tosogu_eu

Bump; anyone has any ideas regarding the mei/ school/ artist?

270,000 now! Wow. Well... it's large!

In fact I also had a kogatana in my collection of a similar fashion. Quite nice, very finely made. Best,.Alex

Wow. Tough one... Masayoshi? But it's relatively hard to see. Maybe anyone with better eyes.

It was a pleasure talking to you last year, Leen. See you tomorrow! Best, Alex

How long is that 2nd one, Arno? The two nakago-ana are interesting. Can be indicating a significant nagase (80+cm?). Best, Alex

Its so interesting: From the post, you can likely already tell which LLM this was. This kind of "significance" would be seen by Chatgpt or Gemini, right? these overly positive, highly encouraging, and sometimes sycophantic responses to keep the user engaged. Its commonly referred to as AI Sycophancy or "automated Flattery". This behavior is dialed up specifically to make the user feel good, dependent, or emotionally attached so they continue using the LLM. If you don't prompt to challenge critical thinking from the AI or (let it) validate the results. Not blaming anyone here, I just honestly find it very interesting (working in Big4 Tech environment with heavy AI engagement). Best, Alex

I think that is exactly my feeling, when i look at that tsuba. But does anyone have a clue where to put the artist or the mei? Such a work tetsu, without a larger school or anything behind it, leaves me a bit puzzled.

No one with any idea?

Also true for Europe/ Germany. But fortunately, now it's working. Got that error: DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

Always good to have people close by in Europe. Do we see you in Utrecht, Lex? Best wishes from Frankfurt. Alex

Exactly. And this isn't really about any expertise or studying nihonto. A tachi would need 60 cm Nagasa, kissaki to hamachi. This is purely about logic and numbers. Your numbers: 63.5 total length - 5 cm current cut down mei - 3 cm habaki = 55.5 cm nagase at MAX. so even if the mei startet right under the habaki. Which is 99.9% not the case: that thing never was a long enough.

Still, a tachi from Nambokucho would've been significantly longer. The sugata of that time was mostly impressive in size. Tachi were regularly exceeding 90cm. Even if a tachi was on the very lower end of 70cm nagase: you Waki has 63.5 cm total length now. You have to deduct I guess 5 or 6 cm for mei, another 3 or 4 cm for the habaki. So there is no chance that even in theory, your sword ever was a tachi or katana. Well, only if the smith signed his work as horimono, way before the munemachi. Just kidding. So if you want to learn about swords; you maybe want to change your direction on this particular piece a little bit. And I agree, it's a beautiful and interesting piece. Best, Alex

Those are some nice pictures, thanks for sharing! I like the Wakizashi. Send them to a togi?

Would it be possible to share some pic's of the blades?