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I was on the highway bus on my way home when reading this and has to wait until I get home to really reply. It is so rare we get discussion about the more rare schools such as Mōgusa. I have felt liking to northern swords for a long time maybe just the reason for it is that I live up north, that might have been the initial connection that clicked for me. I originally planned to see Hōju and Mōgusa swords this year in Japan but as my love for ōdachi is even greater I needed to adjust places I will visit so I can hopefully see several ōdachi I have not seen before during my month in Japan (currently I have seen 30 ōdachi). So perhaps I will try to do northern swords in 2027. Unfortunately there is not a lot of information about Mōgusa or Hōju schools in English. Many years ago, probably over 10 years ago when Paul Martins thejapanesesword site had a forum there was an amazing thread about Mōgusa, I still remember that dearly to this day. Unfortunately I believe all of that info is now gone for good... back then I didn't understand the need to save information as much as I do today. However I do have few Japanese books on Mōgusa, that have information that might be difficult to find. This might be bit controversial opinion but I don't think NBTHK might be the best authority on Mōgusa and Hōju swords... I am very long time NBTHK member but I think there are groups in Japan that know more about these specific swords than NBTHK. There is actually Mōgusa sword research group that publishes their magazine/publication. At one point I intended to start getting them but I am so backlogged with books and magazines I have more than enough to last for my lifetime. I know NBTHK is regarded as "the" high authority and with well earned reputation, there are still other groups with narrow focus that in my mind surpass the NBTHK knowledge in that particular field. Even though it does nothing to sword financially I would rather have the opinion of these people focusing on the specific field. Currently I think I have 11 signed Mōgusa swords in my references. Sometimes it might be difficult to judge if the smith was actually a Mōgusa smith but these are all northern smiths. I will put the swords out in my own order starting from what I presume to be the oldest (of course I might be wrong on some of these). Fusachika (閼寂) tachi - early Kamakura Tomoyasu (友安) tachi - early Kamakura Kunihira (国平) kodachi - early-middle Kamakura Mōgusa (舞草) tachi - middle Kamakura Toshiyasu (世安) tachi - late Kamakura Shigenaga (重長) ken - Nanbokuchō Mitsunaga (光長) tantō - Muromachi Mōgusa (舞草) katana - Muromachi Yukishige (行重) wakizashi - middle Muromachi Tomonaga (友長) katana - late Muromachi Tomonaga (友長) wakizashi - late Muromachi

I have several blades in my collection that have been polished in the Takeya Sashikomi shiage style (traditional Sashikomi). I assure you that the reflection of the martensitic structures is unmatched.

It is possible the signature may read "Endo Ichimonji".

Here we have an outstanding example of how many years of excessive wiping can lead to a rather dull looking blade... This is the Kikko Sadamune - Sadamune's most brilliant work photographed in 1948. You would not tell this is his most beautiful sword. And here we have a photo in 1967 after it has been beautifully polished - boy does a polish make a difference - it is like a completely difference sword. Bright and clear. Not dull and boring. The Kikko Sadamune is the Sadamune sword that is most praised for it's beauty. Ironically, this is a very a-typical Sadamune sword as it moves away from his more typical Mokume-hada and adopts Gō Yoshihiro's "modern style". Like a typical Gō blade it has a shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune and well forged itame grain with, with thick ji-nie and well-defined ji-kei (patterns in the ji). The hamon (temper line) is a shallow large notare mixed with small gunome (irregular wave-like patterns), with small ashi (short lines extending from the base), generally well-defined nie with occasional coarse nie, frequent kinsuji (golden lines), and sunagashi (sand-like patterns). I hesitate to say this but if the Kikko Sadamune was not Meibutso and papered by Hon'Ami in the past as a Sadamune - if it appeared on the market today as a mumei blade I suspect it would be designated a Tokubetsu Juyo by Gō as it has almost all of the trademarks. Regardless, it is an exquisite blade and shows the power of a polish.

My choice would be the original condition without a second thought Here are better photos from 1961

Not easy to answer as antiques markets and dealers vary. Whenever I do rarely see Edo-period tongs for a candle holder, as I collect old lamps and lanterns and candle holders, I expect to pay JPY 2,000 to 3,000 for them. They may be more expensive in a shop in a city somewhere. Iron ones seem to be rarer than shinchu (brass).　Open-air markets can produce bargains though. So when I asked the dealer if he would sell the pair separately, he said 'No'. I didn't push my luck as I had never dealt with this guy before. But then he added that he wanted ￥3,000 for the whole box! Those little ribbed spatulas can easily be ￥1,000 each. Well, that was a no-brainer, so I snapped it up before anyone else could get any funny ideas! Didn't even haggle. To be fair, the tongs were in terrible condition, covered in black and red paint or lacquer or something so it took some time to chip that away and restore them.

