Rivkin

I prefer Hosho. Taima tends to loose better blades to Yukimitsu attribution, and what is left ranges in quality significantly. There are things that did not go Tegai only because they are itame based and nie forms clouds-like formation rather than nijuba per se, but the quality is still somewhat rough. I am all for it as a school being a notch above Tegai or Shikkake, but at the same time some of this fame comes from people owning Taima because they can't afford Yukimitsu and arguing instead "my sword is just as good". Senjuin has some significant early examples and I would not discard those.

Much appreciated, great job!

Japanese as a language has some Siberian characteristics. Poor on adjectives, which are often imported, but very rich on nouns used to describe characteristics. Plenty of examples where definitions overlap and which one to choose is a question. Add to this that many collectors love to show off by pulling out some extremely seldom used term and insisting "that's what it really should be called". I would also go with something as simple as sunagashi here. Here is a picture with some of the related activities where I would say Inazuma, Kinsuji and Sunagashi exist somewhat separately.

Thanks! I've never seen anything attributed to ko Uda as Juyo in real life, no wonder if they are so rare.

Jussi, do you have statistics regarding which shinsa years those would be? I can understand Uda Kunifusa mumei daito making it to Juyo with reasonable frequency, but its not a too common attribution to begin with. Ko Uda going Juyo in a "modern" session is something I, maybe ignorantly so, would be cautious about. I don't feel like anything typical for 20s sessions applies today. But then again I don't have your experience of actually studying the sessions in detail.

Metoo!

I don't think this could be estimated accurately without interrogating the maker himself. However, there are a few things that appear to be consistently discovered with such swords by Sadakatsu. They are in private hands. There is no evidence of them ever being part of the Imperial household. There are quite a few blades being sold in Japan that once were part of the household agency, as couple of princely collections were sold out, and the paperwork attesting to the provenance is highly treasured. BTW, the blades in large are not extremely impressive. Yet with Sadakatsu's creations which are available for purchasing I don't think one ever encounters such documentation. So the question - were these actually ever presented/accepted by the household? I think the answer is with significant probability strictly negative in a sense the Household never owned those. Most likely, Sadakazu and Sadakatsu having Imperial appointments they would demonstrate the fact that they made a blade, maybe it would even displayed at some shrine, but then it was to be sold on the market. Quite a few western museum collections (i.e. western sword afficionados from late Meiji-early Showa) has those. Then what limited him to just a single daisho? If it sells, there is no law prohibiting one from making as many as needed. On the other hand, I knew a collector who has a large number of recent gendaito dedicated to various events. Usually he asks the smiths how many they made and they tell him - its the only one, or one out of only three. So I think one to three is a typical number.

If one looks for a blade with koshirae in this price range, its hard to do better than Aoi Art. If something else (shirasaya only), with American dealers like nihonto.us, nihontocraft you get an extra protection of moneyback guarantee and more detailed service.

Its a known technique among struggling painters - to send president's portrait to the white house, receive back a letter with gratitude, the painting gets hanged somewhere for a week - and then you have a letter "signed" (faximile) by the president himself congratulating you on your painting efforts, which you add to your resume with a cleverly stated phrase how you did portraits of presidents and kings. Not that they asked for it. There are some smiths in Japan even today who make swords commemorating various events and then selling them "this was made for the Emperor's birthday". Gassan Sadakatsu was probably the smart person who started that. He made quite a tremendous number of swords commemorating various events. They are still everywhere. Kirill R.

Obviously there is! The answer to [a] is supposed to be sugata, that's what every book says. I was puzzled by it for a long time, since unless one goes for Shinkai, in shinto 500$ and 50,000$ sword tends to have the same sugata. I feel the reason is actually many real collectors in Japan, just a very personal experience, don't collect anything save Heian and up to mid Kamakura, plus Kotetsu, plus Kiyomaro. Things which indeed have a distinctive sugata. Regarding [c], I can say that I have/had good relationship with traditional seamstresses, paper makers, lacquer makers. It gets a bit more difficult with painters and netsuke carvers. Yet I never managed to have anything as pleasant with any swordsmith or polisher or even sword dealer. With a few exceptions in the last category. The reason is that compared to all other crafts, sword people are horribly arrogant. Add to this that crafts, polishing is a very good example, can be not particularly tasking on the intellect. Polishing requires a more boredom-insulated, meticuluous mind, most people who do it in real life with great difficulty advanced to a junior drill sergeant level. Contrary to what every polisher-written book states, a solid portion of those that are actually not bad in their craft, still can't kantei at the very basic level. Actually, all insane-level kantei I ever heard came from polishers. So I actually have great reservations about what one could have learned about sword history if one were to sit down with say, Sukehiro. Its like there was a smith lineage in the Middle East whose great secret was that they excelled in the technique of storing barely forged billet in excrement. They had a detailed understanding regarding how to select the said substance, which temperature/place/season works the best. And what do we learn from that? Today it produced quite a few "traditional" swordsmiths claiming with such treatment they can produce a nitrogen-alloyed steel, superior to everything ever made etc. etc. etc. The problem is nitrogen steel is a mythical beast - it has miracle properties in first principals calculations, but has a lifetime of a few seconds. Connecting the "secret craft knowledge" to real life metallurgy is actually very difficult. Never use water from this river, never use charcoal from that area can mean a lot of things, and sometimes it just the result of someone simply getting randomly burned when trying to do just that.

