Advice on a sword

[MaxT]

Hello everyone, 

 

I am very tempted by a sword that has come up for auction at Aoi: 

 

https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mumeiunsignedtakada-schoolnbthk-hozon-token/

 

It is quite large and the sugata is a 10/10 for me. It also shows some nice activity in the hada. However it seems to have some quite large kitae-ware... especially in the carved part of the shinogi-ji.

As I am still a bit new to this hobby, I have difficulties to estimate the impact these flaws have on 'desireability' and if this would bother me in the future. I would love to hear your opinion on flaws like these and if they would be a no-go or can be easily overlooked. 

 

also would a blade like this be considered 'tsukare'?

 

thank you, 

Max

[atm]

Hi Max. The best advice I can give you is to wait for a better blade. You are right that this is a large sword with large proportions, which can be appealing if it is a good sword. But the ha and the nioiguchi look flat and lifeless. This is a utilitarian sword from a less than desireable school. Kitae-ware aren't always a problem--they appear more frequently with some smiths. They definitely are not helping this sword, though. I recommend learning more before buying. There are lots of swords out there, so take your time so that you do not regret a purchase.

[Geraint]

Dear Max.

 

So you like swords with some sori and  extended kissaki, the unokubi zukuri sugata is attractive. I can quite understand why you are interested.  On the plus side is the sugata, the koshirae is pleasant and the price at present is quite low for a mounted and papered katana. I would not be surprised to see it go quite a bit higher during the auction.  Tsuruta san is impressed with the hada and presence of chikei and has rated the sword quite highly.

This sword hits a number of problems in terms of desireability.  First, Bungo Takada school swords are generally considered to be functional but not artistic. How valid this belief is is open to question and I sense that well made Takada swords are creeping up the scale of estimation.  Next, this is a Sue Koto sword, made at a time when necessity ruled and swords were in the main produced quickly to serve the needs of large armies and hence often do not represent the best work of a school.  In addition this is mumei and while that is not a deal breaker in Koto swords in general it is a bit of an issue with a Sue Koto sword that has not been shortened.  Last is the blade itself which while not showing any so called fatal flaws, such as hagire, has some quite visible forging patterns.  Your money, your call of course.  (Adam got there before me!)

 

all the best.

  

[ROKUJURO]

Max,

that is a beast of a sword!

The low starting price reflects the quality in my opinion. As I heard, BUNGO TAKADA swords are not considered the absolute top, so it will be your personal decision (as always....). 

Do not buy a cheap sword with the idea of good investment!   

[Rivkin]

Takada which tries to be sue Bizen but judged Takada because of weird jigane and nioiguchi which is like written down with a pencil, very sharp but a bit artificial. On earlier ones you sometimes see hazy nioiguchi. Its not the best Takada can offer, certainly not the worst. The price is a bit higher than typical resale value at the show of something like that, but not by much.

[Mark S.]

2 hours ago, MaxT said:

 

However it seems to have some quite large kitae-ware...

 

I have difficulties to estimate the impact these flaws have on 'desireability' and if this would bother me in the future. I would love to hear your opinion on flaws like these and if they would be a no-go or can be easily overlooked. 

 

Hi Max,

Glad you asked here first.  While it can be difficult to wait and we all understand the excitement of a new blade, you are the prime example of why many collectors recommend “wait and study more”.  It’s not because we want to ruin the excitement or fun, or think you aren’t wise enough, it’s just that many of us have gone through the same thing.  You see… ‘we’ can’t tell you what flaws you can/should live with or what level blade you will be happy with.  Some only collect the highest level and could never be happy with less.  Some collect at a more modest level and are willing to accept certain things.  My recommendation is to take time and study more until you have an idea what you like.  As has been said already, we can give you advice… but we can’t decide what will make you happy… but we do want you to be happy with what you get. 

[eternal_newbie]

3 hours ago, Mark S. said:

we can’t decide what will make you happy… but we do want you to be happy with what you get.

