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應羽室廣静需 = responding to Hamuro Hirose's request

SOLD That was quick! Thank you to the buyer. Donation incoming to the board. Will archive in a day or two. All the best, -Sam

Yanagawa Naomasa

Hi Dale, thanks for posting these, and for the general backgound information. There are some very small things I would take issue with, but 97% seems fine. You mention something similar posted elsewhere on this NMB site; I am likely the guilty party. My excuse then was that these could have been weapons that Hideyoshi's troops might have encountered during their 1590s invasions of the Korean peninsula. I hoped that would kind of bring them within the remit of this site! My three-barrel iron gun I always thought to be Chinese but Ian Bottomley of the Royal Armouries said more likely to be Korean. My single-barrel bronze gun is dated 1583 and also seems to be Korean. Naturally their general design would immediately trace their roots back to Chinese weapons of earlier times. At the time I acquired the three-barrel pole gun, I was assured in a letter from Sawada Taira (author of Nihon no Furu Ju, Old Guns of Japan) that weapons like these are made in quantity in China today, and dropped into cesspits in order to rust and corrode and gain legitimacy. (One of the barrels on mine was blocked with cement (?), what later turned out to be a mixture of sand, grit and gunpowder. I kept it for the records.) Anyway, with his words of warning still ringing around in my head, I now subsequently approach all of these extra suspiciously! For this reason, my personal philosophy says it will be generally wise to stay positive but to mentally reserve final judgement. Mr Sawada in his letter also finally added that if mine is a genuine gun, (the one he showed me photos of may have been one of such fakes) then I should not write any research paper or publicize it, as the government of China would surely execute any dealer found to have been exporting cultural artifacts. As to value or price, this is a real conundrum. It will surely vary widely by country, market and/or customer, depending on which expert offers what opinion.

@Conway S Hi Con, the saya is made of wood and holds an old blade. I have tested with a magnet if there us some iron hardware under the leather but that is not the case. Maybe like yours with copper or an other metal. It's possible but without damaging the leather it's impossible to tell.

This one is signed Yanagawa Naomasa but the mei doesn't match those in Kinko Meikan or Wakayama. Bonham's did sell a very similar pair in 2023 which had Tokubetsu Kicho papers and a Sato Kanzan attribution to Naomasa

