Hoshi Posted April 26 Author Report Posted April 26 Hi, Thank you for the report. It's fixed. This was a data bug - this item was retrieved a long time ago, in a period where the classifiers were more prone to errors on certificate detection. The original text states: A blade of similar character appears among the 65th Jūyō Tōken designated works. This is what caused the confusion. Today the classifiers are much more resilient to such assertions. Choshuya's people are wonderful and kind, on top of it - they often have excellent items at more than a fair price. It comes at the cost of their website being a digital IQ test for foreigners and I lack words to describe just how difficult it is to extract meaningful, up to date structured data from it. All the best, Hoshi 2 1 Quote
George KN Posted April 26 Report Posted April 26 I've got to say, this is a really smart looking site! Super useful, thank you 1 Quote
The Blacksmith Posted April 27 Report Posted April 27 What an absolutely fantastic app, thank you so much for your time and efforts on our behalf. Even though I am sadly not in the market for buying, there is just so much to take in here and drool over. It is an amazing resource indeed. Thank you Hoshi. Darcy would be extremely proud indeed! 1 1 Quote
Sukaira Posted May 3 Report Posted May 3 @Hoshi have been using your site every day since it launched. Really great stuff. I am a software engineer myself so I appreciate having a modern implementation to use on our ancient hobby I did notice some bugs with classification of some smith ranks, like Yasumitsu for example being rated as Saijo-saku plus some others. Sorry if that's been reported already. 1 Quote
Hoshi Posted May 4 Author Report Posted May 4 Hi @Sukaira, Thanks for the report, it helps. It will be fixed shortly. Let me know if you see any other anomalies in the data, feel free to shoot me PMs or reply to the thread, whatever is more convenient. Glad you're enjoying NW! Can you think of any feature you wish existed? Best, Hoshi 2 Quote
Sebuh Posted May 4 Report Posted May 4 @Hoshi Sorry to budge in here, when your asking someone else for feedback. I was wondering if it'd be possible to add an area somewhere on an Artist's profile that can highlight their works average sale/sell price? sort of like stock prices? it could be a pretty good idea when looking how much smiths sell for at the Hozon, TH, and Juyo and beyond. Though I understand there are variables such as big names, only having Hozon and being hundreds of thousands. This is really just a rough outline of an idea, if this is something that intrests you I could try thinking more into it. Thanks, Quote
Hoshi Posted May 4 Author Report Posted May 4 Dear Sebuh, I'm sympathetic to the request, but I'm convinced a feature like this would cause more harm than good to the community — let me explain why. The root problem is that quality isn't a legible characteristic through dealer photos. Paper levels are the best proxy we have, but they're a coarse one. Within a single designation, there are "barely Juyo" Norishige and "Tokuju-in-waiting" Norishige, and in Japan those are completely different items value-wise. The overseas market tends to get offered the "barely Juyo" tier with open price, because the "Tokuju-in-waiting" pieces get deemed "too expensive for Juyo" by Western buyers and stay in Japan or are marked as "ask". So the average Juyo Norishige price an aggregator like this would surface is already a biased signal. It doesn't reflect the artist's realized market price, it reflects items that make it online with a revealed asking price. The deeper concern is what happens once that metric exists. Collectors will (rationally) optimize against the legible signal: lowest possible price-to-name ratio. That, in turn, creates an incentive for dealers to source cheaper and cheaper items attributed to master smiths (rationally). We've already seen a flood of big names with recent TH papers at prices that feel too good to be true, and the uncomfortable answer is that they're too good to be true. The market is responding to exactly the pressure this kind of metric would amplify. I think the better direction is to help prospective buyers understand what constitutes truly great work within an artist's oeuvre, so quality becomes more legible, not just price-per-name. How to do this, however, is not so obvious, but I have some ideas down the line. Hope this helps, Hoshi 2 Quote
Sebuh Posted May 4 Report Posted May 4 27 minutes ago, Hoshi said: Dear Sebuh, I'm sympathetic to the request, but I'm convinced a feature like this would cause more harm than good to the community — let me explain why. The root problem is that quality isn't a legible characteristic through dealer photos. Paper levels are the best proxy we have, but they're a coarse one. Within a single designation, there are "barely Juyo" Norishige and "Tokuju-in-waiting" Norishige, and in Japan those are completely different items value-wise. The overseas market tends to get offered the "barely Juyo" tier with open price, because the "Tokuju-in-waiting" pieces get deemed "too expensive for Juyo" by Western buyers and stay in Japan or are marked as "ask". So the average Juyo Norishige price an aggregator like this would surface is already a biased signal. It doesn't reflect the artist's realized market price, it reflects items that make it online with a revealed asking price. The deeper concern is what happens once that metric exists. Collectors will (rationally) optimize against the legible signal: lowest possible price-to-name ratio. That, in turn, creates an incentive for dealers to source cheaper and cheaper items attributed to master smiths (rationally). We've already seen a flood of big names with recent TH papers at prices that feel too good to be true, and the uncomfortable answer is that they're not too good to be true. The market is responding to exactly the pressure this kind of metric would amplify. I think the better direction is to help prospective buyers understand what constitutes truly great work within an artist's oeuvre, so quality becomes more legible, not just price-per-name. How to do this, however, is not so obvious, but I have some ideas down the line. Hope this helps, Hoshi Got it! I thought the same, but thought to throw it out there. Use the site daily and love looking at new improvements Thanks for everything! 1 Quote
