Jussi Ekholm

Unfortunately I cannot see any prices for the items?

Thank you Yurie, Adrian and everyone helping with items. The meeting was wonderful, got to see some old familiar faces and met some online buddies for the first time. Also the swords we got to view were really high quality. The fittings were also really nice but I dont know enough about them to comment. Here is a list of swords we got to see. I tried to arrange the list in more traditional order. All errors in there are mine if I wrote down something wrongly in my notes. Ken – Awataguchi (mumei) Tachi – Ayanokoji (mumei) Katana – Rai Kunimitsu (mumei) Tachi – Hasebe Kuninobu (signed) Tachi – Nobukuni (signed 1396) Katana – Kanabo Masanaga (signed 1504) Katana – Kanabo Masatsugu (signed 1555) Tanto – Soshu Yukimitsu (mumei) Katana – Kashu Sanekage (mumei) Tachi – Norifusa (signed) Katana – Sanenaga (mumei) Katana – Kanemitsu (mumei) Tachi – Toshimitsu (signed) Tachi – Hatakeda Sanemori (signed) Katana – Aoe (mumei) Katana – Sekishu Sadatsuna (mumei) Naoshi – Hoju (mumei) Tanto – Sa Yasuyoshi (signed) Katana – Ko-Kongobyoe (mumei) Tanto – Gassan Sadakazu (signed)

I would agree with Jacques on this, as I would see that it is a basic practical Sue-Bizen sword from late Muromachi period. I don't think people should think negatively of practical swords. I personally like them even though they will not have as much artistic merits as the top examples of the school from that period. Combined with the koshirae I think you have a nice package there. I do unfortunately think it might be gimei as that type of signature wasn't too common during late Muromachi (from memory without references). While not giving any percentages there are lots and lots of practical swords surviving to this day. And it is understandable why would anyone throw away a perfectly good weapon.

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Just visited this today and I must say the museum completely blew my mind. 🤯🤯 As Piers said it is difficult to grasp everything in a day. The amount of high quality items is just staggering. As I keep a diary of swords that interest me personally. From Tōken World I wrote down 104 entries that are early Muromachi at latest. In overall there were most likely 200+ blades on display. I just honestly didn't have time for items other than the c.100 swords I liked the most. For example there were probably 5 Muramasa on display in the museum but I didn't have time for them as there was so much more interesting blades for me. Likewise I only got to take a brief overall look into the armor section and likewise the gun section. If possible to include this to your trip to Japan I 100% recommend this.

I hope everyone will have fun time at the Expo, meet nice people and see nice swords.

Unfortunately I am not aware of single signed tachi by Yukimitsu. It is super common Sōshū problem that signed tachi are extremely rare. There is actually a signed and dated (1271) Yukimitsu tachi but I do believe it is not "the" Yukimitsu the famous one but an earlier smith. Unfortunately I have very little info on this sword. For me the problem in this case is that the reference works are already unsigned to begin with.

That is very nice sword Gary. Qualitywise it might not be par with the other awesome items you have but for me size & shape are important and I like this one a lot.

These are super cool.

You are right Jean. I would think it is attributed as mumei Sendai Kaneyoshi (仙台包吉).

I might have a crazy opinion as for me Hiromitsu might be my favorite Sōshū smith. One reason for relatively low numbers of Hiromitsu and Akihiro work in general is that suriage mumei katana in general do not get attributed to them. For Hiromitsu I am aware of 2 mumei katana and they are both Jūyō Bijutsuhin. For Akihiro I am aware of 1 mumei katana and it is Jūyō Bunkazai. What is wonderful about remaining items of Hiromitsu and Akihiro that there are so many signed & dated items.

Cannot fall asleep yet and hadn't anything better to do so I looked up info I have on Masamune swords as he is so famed. I do not yet own all the Jūyō books so some Jūyō items are missing. But these numbers will show you how extremely top heavy Masamune attributed swords are in ranking. 104 Masamune swords, it would have been 105 but more on that at the end. Kokuhō 9 Jūyō Bunkazai 10 Jūyō Bijutsuhin 9 EX Jūyō Bijutsuhin 1 Imperial Collection 4 Tokubetsu Jūyō 23 Jūyō 30 Prefecture Bunkazai 1 No designation 15 Unknown published 2 Prefecture Bunkazai can be a duplicate of non-national ranked sword as unfortunately I havent seen a picture of it (there is often very little info on prefecture & city Bunkazai swords). 105th would have been Yasukuni Jinja Masamune. I visted last year if it would be on display and this year too. Then on tuesday I got the Jūyō 68 book and found out NBTHK had attributed it to Tomomitsu. I know there are more Masamune attributed blades out there even outside Jūyō that I am missing but these are the ones I have info on so far.

