Jussi Ekholm

This is very interesting subject. As a disclaimer I must note that appreciating the fine details in workmanship is not my thing. I do agree with GP's view that the rankings are depending on many factors. One interesting thing can also be found in another thread by @MassiveMoonHeh where he pointed us that there has been quite long time since any item achieved Jūyō Bunkazai status, however NBTHK keeps awarding new TJ every 2 years. Also if the item is Jūyō Bunkazai it needs to follow certain rule set meant for items of this designation, while Tokubetsu Jūyō have no such requirements. This is just my personal opinion after visiting several places in Japan, and I feel that some places and families got higher rankings perhaps more easily than others. Of course that is related to the provenance of the item. Often the Bunkazai items are preserved in current condition and many of them are not in pristine polish, if you compare them to Tokubetsu Jūyō which are often in pristine polish. Also as described earlier for TJ items tend to be of very finely made, as the artistic quality of these blades is often very high. However for me personally just artistic quality alone is not what I want to study. I love the rustic items at the shrines that are not that commonly known, things surviving in nearly original shape and size, regardless of their quality. Now after I got back from Japan this morning I typed in all the swords I saw this summer to my data and being curious I wanted to see numbers and it seems so far I have seen 26 Kokuhō and 138 Jūyō Bunkazai swords. In my personal opinion there is a huge range among these swords. Just because something is a Jūyō Bunkazai as a designation the sword itself might not be comparable quality in my eyes to for example similarish Tokubetsu Jūyō sword. However if you would slap in the fact that it was dedicated to the shrine by Tokugawa XX in 17XX in koshirae, and it has been preserved ever since, now wouldn't that make it quite important item for example compared to perhaps slightly better quality item by same smith but with no known background? Also there are absolutely amazing items in Japan completely outside of these ranking systems.

Congratulations Andrew

Thank you for the wonderful historical info package Bobby. There was so much going on in the area during Muromachi period. I think it is possible that I could very well mixing up ruler patronage shifts from one lineage to another etc. There was so much going on in the area historically. It was great riding with Piers as he explained the geographical shifts in the area while we drove past certain areas. Would be awesome some day spend a long time just walking around the various historical areas of Bizen swordsmithing.

Congratulations Manuel

Thank you all for the wonderful event reports 👍

It is extremely complicated in my eyes. I am happy to focus my interest on items that are not seen that interesting by NBTHK. My sword appreciation is different from high level appreciation. I had the privilege to see the 29th Tokubetsu Jūyō exhibition. All of the swords were amazing swords. However I know if I would have seen all of the submitted swords I would probably switched several items from personal appreciation reasons 😁😁 yet they are the experts on the panel and they most likely chose the right items. I think I've been NBTHK member for 15+ years now. I have never been a fan of the multiple tier papering process, yet I understand some of the reasons behind it. And of course given the currently absurdly large submission numbers for shinsa they cannot give too much time for every single sword. Some smiths/attributions are starting to have very large Jūyō numbers. And for me personally I find myself often wondering if yet another mumei XX sword should have passed Jūyō and not a signed Muromachi or Edo sword by YY for a fresh change.

About the gassaku signatures for Muromachi Bizen, if I understood the explanation correctly (high chance I have gotten something wrong 😅) and I got overflow of information in one day. I would use word "prestige" here. As in smith with more prestige would usually be the first in signature. And seniority often carries prestige. At Osafune Sword Museum there was a gassaku wakizashi made in 1560 by Katsumitsu & Kiyomitsu, that had lot of background. Now there was so much info coming in I might have gotten something wrong. Katsumitsu was seen having more prestige than Kiyomitsu. However he angered higher powers and had to flee Osafune for some time. After his return Kiyomitsu was now seen above him in prestige, so in this wakizashi Kiyomitsu name is before Katsumitsu. Even though Katsumitsu was supposedly the better smith. Hopefully I got that correct. 😅😅

Wonderful news that the polisher also judges it as potential Shintōgo blade as he has probably seen and polished many. I hope that the mei stays intact regardless of NBTHK judgement. I do understand that currently NBTHK judgement carries huge financial weight for high end blades.

