Certificate kantei

[Mikaveli]

Just for a bit of fun, here's three swords, can you guess the certificate?

 

One is Juyo, one TH, and one Hozon, selling for approximately £20k, £8k and £4k respectively (so no tricks - there isn't a Kotetsu with just Hozon).

 

Basic images, but all the same res. Bonus points if you can identify which gokaden:

 

Option 1:

 

Option 2:

 

Option 3:

 

[eternal_newbie]

I'll bite...

 

Spoiler

Gokaden: Mino

 

1) TH (textbook Mino)

2) Juyo (looks like early Mino, maybe Naoe?)

3) Hozon (later Mino)

 

[Hoshi]

Hello,

 

A good question and a chance at learning. 

 

Remember that there is a component of intra-smith competition at Juyo, this means that in addition to appreciating the overall quality, one must assess the relative quality. That said, it is possible to design such an exercise without traps (e.g., not taking a chu-saku JINO or mumei shinshinto in koto style). Moreover, ideally, we would have more picture than this: unfortunately our eyes are prone to errors in appraising the nioiguchi from these photos, due to hadori, poor polish, or other visual artifact. It's a game of statistics and it relies on picking archetypes and not outliers for this exercise to be meaningful. 

 

All of this to say that the heuristics I'm about to produce only work if there are no traps: 

 

Spoiler

Sword 1: failed nioiguchi, uneven presence of ara-nie without a matrix of finer nie extending gradually into the ha. This is a hard nioiguchi, and it goes from ara-nie to "blank and dead" in just a few mm with a frayed and fizzled appearance. This normally cannot be Juyo (but in the 70's, you never know). Not many redeeming qualities, one streak of chickei near the kissaki that has some potential to be hiding more with better photos. Shot in the dark. 

 

Sword 2: Feels ancient, good presence. Nioiguchi seems softer, finer and intentionally so, it checks out. Warning: Hadori obstructs any attempts at judging beyond that, maybe luminous, maybe not, unknown activities. Hada looks alright but not high class, with chickei and jinie, giving it a distinct Koto vibe O-kissaki reinforces the Nambokucho impression. Other candidates include Momoyama smiths, but the hada feels too uneven in place. There is something happening in the boshi that points to Nambokucho as well. Very hard to tell anything else, without better quality pictures. If I would venture a guess, if there are micro-summits in the hamon and ashi: Soden-Bizen work of the Nambokucho period, by a second or third tier smith (Not Chogi, Kanemitsu, or Kencho), or else low-ranking Naoe, Sue-Sa, Omiya, etc. Depends on the activity in the hamon and other parameters we can't see. If you're devious, It could also be a mumei shinshinto Motohira in bad shape with bad photos that is stuck at Hozon, and anything else in between, but in my opinion this would be defeat the exercise. 

 

Sword 3: failed nioiguchi, completely blank hamon, uneven gunome that looks awkwardly drawn with a pencil, hard feeling. Hedging this because it could just be a terrible photo and the polish is poor: there could be things inside to appreciate? If the photos are accurate, this is not going anywhere near Juyo with a ten foot pole, unless the photograph was really intending on doing the sword the greatest photographic disfavor possible. 

 

Sword 2 > Sword 1 > Sword 3 based on the visual qualities of the photos, all else being equal. However: Which one is Hozon and which one is TH? Honestly, there is almost no difference between both levels and its a stretch to assume one blade is maxed out at Hozon unless it fails the checklist, and since it's just a checklist, there is the program for this particular case: If sword 3 is zaimei, and sword 1 is mumei, then sword 3 is TH, else, sword 1 is TH. Aesthetic elements, such as the quality of the hada or the nioiguchi are not going to prevent you from getting TH. 

 

The first real difference is Juyo, and the second one is Tokuju, the third is the top 10% of Tokuju/Jubun, and the last is Kokuho.  

 

And for these reasons, Sword 2 is the most likely Juyo, unless there is photographic shenanigans at play. It is not a high-ranking Juyo either. It's an entry-level Juyo and from quality, unlikely to be from a recent session or an early session, unless signed or ubu or other major redeeming qualities we cannot possibly see. 

