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Sorry to reopen such an old thread more than 13 years after the oldest post but I wanted to share this kozuka I recently purchased. It is signed Aki Masa [Haynes 00041.0].

Changing the subject just for a moment, but loving the thoughts of woodworkers above! Last night I was watching a programme about restoring some of the walls and ceilings of a gorgeously appointed Bunkazai temple residence somewhere in Japan. (Missed the beginning so not sure where exactly it was.) Imagine large connected tatami rooms in Nijo Jo with colourful Kano-painted fusuma and wall panels, golden, with black-lacquered beams and gold fittings everywhere. That kind of place. One problem which the priest pointed out was a long vertical split in the samite gold cloth trimming down the right side of a sliding panel. They introduced the young artisan expert, wearing a backpack of tools, who assured us he would repair it in the traditional way as he had learned from his father and grandfather before him. The guy spread out a small plastic sheet on the tatami and placed upon it his minimal tool set. He opened a small Tupperware tub and showed us the glistening 'nori' rice-paste glue, the same as traditionally used by schoolchildren. "Repairs may have to be conducted again in the same place in the future" he explained, "so nothing permanent". "In fact," he added, pulling away some yellowed paper residue from out of the crack with his tweezers, "you can see how someone has done this before." He painted the Nori glue onto both sides of a hand-sized sheet of plastic, and slipped it under the edge of the gold cloth fabric, pressing it down with some brown paper as he withdrew his slide. Half an hour of repeating this process, and he declared himself finished. Could we see the line of the 'repair', well, yes, even as the camera crew said "no". Next we moved to a high-ceilinged corridor where one square-framed ceiling panel had a similar fabric split across the painting of flowers. He climbed an A-frame stepladder and used the same process over another half an hour. The after photo still showed a hairline crack and some discolouration where the Nori had seeped through(?) but at least the material was flat, stuck back in place. Educational? Yes, for me it was.

Hello all, I recently acquired a Gassan wakizashi (Hozon - Gassan) and would like to learn more about it. I would greatly appreciate your insight into identifying the period and any additional details you may notice. Thank you, and my apologies in advance for the photos.

@Bruce Pennington Just adding this to "naval stamps" for your information and research. Note the variety of anchor marks. John C.

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

The title is a nice thing to have. If you are from a lineage that has traditionally used the title, it is very important for you (and your succeeding generations) to continue to maintain and use this brand. It adds an aura of prestige. It is a kind of marketing tool. But it doesn't open any doors into the aristocracy. The smith just wants it because, in a way, it validates his position as a master swordsmith (even though the "validation" aspect was continually devalued by the bakufu selling these titles). Sukehiro's mentor did not have a title, so maybe Sukehiro or some patron felt Sukehiro's skill had surpassed that of his mentor, and was worthy of a title. Whether or not he can charge more for his swords after receiving the title is just speculation on my part. If you are a swordsmith from a province with dwindling need for swords, you probably don't have much leverage to raise your prices, even with a fancy title. If you are a swordsmith from a province that has great demand for swords, maybe you can use the title to justify raising your prices above those of your non-"accredited" peers. As others have noted, Suketaka was genuinely a master of his craft, as you can see from his several Jūyō-rated blades. So in his case, the title was well-deserved. The date on this sword is interesting because it comes from the period just prior to receiving the title, but that's about all we can say. If there are any flaws or blemishes on the sword, it greatly devalues the sword regardless of the date (and/or any title that might be on the blade). I don't think there is anything else missing. I mean, Fujishiro's swordsmith index notes that Suketaka received the title "Kami" on Dec. 19th, Kansei 10 (1798). There may also be some primary source documents in the Imperial Archives, etc... which also note the date on which he received his title. It really is just a title, something like Esquire. I doubt that Suketaka would have considered himself to be a revolutionary swordsmith. His lineage goes back to the Bingo Mihara smiths (spiritually, not by direct bloodline). He was able to consistently replicate the dynamic toranba style of temper pattern that Tsuda Sukehiro was well-known for in the mid-1600s. This toranba style of hamon was also admired and replicated by Suishinshi Masahide, so somehow the timing of these two smiths, Masahide and Suketaka, converged, and due to their admiration of, and ability to consistently forge, blades with toranba, the sword world considers them as part of a new era. But I don't think Suketaka would have felt he was making a break from the past. Edit to clarify: the complete title is Nagato no Kami (Lord of Nagato). Nagato was the province on the southern tip of Honshū. Present day Yamaguchi, or thereabouts. This is one of many cases where the location of the "lordship" has absolutely no relation to the smith. It's just used for convenience. And I don't mean to imply that Suishinshi Masahide's only contribution was an ability to replicate toranba. He was a smith who may have seen himself as advancing, or "restoring" the direction of swordsmithing in Japan.

The examples I provided are all from papered tsuba, and all NBTHK papers reported the subjects as karigane. The stylized birds with "twisted body' are reported as 結雁金 - musubikarigane.

