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Mauro, First, let me say how sorry I am this has happened to you. As someone who has been tracking this issue for several years—and who has personally been impacted by these thefts—I can tell you that it is extremely difficult to get meaningful help once something goes missing. Despite what some people may suggest, local law enforcement and the FBI are not going to help in a situation like this. In practice, the only agency with jurisdiction is the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. However, unless a case involves theft from an actual mailbox or an assault on a carrier, these types of losses receive limited attention. The presence of insurance seems to shape their response, and if you don’t have it, they don;t care. It’s also important to understand that this problem extends well beyond Nihonto collectors. Similar losses are affecting shipments of fine art, antiques, and other high-value items. Based on patterns many of us have observed, issues often arise during handoffs—particularly between USPS, Customs, and third-party contractors responsible for air transport. When tracking shows a package “disappearing” for a period and then reappearing elsewhere, it’s often because that segment of transit is handled outside USPS systems and isn’t fully trackable. There are also troubling reports of packages being diverted after labels are removed or compromised. In theory, such items should be routed to recovery centers for identification and return. In practice, if no information about their final destination can be found, the package is categorized as “unrecoverable” and eventually sold through government auction channels. This is supposed to happen only after 90 days, but we have seen packages with swords (including a Sue-Sa/Sa Yasuyoshi wakizashi stolen en route to me a few years ago) end up in the hands of someone who purchased it at a government auction less than 30 days after it went missing. I’m afraid your best bet now is to make lots of noise with your representative in Congress and demand that they deal with USPIS. At the same time, you should carefully monitor government auction sites, as well as Reddit and other lesser-known sword forums, where people who have “legally” acquired these items sometimes seek advice on pricing their ill-gotten treasures. I’m sorry that you—and others—have to go through this. But the truth is we can no longer ship these goods around the world without using AirTags or similar devices to track them throughout their journey. I have long said that Japanese and American dealers need to raise these issues in Washington, but to my knowledge, nothing has come of it. It has gotten to the point where I no longer ship items to or buy from Japan because of the combination of shipping risks, tariffs, escalating transit costs, and unreliable customs brokers. It’s simply too much stress. But if we can’t stop this trend, the long-term impact on the hobby will not be good. So by all means, let your local post office know you’re upset—but direct your real pressure toward your member of Congress. Going forward, if you want to continue operating in this space, your best options are proactive: Put at least one tracker in every package, and ask that shippers you rely on do the same, even if it costs extra Document everything carefully before shipping Build relationships with your representative’s district and DC offices, just in case Sorry this isn’t better news. On the positive side, I was able to recover one of my items by using the insurance payout to buy it back from the person who had acquired it. Hopefully this lovely daito will appear before you have to do the same. Good luck.

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.

About “advancement of knowledge” in the field: People like Mitsuru Ito and Eckhard Kremers who have published books on specific collections of tsuba from particular smiths in a more analytical manner rather than just producing a picture book of accumulated tsuba from a particular school with no real analysis included. Markus Sesko of course needs to be mentioned because of his relentless efforts in translating Japanese texts, and the many years of him posting his blogs that frequently revolved around comparative analysis of small groups of similarly themed tsuba, sometimes by the same smith, and sometimes by different smiths. I always learned something whenever I read his posts. And then there's Steve Waszak with his years of dedication to Yamakichibei and Hoan tsuba... with a definitive book on the subject sure to come sometime in the future, which I hope to play some part in as I have also been diving deep into Yamakichibei, and separating out types of acid etched tsuba that often get mislabeled as Hoan. I have also been diving deep into all things “Owari-related”, trying to sort out the mess that is Kanayama, Ohno, Owari, and Ko-Akasaka (since they clearly had Owari roots), and trying to associate these with approximate time periods, trying to tie it all to cultural and artistic trends at various points in time. I apologize if I have left out any other publishers and bloggers from the list (like the “Zenzai blog” by Keisuke Nakamura, now that I think about it… he does this too, and I’m a big fan of what he puts together) Then there’s also some thoughtful insights and sharing of information on sites like this of course! At least this forum allows for the potential for some kind of proper, positive discussion. And just as an example, I realized I had two tsuba of clear Owari lineage, but that were also obviously divergent from the typical Owari tsuba. In comparing them, I realized they were made by the same smith who has yet to be described or named in some way. After posting the pair and pointing it out online, it tuned out that Eckhard Kremers had realized the same thing about this smith when looking at specific tsuba published by Sasano. Then he and I spurred each other on to do a deep dive into other publications and accumulated image banks, and we found a bunch more by the same smith. He has produced some extraordinary, unique designs that show a lot more "movement" compared to other Owari tsuba. His tsuba have gotten a variety of attributions from different sources, but as soon as you line them up, they are clearly all done by one smith. It's the "gut feeling" mislabeling under the current system that I think (hope?) can and should be course corrected over time, by doing comparative analysis in exactly this way…. I have also identified several other groupings of tsuba that I think point to the work of individuals smiths, rather than a broad label like "Owari" or one of the other Owari-linked groupings I mentioned above. Owari was after all, a significantly large geographic area with so many smiths with different styles over the course of the 1500s and 1600s. Anyway, It’s doable, but more people need to have these thoughts in mind when they are looking at examples and gathering up images of tsuba that allow for comparison (hopefully including some oblique and side views, and not just straight on black and white images!) Blah blah blah… when will this guy shut up… sheesh? I apologize for blathering, I will stop now Oh and no, I am not just presuming to throw my name in with all those that I mentioned above, out of some sort of inflated self-worth. But I'm putting in the effort to gather evidence, and trying to make sense of it all with an open mind and a critical view... which is what I share in common with all those I mentioned above. I hope to put together some kind of publication one day, but for now, I'm still gathering information and examples, and enjoying the obsession.

