Jim P

Way to go to Andrew, well-deserved and congratulations my friend who owns the sword

HI Carolyn,where in Australia to you live? you can get someone to have a look and give you a better opinion its hard from photos.

Hi Jed, IMHO, If you are looking at Shinto condition is very important! remember that if you are putting big $ up you want that exceptional blade, as you want to look at resale at some point take the yasutsugu for instance, it’s a fine work but at this price you are paying Jūyō prices it has TH papers and as Robert posted maybe not a top level polish and the last few shinsa that people are saying were very hard 10% pass if I remember so not much chance of passing higher papers unless you are very lucky as there are 28 Jūyō to compete against so no upgrade on the horizon at the moment people say buy the sword not the paper but in this market, you need the best papers you can get! you will find a lot out there and it’s easy to over pay. Yasutsugu was good at in producing copies of famous blades maybe search some of them out if it has to be a Yasutsugu. As for go not all go’s are equal it’s interesting to look Aoi art's Den Go at TH. then look at Andrew Ickeringill’s site he polished 2 go’s they are Jūyō and he brought out the true splendour of his work. Andrew is one of the master polishers outside of Japan It takes time to find the right blade, and a lot of them are not on the dealer’s sites and at that level I would seek out someone like Andrew for his thoughts let us know what you decide PM if you don’t want to post it

Hi Jed, A lot of choices in this price range, what is on your list of potential swords? as a comparison have a look at the Hiromitsu a bit more but! https://eirakudo.shop/784316 The Yasutsugu is good but with a bit of work I think you can do better ? You can get some of the old masters in that price range. why Yasutsugu ?

Hi, For sale a excellent set, they are one of the best I have seen $200. OBO thanks for list of articles https://nihontoclub.com/articles/reference/list-of-articles-in-nihonto-newsletter

A start, Kanemichi (兼道) Ōsaka, 1st generation, Manji (万治, 1658-1661)

Hi Ken, look up Tanba (no) Kami Yoshimichi you will see some similar traits in the mei as its the same school {The Mishina school} its best if you do the research than me doing it for you. there's a chance its ok Signature and Mekugi placement looks good, yasurime, looks good. All you need now is a match for the mei There’s only one way to learn so you will no longer mix up things like, {School possibilities Soshu? strong candidate based on nie and sunagashi Bizen? possible influence (choji, sudareba) Mihara or Yamashiro? structurally plausible but less likely} All of the picks are a long way off , what IMHO looks like a Shinto period blade but it’s a good start read some books then a you will have a better grasp of the subject Jim P

Hi Ken,I think Rayhan is right. off by about a century, need pics of the blade there were from memory 6 gens and if you look at the Yasurime on this one, it looks close you need to look at some examples of the mei before you say Gimei

Hi Steve, Making Mekugi https://cottontailcu...s.com/making-mekugi/

Is this really authentic? No, save your money look at link,

Hi some info for you http://www.jssus.org/2016V48_4_Kaifu.html

Hi Kevin, I don’t post much these days but I thought this was funny!! they sell samurai jeans So a bit of advice if a sword shop sell swords for 16k and sells samurai jeans too it should give you a big ? https://www.samuraim...ory/ryukyu-ai-denim/ It has been said repeatedly on this board be suspicious of old papers coming out of Japan Also, he gives a good rendition of the Ujisada story but he does not state its by him Only this blade is attributed to Ujisada

HiJohn, That is wakasa nuri lacquer work. kam does it, https://jigokustudios.com.au/lacquering/

Hi Ray I thought Sue-Bizen too, like Morimitsu look at the boshi and hada found on a similar one on aoi https://www.aoijapan.net/katana-bishu-osafune-morimitsu-sakusue-bizen/ but a quick look at Sue-Bizen and you get mostly Torii Sori but you see Koshi Sori { Bizen Sori } in this sword so its off the norm for a later time it’s probably from the early Sue-Bizen ? but I can’t shake the feeling its got a lot of shinto in it ?

Hi Tom,If sharpness or a dull edge was of great importance then that's something that would be on papers which it’s not nor do most of the nihonto sites in Japan speak of sharp or a dull blade take Aoi Art for example because it depends what the sword is cutting. If they ground them like razors they would not do well on Japanese armour that's why we speak about the meat of a blade kitchen knives are flat ground swords are usually convex for good reasons a lot less chips and cracks. A polisher will always try to keep the meat or bevel of a blade I would take a dull Gorō Nyūdō Masamune over a sharp Komonjo special every time.