By "research" you probably mean reading books or the internet, and the resulting statement above is kind of .... Its something who might own Suketaka would come up with. Because Suketaka did not pioneer or spearheaded much if anything, both he and Masahide at first followed Sukehiro, only Masahide essentially made Sukehiro forging the arch-nemesis of all good and noble in swords, continuing to more Soshu or Bizen inspired works, Suketaka remained where he was...

Nice! I would think fully developed, periodic, profound ayasugi hada is basically post 1490, with o kissaki this one I would say might approach Tensho.

I understand exactly what you are saying! It may be different in case this was your daily work.

I have several that I use regularly (with 10 or 12 different blades), which do an amazing job. The rub for me, however, is how finicky they are. It usually takes me multiple tries to set each one exactly where I want it (based on the grain direction, etc.). One tiny tap on the blade - not cutting enough. One more tiny tap - now cutting too much. Darn. Need to pull the blade and chip breaker and start again! I find card and cabinet scrapers (stanley #80) way easier to "sharpen" (obtain a burr) and use for finishing at least. John C.

Robert, good old tools are a source of satisfaction and potentially of good work as well! My customers who order traditional tools are always fascinated how easy it can be to work with them, but you have to practice it to believe it. Often, the promised advantages of power-tools are not that big, and you have to accept a lot of noise using them. Did you ever watch a well trained guy mowing with an ergonomically fitted scythe, early in the morning, when the high grass is still a bit wet from dew? It is a real pleasure to listen to the faint noise the scythe blade makes when cutting, and the grass falls forming nice patterns along the rows....AND it goes fast! And working with a good KANNA (= plane), not in these competitions for the thinnest shavings, but in real-life woodwork? Very satisfying as well! As a boy, I could watch the craftsmen in the sculpting section of a cabinet-maker's workshop (in France then). No machines, silent, concentrated work, not much talking. After more than 60 years, I still remember the smell and the tiny sounds the sharp cutting edges were making on the wood. I once asked a guy why he used so very short chisels (I had known longer ones from my father who was not a professional woodworker). He replied, smiling: 'They are my grandfather's...'. Still perfect for fine work!

I have a collection like that too, Jean, except mine are mostly western, not Japanese. Bought a huge assortment as a lot from a roadside antique dealer in Wisconsin about 10 years ago - it was something like $60 for the lot - steal of a deal!

I'm at the extreme other end of that spectrum. I love sharpening! And so of course have the most complicated sharpening system possible... diamond, ceramic, artificial stone, natural stone... Robert

On Facebook this number was popping up It seems the sword is located in France (French User S.Kifer)

I only have about ~120 Variation#1 copper hilted swords cataloged. I include stamps, saya#, the source I found it, and any other notable features, damage, or paint colors, replacement parts, etc.. My highest cataloged serial number Variation #1 Copper Hilt Type 95 is #6561 (with #501 forward habaki). My lowest serial number Aluminum Hilt Variation#2 Type 95 is #6756 (SUYA). I continue to catalog more swords. I usually add about 5-10 new swords per week, and I think I have over 1000 total cataloged now. (I have not done a hard-count since I had around ~800, a while back). Best, -Sam

I have a signed copy of that book and that tsuba set is number 89 of the book. In the book it stills looks like a fake to me. Proof positive that no one is immune to the occasional fake as a collector. I have had my fake over the years.

Look at the Kamon on Shibata Katsuie’s kimono.

Actually, I really love that depiction of birds..likely geese. It is so "modern" that the depiction that way can only come from a nation that sees images depicted in bonji. A very futuristic depiction of a bird seen through an artist's eyes :-)

This boundary is non-negotiable on this forum. Take it or leave it. There is no circumstance where we will ever say it's ok to use sandpaper on your blade. You may say the whole thing was rusted and no-one would pay to have it polished. So what about the guy whose blade is mostly ok but has one spot of rust? What about the guy who is in a country where there are no polishers? Do we have to form a committee to decide when it's ok and when it isn't? The fact is that we don't advocate amateur polishing. Yes...we all know many do it, we know there are rusty blades that no-one will ever professionally polish. But without a way to determine what's ok and what isn't, the rule stands that we do not encourage this. Since we are a serious forum devoted to the preservation of genuine Japanese swords, this policy will never change.