First off … is this OK to be discussed here? I did see another similar post recently … but I want the Mods to confirm or … I have 2 of these, one ‘square’ like this and the other is a fully round body. Info seems to be dearth on these, but I foind this online -see below - from the IMA (International Military Arms) site. Bit keep these questions in mind, thanks! -Do you concur? -Anything to add or debate/question? -What do YOU think the value is? Now this is an incredible piece of early Ming Dynasty history, circa middle 14th Century. This is the first one of these 8-Shot Hand Cannons we have received and we couldn’t have gotten a better example! The hand cannon, also known as the gonne or handgonne, is the first true firearm and the successor of the fire lance. It is the oldest type of small arms as well as the most mechanically simple form of metal barrel firearms. Unlike matchlock firearms it requires direct manual external ignition through a touch hole without any form of firing mechanism. It may also be considered a forerunner of the handgun. The hand cannon was widely used in China from the 13th century onward and later throughout Eurasia in the 14th century. In 15th century Europe, the hand cannon evolved to become the matchlock arquebus, which became the first firearm to have a trigger. This example was meant to be mounted on a pole, much like the earlier fire lance. This hand cannon has a 4 ½” inch socket which would fit a 1” wide wooden shaft. The center hole on the muzzle area of the cannon is much smaller than the other 8 and is not meant to be fired from. This center hole was meant as a means to keep the spear length shaft secured. All 8 “chambers” have their own individual touch hole just like a regular cannon, making this an early semi-automatic of sorts! Each barrel is mostly clear with a clear touch hole, all inspected with a borescope, though there is buildup from corrosion on the insides. Each of the barrels measures approximately 3 ½” in length. An incredible example of an extremely rare hand cannon dating back to the early days of the Ming Dynasty! Comes more than ready for further research and display. Specifications: Year of Manufacture:14th Century Caliber:about 0.34 inches Ammunition Type:Lead Ball and Powder Ignition: Touch Hole BarrelLength:3 1/2 inches Overall Length:9 5/8 inches Feed System: Muzzle Loading – 8 Barrels The earliest artistic depiction of what might be a hand cannon — a rock sculpture found among the Dazu Rock Carvings — is dated to 1128, much earlier than any recorded or precisely dated archaeological samples, so it is possible that the concept of a cannon-like firearm has existed since the 12th century. This has been challenged by others such as Liu Xu, Cheng Dong, and Benjamin Avichai Katz Sinvany. According to Liu, the weight of the cannon would have been too much for one person to hold, especially with just one arm, and points out that fire lances were being used a decade later at the Siege of De’an. Cheng Dong believes that the figure depicted is actually a wind spirit letting air out of a bag rather than a cannon emitting a blast. Stephen Haw also considered the possibility that the item in question was a bag of air but concludes that it is a cannon because it was grouped with other weapon-wielding sculptures. Sinvany concurred with the wind bag interpretation and that the cannonball indentation was added later on. The first cannons were likely an evolution of the fire lance. In 1259 a type of “fire-emitting lance” (tūhuǒqiãng 突火槍) made an appearance. According to the History of Song: “It is made from a large bamboo tube, and inside is stuffed a pellet wad (zǐkē 子窠). Once the fire goes off it completely spews the rear pellet wad forth, and the sound is like a bomb that can be heard for five hundred or more paces.” The pellet wad mentioned is possibly the first true bullet in recorded history depending on how bullet is defined, as it did occlude the barrel, unlike previous co-viatives (non-occluding shrapnel) used in the fire lance. Fire lances transformed from the “bamboo- (or wood- or paper-) barreled firearm to the metal-barreled firearm” to better withstand the explosive pressure of gunpowder. From there it branched off into several different gunpowder weapons known as “eruptors” in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, with different functions such as the “filling-the-sky erupting tube” which spewed out poisonous gas and porcelain shards, the “hole-boring flying sand magic mist tube” (zuànxuéfēishāshénwùtǒng 鑽穴飛砂神霧筒) which spewed forth sand and poisonous chemicals into orifices, and the more conventional “phalanx-charging fire gourd” which shot out lead pellets. Hand cannons first saw widespread usage in China sometime during the 13th century and spread from there to the rest of the world. In 1287 Yuan Jurchen troops deployed hand cannons in putting down a rebellion by the Mongol prince Nayan. The History of Yuan reports that the cannons of Li Ting’s soldiers “caused great damage” and created “such confusion that the enemy soldiers attacked and killed each other.” The hand cannons were used again in the beginning of 1288. Li Ting’s “gun-soldiers” or chòngzú (銃卒) were able to carry the hand cannons “on their backs”. The passage on the 1288 battle is also the first to coin the name chòng (銃) with the metal radical jīn (金) for metal-barrel firearms. Chòng was used instead of the earlier and more ambiguous term huǒtǒng (fire tube; 火筒), which may refer to the tubes of fire lances, proto-cannons, or signal flares. Hand cannons may have also been used in the Mongol invasions of Japan. Japanese s of the invasions talk of iron and bamboo pào causing “light and fire” and emitting 2–3,000 iron bullets. The Nihon Kokujokushi, written around 1300, mentions huǒtǒng (fire tubes) at the Battle of Tsushima in 1274 and the second coastal assault led by Holdon in 1281. The Hachiman Gudoukun of 1360 mentions iron pào “which caused a flash of light and a loud noise when fired.” The Taiheki of 1370 mentions “iron pào shaped like a bell.” Mongol troops of Yuan dynasty carried Chinese cannons to Java during their 1293 invasion. The oldest extant hand cannon bearing a date of production is the Xanadu Gun, which contains an era date corresponding to 1298. The Heilongjiang hand cannon is dated a decade earlier to 1288, corresponding to the military conflict involving Li Ting, but the dating method is based on contextual evidence; the gun bears no inscription or era date. Another cannon bears an era date that could correspond with the year 1271 in the Gregorian Calendar, but contains an irregular character in the reign name. Other specimens also likely predate the Xanadu and Heilongjiang guns and have been traced as far back as the late Western Xia period (1214–1227), but these too lack inscriptions and era dates (see Wuwei bronze cannon). Li Ting chose gun-soldiers (chòngzú), concealing those who bore the huǒpào on their backs; then by night he crossed the river, moved upstream, and fired off (the weapons). This threw all the enemy’s horses and men into great confusion … and he gained a great victory. — History of Yuan Spread The earliest