Apologies Bugyotsuji, getting used to the system, same in error

On view at Museum Bronbeek from Friday, 17 April 2026: the temporary exhibition on the shin-guntō. The Japanese officer’s sword of the Second World War was both a symbol of centuries-old samurai honor and an instrument of military authority. The exhibition Shin-guntō: Tussen Eer en Terreur (Between Honor and Violence) shows how tradition, ideology, and warfare converged in a single weapon. More than 25 swords are on display, including 10 Yasukuni-tō. https://www.bronbeek.nl/onderwerpen/t/tijdelijke-tentoonstelling

Hi Kevin. Glad to hear you’re enjoying the Moritaka blade! I just heard one of my swords going thru NBTHK shinsa came back as TH Ko-Kongobyoe, so I’m really looking forward to learning more about it.

This is not most likely fake but definitely 110 % fake , as is the kozuka

I know I ll be in the overwhelming minority But while the new polish gives a stunning contrast, I just prefer and love the look of the original. Beautiful, honest and calm. And while modern polishing has it s beauty, I notice that much of the ko hada is inevitably subdued when the steel is darkened and the hadori becomes harsh in the background

Unfortunately this is complicated by having many modern sources (mostly non-Japanese) of inferior uchiko; instead of powdered deer horn or burnt rice husks or whatever, most of it is both too hard and either too fine (builds up in openings or horimono and then gets inadvertently dragged out in clumps, causing those big gouges you see in the Norishige), or too coarse (creates a grid of hairline scratches that eventually obscures hada and activity, especially when viewing with an angled light source). Uchiko as the default was, if not ideal, at least workable when it was always produced by togishi and curated by dealers; now, if you're not buying from a reputable shop in Japan, you're probably going to get some mystery powder that might just leave your TokuJu blade looking like you took a buffing wheel to it.

@MidareObserver Faustus check please if you have any marks near nakago jiri, You have bohi and so it happens that bohi and emura equals numbers so you should have number 6. It would prove that horimono and mei was made by same separate specialiazed group. Compare habaki

I managed to find this picture on the Wayback Machine from Darcy's old blog, showcasing the damage even a little bit of improper uchiko use can do to a polish – in this case a Norishige tanto (view the full-sized image for maximum effect):

That is indeed a mon - the kikkō (tortoise-shell) mon, from which its name derives.

Excellent presentation, Brett, love it! On a side note, can you tell if that is a kamon near the nakagojiri?

@MidareObserver Thank You! Knowledge is free, don't mind dumping here anything related to Emura. I'm adding hamon picture. Gunome midare and this nakago jiri both somehing new. Another one with bohi. "Made during wartime, and bearing a long signature, it is an especially carefully crafted sword." :D maybe it's just translation or grammar but still sounds suspicious reading alone. It's probably made as individual order and thats it, but no mentions about it on nakago... https://www.japaneseswordindex.com/emura.htm check please signature example F For now Yes it's Gunome midare and this signature with straight nakago jiri, so we can't proof that particular mei was connected to particular finish or hamon.

Yes. This seems obvious though, which is the source of my confusion. 😉

@Rawa Hi Marcin, I’d like to contribute to this thread, as I’m also fascinated by Emura and would like to learn more about him. This is the Emura sword I recently won in AOI auction. It bears the long signature and in the AOI description there are some statements made about the different signature types. https://sword-auction.com/en/product/30296/as09330-刀-長運斉江村作/ Greetings, Faustus

I've noticed recently that swords from Yahoo Auctions are starting to show up. This is making me wonder if auction sites need their own category or filter, because: a) the vast majority of these are going to be gimei big names (and indeed that seems to be the case for the ones added so far) b) the scraper appears to be picking up books and catalogs as actual swords, presumably because at least one of the swordsmiths exhibited is listed in the description

As mentioned, what the writing says isn't important, as it isn't what led to the call of fake. The item is 100% fake, so the writing is pointless. There is nothing here really looking real at all. It's an easy call.

□ 一文字 – Something + Ichimonji I am unsure about the first kanji. And there might be one more character erased just after the first kanji. The signature does not include 兼〇作 (Kane–? saku).

Perhaps someone can explain their use better? For everyday use when burning charcoal for heating a tetsubin, yes, but also for the tea ceremony, to keep the ash ground neatly raked. (What I really wanted was the candle/wick pincers/tongs; all the rest were a bonus.)

I've posted this on another thread (cultural refreshments) with a little more explanation, however I thought I would add a pic on this thread as well. A suzuri-bako I built to match an old door I bought. John C.

