Rivkin

Its Sadamune but I unfortunately don't have the record which one exactly. Either Juyo Bunkazai or Kokuho or Jubi. There is a lot of chikei, unfortunately overcompressed version makes it hard to see, but there are definitely dark areas. I'll try to put the original somewhere and see also if I have better images of the same blade.

Wow, thanks a lot! I might have photographed this one... The archive is getting messy I am afriad.

Second that it does look like late Muromachi Kongobye.

Unfortunately I can't really see much in Sadamune's photographs, either date. Jigane is probably tight, bright and consistent but we see what amounts to a glimpse of that.

You guys are doing some great jobs with databases of signed swords. I would presume Jussi is leading the charge? Two quests I am still at the beginning of is recognizing the northern signatures and understanding the earliest Bizen.

According to one "Mogusa theory", this Jubi is actually gimei. Pro-Mogusa thinking goes like: a. There should be a common school/progenitor which unites all Yamato offshoots, Hoki, Naminohira, Houju, Bizen Tomonari etc. b. Mogusa is well documented in historical sources and there are records suggesting it was his descendants who came to Bizen etc., but there are no signed blades. c. It is because he did not sign with his name! What did he use? One of the possibilities he used a "title". d. "Northern sword" collectors are weird, they keep most signed ones at TH without submitting higher. e. The earliest generations signed (1070-1170) probably do not exist, the earliest one that exists is likely early-mid Kamakura. They are not dated.

Antiques don't have a well defined price, or liquidity. Every auction generates stories how this item was for sale for 50k for a year with not a lot of interest, now it sold for 300k. It found the right buyer. Even if we just consider some abstract "value", people collect for different reasons. For myself its probably 40% interest in solving mysteries, which swords generate a plenty, 20% militarism, and 40% aesthetics. But there is a considerable number of people whose collecting is guided by specific historic or ethnic interest, or (a very considerable portion) because they believe it marks them as part of the elite, or because they believe they'll make money on it. Accordingly to some the fact that this maker was collected by a Daimyo, or that he was generally well regarded - is important. Knowing its Juyo - is important. Its "elite" by definition, in the very least. For me Juyo is like you took a perfectly good blade, added spoilers and now want a lot more money... Hm.... From purely aesthetic prospective many very high ranking smiths are not only associate with great blades. They also have a lot of bad blades. Plus condition. Plus intrinsic ambiguity with attribution. You end up with something that is very attractive to those who want to be the elite (big name), but aesthetically is so-so. Which is one of the reasons I tend to be allergic to any approach where a maker is "scored" by some formula or table, or the emphasis is made on how many Juyo he has. Plenty of high class early Kamakura smiths for whom there are couple of known blades. What's the pass ratio? How many were published-Meibutsu-whatever? Is it even in Fujishiro? By default I would take signed Mogusa over Kanemitsu anytime of the day, but that's just highlights my mystery-historical and aesthetic based preferences. Others will think very differently - and their price strategy will also be different.

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.

Title is just a title, not a nobility. Think of it as incorporating protective spirits of a province, rather than as a lord (lit. defender) of it. Its more esoteric in roots, i.e. there were some swordsmiths and actually fittings makers who were outright capable of conferring protection or invisibility (similar things). For a long time however bushi was a blood distinction. You had to descend from the north, from people who went away with the first Minamotos, or at least claim so. Again, Japan is a society where a paper from the current Shogun testifying it is so carries more practical weight than most historical documents. You could be adopted and thus become samurai, but it was not too common, if only because you have a system where the clan lives off some income which is held officially by one person. And in Edo period court standing on inheritance claims against such adoptees became a bit more stringent. P.S. Suketaka is a major smith, but goes in the background of nidai Sukehiro whom he imitated. Sukehiro, Sukenao, Suketaka.

Hamon is exactly periodic sinusoid with accented nioi-guchi which is visible everywhere at any angle. Most likely Showa (WWII) stuff with brutally cleaned nakago.

I don't know, its kind of two different worlds - people who place kinzogan and museums which drill numbers to make sure they don't get lost. The latter happens when a curator dies (its a lifelong appointment by default), they hire new one, next day he comes to department head and asks politely - where is the actual collection? Because the storage box is empty but there is a bunch of stuff without tags on dead curator's table. The next day, everything qualifying as portable-walkable Michelangelo gets a little number drilled on its ass. Or feet.

70% of swords in museums have either chiseled or permanent ink written catalogue number on them. Yes, Goto Teijo tsuba with white number across the plate.

Yeap, something strongly Mino related, probably early shinto.

I personally think putting kinzogan was always being a bit nonchalant with a historic item, but people actually do it today. The thinking is that if you want to box in NBTHK into giving you exactly what you want or failing the item completely, do nijimei kinzogan. On the border Yukimitsu/Taima - put in "Yukimitsu". It has been far less uncommon in the past 100 years than most think.