Darcy

The numbers Pete quoted have Christie's buyers and seller's premiums in there. They take a big, big chunk. The hammer price was 100,000 pounds on Norishige and Sadazane, 45,000 on the Chogi. I pay Christie's my portion out of the hammer price. The prices were very fair for the first two, they are both world class pieces that will be collection centerpieces in even important collections. They were pursued because they were such standout pieces. Otherwise the market for swords I find is not so strong right now. The Chogi, someone walked out with a real steal. Though it was expensive as a sword, it is at the highest level. Putting it in perspective, the only other Tokubetsu Juyo Chogi I was aware of in the past few years, the dealer wanted $180,000 for it. Christie's did not expand in the writeup that it was actually owned by two of the Tsugaru daimyo (sword still has tags with it from that time). The koshirae bears their mon as well. It was likely hurt by the late arrival of documentation establishing it as a Juyo token, and the Tokubetsu Juyo papers have not been issued yet (we're expecting June). Tanobe sensei wrote a letter that I got up there just a few days ago to document it as Tokubetsu Juyo and he praised it as a standout blade in particular among the session of pieces that passed in 2006. In terms of beautiful swords, the Norishige is really exceptional and I have never seen a Soshu sword that really nailed everything about the school the way that sword did. It is a masterpiece by the smith, to use the simplest language and for someone who wanted the best possible Soshu that was the blade. The Sadazane I had written on my website a year ago that all things considered it was the finest piece I had ever had. The state of preservation, the condition, the quality, the length and signature, everything was just a home run with that sword. I am glad that people who had a combination of money to spend and knowledge to understand what it was in spite of the fact that the smith is not so well known (only four or five signed blades exist from him) recognized its importance. It had exquisite jigane and the jifu utsuri was fantastic. Congratulations to the new owners if you see this, I know you will enjoy your new babies. Wish I could have kept them but at least now maybe I can buy a car one day.

Generally any newer daito will be more beefy than an older daito of the same length due to a couple of factors. The first being that the older sword has probably seen more polishes, so loses material. The second being that the older sword before it became suriage into shinto-standard lengths was likely designed from the get-go to have thinner kasane in order to reduce its overall weight. A sword designed from scratch at a shorter length does not have the same problems with weight that a 80+cm blade has. For this reason when you pick up a sword for kantei with the tsuka on that looks like nambokucho o-suriage in sugata, but feels very weighty and has a lot of kasane, you can usually rule it into one of the shinshinto or shinto copies of this period, the sword being ubu. That's a generalization, there are always exceptions. I had a Kinju naginata naoshi that felt like it would cut through a car, it was massive.

The Sadazane is from no later than 1248... the maker is sometimes put into Ko-Bizen, and so earlier, sometimes Ko-Ichimonji and so from around this time. The style is definitely Ko-Bizen, so he was either a Ko-Bizen smith from around 1198 at the beginning of the Kamakura, or he worked in a throwback style, but still early Kamakura period. Christie's didn't specify down more on the time period. My own writeup is here: http://www.nihonto.ca/sadazane/ When it passed Juyo they judged it as Ko-Bizen, and then Ko-Ichimonji when it went Tokubetsu Juyo. Either way, a very old sword, and very rare to be so intact. The quality is off the charts.

I'm in a whole other country, so by my definition you're close :-). At least close enough to hit the major shows, it is worth the investment and at that distance it's an hour and a half hop on the plane!

Also, though Christie's shows that VAT of 5% applies to the swords, this is only for EU residents. Once UK VAT is paid, an EU resident is able to import the sword into their member country sales-tax free by the EU treaties. Given that taxes everywhere else are higher than 5% it's a pretty good deal :-). It is only 5% rather than 17.5% because they are antique items imported from a non-EU member state, and this is the VAT rate assigned by UK customs for this type of item. For non-EU buyers, the VAT can either be waived or refunded after/during export. This is what I have done when buying at Christie's as I'm in Canada. When importing into your own non-EU country, you are then responsible for arranging to pay local country sales / consumption taxes.