Piers, I have attached a couple more pics of it's hamon. I took them in bright sunlight just for fun. Incidentally the sword is not touching the floor tiles. The sword really has become a favorite of mine, every aspect of it is so well balanced.

Either reading of ‘Ta’ or ‘Den’ would be forgiven, but in my Kokin Kinko Zenshu it lists him as ‘Den’, as you can see with the names alongside in Japanese ‘alphabetical’ order. (+Alternative simplified dragon kanji)

In this instance, the writing doesn't really matter. It would be like if someone was looking for Thor's hammer and found a hammer with ancient writing on it. Before reading the writing on it, a fiberglass handle would tell you all you need to know. Same thing here

Teodor: Geraint brings up the best reason not to do it - the woodworking involved is minimal and quite simple, HOWEVER the urushi would crack and split during the process and would be a nightmare to make look nice again. John C.

Dear @ROKUJURO, The dealer’s description is automatically translated into English, you can also press “view original” for the original Japanese description. The translations are high quality, but there can be mistakes, and it’s always good practice to check with different translation software. Regarding the artisan identifier, this is a much more complex issue. The listing is matched to a database of 13’000+ known artists, this means that if the artist is not in the database, faulty matches can occur to a “near match” as is the case here. It is not an exact science, especially for tosogu where innumerable unlisted tosogu artists exist. To correct the case above, I have to add the missing artisan to the database. I do regular passes on this to improve the system, but it takes time. Best, Hoshi

Dear Teodor. It is not uncommon to find a shorter wakizashi blade in a rather longer saya. I am unable to tell from your photogrh whether the saya is an original, in which case I would strongly suggest leaving it as it is, or whether it is a modern replacement. Japanese sworeds are always more subtle than you think and thouigh the fact that the saya is larger were you feel the kojiri might fit is an advantage I think rather the reverse. To make a good job of this that difference would mean correcting the shape of the saya over its entire length, destroying the lacquer in the process. As you can probably tell my feelings are strongly against attempting this. Even if the saya is a mismatched antique then best to leave it alone in my opinion. It is very easy to think that one can improve a sword by doing various small things to it, in practice this almost aways works to the detriment of the sword unless you are prepared to find Japanese trained craftsmen and pay the going rate. All the best.

That looks like really good work! Beautiful, admiring it!

Yesterday the blades (and the assembled guests) were blessed at Imamura Gu shrine by the Priestess, before they started their new journey to the Osafuné Sword Museum where they are on temporary display. The TV crew were there to cover it. And

Your koshirae is great in this price, tsuka is fully wrapped in samegawa and I don’t see any old plugged mekugi ana. Maybe saya should be wider? But yeah I’m asking for probable number becouse it could be same serie so I would know how jihada of mine probably looks :]

Sorry, to be a pain in the neck, but there was no reaction on my request for explanation of the ID-challenge-outcome, so at least I tried to write one by myself (concerning the initial three Tsuba based on the given attribution): „These three Tsuba with similar motif were made probably early Edo or Genroku/middle Edo period when the design came into fashion and was copied and varied by different schools/artists. The first seems to be the oldest because of it's surface, it is not as perfect as the others and the outer rim is plain while later variations show a kiku-gata. The rim itself seems in comparison a little bit meaty. The elements are still inside the rim, the upper parts of the slim daki-myoga fit into the inner bends. I presume the spikes in the bars left and right cite the wings of the birds what got lost on the others. The extraordinary form of the hitsu-ana looks like what we find in the Higo schools. So early Hayashi seems to be a good choice as inventor (?) of this design. The second one show more contrast in the width of the bars, the birds for example are very thin. That leads to Akasaka (probably 4th or a later generation with Higo-influence) which design often display distinct differences in thickness. The somewhat rustic appearance with imperfection in the elements and the different sizes of the hitsu-ana support this. The typical shape of birds with wings tending to be circles resemble Owari and differ somewhat from the roundness of the outer semicircles. The last one seems to be a perfection of the original design with polished plain surface and elaborately worked. The rim is like the first one stout, but sophisticated with slightly exaggerated dents. The birds have similarities to the first one and their shape echoes the curves at the edge. The daki-myoga are well done not just with kebori like the others but slightly niku-bori, too. The upper ends are cleverly integrated in the rim. This is similar on the second one but there the ends curve a little bit uncontrolled into the inside. All in all the third one gives a very harmonious impression known from Higo-Tsuba so Nishigaki seems a good choice.“ Because of the lack of my knowledge I apologize for errors in the argumentation and conclusions (maybe these lines are absolute nonsense at all) but I hope to make clear what was the idea. Certainly there mustn’t be such a rigmarole like mine, but it would be helpful at least simply pointing out important particulars to justify an assignment and to be remembered next time.