reliable evidence of cannons in Europe appeared in 1326 in a register of the municipality of Florence and evidence of their production can be dated as early as 1327. The first recorded use of gunpowder weapons in Europe was in 1331 when two mounted German knights attacked Cividale del Friuli with gunpowder weapons of some sort. By 1338 hand cannons were in widespread use in France. One of the oldest surviving weapons of this type is the “Loshult gun”, a 10 kg Swedish example from the mid-14th century. In 1999 a group of British and Danish researchers made a replica of the gun and tested it using four period-accurate mixes of gunpowder, firing both 1.8 kg arrows and 184-gram lead balls with 50-gram charges of gunpowder. The velocities of the arrows varied from 63 m/s to 87 m/s with max ranges of 205 to 360 meters, while the balls achieve velocities of between 110 m/s to 142 m/s with an average range of 630 meters. The first English source about handheld firearm (hand cannon) was written in 1473. Although evidence of cannons appears later in the Middle East than Europe, fire lances were described earlier by Hasan al-Rammah between 1240 and 1280, and appeared in battles between Muslims and Mongols in 1299 and 1303. Hand cannons may have been used in the early 14th century. An Arabic text dating to 1320–1350 describes a type of gunpowder weapon called a midfa which uses gunpowder to shoot projectiles out of a tube at the end of a stock. Some scholars consider this a hand cannon while others dispute this claim. The Nasrid army besieging Elche in 1331 made use of “iron pellets shot with fire.” According to Paul E. J. Hammer, the Mamluks certainly used cannons by 1342. According to J. Lavin, cannons were used by Moors at the siege of Algeciras in 1343. Shihab al-Din Abu al-Abbas al-Qalqashandi described a metal cannon firing an iron ball between 1365 and 1376. of the drug (mixture) to be introduced in the madfa’a (cannon) with its proportions: barud, ten; charcoal two drachmes, sulphur one and a half drachmes. Reduce the whole into a thin powder and fill with it one third of the madfa’a. Do not put more because it might explode. This is why you should go to the turner and ask him to make a wooden madfa’a whose size must be in proportion with its muzzle. Introduce the mixture (drug) strongly; add the bunduk (balls) or the arrow and put fire to the priming. The madfa’a length must be in proportion with the hole. If the madfa’a was deeper than the muzzle’s width, this would be a defect. Take care of the gunners. Be careful — Rzevuski MS, possibly written by Shams al-Din Muhammad, c. 1320–1350 Cannons are attested to in India starting from 1366. The Joseon kingdom in Korea acquired knowledge of gunpowder from China by 1372 and started producing cannons by 1377. In Southeast Asia Đại Việt soldiers were using hand cannons at the very latest by 1390 when they employed them in killing Champa king Che Bong Nga. Chinese observer recorded the Javanese use of hand cannon for marriage ceremony in 1413 during Zheng He’s voyage. Japan was already aware of gunpowder warfare due to the Mongol invasions during the 13th century, but did not acquire a cannon until a monk took one back to Japan from China in 1510, and firearms were not produced until 1543, when the Portuguese introduced matchlocks which were known as tanegashima to the Japanese. The art of firing the hand cannon called Ōzutsu (大筒) has remained as a Ko-budō martial arts form. Middle East The earliest surviving documentary evidence for the use of the hand cannon in the Islamic world are from several Arabic manuscripts dated to the 14th century. The historian Ahmad Y. al-Hassan argues that several 14th-century Arabic manuscripts, one of which was written by Shams al-Din Muhammad al-Ansari al-Dimashqi (1256–1327), report the use of hand cannons by Mamluk-Egyptian forces against the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260. However, Hassan’s claim contradicts other historians who claim hand cannons did not appear in the Middle East until the 14th century. Iqtidar Alam Khan argues that it was the Mongols who introduced gunpowder to the Islamic world, and believes cannons only reached Mamluk Egypt in the 1370s. According to Joseph Needham, fire lances or proto-guns were known to Muslims by the late 13th century and early 14th century. However the term midfa, dated to textual sources from 1342 to 1352, cannot be proven to be true hand-guns or bombards, and contemporary accounts of a metal-barrel cannon in the Islamic world do not occur until 1365. Needham also concludes that in its original form the term midfa refers to the tube or cylinder of a naphtha projector (flamethrower), then after the invention of gunpowder it meant the tube of fire lances, and eventually it applied to the cylinder of hand-gun and cannon. Similarly, Tonio Andrade dates the textual appearance of cannon in Middle-Eastern sources to the 1360s. David Ayalon and Gabor Ágoston believe the Mamluks had certainly used siege cannon by the 1360s, but earlier uses of cannon in the Islamic World are vague with a possible appearance in the Emirate of Granada by the 1320s, however evidence is inconclusive. Khan claims that it was invading Mongols who introduced gunpowder to the Islamic world and cites Mamluk antagonism towards early riflemen in their infantry as an example of how gunpowder weapons were not always met with open acceptance in the Middle East. Similarly, the refusal of their Qizilbash forces to use firearms contributed to the Safavid rout at Chaldiran in 1514. Arquebus Early European hand cannons, such as the socket-handgonne, were relatively easy to produce; smiths often used brass or bronze when making these early gonnes. The production of early hand cannons was not uniform; this resulted in complications when loading or using the gunpowder in the hand cannon. Improvements in hand cannon and gunpowder technology — corned powder, shot ammunition, and development of the flash pan — led to the invention of the arquebus in late 15th-century Europe. Design and features The hand cannon consists of a barrel, a handle, and sometimes a socket to insert a wooden stock. Extant samples show that some hand cannons also featured a metal extension as a handle. The hand cannon could be held in two hands, but another person is often shown aiding in the ignition process using smoldering wood, coal, red-hot iron rods, or slow-burning matches. The hand cannon could be placed on a rest and held by one hand, while the gunner applied the means of ignition himself. Projectiles used in hand cannons were known to include rocks, pebbles, and arrows. Eventually stone projectiles in the shape of balls became the preferred form of ammunition, and then they were replaced by iron balls from the late 14th to 15th centuries. Later hand cannons have been shown to include a flash pan attached to the barrel and a touch hole drilled through the side wall instead of the top of the barrel. The flash pan had a leather cover and, later on, a hinged metal lid, to keep the priming powder dry until the moment of firing and to prevent premature firing. These features were carried over to subsequent firearms.