eternal_newbie Posted May 12 Report Posted May 12 Here's one the that initially seems like bugged AI but turns out to be the fault of the seller using copy&paste from other listings: #328540 (https://ginza.choshuya.co.jp/sale/gj/r8/007/00_norishige.htm). It's an 1836 naginata by Taikei Naotane described in the overview as a gakumei Norishige wakizashi (the in-depth description is correct) made in Kanbun (??). I've seen a few other similar oddities on the seller's website. 1 Quote
Hoshi Posted May 12 Author Report Posted May 12 Good grace @eternal_newbie You're fast. I just saw it and fixed it. The seller copy/pasted their past listing for their gakumei Norishige, mislabelling the item, and this caused utter confusion in the classification system. Thanks for the report. Best, Hoshi 1 Quote
Toryu2020 Posted May 12 Report Posted May 12 I wonder is Tozando on your list of sellers? https://japanesesword.net/collections/antique-Japanese-sword-katana Quote
Hoshi Posted May 13 Author Report Posted May 13 Dear Thomas, Yes, Tozando is a verified seller. Here is the link to Tozando: https://nihontowatch.com/?tab=available&dealer=101&sort=recent Since there are now way too many dealers for a dropdown menu selection, I suggest you use the textbox under dealer in the side panel filter. There, you can select the specific dealer. All the best, Hoshi 3 Quote
tosogu_eu Posted May 16 Report Posted May 16 On 2/18/2026 at 5:53 PM, Hoshi said: Hello everyone, TLDR: Interested in Japanese swords and fittings? I made this to help the field. Open nihontowatch.com on your phone browser, and add to home screen (Share → Add to Home Screen). Thank me later. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have been thinking for quite some time about the future of our field. I have been blessed with incredible mentors and opportunities, most notably the late Darcy Brockbank, who was so generous in sharing his knowledge. Since his tragic passing, I have felt a responsibility to carry that work forward. What I am about to present, I built as an homage to his memory. Our field has problems. We operate in a field of extraordinary depth without being equipped with the knowledge and tools to understand what we're looking at when we browse the market. Refreshing dozens of dealer websites every week, most in Japanese, copy-pasting listings into translation apps, pinching to zoom on sites built twenty years ago — market awareness is just painful and you miss things constantly. You spend an hour and walk away unsure you have seen everything. And this is just the market experience. The deeper problem is access to knowledge. There are no catalogues raisonnés for artists. Yuhindo would have grown into it — it was planned. But alas, Yuhindo is no more. No way to know, with any confidence, whether a price is reasonable without decades of experience or tens of thousands of dollars invested in published references. No way to know why something costs what it does. Communication with Japanese dealers remains daunting for most. No easy way to know who is a reputable dealer. The barrier to entry is simply too high, and this friction keeps our field artificially small. Fine art has Artnet. Watches have Chrono24. Antiquarian books have AbeBooks — markets with comparable depth and comparable opacity, served by platforms that bring transparency and accessibility. These fields have benefited immensely: they have enabled new entrants in droves to collect in confidence. Our field needs more knowledge and transparency to build interest and trust.Japanese swords and fittings. Eight hundred years of collecting history at the highest levels. The category that contains the most national treasures in Japan. The indefatigable search for perfection of an entire civilization. And yet, we have nothing. This had to change. As I write this, there are 3,021 Nihonto and 1,607 Tosogu items for sale across 44 dealers, Japanese and international, in a single searchable interface. Every listing is structured with attribution, certification, measurements, and artist intelligence data. NihontoWatch is on track to follow 100% of the online market for genuine items with NBTHK papers. Refreshed 12 times a day. Everything is translated and structured, as it trickles in live. But what is this worth, if it's so hard to know what you're looking at? Especially for newcomers, it is so hard to tell what you're looking at. This is where the magic is. I am nostalgic of reading through Yuhindo's artist descriptions. It made me deeply appreciate the field. It got me in. NihontoWatch scales this experience and creates something approaching a living catalogue raisonné for every Tosogu and Nihonto artist. It matches every listing against a database combining the complete Juyo, Tokubetsu Juyo, Juyo bunkazai, Kokuho, and Gyobutsu designation data — over 23,000 items at the highest level, with rich text in classical Japanese. This data is then processed, synthesized, and presented into NihontoWatch's artist directory in a way that is respectful of the NBTHK's copyright. With this, you'll be able to discover a maker's historical reputation through quantitative analysis of exhaustive provenance records, in ways never seen before. Over time, all of these artist pages will come alive, forming an ever-expanding knowledge base. - How rare is it? - How many Tokuju? - How many designated works ranked Juyo and above? - Why is this important? - Where does it rank relative to other works? - What is for sale right now? - What was for sale recently? All the answers are in. These are questions that come up constantly in our community, and until now, answering them required years