This is amazing info @Sukaira 🤩 And what a wonderful sword you have. I am unfortunately very backlogged with denrai for my data and info is currently very incomplete. There is so much more info in books that I am still missing on this field. Like these Count Ito swords are wonderful addition. I think Ian is correct and the collection was huge.

Spent absolutely amazing day with Piers and Koike-sensei today. My head cannot process all the information I got, Piers was a true gem in translating and explaining too. With my very weak Japanese I couldn't have really communicated in any reasonable sword discussion. Very cool to see the dedication ōdachi now before polishing, and can't wait to see it in restored form. The knowledge the Japanese sensei have is just mindblowing 🤯

This is a wonderful article. I learned so many new things from this. And now I have new appreciation for few swords I have seen, as this explains their background info.

On very popular museums this can happen in special exhibition when famous swords are displayed... In this case I believe it was special occasion as pictures were allowed. The crowd was always like this, even worse around the swords so difficult to get more than few minutes of view time. I much prefer the rural quiet shrines where you can just stand and look at the sword for 15 minutes without anyone waiting for turn. In these crowded ones it is difficult to even get a minute at a time.

Congratulations Robert, it is a very fine sword. Was really nice to see it on display.

I visited the exhibition second time this morning, as I will head out to other parts of Japan. Some additional thoughts. Unfortunately that is wrong Norishige Lewis. That is displayed as it has been donated by Nara Iwao to the museum recently. It is Jūyō Bijutsuhin and nice sword. However in my personal opinion the one passing Tokubetsu Jūyō is far better tantō, just a personal judgement. Nara Iwao donated spectacular items to NBTHK. In my personal opinion the hira-zukuri wakizashi by Yosōzaemon Sukesada he donated was every bit as good as TJ swords on display. Also I really liked the Fujiwara Nagasada katana that was dated 1868 that he donated. In my eyes it was very good sword, now it would never be "high ranked" but I dont care about that at all. *edit* forgot to add that the Tsunahiro wakizashi he donated was amazing. The Yasumitsu is one of my favorite items on the display. Even though it is slim and slender in form while I usually prefer the big monster swords. I am not sure if there will be photos of it as photography isnt allowed for TJ items. It is very recent Jūyō, passing in 71, so when they release the book there will be bit more info on the sword. I really don't like the extreme closeups as to me they are not something I personally see when looking at item, and I am not one seeking extremely fine details. Of course I understand that some people love these extreme details. I saw few Japanese with big cameras shooting closeup shots of the few reference items that were allowed to photography. When I am at home next month I should be able to match the majority of the swords to Jūyō level sessions. For the few mumei items I might need to wait until TJ book is released so I can match the item side by side. *edit* While I understand the multiple tier process I am not a fan of it. All of the items that passed the TJ shinsa are incredible items and display characteristic traits and experts would most likely identify them easily. If you would see any of these items with Hozon papers for example you wouldn't think about the paper level but how incredible the actual item is. I think it can be sometimes bit misleading as we talk a lot about these tier levels while I think the actual item would be more important focus point.

I went to see the 29th TJ exhibition today. All items were of course really high quality and I cannot judge their difference in level. What surprised me I didnt like all that much few of the items I was really looking forward seeing, and vice versa liked few others much more I thought I would before the exhibition. This is just my personal like list of 5 preferred items and no way judging the items by level. Hōjōji naoshi Kaneuji wakizashi Kanenaga katana (the longer) Yasumitsu tachi Norishige tantō I was really looking forward seeing the Futasuji-bi Sadamune Jūyō Bunkazai but to my surprise I didn't like that or the TJ 29 Sadamune as much as I thought I would. Of course both are incredible swords. Similarily I was really looking forward seeing the signed and dated Chōgi tachi but while very high quality sword it didn't really make an impact on me. Then on the opposite side I was very impressed by the Echizen Yasutugu wakizashi.