Rivkin

Not my cup of tea. Smith who is difficult to repaper with Fujishiro papers. Average quality.

Broad, curved wakizashi with takanoha yasurime and visible large gunome... Sounds like end of Muromachi to kanei shinto, Mino school. Sue Seki or alike.

Dimensions-based guessing is a bit difficult for me, as is guessing based on photos, but I was generally aiming at four, somewhat competitive statements as massive: 1. Relatively wide mihaba for the length. I did not realize that nagasa is very short, so I assumed its more in katana range. 2. Tegai blades tend to be in 6.5mm range motokasane, a solid number. Tapering to 4mm is a good thing - for Edo swords it often stays in 6-7.5mm range. 3. It does not feel like it has very high shinogi? Getting this from photographs can be hard, it definitely not low, but I wonder if its actually high. 4. Its overall quite healthy. I am not concerned about scuffs here and there. If its koto, its expected. Average Tegai will have ware and sometimes long one. If its shinto than yes, small things are still kizu that affect the value.

I think with tsukare utsuri the hada disappears or is subdued in the dark section. Its also tends to be associated with Muromachi blades. It also tends to be spotty and uneven.

Yes, this is heavily Yamato blade with a strong presence of masame. Massive blade, almost straight, decent quality work. Its something interesting to look at hand. It looks like jigane is very consistent, quite bright, long masame, seen everywhere, no clear kizu. At the same time it does not convey a feeling of strong ji nie, its a bit less bright. Hamon shows good separation into lines, good flow but again it is not made from bright and large nie, but more ko nie. I suspect its kambun shinto Sendai or comparable smith. That would be my 50% bet. If not, its a high grade Tegai work... maybe 1380s. 20%. Kai Mihara... 30% probability. Shikkake needs periodic gunome. Mokume with sharp angles is usually shinto work in koto style.

My bad! This is obviously a shinto sword, as indicated by posters above. Should have checked the books. I did remember the smiths, but have forgotten that Nagayoshi was Muromachi and Nobuyoshi - shinto, just remembered that Nobuyoshi was shinto looking.

Without checking the books: Nagayoshi and Nobuyoshi are sometimes good blades. They are at transition from koto to shinto - hamon usually not exactly gokaden/koto, and later Nobuyoshi will be shinto with denser hada. Still looks like a nice blade, though an auction link to AOI would be more appropriate. P.S. The smith is not jo-jo-saku, its AOI way of saying its a good, attractive blade. I don't remember Nobuyoshi's rating it was either chu-jo or jo saku.

Unfortunately when it comes to blades, there is not much to see in Europe as a whole on display.

I think they are discussing the "common thing", which is nie-utsuri found on better Taima and Senjuin or somewhat faint shirake utsuri on Tegai. I have not seen shikkake with a well defined nie utsuri (?), but there are examples of papered shikkake blades with shirake utsuri. one can search (shikkake or norinaga, utsuri) in english or Japanese, almost every large dealer's site has some. It can be they all don't know what they see or someone else is pushing his school's peculiar definition of utsuri. Such things do happen. Its still uncommon, but there is arguably a better example at AOI used in their kantei session. Utsuri by itself very seldom disproves or proves kantei, we don't have a perfect grasp why the same smith working in the same style would generally have a preference for specific utsuri (there are correlations with hada etc.), but even when his preferences are well established, exceptions would be known. One seldom disqualifies Rai blade only because it has no utsuri or it looks a bit wrong. Kantei to shikkake is usually very solid. Its the only school, for example, for small periodic gunome in nie deki with nijuba. Generally at least somewhat periodic gunome is required, size and midare qualities can vary. Unfortunately the polish is heavy on hadori so figuring this one from photo is difficult to say the least. It can be backed by a distinctive hada with dense masame above the ha (as many Yamato and Soshu), then large burls whose other end touches the shinogi. The key: We don't really know what was the exact thinking in making utsuri. We don't know the decision process why some blades with the same hada and school have utsuri, others don't and probably never had. P.S. Its not the blade I've seen - the other one had very well defined gunome.

By default hira zukuri katana with coarse uneven hada and many forging issues is equal to late Muromachi. Can be a later work - unfortunately acid polish does not allow to appreciate steel's native reaction to light, it makes shinshinto steel and Kamakura steel look the same. Sugata can help. But by default - late Muromachi, generic work which can be thrown to many lineages.

Looks like classic shirake utsuri. Yes, unusual for the school but definitely not unknown. Generally in Yamato utsuri is not too common and if present it tends to be Senjuin, Hosho or at least Tegai. For Shikkake and to some extent Taima shirake utsuri by itself can throw kantei to things like Uda or Hokke but the blade here has strong mainline Yamato feel.

Its hard to argue against such assessment but generally the current shinsa atmosphere is hard and shikkake is both not a famous school, i.e. the attribution does not advance Juyo chances, but its also highly competitive. They did good work and very seldom one encounters mass items like with Tegai. In 1970s this would be easily a Juyo.

I think its a good sword. Shikkake is overall a good school, jigane is nice, utsuri is nice. Hamon is not too active but also the light angle is kind of difficult (i.e. wrong) for this type of work - its best to photograph shikkake hamon in "white light", i.e. light source directly above the blade. It shows whether nie is fine grained, coarse, how long are nijuba lines etc. P.S. I think I know this blade. It was sold at auction in Japan about three years ago.