of collecting published references worth tens of thousands of dollars, and patiently indexing them with post-its or one-by-one in a spreadsheet. Only professional dealers or major collectors could afford to do this. This is a BETA, so there are errors. The more obscure the artist, the higher the error rate, and there are still basic errors I need to fix with some famous artists. A lot of algorithmic tinkering and curation ahead. It will keep getting better with your feedback. See the results for yourselves: - Soshu Masamune: https://nihontowatch.com/artists/masamune-MAS590 - Ichimonji school: https://nihontowatch.com/artists/NS-Ichimonji - Yasuchika (tosogu): https://nihontowatch.com/artists/yasuchika-TSU001 - Goto school: https://nihontowatch.com/artists/NS-Goto Click one and explore the designations, the provenance abalysis, the measurement distributions. This is just a first shot — over time this data will grow. Here is one where I have published an item I studied for my Substack article on Mitsutada: - Osafune Mitsutada: https://nihontowatch.com/artists/mitsutada-MIT281 Imagine Yuhindo, but with a page for every artist and every piece ever captured on camera. Saw a national treasure at an exhibition in Japan? Share your photos on NihontoWatch's artist catalogue. In the future, owners of particular works will be able to publish them to the artist's catalogue. Think of it as a growing, community-curated knowledge base for every artist in the field. And so much more Browse and filter: Designation, dealer, item type, school, province — all filterable, all instant. Prices display in JPY, USD, or EUR. Every filter combination is a shareable URL. The sold archive tracks thousands of items for pricing research. And it works for every budget, for collectors at every level. - All Tokubetsu Juyo Nihonto on the market - All Tsuba with Hozon or Tokubetsu Hozon, maximum price $2,000 Setsumei translations: On some items, you can press the floating book icon on any Juyo item to toggle between photos and the Juyo setsumei translated text. For most Juyo and above items, the NBTHK evaluation text from the dealer's page is identified by computer vision and translated into English. It will fail if the dealer has not posted the Juyo Zufu extract, but in the majority of cases they do, and the result is remarkably accurate. Do use responsibly — the quality is great, but not perfect. Always purchase professional translation from Markus Sesko when contemplating the purchase of a Juyo-designated piece. Search alerts: Never miss an item again. Define keywords and filters and save them. NihontoWatch will run your search every 15 minutes, and when something new appears, immediately send you an alert email. In practice, missing a listing that fits your interests becomes almost impossible. Tip: I recommend avoiding overly specific queries. "Juyo tsuba" or "Kamakura signed tachi" are safer than specific artists such as "Yozozaemon Sukesada," which would be more fickle. Broad queries give you the best market coverage. Inquiry emails: Press "Inquire" on any listing to draft a professional inquiry in Japanese. Handles etiquette and formality, and can help you request the 10% consumption tax exemption available to overseas buyers. Did you even know you could get 10% off? How many new entrants lost 10% on this, at least at the beginning? I for one did. I've seen countless high spenders neglect to request it while shopping across Japanese galleries. Glossary: The technical language of Nihonto and Tosogu is deep and specialized — needlessly so for non-Japanese speakers. Anytime a technical term comes up, you can click and see what it means. Over 1,200 terms, searchable, automatically linked from the setsumei translations. Who remembers always keeping an index open to keep track of terms when studying Juyo items? https://nihontowatch.com/glossary How best to use NihontoWatch While it works wonders on desktop, NihontoWatch works most beautifully on your phone. I use it every day — it feels like I have the market in my pocket. Open nihontowatch.com on your phone, hit Share → Add to Home Screen. And voila, you have an app. It becomes something you check with your morning coffee, the way one might check the news. A word of caution The data has errors — always verify independently. This is a tool to explore the market, not a substitute for critical thinking. If it looks too good to be true, it likely is, and this system can't easily correct online misrepresentations. Old listings where dealers have not marked items as "SOLD" will still appear as available. Listing errors will slip through, but data quality improves continuously as the system learns over time. Get involved - Missing a listing or dealer you like? PM me or post here. - Bug? PM me or post here with steps to reproduce. - Dream feature request? Reply in this thread. I will keep this thread active and share major updates when time permits. Everything is free right now, and will remain so until ready for official release. This is no trivial task, and it is expensive to operate — it will need to be covered in some way down the line. It will be tempting to keep it for yourself. But if we want our field to grow, we must share knowledge and expand market access and transparency. The single most impactful thing you can do right now is help others discover and use the tool. Share it with your study group. Share it with your collecting circle. Share it with a friend who has been curious about Nihonto and Tosogu but found the barrier to entry too high. That barrier just got a lot lower. Farewell, Darcy. This is for the teacher in you. Hoshi Really cool idea and a great tool indeed. Thanks so much hoshi! Its so important that we lower barriers and help people to access these beautiful topics of nihonto and tosogu. This is my little contribution, still a lot of work todo and a complete different approach. But maybe some will find it helpful. https://tosogu.eu/ Best, Alex 1 1 Quote
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