suriage katana - cut down in length. Probably late koto/muromachi - roughly 1500-1600. Needs a polish ($$$$), but not in bad shape.

About these specific tsuba: I posted these three tsuba in particular in the hopes of gleaning some input from some other eyes besides mine and the papers and/ore attributions they have (which I generally do not trust, especially when “alarm bells” start going off in my head when I see what they are labeled as). I didn’t post these thinking I know the answer, not at all. This was “crowdsourcing” with the hopes of generating discussion. These are not common tsuba at all… sure there are plenty of cloud and geese tsuba out there, but this is a pretty specific variation on the overall theme. At first these tsuba all jumped out at me as being Higo tsuba because of the hitsu-ana shape, which is quite particular to them and is often a key point to identifying one of their tsuba. I was taken aback with the ko-Akasaka papers on the second one, but there is a distinct shift in the size of the hitsu-ana and the fineness of the chiseled karigane, and the relative proportions of the sukashi thicknesses… so I could see it as being something other than Higo. Until this point, I was unaware of Akasaka smiths doing Higo style hitsu-ana, I thought they typically stuck to their own shapes. Higo did have a strong influence on Akasaka afterall… something I sometimes see some people viewing the other way around… but I have always viewed it as Higo being the influence on Akasaka. I’d like to dig into the tegane-ato around the nakago-ana to see if I can dig up some similarities with other Akasaka smiths and Higo smiths… more evidence to gather to help build a more specific case for each or maybe keep the door open... time will tell.

My observation is that you are not wearing socks. Otherwise we can see your apartment, but no photos of the blade or the NAKAGO (= tang) of it. It could be a civilian sword, not a military one, but that can only be determined with better photos. More comment is difficult at this time. When making new photos, please use a plain dark background, a dark room and spotlights. There is a bamboo peg up in the handle which could be pushed out from the smaller side. Then the blade will come loose. Please DO NOT TOUCH THE BLADE WITH YOUR BARE FINGERS as the high-carbon steel can corrode easily! The blade might also be sharp, so be very careful! Use a clean cotton rag if the blade has to be held. In case you are not used to handling genuine Japanese swords, please ask all questions you might have.

Described as geese (karigane). Regards Luca

Good pictures too!