 

One other thing to add along these lines - this isn't the first time this blade has been listed at Aoi in recent history, so at least one other person wasn't happy with what they got. Your mileage, obviously, may vary.

[PNSSHOGUN]

Certainly an impressive Sugata, as others have mentioned the deki is rather uninspiring. The more you study good swords, the more you'll start to appreciate why there are many undesirable features in this sword. 

[oli]

Hi Max,

 

please don\t forget to add 19% on the price, if you import a blade to Germany.

 

 

[Takezo]

To be fair, at this price point you will have to sacrifice somewhere. You just can't check all the boxes at this level...you get sugata and size but lose deki. If you want to increase deki you will lose another quality, like age and end up with a newer sword like Showa etc. Maybe you find another but its not papered, but this price point you are going to trade something regardless.

[eternal_newbie]

17 minutes ago, Takezo said:

To be fair, at this price point you will have to sacrifice somewhere. You just can't check all the boxes at this level...

 

And honestly, this remains true even through entry-level Juyo pieces (2.5 million yen+). A sword which has no tradeoffs and is just excellent all around will be high-level Juyo (6 million yen+) and entering "contender for Tokubetsu Juyo" territory.

[Takezo]

so true, the delta of the trade offs just becomes smaller as you get higher

[jdawg221]

On 6/24/2026 at 3:57 PM, MaxT said:

Hello everyone, 

 

I am very tempted by a sword that has come up for auction at Aoi: 

 

https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mumeiunsignedtakada-schoolnbthk-hozon-token/

 

It is quite large and the sugata is a 10/10 for me. It also shows some nice activity in the hada. However it seems to have some quite large kitae-ware... especially in the carved part of the shinogi-ji.

As I am still a bit new to this hobby, I have difficulties to estimate the impact these flaws have on 'desireability' and if this would bother me in the future. I would love to hear your opinion on flaws like these and if they would be a no-go or can be easily overlooked. 

 

also would a blade like this be considered 'tsukare'?

 

thank you, 

Max

I agree with sentiments others have shared, however looking at it from a practicality standpoint: the koshirae is obviously mismatched and will not match the blade. Would require extensive modifications to remove any movement that is certainly present in the tsuka and tsuba. The sword, while attractive, is a mumei taira takada with a starting bid over 3000 dollars. If it were signed, that would be one thing, but it's mumei from a time where the school it is attributed to arguably did worse work than sue bizen kazuuchimono. I would ask what exactly you are looking for in the sword. If you want matching koshirae, sellers like masayuki from e-sword, certain pieces from samurai shokai, or even meirin sangyo would have options around that price point that would be better. If you just want a nice bare blade, samurai nippon or touken komachi are better options at that price point. Samurai nippon in particular currently has a rather nice looking muromachi naminohira blade in what appears to be matching higo koshirae. If you're looking to collect more practically minded blades and have some sort of attraction to bungo sword, I'd almost completely ignore taira takada work that isn't nagamori and look at Shinto takada, as there are plenty of smiths there that offer excellent quality for the prices you find their pieces at. 

[MaxT]

13 hours ago, Takezo said:

To be fair, at this price point you will have to sacrifice somewhere. You just can't check all the boxes at this level...you get sugata and size but lose deki. If you want to increase deki you will lose another quality, like age and end up with a newer sword like Showa etc. Maybe you find another but its not papered, but this price point you are going to trade something regardless.

This is exactly my problem... I am looking for a wide mihaba papered sword with interesting sugata in good polish and maybe koshirae. At this pricepoint my options are very limited. It is either something like this (less desireable school, mumei) or some interesting shinshinto if I'm lucky. 

[oli]

Why not go for a shinshinto blade, like this https://www.touken-matsumoto.jp/en/product/shousai/KA-0767 ? 

[jdawg221]

6 hours ago, MaxT said:

This is exactly my problem... I am looking for a wide mihaba papered sword with interesting sugata in good polish and maybe koshirae. At this pricepoint my options are very limited. It is either something like this (less desireable school, mumei) or some interesting shinshinto if I'm lucky. 