Christie's moved their London June Japanese art sale up a month to May 16th this year. They just put the swords online. I put my best three swords up for auction in this sale, amongst other things. They were very carefully chosen, and are world-class blades the like of which come to auction extremely rarely. They carry Tokubetsu Juyo papers which identify them as the rarest and finest work, the NBTHK considers that Tokubetsu Juyo is comparable to the *upper* half of Juyo Bijutsuhin according to Tanobe sensei. They are: Tokubetsu Juyo Norishige: http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lfse ... Id=4919066 Tokubetsu Juyo Chogi: http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lfse ... ntry=chogi Tokubetsu Juyo Ko-Ichimonji Sadazane: http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lfse ... Id=4919065 They are in London and may be inspected in person before the sale. I have set terms to guarantee sale. Feel free to contact me through my website if you have questions about the pieces or would like to get my supplemental information on the Sadazane, or background information on Norishige, etc. You can browse the entire sale here: http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lfse ... leID=20862 There are some other nice swords in the sale, particularly two works by Kiyomaro (though one has a hagire). As well there are a good number of excellent fittings.

Joshua, you are actually close to two of the main shows with your two locations. The Tampa sword show is usually in February, and the San Francisco sword show (the largest one) is in August. I would suggest joining the NCJSC: http://www.ncjsc.org and/or the Florida Token Kai: http://www.floridatokenkai.com/index.html . If you are travelling around on-ship, you should have I think opportunities for shore leave. Whatever major port you arrive at, inquire with the local fine arts museum about collections of Japanese swords or fittings. You may be surprised at what you can find. When in New York, the Met has many good swords on display. In Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts has one of the best Japanese sword collections in the world. Toronto, the Royal Ontario Museum has a handful of swords on display. And so on... You are probably more well suited than the rest of us to get an ongoing stream of sword samples for viewing. Looking at blades in museums is inferior by far than seeing things at shows, but it beats the heck out of not seeing swords at all.

Yes, there are roughly 8,000 Juyo. I came to this number by counting the number of pages in the NBTHK index, getting an average sword count per page, and then extrapolating the years not covered by the index. I would say give that number +/- 1,000 to be safe, it gives you at least the idea of the order of magnitude well. Tokubetsu Juyo occur about 1 for every 10 Juyo, they are quite rare.

Yes, it reads Chikushi 筑紫 Nobukuni 信國. This is older than the Chikuzen 筑前 Nobukuni group but after the famous Yamashiro lineage. This article outlines it: http://www.to-ken.com/swordregister/no53.htm