With the falling population, and villages and shrines suffering, many formerly dedicated swords are rusting away for lack of attention. So far the local chapter has negotiated with many shrine authorities and been able to restore nine swords to their former glory, most of them now housed in Okayama Prefectural Museum. Some of these have even achieved official cultural designations. Each time though,we have had to come up with novel ways to fund these restorations, and it is not a cheap venture. Two swords were housed in the Imamura Hachiman Gu, but the previous priests were unwilling to get involved in any project. The new priest however has been more cooperative, and in our third grand project, two swords are now set for polishing, preservation and display. Osafune Sword Museum has agreed to house them and care for them. There will be an official opening ceremony for the project at the shrine on the 4th of April, 2026. The swords will be funded by various means, lectures, etc., and the target is JPY 3 million. The first is a long Odachi by a relatively unknown smith named Inoue Kyubei Masatoshi, dated 1665. 2 m 63 cm overall, the blade length is 1 m 77.3 cm, and it weighs 4.5 kg. The Inoue Kyubei line of smiths lived under the walls of Okayama Castle, Masashige, Masatoshi, Masakiyo, but very few of their works survive, making this a rare artefact. The total estimate for restoration, including a magnolia wood box for example, is 2.5 million. The second is a 1574 katana by Genbei no Jo Sukesada, with a blade length of 68.2 cm, dedicated by a retainer of the Ikeda Daimyo family to the shrine in 1738. This will add a further 500,000 to the bill making a total of 3 million yen. With this latest project they are not planning to ask for donations from overseas. Both blades will be on and off display over the coming year, and from the April 2027 shrine presentation ceremony onwards, they will be housed at Osafune Sword Museum.

https://www.sho-shin.com/sag5.html Late Kamakura to Nanbokucho period.

Thank you, Rohan, and please bear another question - photographed in 1948, but the blade is much older, right? Age approximation?

I would call it very dark brown. But again, I don’t have it in hand either. There are black ones, and while they are not as common, there does not seem to be any significance to them, unless everything else has been painted black. We have many example of those. But even those, we do not know the significance.

About “mass production” and crossover between schools: I'm going to start most recent and head back in time... From my personal research over the years, true mass production of the generic rote kind, really seems to have kicked into gear around 1700, mid-Edo period. There were lots of sociological, economic and technological shifts around that time that facilitated that. More rampant crossover between schools and smiths seems to have kicked in around the mid-1600s (after the establishment of Edo as a new capital city and the "sankin-kotai" which was the forced pilgrimage and residency of daimyo and their entourage of 100s-1000s of attendants including craftsman, every other year. That all started in 1635 but was expanded to include more daimyo as of 1642. So that's when many craftsmen from different schools were all in the same place at the same time, for extended periods of time and sharing ideas and techniques with one another. From my personal comparative analysis of tsuba from the same maker (of known smiths, with a known mei), from the Momoyama to early Edo period, there seems to have been more of an "exploration of a theme" in the creation of multiple variations by one smith, but they did not seem to make rote copies of any specific design (maybe some did once in a while, but I don’t have any examples of that yet). Successors in a school lineage do revisit certain themes from their predecessor/s but they seem to put their own little twist on the design, perhaps to distinguish their work from others and put their personal "stamp" on it.

These long Õdachi blades were actually used, according to a knowledgeable friend with whom I was chatting the other day. They had a very long Tsuka too.

I still would go for civilian sword repurposed for military service. Leather cover over normal wooden saya and typical hanger added. Identical as example at ohmura.

Both are fine polishes, it's always difficult to say whether one is better than the other from photos. The second polish is perhaps better for a museum situation, whereas the original polish style can be enjoyed more in hand.

Most attributions are based on a gut feeling... most papers are not judged by jury but by a single member, then the paper gets signed off at the end. Most of these judgements seem to be done in minutes, without any sort of diligence or consultation to databases of any kind (which is why the NBTHK frequently contradicts itself when the same tsuba gets re-submitted for shinsa) Proofs?! There are hardly any at all for anything that is unsigned from the pre-Edo and early Edo periods. Old books, and papers are just a loose guideline... and because of the author's own lack of certainty, they deliver plenty of opportunity to muddy the waters for current collectors who want to "know what they have". Some of these attributions have done more harm than good over time. It's exactly what @FlorianB proceeded to do, that we need more of... That's precisely the the type of thing we all need to be doing (and posting ) if "we" as a collective hope to get to something "better" than the vapid system we have now. ...or we can just keep flouting the papers people buy rather than the tsuba themselves. Not that I'm saying you are doing that Florian, but there are a ton of people who do... it is a money making machine after all, if you are lucky enough to get the "more valuable" school attribution in the lottery that is the current papering system).

