Buyer Beware - excellent article from Nihontocraft.com

[eternal_newbie]

Thought I'd put a post here to raise awareness of a very good article put up by Danny Massey at his website: https://www.nihontocraft.com/Problems_Buying_Swords_on_the_Internet.html

 

I've seen umegane and airbrushed ware/hagire before, but this is my first time seeing putty being used to fill openings.

 

With several folks recently asking for opinions on swords offered by Japanese dealers, as well as some discussions around a particular dealer potentially being more "dodgy" than others, this is a good wake-up call that the Japanese market is no stranger to dodgy dealings and lies by omission, and this is hardly restricted to any one dealer. Unlike Western dealers, who typically have to balance the need for profit with the responsibility of educating and promoting interest in the field, Japanese dealers have a thriving, established and competitive market and have less to lose from the usual unethical practices you see in any other market of that nature.

 

Always remember, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

[nulldevice]

The best advice is always to buy the blade and not the papers. The internet makes that very hard and many of us are no novices to what you said, the lies of omission, downplaying of kizu, and romanticizing the blade to discount its flaws. 
 

A good buyer should know that the fluff is just that. Fluff. Even papers, which are supposed to be a certificate of authenticity aren’t always the source of truth many claim to be. I’ve seen faked papers posted here. I’ve also seen blades faked to match real papers but with a different sword posted here from a notorious Jauce auction. And most disappointingly of all, I’ve seen real swords pass Juyo Shinsa with fake mei to grandmaster smith’s showing that even Shinsa judges have been duped by nefarious means. 
 

This shouldn’t come as a surprise as we are in a hobby where gimei blades are abundant and we have a saying “green papers are no papers. Even then, right now on eBay I can go and purchase the only other extant daito signed “Sa” in the world besides the Kokuho daito! My Samonji collection would then rival that of the TNM and most seasoned collectors for only a few hundred bucks! 

 

[eternal_newbie]

Aside from the main things (faked papers, kicho papers, photographs and descriptions that hide flaws, horimono in odd locations that cover up flaws) here's a few other "reading between the lines" things beginners and intermediate buyers should watch out for:

• Sword with papers and described as being from a famous smith, but if you check the papers themselves, they specify a different generation or area (e.g. kyodai Kanemoto or Seki Kaneuji)
• Sword with papers and described as being from a famous smith, but the papers specify a period that rules out that smith (e.g. Magoroku Kanemoto - late Muromachi)
• Sword with papers and described as being from a famous smith, but the mei matches that of a different smith with the same name
• Sword described as former daimyo/officer property without any proof of provenance
• Sword described as showing all the hallmarks of a big name smith, when the papers are only to his school
• Sword with a very thin motokasane, munemachi or hamachi
• Damage from mishandling being advertised as kirikomi
• A particular section of the sword not directly appearing in photographs
• "With a high ranking polish, the sword should paper as <big name/school>" (so why hasn't this been done yet?)
• "As this is the first time this sword is on the open market, it is being offered at a low price" (so why didn't the dealer buy it and put a markup?)
• "The sword is in an acceptable polish" (acceptable for Hozon? TH? Juyo?) or "the sword has been polished" (when? the Edo period?)

[Lewis B]

• Dealer claiming that because sword has early Torokusho registration papers (ca. 1951) it was previously owned by a daimyo family
• Attribution drag  Dealer suggestions of attribution fluidity eg "Because he inherited his master's style so perfectly, it is a consensus among sword scholars that many works attributed to Shizu were likely historically regarded as original Masamune blades"

[Rivkin]

I will admit to liking Japanese dealers. Yes, certain nonchalant description writing can be next level compared to western ones. There are no guarantees.

Communications can be edgy. You want to pair koshirae with a blade from different dealers, and as a rule they hate each other and proud to make impossible.

But I am yet to see a western dealer (though youngest generation shows great promise) who would close the knowledge gap compared to upper grade Japanese ones. Or have an actual impressive personal collection NFS. Which again speaks to personal knowledge, re: ability to pickup the magic guntos that matter.

 

Yes, Japanese dealers have "make money" attitude, and they have solid acceptance of the fact they are traders by profession. Frankly, dealing in some loveable items and making money - why can't one be proud of this profession?

Comparing this with a certain (common) type of Western dealers... I actually wish they would accept being professional dealers, and be more concerned about the knowledge gap, rather than investing into building a brand of a warrior-scholar who is not doing this for the money.

[eternal_newbie]

2 hours ago, Rivkin said:

I will admit to liking Japanese dealers.

 

I agree! When it comes to knowledge, range of items and market contacts, Japanese dealers are far superior as a whole to those in the West. And I'm certainly not suggesting that all, or even most, dealers in Japan are scoundrels or cheats. My main purpose in highlighting this article is to point out that beginners and intermediates without the necessary knowledge or Japanese language skills to read between the lines and understand why a certain piece is priced the way it is should either stick to Western dealers they trust, or do comprehensive due diligence. No doubt this is the same for any other field as well, but I've seen quite a few posts lately (and not just in this forum, but other platforms I frequent) of folks identifying themselves as first time buyers or beginners asking for advice on a piece listed in Japan.

 

My secondary objective here is also a slight defense of a Japanese dealer who regularly catches flak (https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/53731-why-i-dislike-this-dealer/) to point out that the things this dealer is being criticized for are actually relatively commonplace in the market, and it is incumbent on us as customers to either cultivate the necessary expertise to identify them or else stick to dealers closer to home.

[anguilla1980]

On 3/6/2026 at 11:49 PM, eternal_newbie said:

• or "the sword has been polished" (when? the Edo period?)

Lmfao, brutal but so true lol.