I think accepted dated works are all from books (oshigata). Typically 1304-1338 range is being cited. It is not well understood how to interpret Den examples with o kissaki and wide mihaba which might suggest 1350-1360 range: there are no second generation signatures known.

As always I'll take issue with most things said. Nihonto is not per se a European type of art where a realistic scene is being interpreted and accented via specific technique. Its closest relations are probably the calligraphy and stone collecting, closely followed by ceramics, two more steps aways - ink painting. At its best it excels in conveying a particular emotion through an abstract form. It can be calm, strong, flamboyant, restricted, open, fresh. As long as its not "mundane", the artistic purpose is achieved. The "quality" assessment emphasizes first details down to individual strikes, then school-specific elements, consistency and finally composition. Understanding calligraphy does help in understanding what is a good sword. Taking into account that 95% of nihonto is calligraphy done by practicioners who can't even draw the lines at will because the media itself is exceptionally difficult. You see couple of areas where they sort of did what the school requires them to, the rest is smudges or just empty space devoid of ambition.

its a hard one, especially with this sugata. But the hada is dense and without flaws or much activity, though it does have some ji nie and itame is visible. Hamon is flamboyant probably nioi and is rather atypical in shape. Something not too old is a possibility. Early Showa, late shinshinto

There are many textual testimonies made by children or grandchildren that Hiromitsu, Masahiro, Shimada were destitute. We don't even know early Muromachi smiths that well - when was the first Shimada is uncertain, Oei Akihiro is uncertain, and we have almost nothing left by Masahiro circa 1440-1470. What's bizarre is that circa 1330-1350 there are almost no signed tanto by the mainline Soshu, quite a few mumei (Sadamune, Masamune) which is by itself most bizarre. The lack of signed daito by comparison is less alarming since aside from Bizen everyone else left noticably fewer signed pieces. Daito hitatsura is a controversial subjet since its very hard to produce one without overwarping or cracking the blade. There was Heianjo Oei smith, forgot the name, who made very attractive daito hitatsura and basically in Muromachi you see premier smiths here and there attempting it as a test of their skill. Its HARD.

The idea that Masamune was somehow considered "utilitarian" and Shizu or Norishige were prized sounds strange. The problem with mainline versus off-shoots I think involves both that Soshu is not a unified master and 10 students school it is usually posed to be, and that the bulk of sword demand came after the war started, towards 1350-1370. Which is Shizu, Hasebe, Nobukuni, sue Sa. At the same time Hiromitsu and Akihiro became provincial smith with meager demand and output. Shintogo is best compared to Awataguchi Yoshimitsu. "Court" maker specializing in tanto, despite probably two generations - limited production with very consistent quality. The bulk of early Soshu is Norishige versus Yukimitsu and Sadamune, the latter being basically the very best of Yukimitsu style. Roughly comparable in scale, Norishige's activity period was quite a long one also. If one is to compare their numbers against any strictly the end Kamakura individual smiths, there are not many names with comparable number of blades. Bizen Kanemitsu, but Bizen always churned up a lot of blades. There is not much inconsistentcy here. Masamune on the other hand is a rare attribution that typically implies historical acceptance of the blade as Masamune. Every kind of statistics breaks when it comes to him - atypical distribution of styles, atypical distribution of sugata, atypical stylistic divergence of signed versus unsigned works, atypical number of works versus the activity period. Its an attribution that sticks out in every manner.

Brian, your friends - do not collect at high level. No one ever heard of "Guido collection". It never existed. They do not publish books. They do not really understand kantei. Oh, I forgot - its because its pixels. In real life it would have been different... not. If someone barges into every conversations telling people they collect wrong, think wrong and buy wrong - does not mean he is a Collector and a thinker. Its just a personally trait. Even if someone actually buys a Juyo blade from a top notch Japanese store and then lists it for 20% more - it still does not make him a collector. Or an expert. They are your friends - virtual or real life. Unfortunately besides your and your friend's endless promotion - there is nothing.

Brian, they are your friends. Collectors, experts, historians - its a different crowd.

The nakago has a showa feel and yasurime in particular done sloppy. Shortened to fit gunto mounts? Later imitation of Yoshihiro's work? Could be. I would also say the work itself is half a notch below Ikkansai Yoshihiro himself.

Its pretty straight, transition from midare to suguha at boshi is instanteneous... Kambun shinto, maybe a bit later or earlier. Midare gunome choji. Not the most common choice, tends to be provincial. Probably mino derived - it does have close Bizen counterparts, but having a dominant choji in the grouping probably throws towards Mino.

Personally I don't like Fred's photographs, which I guess is mutual, but if that's the sword I've seen in hand (95% certainty), its very good. It has exceptional utsuri, ashi, lots of activity. One of the best Kunitoshi probably. It is not suguha+jigane kind of sword though, its very Kamakura in every aspect.

Unless you have an established and well defined taste chances are you will not like even something that looked good to you in pictures. and vice versa. It takes learning to know how to navigate between these worlds. In the US the best dealer will show you maybe 5 blades at once in this price range. In Japan you could see 50. There is usually no rush so feel free to ask after making selection. With modern you are expected to loose some since they don't appreciate and if you buy from top-level store anything below 100K its also unlikely to be a great deal.

Very hard to give advice. I would say - go to Tokyo around DTI time, or just go there anytime and crawl through shops for a week. Maybe add couple of provincial shops - they do have better bargains as the rule. Then ask around here about what you liked the best. Unfortunately at this price level offerings in the US are more limited. Enjoy the weak yen.