Hoshi

There is a lot of appetite on the market for masterworks at the moment. Look at online dealers, they're running out of masterworks. It's becoming harder and harder to find them, due to whales in Japan accumulating and buyers in the west sniping what passes through their nets. The danger zone is right in the middle though, be careful there. As Michael so eloquently put it, macro-economics trends and new wealth means there is demand for art of all kind as both a diversification strategy and a hobby. Kirill please open a business for those 60K hozon Masamune! Let's not kid ourselves here and give beginners a false sense of hope. If its a beater Masamune that wouldn't pass Juyo, it wouldn't get Masamune attribution in the first place because the condition would preclude any such conclusions from being reached. Even a Masamune with no Boshi left is going to be an automatic Juyo - and any remaining Hozon exists solely to give the Japanese owner discretion. "Not that rare" - well, in its existence the NBHTK has allowed 33 Masamune Katanas counting Juyo and Tokuju together, with half of them having issues (To mei Ga Aru, Soshu Joko No Saku, etc) and attributed to Masamune out of respect for the great edo judges with big glowing red disclaimers in the Setsumei saying in a Japanese way that its unlikely to be Masamune. That leaves about 15-20 legit Katanas with supporting setsumei that can be bought and exported outside Japan. Out of these 15-20 Katanas, more than half are locked into museums and whales collections such as the Sano Museum or the Sawaguchi collection. Now you're left with maybe 5-8 legit katanas that could ever surface on the market and the pie is shrinking fast. Every few years, one might change hands discreetly in Japan and if you're lucky you might hear about it in hushed tones from Japanese dealers. So yeah, they are as rare as rare can be. And no, you won't find a Hozon Masamune for hozon bargain price. That game stops working at the topmost level. And to return to the original question, when stocks run dry it's the best time to sell on consignment, and now is such a time.

Tanobe Sayagaki > NBHTK > …..> the rest… Pretty clear hierarchy to me. the gold standard is of course to have both. if Tanobe does not think the NBHTK’s attribution is good, he will not do the sayagaki. So having both is a great cross-panel validation.

The upper piece has a typical soden-bizen hamon. Fine swords.

I've inspected in hand two. I did not see at least visually where the fame comes from. Kotetsu flies over my head in terms of appreciation capacity. I keep thinking it's like Kiyomaro. Quite a few of them are drunk Kiyomaro forged with sake, and a few pieces really do stand out as masterworks and made his reputation.

I can't tell from the photos. Both swords are eerily similar to me in design, construction, jigane and sugata.

Both fine shinto blade. I honestly do not see much of a difference. Then again, I neither studied nor understood Kotetsu. The ones I've handled haven't left a mark - and when I raised the point I was told "yes, but you haven't cut with it"

