Sword Attributed to "Nioh"

[Cookie4Monstah]

Greetings everyone,

 

I was browsing the website of a sword shop and for whatever reason this sword caught my eye.

 

https://www.samuraimuseum.jp/shop/product/antique-Japanese-sword-katana-attributed-to-nioh-nbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-certificate/

 

What are your thoughts on it?

 

Thanks,

Khalid

[Mark S.]

1 hour ago, Cookie4Monstah said:

 

What are your thoughts on it?

 

What is it you would like to know beyond the description provided and the info on the THozon paper?

[Cookie4Monstah]

32 minutes ago, Mark S. said:

What is it you would like to know beyond the description provided and the info on the THozon paper?

 

Hi Mark,

There are a few things:

1) How desirable/rare are works by the school/smith that this sword came from?

2) Would you invest in having Shirasaya made for this sword?

3) Would you invest in a "touch up" art polish for this sword?

4) Does it have enough potential to warrant submitting it for a Juyo token at some point?

Any additional feedback is welcome as well.

 

Best,

Khalid

 

[Sansei]

Imo, both 3) and 4) are somewhat questionable. If the sword warranted a Juyo it would have probably been passed along for that evaluation prior to this. Depending on the skill of the polisher, the polishing would affect or could "invalidate" the current papering, no? More experienced people in this forum could weigh in on this but those are my thoughts.

[Shugyosha]

Hi Khalid,

Don’t speculate on swords that are for sale in Japan. The dealers there are best placed to promote swords up the rankings and if one is offered for sale without a particular paper, there’s a good chance it won’t get that paper, ever, even with a different polish. 
 

The Nio school isn’t a mainline school and so, unless this is a particularly good example, that will weigh heavily against it going Juyo. Try to find some Juyo examples  to compare this one to and see how the quality compares. 

[Jussi Ekholm]

Unfortunately I think that particular Niō is pretty rough. I would not invest in it and I would look towards other similar but better options. This seems to be priced at 850k yen which to me would be too much for this particular sword.

 

Here for comparison is in my opinion much better quality Niō attributed sword: https://nihontoantiques.com/project/ko-nio-den-katana-fss-899/

 

There are few Niō attributed swords that approximately date to Middle Kamakura, while the majority would date around late Kamakura - Nanbokuchō. It seems there are currently only 33 mumei Niō swords that have passed Jūyō. Out of those 5 are tachi.

 

Here you can see Tokubetsu Hozon tachi with Niō attribution that passed Jūyō. https://www.seiyudo.com/ka-030514.htm