Jussi Ekholm

It is right up my alley. NBTHK judged it as den Hōju and awarded Tokubetsu Hozon for it. I am personally a big fan of Hōju but it also tends to be an attribution bucket for items of "rougher" side like this one. Bit similar way how I think about Uda attribution is used. Some of the signed Hōju and Uda swords I have seen in museums feature quite nice workmanship, while some mumei work that gets attributed towards them is on rough side. Here are two similar very big naginata-naoshi attributed to Hōju as reference. I was actually hoping there would be a chance I could buy this one. Unfortunately not... this one is now in Funassyi collection and it was just on display at Osafune Sword Museum. Unfortunately they dont feature this sword at 2nd part of the exhibition that starts next week. https://web.archive.org/web/20220920221746/https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mumeijudged-as-hojunbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-token/ https://www.city.setouchi.lg.jp/site/token/1315.html Here is a second one, these are not the most beautiful items in general but I like them. https://kako.nipponto.co.jp/swords2/KT218307.htm

I think Ray is correct, I would dare to guess the mei would read 談議所西蓮 - Dangisho Sairen, and in your picture the last 4 kanji are seen. So far I have only 3 tachi with Dangisho mei in my references, I know there might be few more but those are the surviving ones I have been able to find.

My opinion might not be popular one but I think often the bit rougher or plainer mumei blades just get an attribution thrown at them as they need to do it fast in shinsa session. I think Yamamura is an unfortunate attribution that for me personally feels that NBTHK sees the sword as lower quality in overall. I tend to think that even the school founder Masanobu is not seen as high quality smith, and very few signed works remain. One funny thing that supports the attribution bucket a bit is that I don't think I have ever seen a long sword with Yamamura attribution, they are always short swords. Good thing about Yamamura attributed blades is that you can touch late Nanbokuchō to early Muromachi blades for relatively low price. Sure they don't win any beauty contests but like this particular one we are only talking about 400,000 yen. As the prices have gone up a bit, it is getting harder to find anything decent and that old for affordable price. It is getting difficult finding anything interesting under 500,000 yen nowdays. I understand the appeal for these hira-zukuri blades of relatively long length, as I too am liking them.

I don't think Rayhan is saying anything that he couldn't reasonably explain where he stands for with good explanations. I wouldn't personally invest money on this sword. In my opinion the vast majority of Japanese swords can be polished, however it is another thing if it is economically reasonable at all to get them polished. Unfortunately I don't know the correct terminology for such horimono placement if there is a specific term. I do think I have seen it done few times, as if there is bo-hi present there is really no other space for carving. Unfortunately I have too many references and I cannot easily find them as I don't remember them well. Here is one historically important naginata-naoshi attributed as work of Yoshioka Ichimonji Sukemitsu, it is signed and dated. However I cannot personally stand the horimono... https://web.archive.org/web/20220112040404/https:/www.aoijapan.com/wakizashi-ichi-bishu-yoshioka-jyu-saecut-after-that/ I was actually thinking/dreaming about buying this one when it was 1,500,000 yen. It has passed through 4 dealers and was 3,500,000 yen at highest asking price I've seen, and latest one was the 2,200,000 yen it was listed at Aoi. It is historically super important item but for my personal collection I would rather have unimportant item that I personally love. Here is a Jūyō sword that I personally dislike because of the carving. It is a signed tachi by Bizen Nagamitsu and most likely a good sword but I cannot get myself to like the sword. https://web.archive.org/web/20230203101526/https://www.samurai-nippon.net/SHOP/V-1979.html This one has also passed through at least 4 different dealers with fluctuation in price, latest one being 11,000,000 yen.

I think it is totally understandable that there are several different forums and closed groups floating around various places. In my ideal world there would be just 1 huge meeting place where everyone would get together and share info freely. Of course real life doesn't work like that... People are people and not everyone will get along, and there are probably studies on why certain groups will form etc. Just checked that my membership here at NMB is closing in 18 years, and to be honest this is one of my favorite places online and has been for a long time. I hope to be a member in here as long as the forum is up. I have met so many amazing people through this forum online and some I have even met in person in various places. I admit that I am too grown into the forum that I feel quite puzzled how people are not joining in for gold membership at such cheap overall price. For me it is about the community in here, maybe the difficult thing is getting the new folks feeling welcome in the community.