Time for the reveal! Many good and close answers. The majority nailed the period and tradition. A few of you nailed the school. Sue-Sa or Sa Ichimon would count as Atari here, so I think the board was very close to succeeding here (and Brian can PM me his Ether public key) The sword is attributed to the Sa Ichimon. By tradition, Sa school blades with a relatively calm suguha or cho-notare are attributed to Sa Sadayoshi. Due of the wild monouchi and ichimai boshi, the attribution is prefaced by "Den". So we have here a piece attributed to Den Sa Sadayoshi. The smith has 21 Juyo pieces, and half of them are accompanied by Den. His signed works are extraordinarily rare, and the attribution within the ichimon follows tradition. There is significant overlap between Sadayoshi and his father, Yoshisada, in style. To sum up, there is significant uncertainty when attributing within the Sa Ichimon due to the lack of daito with a preserved signature and the majority of works attributed to his students and the master are prefaced by Den. The thick and bright habuchi with sparkling ko-nie is a strong kantei point for Sa school. The boshi of Sa school is often quite distinctive, with a sharp and long kaeri. Here we have a sharp kaeri, but more intriguing is its ichimai characteristics, which is unique amongst Sa School published work. What I find particularly appealing is the wild but symmetrically tempered boshi and monouchi. In combination with the early end of the bohi, we have here a deliberate design choice on behalf of the smith and essentially would give the blade a second life in the event of a broken boshi. A point of particular interest is that there is a single prominent kinsuji on both sides, at the same place. These features are unusual for the Sa ichimon, and point to the influence of Go. An attribution to a student of Go is also plausible here, but that is not within the practice of the NBTHK due to lack of an extent historical corpus. The blade was once part of the a museum collection and came with an old inventory tag on its sayagaki (further research required here, I was told Tokyo national museum had the same tags). It further had an early torokusho number of 4038. Not much else is known about its provenance. It is possible that it was passed as Go during the Edo period due to its prominent fully hardened boshi, or the work of O-Sa as is often the case with Sa Ichimon, and has been carefully preserved as a result. For an old blade, the state of preservation is close to Kenzen, with a few weak areas on one side. Often for Sue-Sa or Sa ichimon attributions, the hada can be relatively weak, and this particular work stands out here. It passed Juyo with the following setsumei: Explanation The Chikuzen-smith Samonji (左文字) was active in the early Nanbokuchō period and left behind the traditional, classical Kyūshu style by establishing a new style which was comprised of a bright and clear jiba and a prominent amount of chikei and kinsuji. Samonji had many highly skilled students, e.g., Yasuyoshi (安吉), Yukihiro (行弘), Yoshisada (吉貞), Kunihiro (国弘). Hiroyuki (弘行), Hiroyasu (弘安), and Sadayoshi (貞吉), who faithfully continued the style of their master and who flourished throughout the Nanbokuchō period. It is said that Sadayoshi (貞吉) was the son of Yasuyoshi (安吉) and that he was active around Bunna (文和, 1352-1356). Signed works by this smith are extremely rare but there are unsigned blades with period attributions to Sadayoshi which often show a ha that bases on a Sa School- typical suguha. This blade is ō-suriage but reflects with its wide mihaba, little taper, shallow sori, and elongated kissaki the typical shape of the Nanbokuchō period. The kitae is a standing-out itame that is mixed with mokume and nagare and that features much chikei. The hamon is a nie-laden chū-suguha with a wide nioiguchi that tends a little bit towards notare, that widens along the monouchi, and that is mixed with gunome and angular elements, and the bōshi is a largely undulating midare-komi with a pointed kaeri. We recognize thus the workmanship of the Sa School and as Sadayoshi is traditionally known for hardening most often a suguha-based hamon within this school, the blade can be attributed to him. The jiba is rich in hataraki and has many highlights, and particularly impressive are the powerful nie and the sharply pointed kaeri of the bōshi, features which both match the dynamic shape of the blade. Therefore, we have here an ambitious masterwork among all blades attributed to this smith. Tanobe sensei's sayagaki Jūyō-tōken at the 63rd jūyō shinsa Sa Sadayoshi from Chikuzen province This blade is ō-suriage mumei. It is of an Enbun-Jōji shape, shows an itame-nagare that features plenty of ji-nie and much chikei, and is hardened in a nie-laden suug-chō with a wide nioiguchi that shows kinsuji and yubashieri and that is mixed along the upper half of the blade with a gently undulating notare. The bōshi is a widely hardened midare-bōshi that is bold and powerful and as its kaeri is somewhat pointed, we recognize along the jiba all characteristics of the Samonji group, with the rather calm course of the ha of this masterwork attributing it within this group to Sada- yoshi. Blade length ~ 71.5 cm

Warmer territory above

Note that 2.5M is right into the danger zone. Not top tier and rare enough to elicit deep interest by big collectors, not affordable enough to have a exit market. Nobuhide, while a respectable jo-jo saku smith, isn't very recognisable either.

We've moved from red hot to colder and colder. Soshu Nambokucho. Linked Masamune's Jutettsu. Best answer is still 80% atari.

The answer comes tomorrow. Last clue: Soshu Nambokucho it is. Vast majority have gotten this right, so kudos! But where would the attribution point to? There are certainly competing hypothesis there.

Further clues. I consider a certain number of the Kantei in the thread very close to Atari (80%). It is Nanbokucho, of Enbun-Joji sugata (1356-1368) according to Tanobe-Sensei. Here is a link to all high-resolution images: LINK (will be deleted after the exercise).

