Den Hasebe Kunishige Sword

[Bradscguy]

Can anyone give me any info on this? I’m confused on the signature confirmation. New to my collection and I think I’m in over my head. Any info would be appreciated! 

[mywei]

Hi 

The text of the JASMK certificate is a little blurry (I'm not familiar with these but seems related to a dealer (katananokura) affiliated museum )

 

But the gist seems to be that there is a shumei from Honami Juroemon Chikatoshi to a big name Nanbokucho Soshu smith, but they think the work is early Edo Horikawa Kunihiro school, likely Dewa daijo Kunimichi

[Bradscguy]

10 minutes ago, mywei said:

Hi 

The text of the JASMK certificate is a little blurry (I'm not familiar with these but seems related to a dealer (katananokura) affiliated museum )

 

But the gist seems to be that there is a shumei from Honami Juroemon Chikatoshi to a big name Nanbokucho Soshu smith, but they think the work is early Edo Horikawa Kunihiro school, likely Dewa daijo Kunimichi

Thanks for the info. Should I stay away from the JASMK Cert in the future? Will this issue with the signature affect the value? 

[mywei]

I'm not very familiar with these certificates sorry

 

If I was a potential buyer though I would treat this blade as not having any certification, and certainly not priced at a level of a NBTHK papered Hasebe blade.

[Rivkin]

5 years ago and before JASMK I thought were ok. He papered mostly mid-ranking blades, with reasonable plausability.

Today you see a lot of Rai Kunitoshi and such level stuff with his certificates, and in person it feels that the blades were assessed rather optimistically.

[Gakusee]

I agree in principle. One should always approach dealer certificates with a large dose of salt. 

[Bradscguy]

1 hour ago, mywei said:

I'm not very familiar with these certificates sorry

 

If I was a potential buyer though I would treat this blade as not having any certification, and certainly not priced at a level of a NBTHK papered Hasebe blade.

What value would you place on this blade? 

[mywei]

This is my guesstimate only but a papered zaimei Kunimichi wakizashi in similar condition would probably go for ~600k-800k yen (see ref https://www.tsuruginoya.com/items/a00557.html) a papered Hasebe many times more than that ( http://www.sword-auction.jp/ja/content/as17315脇差寸延び短刀：長谷部国重-wakizashisunnobi-tanto-hasebe-kunishige)

 

This one you'd have to price it as an unpapered mumei Shinto wakizashi that is not ubu. Probably struggle to go for more than 150k-200k IMHO.

[Rivkin]

Wait a second, the certificate says its early shinto, Horikawa's school. Makes sense, somebody like Dewa Daijo Kunimichi worked like this. I would treat such attribution as (likely) believable.

[Jussi Ekholm]

Also I think the paper is neutral in that sense as it just states there is shumei with attribution, so it does not confirm the shumei attribution but instead goes against it and attribution in paper is as described before.

 

The wakizashi looks quite nice to my eye from the little that can be seen in the few bottom pics.

[Sunny]

looks pretty sweet man.

Nice little blade there with a beautiful flow to the hamon and hadori.

I love the shape and the way the hamon gets fuller towards the curve of the blade.

Just absolutely stunning.

[Surfson]

I agree with Matt's assessment.  

 

It looks like a nice blade that appears to be in good polish.  It's hard to tell more with the photos about blade condition.  

 

The papers and the shumei (lacquer mei) are contradictory.   I'm not sure that NBTHK or NTHK would paper it if the shumei is incorrect - perhaps others have had them pass swords with incorrect shumei, but I have not.  On the other hand, if the shumei is correct, they would likely paper it.  

 

Setting value is more difficult, though again, I agree with Matt ($1200-1800 as it sits most likely).  You can submit it to NTHK at one of the sword shows and if it does paper to Hasebe, life is good.  If you set aside the papers, you are in the uncomfortable position of passing it off as a Hasebe or playing dumb, even though you know that at least one expert (the sword dealer) thinks otherwise.   Most collectors prefer to put all the cards on the table and let the chips fall where they may.  

[Shugyosha]

Edited to remove comment. Bob is right in his post above.