Rivkin

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

In the auction it will go higher... However the prices of signed Ichimonji in suguha-like execution, tired - were never super-high. This one is not really suguha, there is definitely plenty of choji and activity but its probably still not the most active blade in hand. It may sound conspirational but I was always surprised by how large percentage of signed Ichimonji blades are actually less active compared to an average suriage one... or is it just my impression. I am not sure its a great Juyo candidate, could be, but it looks like a nice blade anyway.

Yokoyama Sukenaga?

I am having less and less confidence in eirakudo photos. Now for some reason the photos from the top which used to be very realistic show too much hadori (wrong light angle!), those taken at an angle were always pulled so hard it looks a bit more involved than in hand. This is ayasugi hada, as expected, why its so contrasty - its probably the image itself. The blade is indeed early, with curvature going into nakago. Were it signed this would have been an important piece.

Yes, I forgot about Masahiro, three smith names rather than two.

Sukekuni is quite a different smith compared to other Hokke, his choji are sometimes interpreted later by others, but he carries strong Bizen influence unlike any others. His work can be quite good. Hokke Ichijo is sort of synonymous to Hokke, you seldom find mumei blades attributed to other Hokke names except Sukekuni and Ichijo. Yes, he can be borderline between Nambokucho and Muromachi. I've seen Masaie attribution of Mihara when they wanted to send a message its the founder. Masanobu I think is a common attribution for mumei blades of a specific period. There are some kantei differences between the two, but I am not sure they are actually often observed.

I am a bit surprised someone quotes Masanobu as synonymous with ko Mihara since the two big names are Masaie and Masanobu (80% of signatures), both multi-generations, but Masaie starting earlier and dominating Nambokucho while Masanobu tends to begin during the very end of Nambokucho and has a strong tail into Muromachi (?) though meikan emphasizes Nambokucho specifically and single Masanobu generation at its very end. So ko Mihara is more likely to be Masaie by default among the two. Hokke has darker jigane, utsuri expected, can have a bit large featured/rougher jigane and can be a bit more midare than the pure suguha, while high end ko Mihara will have a very nice tight itame jigane with more greyish hue. Mihara will have longer kaeri and it has very specific, though period-dependent hamon width. Muromachi Mihara jigane will shift towards more standing out mokume, masame etc., wider hamon.

I am very sorry this happened. Unfortunately, my experience forces me to be pessimistic. It is not a "classical" case where the theft occurs at customs - something we saw happening for years, something that exploits the fact that only USPS can investigate mail theft, but the investigation seldom has the motivation to spill into customs as well. Rejected packages go back surface mail and this is always associated with elevated chance of getting lost or in the very least mishandled and beaten up. Some do arrive after two months, and maybe starting a package search on usps.com after three weeks of no tracking updates does help. That's what I always do. However after two months I would basically think of it as "gone". Regarding asking collectors to see if it turns out for sale... I used to bid at government auctions, in person and through agent. Buying stuff that was confiscated, "unclaimed" etc.. Quite a while ago, there was a nasty moment when an Italian family placed newspaper ads promising a reward for the information about a blade I bought. My understanding of the process is that once USPS declares the item lost, it assumes ownership of the package in exchange of validating your potential insurance claim. Similar to the case when the government declares whatever it holds as evidence or other property to be abandoned or confiscated and sells it - you have a potential claim against the government, but not the legal claim for the item itself.

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.