Must Read Article

[Vermithrax16]

Surprised it has not shown up here as yet, I am sure everyone has read it. Just in case, Darcy's new post is simply fantastic and well worth your time and consideration:

https://blog.yuhindo.com/visualization/

[b.hennick]

Amazing data, amazing discussion of the meanings within. It is well worth the read.

[Vermithrax16]

Amazing data, amazing discussion of the meanings within. It is well worth the read.

I have spent at least 3 hours on the charts to this point. Fascinating.

[DRDave]

I binge on his articles, too.

[Ken-Hawaii]

The quality of Darcy's data is amazing! I'll be digging into that for a long time.

[Brian]

Darcy is a master at data analysis, research and putting it into context. I hope all of his blog posts will oneday be published as something like "random thoughts on Nihonto" or something else, as they would make an excellent book.
Required reading as far as I am concerned.

[John A Stuart]

An interesting approach to identifying production and quality in different periods. John

[ROKUJURO]

Fascinating indeed, but it might be difficult to represent SURIAGE or O-SURIAGE blades in these data charts. 

[Jussi Ekholm]

Should have guessed Darcy has already done the thing I am doing with much wider period scope and bigger databank...

 

Well as I've been doing similar research I can share few observations. Surviving ōdachi are very rare, as you can see in Darcy data there are not too many squares above 91 cm mark. There are few more as Darcy set a limit at 150 cm + for example Tomomitsu and Tomoyuki ones are Kokuhō and there are bunch of Bunkazai too. And of course there are swords that do not bear these designations but have other provenance. Also you can see that the upper end of 80's is quite few in number too, not too many marks above 84 cm in general.

 

I don't want to copy Darcy's image and draw with Gimp over it but for me personally the most interesting part is the following (you can draw a square or something in your head). Horizontal line from 900 to 1450 and vertical line upwards from 80 cm. You'll see that only small bunch of tachi fall within this group. I know I've talked many times how much historical importance and swords being close to original shape means to me. Even though you add Kokuhō, Bunkazai, lower tier papers, all swords without papers, you cannot change the fact that pre 1450's tachi above 80 cm in length are very rare swords that in my mind should be paid special attention due to their survived length & shape.

 

I think we should be able to get interesting discussions on this subject in general.

[Blazeaglory]

Wow! That is some very detailed info ! I love it!

[Katsujinken]

I hope folks realize how lucky we are that Darcy publishes what he does. Obviously the methods here aren’t groundbreaking, but their application to this field absolutely is. As someone born in the 80s (a rarity in this field, it seems), this kind of data visualization speaks to me with real immediacy. It makes 100-page concepts from the classic books obvious in just a moment of close examination.

 

This is just fantastic.

[Vermithrax16]

I figured there would be a bunch of discussion on this one, but every time I went and tried to make an observation or a comment, Darcy had already covered it well in the article. Amazing.

 

Only thing I will add:

We get another good cluster of Juyo blades right before the end of the Shinshinto era (1850-1870). When thinking about the highest rated Shinshinto smiths, not many were making swords in that era. Masahide, Motohira, and Naotane were a touch before then. Kiyomaro ended sword making in 1848 (abruptly, sadly). So I do wonder what this cluster refers to.

[Ken-Hawaii]

I noticed that too, Jeremiah. Wonder who the tosho were? Might there be some deals for lesser-known blades?

[Gakusee]

People like Sa Yukihide, Kurihara Nobuhide, Koyama Munetsugu, Unju Korekazu crafted worthy blades in the 1860s.

 

Darcy has done a lot for this community, generously sharing his knowledge here and in his blog. I encourage all newcomers having joined in the last two years to go through Darcy’s blog and articles here. He studies and writes with zeal and passion.

[Jussi Ekholm]

Darcy has been on the roll lately, so much good data for everyone to use. I can only nod my head in agreement of this data.

 

Now as I'll be soon entering the early 20's "weak" Jūyō sessions I already noticed the increase of items after the 13th session. 23 and 24 will be the top dogs in item numbers and both feature 3 books and close to 500 items each session. Now Darcy did write a notice that you should approach carefully for the swords passing from 20 to 28, I'll include 29 to that list and provide the number from 20 to 29 there were c. 3300 items passing and that is about c. 25% of the total Jūyō items. And while the 20's sessions had some weaker passes too (like some other higher total item sessions) the number of items passed in 2X sessions is so great it affects it affects the overall volume of Jūyō.

 

But also read what Darcy wrote about top items passing onto Tokujū regardless of the session. For example Jūyō 19 was a big session with 399 passes, but there were some real gems among the items and many went on and passed Tokubetsu Jūyō in various sessions (will know a lot more when I get up to more recent books).

 

Good thing about numerical and statistical data like this is that it is factual. The amount of items passed is what it is and items that made the cut made the cut at that moment. We can of course afterwards debate on lot of things but the factual data cannot be changed.

 

As an odachi fan I am ashamed that I forgot the third Kokuhō on my earlier list (Nagayoshi)... :D

[Jussi Ekholm]

Just to prove the point that great items even from "weak" sessions will pass on to the top. As I was doing my browsing session at Japanese sites I noticed my all time favorite Kusanagi offering had passed Tokubetsu Jūyō last year in session 25 (I didn't pay too close attention to results when they were released in the magazine). This sword passed Jūyō in session 26 which is in the "weak session" group.

 

Pretty spectacular late Heian period Odachi: https://www.kusanaginosya.com/SHOP/368.html

 

Also it can be observed here that more research has been done on the sword between the Jūyo to Tokujū sessions (and perhaps information on these smiths have increased over the years). You can see that this sword was attributed to Yoshioka Ichimonji Yoshimune (late Kamakura) at Jūyō 26 shinsa, and now at Tokubetsu Jūyō 25 the sword got attributed to Ko-Bizen Yoshimune (late Heian). So the sword "aged" few hundred years between the shinsa sessions. For those interested, you can see the Jūyō paper in the ad when it was for sale before being upgraded to higher papers https://web.archive.org/web/20161107181756/https://www.kusanaginosya.com/SHOP/368.html

 

 

[Gakusee]

Jussi

I remember seeing it. It is a massive blade. I was not overwhelmed, probably because there were some many other outstanding swords there and other KoBizen and Ichimonji, or it could have been the lighting in the NBTHK exhibition hall.

 

But if you analyse it, it was only a matter of time for it to go TJ

- incredible length (94cm!!!) ubu tachi

- decent preservation (despite thinner monouchi hamon and barely-here boshi)

- powerful and impactful utsuri

- remnant of signature

- great school

- venerable old age

 

The “weak Juyo”/JINO comments Darcy is making are about blades that just about scrape through (in terms of preservation, or length etc) and also of not necessarily the superlative schools.

 

So, frankly blades like these are almost a definite for TJ. The only other important (here, missing) factor is daimyo provenance. Not saying that this was not a daimyo blade (in fact, most probably it was) but simply that background here is lost to time. If you have daimyo provenance I have noticed blades are almost certain to go TJ as well (well, it helps to have it but also the fact that it was ex-daimyo meant it had to meet very stringent quality and appreciation criteria in the first place, so that argument goes on both directions).