As some of you may have seen on my channels, I received a number of swords in gunto koshirae this past week (generally quality gendaito like Kawano Sadashige, Mitsuoki and others) along with older blades. Offering here a gendaito by the well-known smith Mizuno Masanori in Japanese polish and shirasaya, NTHK kanteisho and its original gunto koshirae. Please see below for photos and message me with any questions you have. $4,750 + shipping MASANORI (正範), Shōwa (昭和, 1926-1989), Ōsaka – “Zōtairan Mizuno Masanori kore o saku” (贈台覧水野 正範作之), “Sakaiura-jū Mizuno Masanori saku” (堺浦住水野正範作), “Masanori” (正範), real name Mizuno Teizaburō (水野貞三郎), born February 4th 1902, student of Sakurai Masayuki (桜井正幸) and Morita Masamichi (森田正道), gō Zōtairan (贈台覧), rikugun-jumei tōshō, jōkō no retsu (Akihide), Fourth Seat at the 6th Shinsaku Nihontō Denrankai (新作日本刀展覧会, 1941)

Greetings Klee, You’ve actually entered the thread just as I’m finished with it. I am apparently just an old romantic historian who doesn’t belong here. It’s been made very clear that titles are just titles and the men who held them were nothing but artists that are better forgotten to history. But hey! The swords are cool! Later!

Hello Nihonto community. This is Mauro Gimenez, a Nihonto collector from Houston, TX. I tend to fly under the radar so many of you have likely never heard of me. After several months hoping USPS would find the package that was sent by Nick Benson in Hawaii to Japan for shinsa, we are likely coming to the unfortunate conclusion that the sword (along with 3 others) have been stolen by a USPS employee who targeted the type of package. The last reported scan was mid December in the LA area and the tracking goes silent after that. We were told the package was rejected by US Customs for export and was put back in the USPS system to send back to Hawaii but that never happened. Unfortunately, they did not include an AirTag on the box like most people do, so there is no way to follow the package en route or know its current whereabouts… This is a zaimei Sanjo Chikamura with a June 2024 NBTHK Hozon certificate. It was sent to the Bensons in Hawaii for polishing and subsequent submission to shinsa but the package never made its way to Japan. Would not be surprised if it ended up at some pawn shop in the LA area, where it was likely stolen by a USPS employee. There’s only 5 known signed blades by Sanjo Chikamura, folks, so although it’s Hozon level, this was still a high-value rarity that will be irreplaceable if permanently lost… if anyone offers you this blade for sale or you happen to see it a a shop for sale or you hear a fellow Nihonto collector speak about it, please BE AWARE THIS IS A STOLEN ITEM and report it immediately to me and to the police. Any help this community can provide in tracking it down and returning it to its rightful owner (me!), would be immensely appreciated. i am including some photos of the blade for reference. Please no snarky commentary or expert opinions on the authenticity of the signature, quality of the blade and stuff. This blog is being initiated to track down a stolen item and not to open the forum for discussion about the technical merits of this specific blade. Thanks everyone for your attention. I know you would all seek the help from this awesome community were you to find yourself in a similar unfortunate situation. if anyone has any information, please don’t hesitate to reach me at +1 (713) 504-7629 or via email at maurohgimenez@gmail.com Mauro

By "research" you probably mean reading books or the internet, and the resulting statement above is kind of .... Its something who might own Suketaka would come up with. Because Suketaka did not pioneer or spearheaded much if anything, both he and Masahide at first followed Sukehiro, only Masahide essentially made Sukehiro forging the arch-nemesis of all good and noble in swords, continuing to more Soshu or Bizen inspired works, Suketaka remained where he was... Hello Rivkin, My most sincere apologies as I was unaware of any other way to obtain knowledge except through extensive research through many different sources, yes including books and the internet, but as always I cross reference all material I can find and ask questions on sites such as this. If that bothers you, it is a personal problem. And just for the record, I do not own any genuine samurai swords, so I don’t own Suketaka. Now, I understand your position that he didn’t spearhead anything. I would ask where you learned that information. If I could read that document, it would definitely have an impact on my own opinion on the matter. Which is all this is. So relax.

Hello Brian, I wouldn’t call it bothered per se. As a history buff of 35+ years I come across something every now and then that just sticks with me. For some reason. I may not even be aware of what it is, but it feels like we are missing something here. Potentially important to Japanese history. But I am new to this part of the history arena, so I may be wrong. But I must inform all of you that until this sits right with me, I CAN’T leave it alone, it’s not in my DNA. If it is too bothersome of a subject, I can happily move on and leave things as they be. I don’t want to be a nuisance.

Hey Steve, upon doing further research the impression I am getting is that due to the fact that Suketaka was operating out of Osaka and had already earned a reputation, that likely got him the financial backing from the local daimyo required to become a no Kami elect. However, research shows that in this particular time period in Edo at the beginning of the Shinshinto revolution that he and Masahide where spear heading (Suketaka the hammer of the West, and Masahide the philosopher of the East.) One was the word, the other the living way. Suketaka was producing blades of such high quality it earned him his title. But there would have had to have been some physical proof for the imperial decree to go through. Which we all know it did. So I am again in the difficult place of being unsure of its exact importance. I wonder if Frye has researched any of this. I’ll ask him at some point. It’s the timing of this swords birth that has me so interested. Not just the rock star who made it out of sand, fire, and will power.

quadrilobe? Someone failed geometry.

It seems they succeeded to get everything wrong in the description....