The one above is called “Migi mitsudomoe” (three right oriented tomoe). The two below are might be “Maru ni karabana” (Chinese flower in a ring)…

It could be posted over on the Lion/Shishi thread https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/55087-post-your-lionshishi/page/2/#comment-575961 It might get someone who specialises in this theme. Looks ubu to me, but very worn. Obviously not as fine as this: https://www.bonhams.com/auction/19295/lot/42/an-iron-tsuba-by-myochin-munefusa-19th-century/

Here’s the measurements of my sword: Total without scabbard = 838.2mm Kissaki with scabbard = 863.6mm Nagasa = 680mm Motokasane = 5.5mm Sakikasane = 3.3mm Motohaba = 23.2mm Sakihaba = 16.5mm Kissaki = 26.8mm No stamps and mumei:

Provenance (Marius) can't be faulted either, whatever comes through his hands was carefully selected.

Recently added this sword to my collection. The leather combat cover is made of high quality leather.

And here is that TJ tanto from the listing a year ago when it was offered on consignment for $295K. The Mei is beautifully struck with a free flowing and confident style.

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

small update for those interested, I finally received my tsuba and I am absolutely in awe about the craftmanship. The pictures don't do it justice at all. It has easily become my favourite tsuba, so thank you all again for your help! Also, I just found this very similar example - apparently papered to be mito school? However I like mine a lot more... (and I did not need to pay 550.000 Yen )

Here it is......

I would like to share a lovelyset of tosogu by Yokoya Tomotake featuring Shishi play fighting. It’s a great example of katakiribori workmanship, which is done to a high level. One intriguing thing I have noticed while studying the set is that the carvings of the Chinese Lions resemble the paintings from a pair of screens by Hanabusa Itcho, which is in The Met collection, I’ve attached some comparison photos. I have read that Hanabusa Itcho was a close friend of Somin Yokotani. I wonder if the screens were used by Yokoya Tomotake when composing this set of tosogu.

I dont think this really qualifies as a 'combat cover' but its interesting. Came on my first sword (from the UK) and it has always intrigued me. That's a burn mark on top. Not sure on the purpose (sweat cover?) or whether a wartime or post war addition ... a bit crude all the same.

On a wakizashi I used to own. Had a sticker on the leather saya with a name

Dani, your images are upside down. Get em the right way up and I’m sure you’ll get some comments.🙂

Hmmmmm..... Well, Ill have to take a look in my account and see if there is enough there or maybe borrow from friends., although I dont what the total will come out to after all the fees and charges are applied. Do we even know the tarriff for the US right now that might apply? Im sure my wife will have something to say, so I should probably run it by her first since she knows more about nihonto than I do and I dont know much about these tanto. My new years resolution was to make fewer snap decision purchases and really think about them since that has gotten me in trouble in the past. Hell I just put some tyres on my truck and I think I spent too much, so eveytime I see them, I have to kick them. Sorry bro, had to do it........Good luck with the sale, personally, I think it looks better than you described it.