The Greatest Japanese Sword Auction... ever! The Iyo Saijō Clan's Matsudaira Masterpieces (1918 & 1924)

[MassiveMoonHeh]

I stumbled across a great little read in the Token Bijutsu Volume 35 about the sale of the Iyo Saijō Clan's Matsudaira Masterpieces.

 

The Iyo Saijō Clan was established with the fief of 30,000 koku as a branch family of Kishū Tokugawa by Matsudaira Sakyō-dayū Yorizumi, who was second son of Tokugawa Yorinobu ruling Kishū. When the new branch came into existence, some of the treasures in the Kishū family collection were transferred as heirlooms. Among the ten transferred swords, three of them were meibutsu, namely, Maeda Masamune, Tokuzen-in Sadamune, and Satō Yukimitsu. Others included two Juyo Bunkazai, a kodachi by Sanenaga and a ken by Mitsutadai. It is said that the magnificence of swords in the Matsudaira collection came next only to the Maeda, Shimazu, and Kishū Tokugawa collections.

 

In the article it, it talks to the sale of a few of these great swords that we have discussed even recently here on this forum. It seems insane that some of these things have actually been sold but there you go.

 

In 1918 or 50 years after the Meiji restoration, two of the Iyo Saijō Clan's Matsudaira meibutso were sold:

 

1. Torikai Rai Kunitsugu tanto - said by Dr Homma when he saw it in 1950 that he was surprised this was not elevated to a higher status (Juyo Bunkazai or higher) this sold in 1918 to a Mr Sugihara who paid 8,000 yen for it. To put in perspective. 1 yen was equivalent to roughly 51.5c USD back in 1918. So this means the sword roughly cost $4,120. To assess how much this was in the day, an unskilled labour earned you $1/day, whilst skill labour was $1.50/day. As such the salary of an unskilled labourer was $241/year or $361.50/year for a skilled labourer. At the time a larger, well-built, multi-bedroom home in New England cost between $2,500 and $3,500, today this home would cost over $3-4 million.

 

Basically, if you look at the USD prices from back in the day, all you need to do is throw three zeros at the end for an roughly equivalent price today.

 

2. Kotegiri Gō wakizashi - Initially owned by Inaba Tanba-no-kami Masakatsu it was given official recognition as work of Gō by the origami issued by Hon'ami Koon in Kanbun 2 (1662). The origami also certified that it was worth 100 pieces of gold coins. Later when its ownership went to Hosokawa Etchū-no-kami the price was raised to 130 gold coins. It went back to the Inaba again with the origami certifying its new value was 200 gold coins. Finally it was put into the same auction in 1918 as the Torikai Rai Kunitsugu tanto and was sold for €3,338 or $1,719.

 

In 1924, some 56 years after the Meiji Restoration, the remaining bulk of the Iyo Saijō Clan masterpieces were auctioned off, including their third Matsudaira meitbutso:

 

3. Tokuzen-in Sadamune tanto - named ofter the owner Maeda Gen-i who had the pseudonym Tokuzen-in. It came to the Kishū Tokugawa by way of the Shōgun Tokugawa, and it eventually went to the Matsudaira in lyo Saijō. It was at the time given the price of 300 gold pieces. It was placed in an auction in 1924 along with an aikuchi-koshirae with a set of mitokoro-mono made by Gotô Kojo. The three metal pieces are of the shishi (lion) design in gold. The tanto and the koshirae sold for 5,200 yen or $2,132 at 41c USD. Which seems a lot but this sword was made a Kokuhō or National Treasure on the 22nd November 1952 and is now held at the Mitsui Memorial Museum.

The following is a list of some of the swords of major importance that sold at the 1924 auction:

 

Bizen Kanenaga (unsigned) with shirasaya: 27,800 yen or $11,398 (even though it was not meibutso it became the highest priced sword at the time - we know it is not Kokuhō or Juyo Bunkazai as none of Kanenaga's blades are Kokuhō or Juyo Bunkazai. Would love to know what happened to it, is it one of the Juyo Bijutsu or Tokebetsu Juyo blades?) That would be almost $11.4 million in today's money! 

