An papered Hisamichi WakazashiI bought recently.

[nagamaki - Franco]

A papered sword is only a new beginning, not the end. Within minutes of posting this sword I was already searching and finding numerous examples on the net and in books for comparison study. How are they different, how are they the same? Even signed swords should not be taken at face value just because they are papered. What about the polish, what about the quality. How and why did the shinsa team come to their conclusion? Don't be a paper collector.

[Jiro49]

I was referring to the shinsa organizations, not your comments

[Jorgensen]

Well, I have with interest read the whole 3 pages of this thread (and many others) and I do understand a little bit of Brian's (bbmore) frustration.

 

He is a new collector and his love first of all fell on the military swords. Many of you gave him some advises on this, and also told him to consider directing towards "real" nihonto, rather than military swords. He did at some point start on buying some older blades and again many gave him good advises and sometimes (VERY) honest oppinions on the swords he bought, but the most common advise was "buy books, slow down a bit and go for the papered swords from reputable dealer"... Brian have done that (at least the swords of what I know of =), but now some question the attribution (in a healthy way to MY point of view), but from Brians view I think he is exited, shows his new sword buy to the other of us (I personally appreciate any pictures shared in here) and it may be a bit frustrating that some people here, from Brians point of view, may never seem satisfied, but always ready to question Brian and his stuff. Its not easy to be new to Nihonto, please bear in mind.

 

With this said, imho nobody have done wrong and people just like a healthy discussion and its kind of everyone that offer their help and oppinion to the stranger... of course all oppinions should be welcome, but please consider some understanding for new collectors and the challenges the face in the complex world of nihonto they stand in front of in the beginning and of course the stuff SHOULD be questioned, please consider if its possible to write in an encouraging, guiding and positive way - especially to newer collecors.

 

Just my 5 cents...

[SwordGuyJoe]

I couldn't agree with J. Jorgensen more. I was one of the group giving Brian a bit of a hard time when he kept buying sword after sword of showato and not heeding anyone's advice around "read a book, slow down, etc." - this was frustrating. I would have to say that Brian has began listening to advice on this board - I think to his benefit, but that is his call. He is collecting nihonto (that was never a concern for me, as one collects what one collects), buying from good seller, reading (or at least his recent purchases seem to indicate a more learned taste), and buying papered sword. Good on you Brian.

 

As far as questioning papers. I also agree. I saw a Nagamura Kiyonobu (WWII Seki Smith and RJT) with an attribution to shinshinto . It is always good to question and sometimes good to criticize.

 

Note to Brian: As you know I collect Gendaito - an era many think is vastly inferior to "real" swords (Koto). If I would have gotten in a tizzy over every comment about my swords being crap, I would now have a collection of all koto swords, to which I proudly say, I own none. Keep your head up dude. Once you have a strong understanding of real quality, you'll find posting here for peoples opinion as a waste of your time, because your opinion is the only one that should matter. Who cares what we think?

[Jiro49]

I couldn't agree more!

 

Brian FYI, I asked for some direction on a sword and wad told it was " second class workmanship" and it is a sword that I like very much.. At first I wanted to react like you but after a few minutes I realized the level of blades he deals with are very high end and would probably look at my sword and a garden tool.

 

Collect for you and only you! Being an fng sucks no matter what

[Baka Gaijin]

Good afternoon Brian,

 

The thinner part of the central hole on the tsuba is shown up at 12 oclock to show a tsuba correctly.

 

Also with your papers, the Japanese is read from right to left downwards, if your unsure, look for kanji that have roofs on them and keep the roofs to the top of page so to speak....

 

e.g. 念仏 see the roof in the first character.

 

Cheers

[steve0]

nice blade Brian

 

I cant read papers nor understand attributions at this point but i like what my eyes tell me.

[Lance]

Besides Sudareba, Mishina smiths also used Kikusui, or chrysanthemum on a stream hamon. Maybe this is part of what led to the Kantei to Hisamichi? Below are one of your pictures, and oshigata from USAGIYA website at the link below describing Kikusui, and a little historical background. To me they look similar although the oshigata doesn't specify a smith......Or maybe someone can translate the part of your papers where the hamon is listed to see how it's described?

 

http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/kikusui.html

 

Regards,

Lance

[bmoore1322]

@ Lance

 

 

Yes, the Hamon on my blade looks just like that, here a pic of part of the blade showing the Hamon with the partial chrysanthemum design in it.

 

Brian