The dragon horimono style is called 珠追龍 - Tamaoi Ryū.

My best guess might be 法師 hōshi - priest.

I believe the end of mei is Buddist name Kōshin 法名光心

Here is the item, I believe the actual date is Shōwa 4 正和二二 judged with current research, the old book just has a small error on the date. Unfortunately cannot say anything with real substance about the signatures.

The blue one is Jūyō Bijutsuhin that is currently owned by Kurokawa Research Institute.

My guess would be 正和二 & 正和三 Shōwa 2 & 3 (1313 & 1314)

Some of the high quality Chinese made Japanese swords would fool me personally, if I wouldn't know the origin. I think they show high level workmanship and are of good quality. I haven't personally owned any Chinese made items of this quality but I have owned lot of low-mid level Chinese made stuff and some of them were actually quite nice, and extremely nice vs. the money invested in them. Here are two such examples. https://www.swordcn.com/Naginata-Wakizashi-（Cherry-blossoms-koshirae）by-Zsey-p290841.html https://www.swordcn.com/Muramasa-Wicked-Katana-Sword-Replica-by-Zsey-p290846.html

I believe with swords the name 通明 would more commonly be read as Michiaki. The three yari you linked seem to belong to Goryo jinja in Fukuchiyama city.

The discussion is good and there are several good views. There is nothing really wrong in suriage Shintō swords. However I think you must understand how much value you will put on the item. For some smiths you can find hundreds of signed blades and suriage blades are unfortunately not on top of the list. Then you need to weigh long swords, short swords, possible polearms etc. It is actually quite confusing for people starting out. I am fairly long time member of NBTHK but my interests in swords do not really align with the interests of the organization. I like stuff that they don't appreciate that much and for me it is ok. I know what I like and to me it feels good but I wouldn't recommend going so far out of the "norm" for anyone. I do think the traditional sword appreciation is bit hierachical you are supposed to like certain things because it is traditionally accepted. I think the "mainstream" collecting is safest and in general the best option. Also I feel that when the talking goes to Jūyō swords and what is acceptable and not, then it gets to actually bit advanced stuff and I think new collectors maybe shouldn't be too stressed about that stuff in the beginning. Jūyō stuff is actually very complicated in my opinion and I believe I am not the only one. Sometimes it is very puzzling. For example in the session with 3 Tomomitsu passes at Tokubetsu Jūyō, one of them was historical Masamune of Yasukuni jinja. Now NBTHK attributed the sword as Tomomitsu and it went through their whole system and finally at the top TJ. Last 2 years it was not on display at Yasukuni jinja because it was in the NBTHK process but I finally got to see it this summer. Yasukuni jinja displays it as Masamune as it has historically been, I feel they disregard NBTHK opinion on this. Now is it Masamune or Tomomitsu I cannot say but I feel in overall quality the sword is not super nice, however it has very large historical value.

I think one difficult thing with Aoe is that there are literally hundreds of NBTHK mumei Aoe attributions and the range is huge. Of the examples in this thread in my opinion number 5 is the best. It is Jūyō 21 session, and good quality sword. Unfortunately the shape and size is not what I would be after. For me number 3 would be second butI do not have enough info on that sword to say anything of importance. These might be only 2 I might look for but unfortunately I believe both carry a decent price tag which they deserve. It is rough to say but I would put 1,2,4,6 in the same bucket and they are not interesting to me personally. Yeah I know two of them are Jūyō swords but many Jūyō swords are uninspiring to me. However if would have to buy an item out of these I would mostly look into number 2 as it seems to be decent item for the price. Still I would rather put the same money into some other sword than this Aoe. You can see good quality image of Aoe 5 here: https://web.archive.org/web/20240113073202/https://www.aoijapan.com/img/sword/2023/23761-2.jpg