Norishige (unsigned) with shirasaya: 12,100 yen or $4,961 (People loving Norishige apparently is not a modern trend... Is this one of the Kokuhō or Juyo Bunkazai blades?) That would be almost $5 million in today's money!

Tsuriganekiri Kuniyuki with shirasaya: 3,050 yen or $1250.50 or $1.25 million in today's money! Unreal!

Enju Kunitoki tachi in shirasaya: 2,200 yen or $902

Yoshihiro tachi in koshirae: 1,650 yen or $676.50

Awataguchi Yoshimitsu tanto in koshirae: 1, 320 yen or $541

Rai Kunimitsu with shirasaya: 1,250 yen or $512.50

Awataguchi Kuniyoshi tachi in koshirae: 1,250 yen or $512.50

 

It is also known that more than half of the blades sold at this auction achieved prices above 1,000 yen or $410, that is over $410,000 in equivalent purchasing power today.

 

If we consider the Dr Compton Auction at Christie's held March 30, 1992 as the highlight Japanese sword auction of our generation, then this 1924 auction would simply have been the greatest Japanese sword auction of all time!

 

 

 

 

Edited February 13 by MassiveMoonHeh

[Lewis B]

1 hour ago, MassiveMoonHeh said:

Yoshihiro tachi in koshirae: 1,650 yen or $676.50

 

 

 

 

 

Some surprising datapoints there. One might argue that nihonto values, in monetary terms, have diminished considerably over time and will continue on that trajectory as we transition more towards a hobbyists interest. Im not sure there is a critical mass of younger collectors with the necessary disposable funds and curiosity to invest in these god-level pieces. 

 

Case in point, the Kotegiri Go, which was sold at another auction in 1931, receiving a bid of only 2,131 JPY basically two thirds what was paid in 1918. A very poor investment at the time.  

 

The Maeda Masamune didn`t meet reserve in 1924 and went unsold.

 

Any more info on the `Yoshihiro`? Is this a blade by Go or Senjuin Yoshihiro or a later Yoshihiro eg Sa Yoshihiro?

 

Oshigata for 3 of the blades

 

[eternal_newbie]

44 minutes ago, Lewis B said:

Any more info on the `Yoshihiro`? Is this a blade by Go or Senjuin Yoshihiro or a later Yoshihiro eg Sa Yoshihiro?

 

https://www.tsuruginoya.net/stories/kotegirigou/

 

It is indeed attributed to Go Yoshihiro. Somewhat confusingly, it was at one point attributed to Masamune, which would have made it the Kotegiri Masamune - except there's another, more well-known Kotegiri Masamune (https://markussesko.com/2013/06/25/the-kotegiri-masamune/). Even more confusingly, that Kotegiri Masamune is very likely not by Masamune either!

[MassiveMoonHeh]

36 minutes ago, Lewis B said:

Some surprising datapoints there. One might argue that nihonto values, in monetary terms, have diminished considerably over time and will continue on that trajectory as we transition more towards a hobbyists interest. Im not sure there is a critical mass of younger collectors with the necessary disposable funds and curiosity to invest in these god-level pieces. 

 

Case in point, the Kotegiri Go, which was sold at another auction in 1931, receiving a bid of only 2,131 JPY basically two thirds what was paid in 1918. A very poor investment at the time.  

 

The Maeda Masamune didn`t meet reserve in 1924 and went unsold.

 

Any more info on the `Yoshihiro`? Is this a blade by Go or Senjuin Yoshihiro or a later Yoshihiro eg Sa Yoshihiro?

 

Oshigata for 3 of the blades

 

With regard to the Yoshihiro...

 

I am unaware of a Gō Yoshihiro tachi that has survived to the present day. Certainly none appear in the Juyo list.

 

I know that there is Tokubetsu Juyo kodachi from Shinsa 16 that sold at Christie's in 2009 and there is this Tachi that apparently sold at Christie's but $11K seems stupidly cheap and no date is given for the auction - as such I am unsure this data is real or correct but there is a lot of info in this listing so who knows?