I'll add my two bits: Don't buy swords from the same people you're learning about swords from. The conflict of interest is better avoided, that way you're not going to get burned and at the very least you won't have anything in the back of your mind bothering you. Attend whichever sword show is closest to you, join the NBTHK American Branch, and attend the lecture and kantei that is at every sword show put on by the AB. The NTHK usually does a lecture too, attend that as well. Both give you chances to look at important and good swords and that will refine your eye and tastes. Figure out which collecting path you want to go down: buy something you will definitely sell later to get your feet wet at a low price, or buy something excellent that you can grow into and always love (this is more expensive). Both have their pros and cons. Absolutely do not let the admiration for bushido and the sword reflect on other people in the sword world. People in the sword world represent the full spectrum from thieves and con artists to people you could leave your life savings with in cash while you went away on a 10 year trip. You have to really be careful with whom you do business, people have a way of surprising you when money is on the line as money is a strong tempter. A lot of us got burned early on because we came into this with glowing respect for everyone and there are people out there who will use your trust and respect as means to enriching themselves at your expense. I've had friends and acquaintances go down that road for 10 or in one case about 30 years while people dumped junk at them. At the end of the day you are the one responsible for your decisions to buy and sell items in your collection, so you have to make sure that you are your own best friend when it comes to spending money. When unsure, keep the money in your pocket, something else will come along. Also: never ask someone who has something for sale what his opinion is of something else that is for sale. Again, conflict of interest. I have sold a good number of swords in the past years and am no longer selling any, and I've had guys walk away from great items because an unknown party has warned them away with pieces of wisdom like "it's not 70cm so it's not worth owning" and "that sword has a flaw, you won't be happy with it." Both of them are the equivalent of saying a woman is unloveable because she is a bit too short or has a mole. Get to the point of knowing swords enough that you can evaluate and be comfortable with your decision. You have to know and love your piece to the point where you can show it to someone who will pooh-pooh it, and you can walk away not freaked out or anxious. Understand that some people will put down things they don't own out of an emotional need to establish a pecking order, or because they missed their chance to get what you got, or that by saying it's a great piece they would be giving credibility to the guy who sold it to you and that may not be something they would like to do. The majority of collectors are great guys, and there are many good dealers out there. The above is just advice for caution based on my own experiences buying and selling. Here's the kind of scenario that will come about that makes it important to be able to go on your own opinion: One of the most disheartening things I found was when I was selling a sword that was "only" Tokubetsu Hozon that was an extremely rare piece from the Kamakura period. It had fantastic koshirae, was in wonderful condition, was beautiful work all over and I was not asking very much for it given the above. It was "expensive" for "only" a Tokubetsu Hozon rated sword. I put that in quotes because some people will tell you that you're buying the papers and not the sword, so the price should be based on the papers instead of the piece. Rather, it's the other way around, papers are assurances NOT the item being purchased... so in this case the assurance was missing because it had no Juyo papers yet. So it's up to the collector to evaluate the piece and determine the value. In this case, extremely rare maker at the top level, great condition and beauty with wonderful koshirae, the valuation should be very clear and that it would pass Juyo should also be very clear. The prospective buyer had a hard time though because people were condemning the sword out of not having Juyo papers and warning him away. "Too much for a Tokubetsu Hozon." He in the end trusted his instincts and bought the sword. It passed Juyo in a very hard shinsa a few months later that a lot of people got rejected from, and moreover the koshirae that had no papers he submitted to Tokubetsu Hozon and they passed that level, and they will possibly pass Juyo now as well. If he had listened to the naysayers instead of trusting his gut, he'd have missed out on something that it is not possible to replace. If he did encounter this kind of thing after being papered Juyo and koshirae papered Tokubetsu Hozon, the price would easily have been 50% to 100% more than what I was asking for it. By just looking at the pieces and being able to evaluate them without the assistance of the papers though, this should have been very clear and easy to see. So lucky for him he "paid too much" for this "only" Tokubetsu Hozon blade. If he'd have walked away he'd be very unhappy now. The lesson is to first get your education level up to the point where you can trust it somewhat... you will make mistakes, but at the very least you have to know enough so that you can go out there and make your own decision, good or bad, on a reasonable basis. Otherwise you're just stumbling around in the dark, trusting a bunch of other people who have possibly mixed motives or may not know as much as they seem to from what they say. There are also a lot of guys out there who know a heck of a lot but you may not pick up on that because they are modest and not desiring of attention. Those are the people who are usually sword scholars and the kinds of people that are worthwhile to seek out and try to learn from.

If it was part of an important collection, then it does add to the value. The two Tokubetsu Juyo Yukimitsu that were on my site, one of them was in the Kii Tokugawa collection, and the other was owned by the Ikeda for over 250 years. These add value because of the history, and that the Daimyo carefully gathered excellent blades. So the company they keep reflects on the quality. Being part of an illustrious collection like Compton's does add value in a similar way. Compton like any collector had variations in quality, so it is possible to find the least important / weakest blade he had, but still there is some prestige associated with his collection and with other modern top level collectors. The same considerations apply, where someone with knowledge and devotion establishes a fantastic collection, the pieces that are in it carry the distinction of the refined company they kept going forward. It's basically a stamp of approval in the same way that passing Juyo or Tokubetsu Juyo may give vs. a piece with no provenance. Also, the very fact of knowing the history is always a nice thing. These facts of history may not matter to some collectors, so there is no valuation change in their eyes. On an individual basis then your own point of view dominates, but in the marketplace it's the sum of all individual opinions that controls the valuation.

I would highly recommend bringing it to a Rochester Study Group meeting, they are very good.

Oooo, I missed the third image because it didn't get displayed... That is a long comment section, and usually I find that Tanobe sensei's feelings for a sword show in the amount of detail available in the comments.

Hi Eric, You will save people's neck muscles by putting the images the correct side up, they are rotated 90 degrees from vertical :-). The two clips from the sayagaki are the date and Tanobe sensei's signature, and the length of the sword. He likes to vary his signature somewhat, but it is usually date in Chinese calendar dating, followed by some variation of Tanzan (his art name) "attests to and inscribed this." The second image reads Hacho (length of the cutting edge) Futatsu-shaku Nisun Hachibu and a bit, ari-kore (this is). So 2.2.8 in the old style of measurement, roughly 69cm. Tanobe sensei's comments are usually in two columns above this information which is fairly standard.

