pieces I've held, largely due to the (imo) insanely beautiful sashikomi polish on it. It is like the sun behind clouds.

If I ever introduce this sword to anyone, I am stealing that phrase - Great fat sword!

Thanks to everyone who contributed in here. As a final update, after carefully considering everything said here, I have put in an order for a different blade that I have been eyeing for a while. A Gorozaemon-no-jo Kiyomitsu masterpiece, fully signed, dated (1537) and ubu, with all the workmanship and style I was looking for. @Scogg and @Hoshi special thanks for your posts.

This thread 🍿

Is this fire damage?

That is good advice Hoshi. What would you recommend at this price point as alternatives?

You also understand the dilemma here! This sounds much like my inner dialogue looking over both of these blades.

I think so, but looking at the oshigata it is a bit scattered so others might have a better idea or experience with what that means

Good advice no doubt! Indeed both are calling me for different reasons so this one is tough.

Oh yeah that is a great idea

Yeah the description from Aoi and the oshigata both tell/show utsuri. So those images I posted are stills from a video and I do see it in the video. Here is an image I think shows it better, check the area running parallel to the bohi that matches the oshigata. I think the setsumei does actually mention it, near the bottom right side: "僅かに白気映り立つ"

Yes, I was under the impression that was one of the benefits of such a forum but maybe Jacques is here for other reasons