Sukaira

Just opening this up as I have not seen many blades with this level of intensity on the itame. Is it bad, good, uniform, non-uniform? Looking for anyone who might be familiar with this as I do not have much context on this style. This is a blade I just acquired.

Im hoping so! If you saw it in hand, you would definitely agree something is "off" with the polish as is

what the....

@Rivkin yeah that's why I am excited to have it properly polished, as the jihada itself looks like it has great potential. This one is Koto and Soshu

Yes it is hitatsura

The jihada itself is great, underneath this crazy polish are good "bones" for sure, at least IMO

Might be hard to tell from my photo, but the polish is definitely not good at all.

I probably could return it, but I think the blade is good enough to polish into something really nice, so I am keeping it and having it re-polished with Moses. I can't link the blade since Tsuruta removes the page once it is purchased. However check the pics below:

This might be a known thing, and lesson learned for me in the future...however for anyone that is on the fence about purchasing online from Aoi Art - ask for real photos/video. I recently purchased a seemingly nice wakizashi (right under $10k) that was displayed in the image scans as having a nice milky sashikomi-ish style hamon with a pleasing jihada, rated with Tsuruta's "jyojyosaku" rating. Received it a few days ago and knew something was off immediately, polish was weird, jigane was very white and blurry, a world away from the image scan. I sent it over to Moses Becerra and seems the entire blade was acid washed/etched. Needless to say its getting entirely repolished with him now, but wanted to give anyone new to here or that website that this was extremely misleading.

wow, incredible work @Jussi Ekholm! I actually see some of my swords in here - row 14257 for example Also, you can add koshirae made in 2025 to line 5817 ko-fujishima

Wanted to see if anyone would be interested in a PDF or image collection of volumes 10, 11, 12, 13, 16 and 17 of the Honcho Kajiko? I have these and would be willing to compile them if there is any interest. These are all oshigata volumes.

Love the Eisho style @klee

Well said. Kazuuchi that are meant for a single battle, being preciously kept and making it through multiple eras and being polished without the polisher telling them the sword is crap, is a pretty half-baked theory. I am sure there might be some instances as most things have outliers, but what you're saying makes total sense to me. It doesn't help that many seemingly reputable websites seem to push this theory: https://www.mandarinmansion.com/glossary/bizen-sukesada Luckily they do quote from Darcy's website: "So generally, the longer the signature and the more information it contains, the better. But it's not always that simple. and shorter signatures do not always indicate lesser work. A case in point is a Juyo Token ranked katana, attributed to Hikobei no Jō Sukesada that is signed only Bishū Osafune Sukesada"

Nice! I think it is definitely not true that Bishu Osafune Sukesada is used for only "bad" or "average" swords. This signature was also used to create high quality custom orders in some examples, for whatever reason.

Proving that some incredible swords can carry just the Bishu Osafune Sukesada signature. Here is mine in the same signature + date 1567 - some incredible utsuri in sashikomi polish Length: 71.5cm Curve: 2.5cm Width moto-haba: 3.22cm Thickness moto-kasane: 0.77cm Width saki-haba: 2.55cm Thickness saki-kasane: 0.60cm

I wouldn't get too caught up in smith names or time periods. Go to a reputable dealer and buy what you like, what calls to you, because you'll be living with it and appreciating it for a long time. I have swords from 1200s, 1300s, 1400s, 1500s, 1600s and 1800s and my favorite is one from the 1600s. Hits me every time I draw it from the Shirasaya.

You might want to take a look at this Naoe-Shizu down in Nagoya: https://www.sanmei.com/contents/media/F2339_S1495_PUP_E.html Here is one attributed to Rai Kuniyasu directly: https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mumei-rai-kuniyasunbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-token/ I am guessing by your posts you have an upper limit of about $10k? Checkout Seiyudo in Ginza, they always have excellent pieces.

That makes sense as Tanobe thinks Shikkake origin and I did see in passing a mention here: https://nihonto.com/uda-school/

Haven't seen these - thanks!

Recently looked at a mumei blade that NBTHK papered explicitly to Ko-Fujishima, which would mean during Tomoshige's time. A few pieces of info I have found online regarding Tomoshige: 1. "He was of the Rai Kunitoshi mon, his grandfather being Kunitoshi's son. He was the third of the Tomoshige in the Rai Kunitoshi mon, and the first generation Tomoshige as founder of the Fujishima school. His works resemble Bizen den and that of Yamashiro Nobukuni. The Meikan lists twenty-nine texts in which he is included, which speaks to the importance of this smith. Kanewaka emulated his hamon." 2. From Sesko's sword smith compendium: "...Tanobe Michihiro sees the origins of the Fujishima school in the Shikkake school..." Then also a juyo-bijutsuhin tachi that is preserved in the Atsuta shrine. (of interest since Fujishiro rates him as Chu-jo saku) Just wanted to see if anyone had a good resource or more references on the Ko generation.

You should be able to find a nice, powerfully sized Edo blade for a good price if that is what you are going for. But a follow up question @YourBabyBjornBorg - where do you see shingane showing in that sword? Can you circle it on the image? I am interested because I would like to know for future online purchases. I see areas where the Hada is not as apparent, but they seem to correlate directly with the areas of utsuri on the oshigata. Would Tsuruta-san not mention that in the blade description? I usually see him mention things like "blade has flaws etc etc".

Yes

There does seem to be confusion around the Inaba Kokaji in regards to Kagenaga 1, some sources site him being son of Yoshimasa, some Yoshimasa himself, similar to a few other situations. I did find this 4th gen Kagenaga with a sayagaki from Tanobe (German site): https://www.juwelier-strebel.de/asienkunst/Japan/762-katana

Totally. My thinking really is along the same lines, which is why I wanted to open this blade up for discussion, as it gets kind of murky here with limited references. However it seems his works might be mis-attributed, given the number of times he changed his name, and the fact that Fukunaga seems to point out or think that his style is a mixture of Enju, Rai, Awataguchi and Oei Bizen. It might also be true that Yoshimasa only used this name when he was a student of Yoshimitsu. I will go out on a limb here and say that might be the reason there are no referenced works under the Awataguchi Yoshimasa name, because he (maybe?) was not signing blades at that time as a student (maybe someone can prove that wrong?). He then moves to Inaba to start the Inaba Kokaji and changes his name to Kagenaga, and that smith signature we definitely do have reference works of somewhere, both Shodai and Nidai and I think even beyond that generation. Kagenaga 1 and 2 as well as Awataguchi Yoshimasa are all listed in connoisseur's book of Japanese swords (with descriptions of their hataraki), and Fukunaga's Japanese Sword Encyclopedia has a section on the characteristics of his blades, as well as Markus Sesko's writings on Awataguchi mentioning him in passing. So I have to believe someone, somewhere has seen these blades https://nihontoclub.com/smiths/KAG112

Thanks! Everything I have from Seiyudo has been real quality in polish, fittings and blade, no matter the smith. I think they really take the time to select their pieces. There was a Saburo Kunimune up on the site a few months ago that was absolute fire.