 

As such I would have to say for the price suggests it was probably a Gō but for the fact that no Tachi exists at the Juyo level or higher it is probably lost after the war... if it was a Gō.

[eternal_newbie]

Ah, I misunderstood - the question was about the Yoshihiro tachi, which I somehow missed in my initial reading. Yes, to my knowledge there's no extant Go Yoshihiro tachi, so either it was lost, or mistakenly recorded as a tachi despite actually being a katana (I've occasionally seen this happen with katana accompanied by tachi koshirae).

 

Edit: one other possibility - it was submitted to shinsa and reattributed to someone else.

Edited February 13 by eternal_newbie

[MassiveMoonHeh]

2 minutes ago, eternal_newbie said:

Ah, I misunderstood - the question was about the Yoshihiro tachi, which I somehow missed in my initial reading. Yes, to my knowledge there's no extant Go Yoshihiro tachi, so either it was lost, or mistakenly recorded as a tachi despite actually being a katana (I've occasionally seen this happen with katana accompanied by tachi koshirae).

As this was a Japanese Auction (rather than a Western Auction) held only 56 years post Meiji Restoration, selling a Daimyo Family's masterpieces, I am going to lean very heavily into the idea that they probably very much knew the difference between a Tachi and Katana. But crazier things have happened.

[Lewis B]

All good points although I have my doubts it was a Go. Wouldn't Go blades in a collection of the calibre of Matsudaira have had names. This Yoshihiro appears a little more 2nd tier. 

[MassiveMoonHeh]

11 minutes ago, Lewis B said:

All good points although I have my doubts it was a Go. It seems Go blades in collection of the Matsudaira calibre would have had names. This Yoshihiro seems a little more 2nd tier. 

At $676,500 in today's money - I like your definition of second tier! 

 

Would generally agree that this could be possible except for the fact that just below the Yoshihiro tachi is one of the other Tenka-Sansaku - a Awataguchi Yoshimitsu tanto. Both may have a both been meito but they are not from the Kyōhō Meibutsu-cho which is what I would say the meibutsu refers to. Also, these swords were described as swords of major importance and none of the other Yoshihiro's have been elevated to that category... yet. 

 

Also, happy to be proven wrong here... would love to see a Soshu or Senjuin sold at these kind of prices.

Edited February 13 by MassiveMoonHeh

[Lewis B]

25 minutes ago, MassiveMoonHeh said:

At $676,500 in today's money - I like your definition of second tier! 

 

It's all relative.

 

Give it a name and see the price hit the stratosphere. Marketing 101 even in the Edo period. 

[MassiveMoonHeh]

4 hours ago, Lewis B said:

It's all relative.

 

Give it a name and see the price hit the stratosphere. Marketing 101 even in the Edo period. 

Marketing 101 - you are not wrong.

[Jussi Ekholm]

Thank you for posting this Brett, you have made so many interesting threads and it is always fun to open them as I know it will be a good one. 

 

I got in bit of a rabbit hole when trying to dig up the blades and ended up finding some great info but mostly left dry.

 

I found out that the Torikai Kunitsugu was donated to Kurokawa Research Institute in 2016.

The Kotegiri Gō has been in the collection of Kurokawa Research Institute.

Like Brett wrote the Tokuzenin Sadamune is in the collection of Mitsui Memorial Museum, this is absolutely amazing blade in my opinion. I've said few times I am not huge fan of the golden age Sōshū but this Sadamune and few other Sadamune I have seen have been spectacular.

From the info that I can gather Maeda Masamune seems to reside in private collection, last mention I have seen about it was 1961 exhibition.

 

As I was trying to dig info about the other swords of major importance mentioned, I found out that the named sword Satō Yukimitsu of Matsudaira family was also sold if I understood correctly in 1934 for 1,798 yen (however another source mentions same person won it for 10,000 yen). It passed Jūyō Bijutsuhin in 1935 and listed owner was the person winning the bid for it. To my understanding it resides in private collection.

