Rivkin

So which shrine do you place up high? Katsuga Taisha, Atsuta Jinja, Omishima Oyamazumi?

Another question which I always pondered: Is seeing a detailed photograph of work, hataraki, enough? Or you would prefer to see the overall image, or both are important? Do you get much information from overall images? Or you would rather say its important to see photos of works of the same maker to study the variation? How many would you think then is enough? Two Go? Five?

No problem, I am a grumpy old man who likes niche photo topics. Collecting communities have many bubbles. Each believes whatever happens, it must be inside theirs. One is always centered around 1-2 major dealers, and its always the most visible one. But then there is a museum bubble, which considers outsiders as dangerous uneducated idiots, old collectors bubble, people who pretend to be collectors bubble etc. etc. etc.. Sometimes they are in the same city and have no idea others exist. That's probably what contributed to stories like Go is as rare as ghost staying alive for so long. I had to check for Yoshifusa, I don't think I have him specifically. Sukezane, a few others. Soshu is relatively easy to photograph, and most Yamashiro is also ok, but unfortunately Bizen can be exceptionally difficult depending on polish etc., so with this level Bizen blades its basically booking the whole day for like 4, maximum 6. P.S. Crypto-oriented fund managers who professionally erased much of their online presence and stopped soliciting outside investments in 2022. Yikes.

I don't know why this turned into a place to discuss Go. There is an issue that he uses two different styles which can be also be mixed to one extent or another, but so do many, Norishige has itame works, Sa has two types of jigane, etc. He is relatively well defined, plus-minus, whether his name was really Go and what exactly are the dates involved are probably unsolvable questions... There are could have been two people - one with characteristic clear bright nioiguchi standing out against most Soshu works, and the other one to whom one would assign all other works, but its all both possible and elusive. Interestingly enough he tends to be rather distinctive from Norishige, so what kind of influences and relationships were there, is not perfectly clear. Its certainly not the hardest to find work photography-wise. Definitive O Sa can be much more of a challenge. It is a popular work among "younger" collectors, including certain Russian circles, from crypto-guys who run around sanctions to outright war criminal crowd.

As a photographer I often wondered, If one could request 10 high resolution well made photographs of any swords, any smiths you named, what would it be? My own short list of undershot smiths was: Sanjo Tomonari Awataguchi Hisakuni Bungo Yukihira O-Sa Masamune Umeta Myoju Eventually I shot them all but it has been a Challenge. And both Yukihira and O-Sa images did not turn out well, and I don't know if I get another chance.

The signature has sort of correct appearance, but reading it on lazy photographs taken at random angle instead of nakago lying flat down... hm... It feels authentic though.

If rumors are true and apparently they might be... I surely hope they will start mentioning it on TH, but given their conservatism I doubt they will - and I fear this will create quite a few headscratching TH where you have no idea where exactly this name and not some another came from.

Thanks, it was a fun and interesting blade, I did not realize jifu utsuri applies here.

You want something vicious with wide mihaba and o kissaki. Its understandable, those are indeed beautiful. In this case its ok purchase. The work is actually decent, I would take it as being better than average Sukesada noname of the time, the polish is good and crisp, you will not make money on a resale, but its a reasonably bright, appreciation-friendly work. Koshirae is well balanced stylewise. If you live in the US you might consider submitting this blade to NTHK NPO, they tend to be more Bizen friendly on such style, you'll get most likely Bizen Sukesada as an uppraisal. NTHK is also likely to return Bizen name, but not as likely as NPO. That ofcoarse all my personal opinions. Dotanuki is quite good work, but its a waki and its unfortunately high priced.

Its interesting to know. A while ago I was told to submit only the blade, but the last couple of years I kept hearing stories that Honami papers can now follow the sword to basic paper levels, not just Juyo. This might be related to some i-i-interesting high end attributions at TH that seem to date from the last two years.

Another great example why traders love rankings and why collectors should have a different take on this practice. Tomonari. One of the greatest names. Every dealer selling Tomonari will cite how he was the founder, and how many works are rated this and that. There is one problem. The name was used till mid Kamakura for certain. There were people adopting it even later, who might or might not be of the lineage. If one believes genealogies the really first generation worked no earlier than 1050 no later than probably 1140. The earliest papered Tomonari could be late Heian. A lot are Kamakura. Without exception - sold and advertised as the first generation, Heian work. Even if its not said directly "this is first generation", you read description on dealer's site and its all about the first Tomonari. One more issue. Goban Kaji did not invite any of those "generations" of Tomonari. It was not very keen on "ko Bizen" branch altogether, instead focusing on Nobufusa's Fukuoka lineage. Much of ko-Bizen traded today is not something that preceded other Bizen schools, but rather was produced in parallel using more antiquated style. At the time when such style was not really valued anymore. And if you look at the work - there are very impressive signed Tomonari and those that are not. Frankly we don't even know how many of those Tomonari are simply early Kamakura period fakes. The other ko Bizen founder. Masatsune. Slightly less time-elongated story, but a variety of signatures and work. Those with katana mei go to ko Aoe, those with tachi mei to ko Bizen. Except for exceptions. And without exceptions, admitting there are ko Aoe blades that look very Bizen and Bizen blades that tend towards Aoe jigane. Same shop, two related shops? How long did the production last in either. Again, replacing all of that with a number measuring how great Masatsune was - achieves nothing. No viable research purpose, no advancement of understanding what having the signature Masatsune means. The only thing it does is allowing to convey importance of this attribution to people who have exceptionally meager knowledge of the field. But might consider buying.

Exceptionally sharp look, congratulations. Yamato Shizu? Go? Crisp polish makes it sublime.

Except there are at least a few in Japan at TH level. One came from gunto mounts, another was a chance buy at a show.

The funny thing is that while I am a very minor collector, I do own two ko Aoe Tametsugu, though one still needs to be papered. Signed. They are not the most beautiful swords one can imagine. Coarse masame to the point I took one for Naminohira. A friend whose kantei I respect a lot, when looking at it spent a few seconds before putting it back saying "some Yamato". Much of it is condition issues, but generally speaking ko Aoe Tametsugu tends to be a historically important blade more so than artistic masterpiece. That's one negative of rankings - it piles everything without trying to understand where its the signature that makes it important, or history, or aesthetics or maybe even something else. Another aspect is that rankings tend to reflect dealer's culture. I've seen it taking over every collecting community in the past 30 years. It values certainty, confirmation, branding. For a true collector the process is based on partnership with objects, an honest relationship with the tradition. Uncovering new, unrecorded swordsmith of significant skill is an honor. For a dealer, its mostly nuisance. "The work is good, but no one will spend money on this name". They much rather take out the signature and get another Shizu Kaneuji... and a flood of mumei. There is such thing as collector's duty. To honor and appreciate. A duty to a "minor maker" to recognize his masterpiece, even if its one and only. You are then holding in hands what this person's entire life was about, no less. Trader class should behave as traders, collectors as collectors.

Takada which tries to be sue Bizen but judged Takada because of weird jigane and nioiguchi which is like written down with a pencil, very sharp but a bit artificial. On earlier ones you sometimes see hazy nioiguchi. Its not the best Takada can offer, certainly not the worst. The price is a bit higher than typical resale value at the show of something like that, but not by much.