Many good guesses so far I’m adding the description. Measurements Nagasa 71.5 cm, sori 1.3 cm, motohaba 2.9 cm, sakihaba 2.0 cm, kissaki-nagasa 4.9 cm, nakago-nagasa19.9 cm, nakago-sori 0.1 cm Description Keijo: shinogi-zukuri, mitsu-mune, wide mihaba, no noticeable taper. relatively thick kasane, shallow sori, elongated chū-kissaki Kitae: overall dense but standing-out itame that is mixed with mokume and some nagare and that features plenty of ji-nie, much chikei, and a faint shirake-style utsuri Hamon: nie-laden chū-suguha with a wide and bright nioiguchi that tends overall a little bit towards notare, that widens along the monouchi and that is mixed with some gunome, angular elements, many ashi and yō, hotsure, uchinoke, some yubashiri and tobiyaki, and a few kinsuji Bōshi: widely hardened and largely undulating midare-komi with a pointed kaeri Horimono: on both sides a bōhi that runs as kaki-tōshi through the tang Nakago: ō-suriage, kirijiri, kiri-yasurime, three mekugi-ana, mumei Keep up the Kantei flow!

For high-resolution close inspection: LINK

Either is has an old name, preserved through provenance, or it doesn't. I wouldn't dare awaken the wrath of the sleeping KAMI by misnaming it. All my swords have pronouns though, which I carve myself on the Sayagaki.

The dark rings are chickei. The patches on the surfaces are tobiyaki, or close to the boshi it is a long kinsuji running off into the unhardened area (inazuma is likely the right designator for this, but this can be argued). Keep the kantei flowing!

Here is a blade for Kantei. Restored and photographed by Ted and Darcy. No measurements, descriptions, just stunning photos. I'll check back in a few days. Good luck everyone. 3 guesses per person, rank ordered from most certain to least certain. Period / Tradition / School / Smith If the board can pull it off, prize for atari is 100$ in ETH to NMB. Photo link

Shodai Tadayoshi, these are commodities in Japan. The smith was one of the most prolific of all times, and only the cream of the crop of his work will pass Juyo - typically special orders by the clan who employed him. You can recognise those special order blades as signed without his official title. And even for these, they'll need to be unaltered and pristine, showing his best effort. Here is one for example: https://yuhindo.com/hizen-tadayoshi/ Now these are rare. So I don't want to be all doom and gloom, but your best bet is to take an iphone, dark room, and beam a light on the sword to get decent photos. Gather feedback, and then decide.

Well yes, experts at the NBTHK, and lifelong scholars such as Tanobe-Sensei do have a stronger word in establishing which blades are masterworks and which ones aren't. Your level of confidence is amazingly high. 3 guaranteed Juyo is something exceptional. You're setting yourself up for dissapointment, and I strongly encourage you to post quality photos on the board so that you might have a second opinion to back-up your confidence. There are some knowledgeable members here with experience submitting to Juyo and Tokubetsu Juyo Shinsa, with varying degrees of success. Shipping, handling and failure fee will cost you about 1000$. Success is an added fee accompanied by a lock-up period. It's not cheap. Good luck on your journey.

If you're going for Juyo, best post your blades here (with decent photos) and we can save you a lot of money by filtering what could pass from what definitely cannot. Free knowledge, make the best of it.

As michael said this is an incorrect conclusion. This take, however, perfectly sums up my impression as well. It's a wonderful sword and I'll be taking bets it passes Juyo over 50/50. 130 swords, I think this is a little bit on the low end of the estimate. I would put it more conservatively at 200. We only see the tip of the iceberg. There are course many variations around Kiyomaro from his different periods of worksmanship (up to blades left unfinished by him and signed by his students).

I am completely in awe and would buy this in a flash.

You need TH before applying to Juyo. These are the rules. Exceptional sword or not. There was a point in the past where they would accept Hozon before Juyo, but times have changed. This should fly through Juyo (but you never know, strange things can happen, the machi okuri is of course the main issue here) and will sell on the Japanese market for 15M yen+ in a blink (pretty neat ROI right there haha). Japanese dealers LOVE Masayuki/Kiyomaro. They go fast and make good margins. There is a die-hard group of wealthy Kiyomaro collectors in Japan who unite every year at his tomb, and there is even a dealer specialised in his work. A Masayuki true daisho was sold by Iida last year for close to half a million dollars: https://iidakoendo.com/4947/. Pretty impressive ROI if you ask me.

About 100-200 surviving examples is a fair guess including Masayuki and Kiyomaro (his later signature and style). About half of them are Juyo. Two are Tokubetsu Juyo.

Where can we bomb their sites with reviews? Their poor clients should be warned.