Rivkin

I would start with "light" version which is kirikomi... for me definitely plus, but for some plus only if documented, connected to important historical figure etc.. Kill marks - there are plenty of rifles with notches, and its cool, but without documentation I personally don't pay extra just because its notched. But definitely not demerit. If there would be a legitimate "notching" on swords, yes I would consider those a premier grade collectibles. And yes, I would expect a lot of those would be upper-mid tier working blades like early Yamato rather than Ichimonji... Not because Ichimonji is unsuitable for battle, but its premium is connected with aesthetics rather than function, and it was more or less the same way 700 years ago. I sold long ago the sword I used for duels and do not have particular attachment to blades used for executions... but owning something with five notches would be great.

I used to believe in donating items to museums when convinced its one of a kind, unique artefact whose loss would severely affect our understanding of the subject. Anything below this level frankly should not be even considered. And even this being said - my experience is to postpone donation until the very last moment. Because there is always a chance somebody will start building a collection dedicated specifically to such subject and you already donated the crown jewel of it to a place which simply keeps it in storage.

Kamakura can be weird in terms of nagasa. Nothing really seen here, but it can be ko Mihara or ko Hokke interpreted by seller as "late Kamakura". Theoretically.

Its uchigatana most likely slightly under 2 shaku or around 2 shaku. The signature is nijimei which is a bit unusual for a Bizen name, and Nagamitsu is unfortunately a Bizen name. Its placed not at the ridge but between the ridge and the backedge, which would hint towards koto. The nakago condition is anything between 1500 and 1670. The blade tapers and curves, so we can exclude Kambun. The problem - there are no late legitimate Nagamitsu generations, its tachimei on uchigatana, which is almost unheard of. So its gimei. Unless its a stellar blade otherwise - its not very much, at a show 500-750$, on ebay probably 800-1000 or whatever you'll get for it. It might be that the blade is some legitimate Bizen Sukesada from the late Muromachi.

Its very simple. You put in a description of goods. You might or might not pay the tariff on the sender's side, depending on what the sender feels like. After that you might or might not also pay it on the recipient's side. Depending on whether the delivery company accepts the tariff already paid or accepts it does not need to be paid because its antique or whatever. You might end up paying the tariff once. Or twice. Or not at all.

Well... It has a tachi mei which is well carved in koto fashion.. very beafy both nakago and blade, with uniform nakago patina. Probably Muromachi. Probably toriizori. So its likely 1500-1550. Weird uchigatana with tachi mei? Could be, interesting how long is the nagasa. Mitsu was used by a few schools, Bizen being most famous. But there are some issues with it being Bizen... Late Bungo it can be.

Its koto, I like the sugata despite some damage... standing blade on the tip can be dangerous though.

A bit more on the Bizen side of possible

Probably circa 1550, can be either Bizen or Mino, would look at nakago which might reveal which one.

Suishinshi Masahide had a message - Edo period and everything associated with it was bad, it was better before and way better in late Kamakura. That was not unusual thinking towards Bakumatsu, whether the subject was economy, governance or sex life. How realistic is it when applied to swords is difficult to say. Overall Japanese ones are much harder than European and conversely are very prone to chipping. Great cutters with exceptionally short lifetime. You can chop a dozen iron nails with a saber and all you are going to get is the edge being shinier in places. But saber is not going to do nearly the same damage as Japanese sword. If what you want is a cut from above against say human target, I would go with shinto. More consistent steel content and grain size distribution. More weight for the same size is not going to hurt you but makes the technique more forgiving. Will shinto be more prone to fatal damage under such conditions - this is not my experience and I have an issue finding any concrete evidence confirming it is so. Early soshu is just as hard at the edge as Sukehiro. But early Soshu was battle proven... Its a big statement with not a lot of known quantities. Battle proven (very) often means we have X money, Y people and therefore we are going to make the weapons to fit the bill, nevermind all other considerations. Or it can mean we have one guy who survived a famous encounter 20 years ago and we continue making weapons according to his vision, until 20 years later people start believing in something else... And if you are an actual weapon designer, being guided by soldiers is not going to yield a fantastic weapon. There are many reasons, including soldiers not realizing the tradeoffs between performance, reliability, cost and manufacturability, while navigating those is the key to being great weapon designer. A LOT of them will have memories of the fighting itself distorted to the point of being completely unrealistic. Or driven by a single event which drove them nuts. So you are looking for a feedback of someone experienced, intelligent, calm minded, objective with knowledge of how the technology works. How many such people exist, especially since everyone who really fights rather than participates runs the risk of being killed which if not 50% then at least 10% Back to swords, frankly speaking they all have nearly the same effectiveness, +/- 15%. Its not the kind of technology or environment where you kill 100 people and then elaborate on how it felt with say Bizen versus Soshu. In this case, "fashion" becomes important. Somebody with influence likes o-kissaki - everyone tries to copy and be cool. Then another guy says - its all hubris, traditional sugata is better, and in 10 years - nothing changed on the battlefield but we are back to shapes from 100 years ago.

Great show and thanks for organizing it! I have not been able to participate for two years and the experience was exhilarating. I hope everyone in the field gets to enjoy a show like this at least once.

Everything is possible and it might be that the photographs show just the only area which looks natural... but in the photographs shown there is no indication of saiha. I've had a blade which NTHK NPO branded as saiha, which NBTHK papered and which later earned some well deserved praise...

It does not look retempered at all, nor is the hamon polish applied. If one is optimistic it can be Mihara, though I am personally pretty sure its shinto work in such style.

Its in relatively good polish. Dense itame hada which does not seem to have a lot of ji ne, suguha with clearly defined nioiguchi but without much activity. Blades looks kind of heavy-bulky with some taper, with little bit of koshizori which however at original length could have been torizori. Shinto, circa 1640 comes to mind.

Always been the case above 5 to 6 mil yen