Looking for information on appraising/papering/insurance for a So Tsutomu Katana.

[bradc]

Hi All,

I have some questions on a Katana belonging to a friend.

It looks to be signed So Tsutomu  (宗 勉) and dated Showa 49.

He has done a little research on the smith and identified a couple other swords from the same smith.

He is looking for:
1) General information on the smith.  Does the signature look right? Any other interesting works to view?

2) An appraiser for insurance purposes. (sword is located in British Columbia, Canada). 

3) Suggestions as to the process of papering the sword. Is this sword potentially a candidate for getting papered. If anyone is familiar with the shinsa process some insight into where to start would be great.  My friend has family in Japan so he could import the sword himself but wasn't sure if it might be easier to use a service to help with the initial examination paperwork and submission.

 

4) Anything else that might be interesting to know about this work. Or any other information he should provide.

 

Thanks for any help,

Brad C

 

Edited January 20, 2022 by bradc
forgot my name at end, fixed a missing point.

[DoTanuki yokai]

For me it looks like the blade was purchased from the eBay dealer komonjo who sells lots of gimei with names of mukansa and national treasure.  I would  ask your friend if what he paid felt like the price for a So Tsutomu blade and he will know if it is worth shinsa, 

This  is just my opinion. 
For reference https://www.shoubudou.co.jp/products/detail.php?product_id=69

 

Edit: maybe I’m a little too annoyed by the komonjo gimei blades. 
I think your blade looks better then a „komonjo“ one but the signature does not share much with authenticated examples in my opinion.

[SteveM]

There is some information on Sō Tsutomu at the link below (it is all in Japanese, but google translate should help you get most of it). 

He was given the "Mukansa" title in 1990, so the sword your friend has predates the Mukansa title by a fairly long time - and thus may have some bearing on the quality of the blade and its resale value in the broader market. I just looked around a few Japanese sites and the range for blades from this smith is really wide (sub-$1000 to $10,000). 

 

It would cost a fair bit of money to send to Japan to get this appraised by the NBTHK (https://www.touken.or.jp/english/aboutus.html)

There is another group that sometimes holds appraisal sessions in the US (NTHK), but covid has put the brakes on this. Perhaps it will resume once this current omicron wave dies down. 

 

You might try contacting one of the dealers on the dealer part of this forum and see if they would be interested in giving you a valuation. (My guess is around $1000). We should have a few threads on this forum about the actual process of importing, registering, sending to appraisal, de-registering and licensing for re-export back to you. It is a slighly cumbersome process. I wouldn't ask my Japanese relatives to get involved unless they were keen sword enthusiasts. 

 

https://www.touken-world.jp/modern-sword-artisan/exemption-of-examination/sou-tsutomu/

[bradc]

16 hours ago, DoTanuki yokai said:

For me it looks like the blade was purchased from the eBay dealer komonjo who sells lots of gimei with names of mukansa and national treasure.  I would  ask your friend if what he paid felt like the price for a So Tsutomu blade and he will know if it is worth shinsa, 

This  is just my opinion. 
For reference https://www.shoubudou.co.jp/products/detail.php?product_id=69

 

Edit: maybe I’m a little too annoyed by the komonjo gimei blades. 
I think your blade looks better then a „komonjo“ one but the signature does not share much with authenticated examples in my opinion.

The blade was not overly expensive and sold through a friend (who bought it from a friend).  It was definitely not from komonjo and has been in the country for quite some time. (It was purchased years ago)

 

It wasn't sold with the smiths name mentioned (which honestly wouldn't have meant much at the time).  It had a non believable dramatic story attached to it, so links to it's real history has unfortunately been lost with the passing of its past owner.  The polish, hamon, and grain are actually pretty nice in person (hamon isn't visible in the pictures) but obviously not expecting a juyo grading .

 

Mainly at this point the owner is intersted in learning if it might actually be by that smith  and in general anything about.  The main goal of papering would be learning and ideally confirming the maker.  There's no real profit interest in this one, just looking to learn and understand its real history if possible.

 

If you can suggest any resources with authenticated signature copies to compare that would be appreciated. 

 

Cheers,

Brad

Edited January 27, 2022 by bradc
clarified a detail

[bradc]

11 hours ago, SteveM said:

There is some information on Sō Tsutomu at the link below (it is all in Japanese, but google translate should help you get most of it). 

He was given the "Mukansa" title in 1990, so the sword your friend has predates the Mukansa title by a fairly long time - and thus may have some bearing on the quality of the blade and its resale value in the broader market. I just looked around a few Japanese sites and the range for blades from this smith is really wide (sub-$1000 to $10,000). 

 

It would cost a fair bit of money to send to Japan to get this appraised by the NBTHK (https://www.touken.or.jp/english/aboutus.html)

There is another group that sometimes holds appraisal sessions in the US (NTHK), but covid has put the brakes on this. Perhaps it will resume once this current omicron wave dies down. 

 

You might try contacting one of the dealers on the dealer part of this forum and see if they would be interested in giving you a valuation. (My guess is around $1000). We should have a few threads on this forum about the actual process of importing, registering, sending to appraisal, de-registering and licensing for re-export back to you. It is a slighly cumbersome process. I wouldn't ask my Japanese relatives to get involved unless they were keen sword enthusiasts. 

 

https://www.touken-world.jp/modern-sword-artisan/exemption-of-examination/sou-tsutomu/

Thansk for the information.  My friends wife can read Japanese so that's perfect.

 

In non covid times he would usually be in Japan each year (hense potentially bringing it), but travel has been a wee bit complex the last few years.

[Ken-Hawaii]

The blade would have to brought into Japan by a registered agent, Brad.

 

Welcome to another sword-swinger.