I've bought and received a couple swords from Japanese sellers this past year. The big issue is that EMS, the main Japanese Post Office Service, will still not accept swords for shipment due to the current tariff issues. DHL and Fedex likewise will not accept swords for shipment to the USA. They will accept other Japanese items though (Tsuba, Koshirare, antiques, etc). I had an issue where EMS would not accept a sword for shipment from my dealer, despite the sword having already received export clearance from the Ministry for Education and Culture, to export the sword. EMS staff told the dealer they thought the blade (a WW2-era Gendaito), was probably an imitation blade, regardless of the approved Export Clearance. It's just an excuse not to accept the blade for shipment. UPS will take swords from Japan to the USA. You'll have to pay a 15% tariff on the purchase price, plus a small UPS handling fee prior to delivery, like $15.00 (Handling fee = Free money for UPS, but what you gonna do?) If you set up a UPS personal account on their website, UPS will just send you a payment request prior to delivery. Pay it promptly online, and the sword will be delivered with no further delays. Not all Japanese sellers can use UPS. Apparently, getting UPS approval to ship swords from Japan requires the Japanese seller to get a special hazardous materials license prior to shipping. So not all Japanese sellers have this license.

By all means try. But I was outright refused as I could not clearly demonstrate whether the swords were stolen from the USPS facility in Jamaica, Queens, which is Federal property, or at JFK, which is not, or en route into or out of the facilities. Given the jurisdictional issues, I was told repeatedly that the report had to be made to USPIS which could then be shared with the NYPD. Never happened as I could never get a report out of the postal inspectors. And when one case was finally resolved, a report was presented to my member of Congress, but USPIS claimed that the sword was legally auctioned though it clearly happened less than 30 days after the package arrived at JFK and was reported missing, not the 90 days the law requires before it becomes USPS property. Like I said, this advice comes from hard won experience in chasing two lots swords stolen from me and a friend, and then taking on four other cases for some major players on both coasts and in the Midwest. Obviously your mileage may vary but local LEO tend not to take reports of theft from federal facilities for obvious reasons. You would think that this would concern the Post Office and America’s first police force. Unfortunately, that was not my experience.

Second that it does look like late Muromachi Kongobye.

I think my first guess would be Yoshifusa (能房) from Kongōbyōe (金剛兵) school. Could you perhaps take clearer picture of the signature? Of course it might be very difficult as it is bit worn down.

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.

For my eyes, the strong HADORI is concealing the features in the photo, but it may be different in-hand.

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.

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.

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.

Noted and observed. Sorry to hear that; I'll add it to my list of stolen blades to look out for. I wonder if it would be worthwhile to have a pinned thread, or even a new forum area, for stolen/lost blades that folks can easily consult whenever they're buying a sword...

Look at the Kamon on Shibata Katsuie’s kimono.

Didn’t we already have the whole discussion in 2024? Good to remember the imperfection of the entire classification system but I can’t see any progress in creating a new one. Until then for the most of us it seems the easy way to stick to the existing one. I must admit the mass of crossovers and copies of a certain design are not helpful and – sorry I stubbornly repeat it – pictures alone are not sufficient. Concerning birds and the direction of flight: I believe that in most cases geese are depicted because they have a significance in Japanese culture. We know that geese are leaving Japan in autumn and coming back in spring and thus the motif is used in Haiku as a „kigo“, a word wich indicate the season. I think those birds are flying outwards are leaving, those with flight direction inwards are coming. Another aspect is their regular formation in flight. This could be the reason for the use in a regular pattern especially in the abstract works. In other cases certainly other birds could be assumed according to the motif (i.e. bamboo and snow are connected with sparrows).

Birds in sukashi tsuba must help provide strength to the construction, but surrounded by air, still be recognizable as birds (in flight). When there are numbers of them, as we observe them in the sky, first impressions will be important, especially so for the artisan since each has to be carved/cut out, in balance/harmony with the others depicted. Certain birds had symbolic meanings, so certain features may have been tokenly emphasized, but rarely in any sense accurate to nature. Each artisan may have had a quick formula, and then we find a lot of artistic crossover over the centuries, so pinning exact species down will be a rabbit warren. Bird representations can range from the general, as children draw them, to the exquisitely detailed as in Jean's geese above. Even so, the quick formula 'bird in flight' shape may be key to finding a particular tsuba artist within a 'school'. Kyoto Daigoro?

Lovely piece @Volker62, best of luck with your sale. It will be a wonderful addition to any collection. Relocating to "Assorted Samurai, Japanese Art and Related Items" in the For Sale section. All the best, -Sam

More pics