 

Hope this helps, 

 

Hoshi

Edited Saturday at 07:18 PM by Hoshi

[eternal_newbie]

Having read Hoshi's excellent answer, I thought I might expand a bit more on my thought processes too:
 

Spoiler

I essentially used process of elimination. #2 is the standout option for Juyo - Naoe Shizu immediately comes to mind from the hamon and what looks like o-kissaki. Given the prices listed (£20k, £8k and £4k) and the lack of any major defects or damage shown, this would likely preclude it from being TH as £8k for a Nanbokucho o-kissaki daito from a good school seems a bit too cheap unless there's something wrong with it.

 

#3 is the obvious contender for Hozon, and I'll add that I've seen a few mid-Showa blades by smiths from Gifu with a very similar looking hamon; £4k for this seems about right.

 

That leaves #1 as the TH blade; I wasn't as critical as Hoshi was because my assumption is that the photography is hiding a lot of detail in all cases (albeit there's probably not much to hide in #3). Stylistically it looks like a bog-standard Mino work; not great, not terrible. £8k looks a little on the high end from the detail that we can see, but again: the photography probably hides some of the better features (as Hoshi mentioned there's a very visible chikei near the kissaki where the light is good).

 

[Mikaveli]

Thanks for the replies so far (and double points for the hidden answers 🙏).

 

I'll let it run for a while longer to give others a chance to answer, but I must say I'm impressed by the level of knowledge displayed! It's actually really useful for me to see the perspective and descriptions from the limited data (small, single picture available), it's helping my limited understanding and is very appreciated.

[Natichu]

12 hours ago, eternal_newbie said:

 

 

  Hide contents

1) TH

2) Juyo

3) Hozon

 

My apologies for the quote Rohan, but I can't get the spoiler box to work on my phone. Have edited the contents of the spoiler box (so its content is mine, not Rohan's), though conveniently I agree with Rohan's order. 

Edited Sunday at 07:14 AM by Natichu
Typo correction.

[Mikaveli]

Spoilers / answers:

 

Spoiler

1 was the TH.

 

2, is the Juyo. Mumei, but attributed to Den Naoe Kanetomo, Nanbokocho - as many pointed out.

 

3, was the Hozon. 

 

[eternal_newbie]

6 hours ago, Mikaveli said:

Spoilers / answers:

Hope I'm not stepping on your toes or anything, but using the info you gave (the attribution and rough price range of the Juyo blade) I was able to track down the listings for the three blades in case anyone else wanted to see more details/other photographs:
 

Spoiler

1. TokuHo Tanba no Kami Fujiwara Terukado (Mino Yoshisada school, 17th c.): https://www.samuraimuseum.jp/shop/product/antique-Japanese-sword-katana-signed-by-fujiwara-terukadonbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-certificate/

2. Juyo Den Naoe Kanetomo (Mino Naoe Shizu school, 14th c.): https://www.samuraimuseum.jp/shop/product/antique-Japanese-sword-katana-attributed-to-den-naoe-kanetomonbthk-juyo-token-certificate/

3. Hozon Jumyo (Mino Jumyo school, 17th c.): https://www.samuraimuseum.jp/shop/product/antique-Japanese-sword-katana-attributed-to-jyumyonbthk-hozon-certificate/ 

 

I was more or less on point for 1 and 2, but 3 threw me off - given the awkward hamon I'd assumed it was probably a shinshinto/gendai Gifu smith like the others I've seen but in retrospect it's likely they were copying the old Jumyo style (having looked up some lower end Jumyo blades I now see a few more similar hamon patterns).

 

[Mikaveli]

1 hour ago, eternal_newbie said:

Hope I'm not stepping on your toes or anything, but using the info you gave (the attribution and rough price range of the Juyo blade)

 

 

Nope. That's all good. 🙂

 

I'd had the same thoughts as you regarding the third blade, so I'm glad I wasn't alone in that.