 

For the Tsuriganekiri Kuniyuki tachi I was only able to find the person who bought it from that auction and it seems he had some very nice swords. Unfortunately that 1924 mention of the item is the latest info I found about it.

 

Unfortunately for the rest of the items I cannot find anything certain. If I understand correctly the Matsudaira sword list that I have is from 1670, and there most likely has been numerous swords added to the family collection after that time. The Yoshihiro tachi is listed with characters 義弘 so it would be either Gō or Senjuin, however I have not known a single signed tachi by Gō and even for Senjuin Yoshihiro I know of only 1 and that is in Tsurugaoka Hachimangū collection. Also that Kanenaga is really puzzling one to me, also the mumei Norishige compared to other items in the list the prices of these 2 mumei swords seem way out there, so they most likely had super serious provenance. 

[MassiveMoonHeh]

1 hour ago, Jussi Ekholm said:

Thank you for posting this Brett, you have made so many interesting threads and it is always fun to open them as I know it will be a good one. 

 

I got in bit of a rabbit hole when trying to dig up the blades and ended up finding some great info but mostly left dry.

 

I found out that the Torikai Kunitsugu was donated to Kurokawa Research Institute in 2016.

The Kotegiri Gō has been in the collection of Kurokawa Research Institute.

Like Brett wrote the Tokuzenin Sadamune is in the collection of Mitsui Memorial Museum, this is absolutely amazing blade in my opinion. I've said few times I am not huge fan of the golden age Sōshū but this Sadamune and few other Sadamune I have seen have been spectacular.

From the info that I can gather Maeda Masamune seems to reside in private collection, last mention I have seen about it was 1961 exhibition.

 

As I was trying to dig info about the other swords of major importance mentioned, I found out that the named sword Satō Yukimitsu of Matsudaira family was also sold if I understood correctly in 1934 for 1,798 yen (however another source mentions same person won it for 10,000 yen). It passed Jūyō Bijutsuhin in 1935 and listed owner was the person winning the bid for it. To my understanding it resides in private collection.

 

For the Tsuriganekiri Kuniyuki tachi I was only able to find the person who bought it from that auction and it seems he had some very nice swords. Unfortunately that 1924 mention of the item is the latest info I found about it.

 

Unfortunately for the rest of the items I cannot find anything certain. If I understand correctly the Matsudaira sword list that I have is from 1670, and there most likely has been numerous swords added to the family collection after that time. The Yoshihiro tachi is listed with characters 義弘 so it would be either Gō or Senjuin, however I have not known a single signed tachi by Gō and even for Senjuin Yoshihiro I know of only 1 and that is in Tsurugaoka Hachimangū collection. Also that Kanenaga is really puzzling one to me, also the mumei Norishige compared to other items in the list the prices of these 2 mumei swords seem way out there, so they most likely had super serious provenance. 

Jussi, as always an absolute pleasure to see a post from yourself, whenever you do I know I am going to learn something! Thank you. 

 

Yes, I was surprised to see the price of the Norishige and especially the Kanenaga. If true that makes these two blades some of the most expensive blades ever sold. Like, ever! And the Kanenage in particular could lay claim to the most expensive blade ever sold in a public forum in the modern era, but they seem to only include both these blades in a list in the article as an appendix, or end note.

 

How is it possible that a these two blades could sell for this much and both get forgotten in the sands of history?

 

So yes, it is very strange and I would love to find out more.

[Lewis B]

Unless there was more than one mumei Kanenaga in the Matsudaira collection I believe this could be the $11,4 mil sword mentioned above.

 

Nagasa 71.8 and 1.7cm sori. From an exhibit at Touken World Nagoya

 

The kinzogan inscription states it was owned by Honda Heihachiro Tadatame better known as Honda Tadaoki, grandson of famed Tokugawa general, Honda Tadakatsu. 

 

Perhaps it was this provenance that pushed the bidding so high, if its the same sword.....

 

Edit: with further research this is a Tegai Kanenaga from the Matsudaira and not the Bizen Kanenaga that was sold in the auction.