My brother visited the exhibition yesterday since he had several hours to kill in London. Was quite disappointed saying there were only 4 swords and not notable ones either.

It's VERY fake. Sorry. So the inscription is pointless. Made in China to deceive.

Agreed 100%! Worthy of the ‘We like boxes’ thread!!! (Just add “some small repairs…” hehehe! ) Giving me flashes of old traditional suzuri cabinets. Well done!

That’s very kind, thank you - I’m glad you’re enjoying them.

👍🙂 Either way …..I’m enjoying going back through those nice pieces that came from you John. You don’t see many of this quality nowadays except maybe Bonhams ….and they have relocated to Paris. UK is a bit of a wasteland, sadly.

Tsuba in tsuba. A friend tells me this was the first tsuba he ever bought as a Junior High student on a trip to Kobe about 40 years ago. He uses it as a (large) Netsuke. And

Well...suzuri-bako is finally finished. Refreshing the old door with a new box. The project was quite challenging in one respect - trying to match the color, grain, finish, and most of all the age of the original door. My wife is not a fan of the "distressed" aesthetic so trying to match the age (tone, damage, repairs, finish, etc) without it looking like it fell off of the back of a truck was challenging. In addition, the original door was not square so the box had to be slightly out of square. It's way easier to make something perfect than to make it look legitimately old. To match the color and grain I used cherry veneer with solid cherry facings. The drawers are a complimentary birdseye maple veneer with solid maple edging. Maple ply for the sides and bottom. All of the hardware was made from patinated copper, embossed with "flowers" with the single exception of the top handle (an original cast iron handle purveyed from ebay). I think I matched the iron look fairly well. The construction was traditional with large lapped tenons and dowel pins on the "ears." The whole box was sealed with shellac followed by a thin coat of satin lacquer, sanded to take some of the shine off. John C. p.s. the color of the box matches the door much better in person than in the pics.

Kiril, I wouldn't say "arbitrary drawing," as it implies whimsy and serendipity. I think the attempt to recreate the hamon is more of artistic interpretation or impression, which can be arbitrary but I wouldn't say that Cezanne's still life's were arbitrary. That said no two artists will see and interpret the same subject in the same way, pretty much the same way no two people see all the activity in the same way.

Colin, I found a TSUBA by him, and the MEI looks close:

Persistence pays off maybe……is it “Denryusai Yoshiyuki”? (from a aha mani school kozuka of Shoki)

I am almost as far away from high end collector as you can be but I have spent lot of time with Jūyō data. First of all as a disclaimer I have to say I don't really like either of the swords. The den Gō should in my mind be a slam dunk for Jūyō - Date family ownership, excellent polish, Kanzan Sayagaki, Tanobe Sayagaki. Still every year I know that items that are in my mind bound to pass fail, and some other items that are unimpressive to me pass. The mumei Shintōgo Kunimitsu katana just passed Tokubetsu Hozon in 2025. Now take the following what I will write with a big grain of salt but I have sometimes really felt that way, just as a disclaimer I am not quality focused collector but historical. If you throw away the NBTHK papers attributing to Shintōgo Kunimitsu, would you pay 7,500,000 yen for that mumei sword? In my own opinion the NBTHK attribution sometimes carry too large value but market works how it works. Of course the fine workmanship of Shintōgo can not really be seen in few pictures. Still if I saw that mumei sword looking like it looks on the pictures I would just skip it without really even second thoughts about it, even if the price would be extremely lower than it currently is. I know it is a controversial take but hopefully it can get the discussion going.

Or with those names, going from TokuHo to Juyo simply wouldn't provide any increase in value. In cases like these I suspect the value's in the name, not the paper.

Definitely will once it comes back

I was just at Yuji’s shop in Nagoya visiting with him a few weeks ago. He’s doing great, no problems. Really great person and really into what he does. If anyone is not aware, what he posts on the website is like a fraction of what he carries in store. His store is stocked to the gills with treasures. It’s just him that posts things to his website so he doesn’t post that much. If you want to know more than what he shows on the website, just ask. He brought out his prized signed “-“ Ichimonji tachi for us to view while I was there and it’s a beauty. Apparently not for sale though 😂. Anyway he facilitated the polish of a sword for me that we are submitting for Juyo shinsa this year, polished by Sugihara Hiroshi.

Died in 2006. He seems to have been well respected.

Here's a nice one from Ikedaart,doesn't say how much it sold for but interestingly is signed katana mei,also shows the Emura elongated kissaki whicj I think makes them look sharper and more elegant. charles.