Samurai shokai has an interesting higo blade in good polish for less than the sword listed. Unfortunately it's a bit short and doesn't come in koshirae 

[MaxT]

3 hours ago, oli said:

Why not go for a shinshinto blade, like this https://www.touken-matsumoto.jp/en/product/shousai/KA-0767 ? 

I've actually been watching this one for a while  

[MaxT]

1 hour ago, jdawg221 said:

Samurai shokai has an interesting higo blade in good polish for less than the sword listed. Unfortunately it's a bit short and doesn't come in koshirae 

Thank you, do you have a link? I can't seem to find it

[eternal_newbie]

This one, perhaps?

 

https://www.samuraishokai.jp/sword/26306.html

[jdawg221]

13 minutes ago, eternal_newbie said:

This one, perhaps?

 

https://www.samuraishokai.jp/sword/26306.html

Yes this one

[Hoshi]

Hi, 

 

I understand your constrains. I built a tool to help with these searches. 

 

Try this search: https://nihontowatch.com/?tab=available&type=katana&cert=Hozon%2CTokuHozon&period=Nanbokucho%2CMuromachi%2CKamakura&priceMax=700000&sort=price_desc

 

These should fall within your budget, have appropriate papers, and allow you to make an inform decision on what the market can offer at this specific price point for Koto works. If you explore outside the bounds of Koto, you will have much more choices. Play around and see what you can find. 

 

I hope this helps. 

 

Hoshi

[Rivkin]

You want something vicious with wide mihaba and o kissaki.

Its understandable, those are indeed beautiful.

In this case its ok purchase. The work is actually decent, I would take it as being better than average Sukesada noname of the time, the polish is good and crisp, you will not make money on a resale, but its a reasonably bright, appreciation-friendly work. Koshirae is well balanced stylewise.

If you live in the US you might consider submitting this blade to NTHK NPO, they tend to be more Bizen friendly on such style, you'll get most likely Bizen Sukesada as an uppraisal. NTHK is also likely to return Bizen name, but not as likely as NPO. That ofcoarse all my personal opinions.

 

Dotanuki is quite good work, but its a waki and its unfortunately high priced.

[MaxT]

Well it went for a lot more money than I was willing to pay anyway… 

 

But thank you all for your help and your opinions! I appreciate it a lot 

[oli]

1 minute ago, MaxT said:

Well it went for a lot more money than I was willing to pay anyway… 

 

But thank you all for your help and your opinions! I appreciate it a lot 

What did you choose?

[MaxT]

Just now, oli said:

What did you choose?

I was talking about the original sword on Aoi. For now I will wait and See what hits the market. 

[MaxT]

On 6/26/2026 at 9:04 PM, Hoshi said:

Hi, 

 

I understand your constrains. I built a tool to help with these searches. 

 

Try this search: https://nihontowatch.com/?tab=available&type=katana&cert=Hozon%2CTokuHozon&period=Nanbokucho%2CMuromachi%2CKamakura&priceMax=700000&sort=price_desc

 

These should fall within your budget, have appropriate papers, and allow you to make an inform decision on what the market can offer at this specific price point for Koto works. If you explore outside the bounds of Koto, you will have much more choices. Play around and see what you can find. 

 

I hope this helps. 

 

Hoshi

I use nihontowatch several times a day. I can not overstate how useful it is! 

[oli]

and also maybe look into the sale section, Lex has some nice Koto swords for sale. 

[Natichu]

26 minutes ago, MaxT said:

Well it went for a lot more money than I was willing to pay anyway… 

 

But thank you all for your help and your opinions! I appreciate it a lot 

What did it end up going for? 

[MaxT]

Just now, Natichu said:

What did it end up going for? 

More than a million yen, I don‘t remember the exact value

[Natichu]

Oh wow, well more than I anticipated! Thanks for letting me know.