Just for the sake of being controversial: 1. Bright hada and nie which gradually varies in size, preferably starting well within hamon. 2. Japanese classifications are very vertical. It is assumed that somebody's distant ancestors have greater sway compared to contemporaries. This creates complex genealogical tables, which are often more confusing than helpful. For example, you don't often read anywhere that early Kamakura works from all schools can be quite alike, with some subtle kantei point deciding which pile a blade gets thrown into. 3. Who were the teachers of Etchu Norishige, Soshu Hiromitsu/Hasebe Kunishige, O-Sa.

Kunikane was actually gimei-ed; today he is not considered anything famous, but back in the days they were quite respected. Naotane's school did quite a few imitations of their work. Even though the signature looks quite different, it has a proud and meticulous execution. I have a bit of issue with how high contrast the masame lines are. I thought that was something associated with shinshinto/lesser/later generations, but don't quote me on this. Great habaki. Kirill R.

Straight stick is by default something like Kambun shinto, especially with such nakago.

I think its different for koto vs. Edo. In Muromachi one can accept a lot of variation when it comes to the signature. If the signature is consistent with the general way the school signed, one generally accepts it as is. I've seen plenty of comments with papered Muromachi blades even without it being stated "signed as" in papers - the signature is unusual and can still be spurious. But no one can prove its spurious. Maybe third or fourth generation Soshu Masahiro did sign it this way occasionally. Just because there are known seven or nine of his signatures that are different does not mean there can't be tenth one which is of its own type. Even with high profile names of the early koto, if its consistent with the school's style and the blade is right for the school, it will more likely be accepted rather than not. There is a large variation in signatures, like Bizen Nagamitsu or Tomonari etc. etc., and no one knows how many generations do these variations correspond to. I would not refuse to purchase something that definitely looks ko-Bizen even if the signature has every single stroke pointing in the wrong direction compared to something in a book. Pity you almost absolutely never see something this old and unpapered but still paperable. For everything from Edo period or even earlier smith known for a consistent, single generation signature, anything unusual is usually no papers.

The Munyoshi is an interesting one. There is some age to the nakago, and overall nijimei signatures were not terribly common during the Edo period. The hamon with considerable width and small gunome or choji like features likely means Bizen or Muromachi Mino. I believe the second option is more likely, if only based on the probability alone. Better pictures would be much more helpful (more shots with hamon, overall view from a side etc.), but tentatively Mino from circa 1500 is a possibility. Kirill R.

It can be quite arrogant to comment on those judging by the photographs alone, but I don't like the blade. Many small things which are just a bit atypical. But yes, nakago can be quit frail and bend under strain or some of the material can even come loose on those... Kirill R.

From the general look of it, possibly late Muromachi. Koshirae is decent enough.

Almost straight naginata blade does have Kamakura or Nambokucho allure to it. This being said, the photographs here are just not informative enough to see what's going on. The widening on kissaki portion can be a very late trait, or can be distortion by the camera. Hard to say without a decent picture of the whole blade. Kirill

As little is seen on photographs, nothing sort of screams ko Hoki. More often than not they are kind of distinctive. Rough and nie based. Kirill R.

Nearly all inro are from the final century of Edo period. These are decent mid-upper grade examples, late, maybe 600-1000$ each. Neither is unique or particularly good, you can buy things like these more or less anytime. No auction house will "guarantee the authenticity" of pretty much anything, they can state a qualified opinion. Kirill R.

Its a late Muromachi tanto. This signature is sometimes faked, but the execution here does not look terribly wrong. Its also a relatively common signature (less so on tanto), and the blade from what little is shown does seem to be "sort of" consistent with Bizen work from say Tembun. Its a well known, but not particularly great name by itself without a more specific attribution. So I personally would not doubt the papers too much. Its possible this would not paper today, but again there is nothing too obvious about that I guess. However the work does not show anything outstanding. The koshirae is nice except kozuka is a throwaway and there is active rust. I would be looking at 1.2-4k for the package, mostly depending on how it looks in hand, are there kizu etc. For burnt papers - well, Japan still has one of the highest number of fires in the world. Courtesy of heating one room in a house with moveable heaters of often dubious safety. Kirill R.

Quite a useful index! If Jussi willing I am sure quite a few people would pitch in with donation to express their gratitude for the work, Kirill R.

I think this is a good tsuba in Hikone style. The composition and very thin carving in places are not of Soten school per se, but related. Its quite possible such can be correlated with a specific artist if one looks through a decent amount of books... Regarding what is and what is not Soten, its something unlikely to ever be resolved. There is thinking that only shakudo tsuba in "Mino-Goto" style can be attributed to the "real" Soten, since they are quite uncommon and relatively old. Everything with warring figures/sages/processions signed Hikone Ju... was made in significant quantities, and its impossible to understand which were by "the first generation". It was a popular product, also if memory serves right, adopted as official style by Ii Daimyo and thus carried on all clan's swords. Shakudo ones are 20 times more rare compared to iron ones and tend to be premium grade. Kirill R.

Bad polish, and on top of that its one of a more popular styles which complicates things. No sugu boshi, so shinto is unlikely. Shinshinto would be someone extremely conservative like Aizu Kanesada and also I think unlikely. Most likely its about tembun in Muromachi. Unfortunately almost everyone was trying their hand at something like this at the time. The peaks lack any periodicity, no two are alike, they seem to have well defined nioi guchi, which is not that typical for Mino, but more Bizen-like. Yet the peaks are a bit too togari-like, in places are very wide, and nie heavy, pointing towards Mino. So unfortunately with these images I would go something like Mino, Kaga, Bizen. Kirill

Thank you very much, I did not know about this one... Kirill R.