The book is being published online, I am not making e-books available (people will just copy it, and I've sunk in many hundreds of hours and somewhere around $15,000 into making the book so far... so I hope to break even on the expenses. Anyway, once I get around to fixing the typos and all that jazz, you'll be able to buy with a click, it will print on demand and be shipped to you from the USA by the method of your choice. Just gotta get around to doing the final touches .

Hi, thanks for the compliments. Here's a link to some of the swords: http://www.nihonto.ca/reference.html I didn't mean to take them down... I intend on getting back into completing the book I'm working on with Bob Benson and the future series, that should take care of the reference needs going forward... I have just had no time to deal with my site unfortunately.

Most expensive sword ever at auction was a Kiyomaro I believe. These are only a fraction of the cost of some blades in private transactions though.

The quality of the answers given on the board were excellent, also observations were generally very correct. I am glad to see beginners trying... that is really important, if you don't go through the exercise and especially commit your answers and put your neck on the line, it is hard to grow. I find that throwing your hat into the ring like this helps cement down the experience and enhance the learning. I like to state the answer in period, school, smith order because this is the process of narrowing it down. Beginners can always be happy with getting period, and then as their skill progresses to get closer to the full answer. Also when handling five swords, if you can walk out being partially right on a few just by getting period, it gives you more confidence. Photo kantei is hard, but at least when the photo quality is this good it is helpful (/pats self on back). It is useful for us as well to practice this because of seeing swords for sale online and on ebay, we are working with a different need in evaluation skillsets than people who came generations before us. OK, to the sword. From the sugata, we are looking at a sword with a robust shape with an even curve centered slightly lower than halfway down. So the guess would be towards a torii-zori o-suriage piece. The shape rules out Muromachi in general as we'd be expecting more curve towards the kissaki. The longer Nambokucho period blades tend to be straighter in the monouchi. The typical o-kissaki is also not there, the kissaki is not even longish, making it chu-kissaki. So it is looking like a robust middle to late period Kamakura blade from sugata. I cut out the nakago, but displayed a bit under the habaki to show that it was clear that the futasuji-hi continue through the nakago. This is a hint that the nakago is probably suriage. Not always, but when you see the hi ending above the hamachi then you know that the piece is either ubu or the hi are added after. So this is kind of just an odds thing that it is probably suriage. The thick chikei and vibrant nie everywhere direct one straight to Soshu. The intense amount of activities would point to a top level school and smith... muromachi period being far inferior to kamakura, this also would lead one away from any muromachi period judgment. Ichimai boshi was noted by several people. When seeing ichimai and all kinds of nie activities in a middle to late Kamakura period piece, one should land squarely on Soshu den. Ichimai boshi is also a strong enough kantei point to then go straight to Go Yoshihiro. This is what he is always written up as having made famous... the reality of it though is that the majority of his works do not have ichimai on them. It is only possible to come to the last fact there by looking at his known and identified works. The famous handful exhibit ichimai where most of the less famous pieces do not. Still if one stops there and says Go Yoshihiro given everything I see, I would give that an atari. The key though to identifying the smith in question would be to look at the hada. It is large patterned, energetic and intertwines with the hamon in such a way that it is not exactly clear where the hamon ends and the activities of the ji begin. This is a trademark of one and only one smith, Norishige. Ichimai for him is interesting then, it may be that this is something that the Etchu smiths were doing, at the very least it reinforces the relationship between Norishige and Go Yoshihiro. The futasuji-bi are also interesting, as they are more something to be seen on the work of Sadamune and/or Masamune. Overall the activities in the ji are on the quiet side of Norishige and look a bit more like Masamune. It looks overall like a work of Norishige made to challenge his peers, but Go or Masamune would also be acceptable answers for kantei. Shizu, and Sa had the skill to approach this level with their absolute best work, but that would be a dozen answer I guess, close and on the right track and possibly an up close study would help the quality judgment. The most important thing is trying to nail down the overall quality of the work, as that is a major guide towards getting to the right place. In the case of a work like this, it is not possible for any smith living since the Kamakura period to attempt to create something of this quality. So right away Muromachi and on can be ruled out. This work is ranked Tokubetsu Juyo Token and has been considered the finest Soshu sword in North America. It is noted as a masterpiece by Norishige, and will probably be the finest sword made available for sale this year, anywhere in the world .

