Rivkin

Double post... I would say though with Muromachi Bizen its important to show entire nakago since there are quite a few clues to whether its original or not.

Signatures of this level ChatGPT translates with 90% accuracy. Bishu Osafune ju Sukesada. Its a lower grade signature which is somewhat roughly executed, but can be real and the blade sort of looks like late Muromachi. P.S. Chatgpt more often than not does good job on papers, sayagaki and books as well.

This sword has provenance, gold inlayed nijimei "Mitsutada", has been published in at least one book; probably more, but there was only one I could find right away by searching for "Osafune Mitsutada". Its polishing has been sponsored by Japanese government, the whole process has been covered in the journal of Nara Museum of Buddhist Art. Meito? Masterpiece?

Can't fool me. Its chikei.

I would say as common as midare utsuri. They go well together, while indeed mokume is quite common, but utsuri will typically be more simple. On Mino... I can finance the sword going to NBTHK for shinsa and I'll put 5,000 USD as wager. If it gets Bizen to one of Muromachi generations (simply because I can't guarantee they'll put a specific generation or period on the papers, its a bit random), I win 5,000$. If it gets Mino I lose 5000$ wager. If it gets neither I do not get compensated for the shinsa.

I would prefer higher res photo to see whats hadori and whats not, otherwise it might end up being Ichimonji or something [embarassing]. But it does have considerable "Go feel". I did not study many of his blades but there is this reocurring type widening above nakago, widening next to kissaki, ichimai. Exhibit is in matsumoto, probably Japanese based members know more, it has some nice items.

Looks like a particularly nice one... They have some sexy plastic sword stands for sale for the exhibit as well...

Looks like hakkikake or actually kaen with a bit of nijuba in the boshi.

There are conflicting opinions about recent work since after 1980s the economy of swordmaking has been slowly declining. But they are better. Early Showa is not impressive outside of a few names. Actually for better or worse post 1960 works tend to be really similar to shinshinto in stylistics. A bit artificial, harsh, strong lined, but bright and rich.

Very few only smiths who can be seen as extension of shinshinto, for example Gassan. The rest started anew with random steels and strange styles, only in late 1930s you start having Shibata Ka and other smiths who to an extent restore the tradition. Still, until 1970-1980s probably the quality was two grades below shinshinto.

Should I pay attention to this? Everytime I think about it, the answer is "I don't know". Alien society and people, alien manners... who am I to judge? Observed ill intent or impropriety might exist only in the reflection of our self-absorption. Certainly, few today understand what swords really signify. Born in a society which believes the history ended in 1945, the "history" being kind of unenlightened insanity, at best accepted through preservation. The best recent deathbed treatment given to a sword was by Mishima. Strange, out of place, "pointless", yet undeniably beautiful and in many ways proper for the sword, proper for the smith. Like Kondo Isami honoring Kotetsu, anyone using an old blade, or any blade at all should consider the responsibility. If he is a warrior whose fame will endure for centuries, fire burial with a beloved blade is proper and will honor the blade and the smith. If one is to slaughter hundred enemies, it honors both the blade and the smith. Use the old blades. Make your deeds worthy.

Who knows if a sword, or its previous owner, prefers the thing stored in a safe or dying while doing what it was created to do. I don't. But I would certainly prefer to be killed by a quality blade rather than an ugly mass produced crap covered with machine oil. Unless its important historically... It has importance as a link of warrior cultures, past and present. And I heard you are not supposed to own mumei shinto and shinshinto anyway.

If the blade has limited cultural or artistic value... Wotanists/Valhallists do burn bodies with swords and other weapons. Conversely when fighting or decapitating someone, it is proper to use an even better weapon, in the very least to show respect. Would not use koto for either of these purposes, but a shinto blade, why not. We will all die, and so will all the swords. Naturally they will much later than us, but then to go off in battle is a great honor.

He was not particularly known for bo utsuri, it sort of overall Muromachi trait, somebody copied from some book. Its all hair splitting since they are very similar, but with Oei Morimitsu and alike you don't expect groups of the same height, 4 elements+. You expect large choji-gunome joined with a few others, quite a bit more non-uniform appearance. Strong groupings with flat hight/similar width are associated with Eikyo-Onin-Bunmei pieces. But they very seldom have midare utsuri shooting to shinogi and ashi tend to start closer to the edge, overall hamon can be narrower on average. Sanemitsu did flat height large grouping with very wide and expressive hamon, with some ko nie sprinkled around the hamon's upper portion. Its a good match.

The most likely bet is Oei Bizen Sanemitsu.

It is excellent. It can be many things, but my feeling this is Oei to Bunmei Bizen. It kind of wants to be Saburo, but the groupings are too distinct, sort of Muromachi broad boshi... But this is great.

Light source has to be on a side, not in front of the blade. By default it might be late Muromachi to shinto...

Most Go that I've seen that "widened" hamon, noticably did so within 10 inches below kissaki. The width variation exists, though noticably less pronounced compared to say Kaneuji, and it occurs differently compared to other schools - with particularly long "wide" areas. Hope this helps.

Not the image I am particularly proud of, but shows the general gist. AOI's Tametsugu definitely has this Go widening and Ichimai, but very tired, jigane is gone, nie is rough... But a very rare type of "Tametsugu" with Go features, indeed.

It is sort of Soshu, but first and foremost what is Ichimai boshi and what is "attributed" are not perfectly defined terms. In textbook pictures you see fully and uniformly hardened kissaki with nioi-guchi located outside yokote. This is rare. And if you see Go where hamon starts to widen before kissaki and then the entire kissaki is hardened - its ichimai, and the papers typically say simply "Go". Sayagai might say "kiwame Go". Then there are pieces where it widens or not before the kissaki, but within the kissaki the hamon is simply very wide, nie+nioiguchi covers 85% of kissaki area, but there is certainly some "empty space" left out. Then the papers might as well say "Den Go". The percentage of Ichimai boshi for Go strongly depends on whether you include "Den Go". But then a dealer also can describe the wide hamon as ichimai, it happens all the time.

The better the items the more effort is spend by the owner to find a single buyer-collector and make the arrangements. If the collection is not only good, but specialized, there is a high chance this happening. In which case the sale often goes with a premium compared to the market price. It is a singular chance to make such acquisition and the buyer is aware of that. If it does not happen, it goes either to dealer who might offer a lump sum (20-60% of the expected), or they sell over many years. Or it goes into auction. Christies and Sotheby have less problems securing good submission, but smaller auctions like Rock Island can sometimes offer exceptional incentives and have pre-arranged bidders, so they end up handling the sale. Sometimes the sale is completely private - they send catalogue to 3-5 people, they immediately submit bids and the matter never gets into the room. Public sales have many issues, there are always "rumors" about pieces left with nonsense descriptions on purpose, bidders who collectively agree on bids versus bidders who purposefully drive up bids on items they know will sell at some significant premium etc. etc.. For certain subjects, auctions are chaos few understand, but in every sale there is a lot going on. They get strong feedback when working on the catalogue, another feedback when they see the bids. At all times going private or splitting the collection is an option they consider. Reasonably good collection was placed on sale and they got very high bids on items they did not think much about from a person they respected. They got really scared, pulled out half the auction, sold the stuff nobody cared much about, and offered everything else privately.

Another discussion that goes somewhere. I know a few dealers whom I reasonably trust on descriptions, photography and moneyback guarantee. I never bought much from them - they deal in things somewhat outside my interest. On the other hand Christies are awful in photography, descriptions, no warranty, false promises, random people. I bought from them and many people do. Because they have a brand and good items. Simply don't pay attention to most things they write down. There are more dangerous guys, those who do put in the effort when writing things, but either far more incompetent than they think they are (99% of dealers), or they are shrewd. Or both. Yes, Aoi Art has a thingy where they affix a koshirae to most blades they sell. I loved it as a beginner (its a real samurai sword), less than thrilled now, but there is some match between blade quality and koshirae, and even at the bottom its not "awful-awful". Big thoroughput shop with many good items.

To an extent yes, you do see some Soshu imitations in shinto which used it, but not a typical choice. It is also seldom though a bit more often used in shinshinto, also Soshu imitations.

Usually it is, like Go, but it does not determines the school all by itself.

The blade is in polish. It might be not the best, but its a relatively recent job. Hada is opening, as on many Muromachi pieces, and is rather unsightly. Otherwise, it is Soshu, with very long muneyaki and relatively quiet hamon, which could be lesser senjo or something like Masahiro lineage. The nakago's rather sharp tapering would lean towards the former, but there is a weird outline "jump" when it starts to narrow down, might be nothing, might be it has been reworked from a more broad version... I would get papers first. It is a big question if another polish will substantially improve anything and there is one place where hamon runs very close to the edge, if not passes it. Still, it is late Muromachi Soshu, quite possibly Masahiro or Senjo school.