The Naginata/Nagamaki one is not one of these cut and dried ones. I believe (80% certain) that the NBTHK will only write them up as Naginata Naoshi. Kanzan sensei wrote that there is no real difference between nagamaki as we conventionally referred to them and naginata. He said that nagamaki was a term that arouse out of reference to a type of koshirae and that it is not accurate to try to distinguish between styles of naginata with this term. That has to be confirmed, I don't have the time lately to break out the books and refresh myself. It was written up in Kanzan's sword school, which is a dialog between himself and his students (one of whom was Ogawa san who is now the curator at the Met). Different teachers will say different things, as Nagayama sensei is quoted above for his opinion. So on this us plebians have to be prepared to be a bit flexible when encountering the term I think...

Online photo kantei... it's been a while. If you have seen the sword before, please hold back. This is a post for people who want to participate in the game. Answer should be of the form: 1. period 2. school 3. smith Especially for beginners, this is the route you should take and on any kantei your goal should be at least to be able to nail down the period. Vibrant sword, roughly 70cm. Do your best! Clicking on the image should bring up a high res version.

Just to put that in context, this is a function of the consumers not the distributors of swords. If I have an amazing blade, buyers (and this is more true of the west than in Japan) will pay one amount for it if I have passed it through Juyo, and will tell me that the same price is too much if I have not passed it through Juyo. It's the same blade regardless. So what the consumers are saying is that they on their own are unable to ascertain the value of the blade, period. They will put a cap on the value based on the papers. Should a community of experts elevate the status of the papers, then the consumers will raise the cap on what they are willing to spend for the sword. The most expensive sword I have ever touched that was for sale had a price tag of $500,000 USD and the papers were NBTHK Hozon papers. Not even Tokubetsu Hozon. The knowing people who were in the room all had a laugh about how the sword would do in the market. Those that could evaluate it would consider it cheap, those who couldn't would say "the price is crazy because it's *only* Hozon." Papers are a confirmation, the problem is that a lot of people will use them as justification. The two things are different. There are many Tokubetsu Hozon blades that may never get Juyo that are finer and more enjoyable work than certain Juyo pieces, and that is all correct. Juyo means important, it doesn't mean excellent though excellence is one of the criteria that are gathered up in the overall equation that makes a Juyo Token.

The mei stumps me, I don't recognize the second character, first could be Kane. It doesn't strike me as lat Muromachi work, how long is it? You'd expect either a stubby tanto that is 90% like a kamakura piece and 10% like a yoroidoshi, or else a wider tanto that is like late Nanbokucho work but with some saki-zori. This looks more like early Muromachi style of shape, something similar to what the Bizen smiths Yasumitsu and Morimitsu were making, but the nakago does not look right for them. I think it may have been polished down a bit, how is the kasane in the nakago compared to the rest of it? So this doesn't rule in or out much, could be early to mid Muromachi Mino or Soshu, or else a Shinshinto work I think.

Identical hamon on both sides is a sign of the Muramasa school. The nakago though doesn't look like Muramasa school. I'd definitely follow it up though, probably needs a window opened up to see the jihada and hamon in more detail.

Hitatsura starts out as a natural expression on Soshu swords around the time of Yukimitsu and Masamune. Originally there is frequent yubashiri in the swords that are too loose to be considered tobiyaki. In the middle Nambokucho it becomes an obvious part of the construction of Soshu swords and those they influence, the large amounts of tobiyaki in the hamon become what we now consider hitatsura. By the Muromachi period it becomes rather mechanical and artificial and possibly made through a different process. Towards the end of the Muromachi other schools copy the hitatsura of Soshu using their own approach, so you will see hitatsura for example in the work of Yosozaemon no jo Sukesada of Bizen.

Iriyamagata nakago-jiri is almost entirely found on Shinto and later period works. Some like this are found in Kashu province in the late koto period. Usually nakago shape like this will be a strong indicator of age, though the surface does appear to be older.