That is great analysing Bobby. Research is always nice. You can find list of Kokuhō, Bunkazai and Bijutsuhin I made from the forum. It has numbers of current designations so you can find the items in Japanese database. I decided not to make TJ list as I would ideally match them to Jūyō sessions. I think I can probably do 95% but as it ain't 100% I still skip it. Jūyō and Tokubetsu Jūyō are just NBTHK rankings. Sword can have other rankings as well. However sending a sword with National rank to NBTHK is not happening as Jūyō Bunkazai is more prestigeous than NBTHK ranks. There are few blades that have been elevated to Jūyō Bunkazai after they previously had NBTHK rank. As I am currently in Japan I cannot check but from memory I am 100% on 2 blades. The problem with Jūyō is that while it is good data it is just NBTHK high level items. The bonus side on that is that it is bit accessible. You would need to consider National rankings, old JuBi, NBTHK, NTHK, Imperial, items with no designation in collections (museums, shrines, temples) etc. Give me some years and I will try to make something really nice with info on every item 😇😇 For example when I visited Tokyo National Museum 2 days ago they had on display 5 items that had no designation. 3 of the I have info already, 4th I need to check and for 5th I had 0 info.

I was very priviliged to join a sword viewing event today that featured 20 high quality swords. And I agree with others that there are levels to collecting. However not everything in my collecting dream is focused on quality. I cannot afford that way of collecting. I believe it is important to find your own way in collecting. I have realized my own ultimate preference hasn't really changed all that much. 😅 However it is important to try to understand quality, and the difference in items. I admit I often struggle with some very high level items, while with some it is easier to understand the desirability. For example perhaps my favorite sword of the day was big naoshi with Hōju attribution, it just hit me. However I understand that for example the Tokubetsu Jūyō swords were far above that one, still I cannot explain it by reason. I am just looking the list of all the wonderful swords I wrote down, and I even puzzle myself how I liked the Hōju so much. I don't think the naginata in the opening is a bad item. I feel it is just a normal sword. For my own collecting preferences it lacks the size that is very important to me, and it is of shape that I dont personally like. On the plus side it is ubu and signed.

Thanks for posting this Adam. It puzzles me even more, as it does seem they did use slight variations of the paper overlapping for several years. Of course I won't be getting a Jūyō sword so on personal level it is irrerelevant. As here are other references from Jūyō 26.

I hope that info of this exhibition would come something like 6 months advance to make it possible to prepare attending it. How long would the exhibition be open for public? I would be very interested in attending. The amount of high quality items sounds very high. However I would even be happy with more basic arrangement of various interesting items. Shinsa could be a fun addon. I think it might be difficult to pull it off though. I remember we had discussions how many swords for example NTHK requires as a minimum amount.

I am curious about the Tadamitsu wakizashi paper you posted Jacques, could it be a reissue? Here are 4 reference papers from Jūyō 23 that have same type of red seal as the Yahoo Auctions Masamune. As I was doing some info digging it seems that the red seal on top right was changed to form featured in Tadamitsu paper in Jūyō 28. Similarily the hitsu ana of upper leftmost tsuba were also changed this time. So I would think reissue would be a reason why the paper would have a form of seal that wasn't used for several years when the paper was issued. Of course there can perhaps be other reasons too.

I do think it might not even be possible to know the specific smith. I have 45 signed early Muromachi Norimitsu references, out of which 36 are dated earliest is 1414 and last 1459 (I stop keeping record of dated ones after that). Out of all these only the 1459 dated Jūyō Bunkazai blade features personal name in the signature. The historical significance would be that it is signed and dated sword from 1446.

I do believe it is genuine Masamune sword. The sword has very strong backing. It has Tokugawa history, Kunzan featured it in Kantō Hibishō and wrote sayagaki. It was featured it in Nihontō Shūbi and Tanobe wrote sayagaki for it. NBTHK passed it at Jūyō 23 session. I would think it will stay as Masamune forever. Now I will admit my own ignorance when it comes to suriage mumei blades, the sword looks nice but does not really evoke feelings in me. I am not at the level of just appreciating workmanship alone. It is superior sword to anything I will ever own.

I do believe you are correct with that Manuel. I remember Darcy also talking a lot about the qualitative attributions. I am just not personally a huge fan of that way. Over the years I have found out I would prefer more simple approximate age and province, I wouldn't need very specific attributions. Of course as the attributions are judged by quality for mumei items, there would be a very big gap from Rai Kuniyasu to Chiyozuru, and it is financially big one too. I do feel there are good and interesting items that get Echizen Rai attribution that are financially possible for many people. I am liking the blade of the OP actually, I have noticed I personally like bit bolder items where craftsmanship can be seen easily more than super finely detailed items.

I believe Manuel is correct with how the lineage goes. The problem for me arises in that who would the smiths that the work is attributed towards, and how they come to that conclusion for a mumei item. As I have been tracking down old items, I have found out only 1 ōdachi and 1 signed katana that would be work of Chiyozuru Kuniyasu. For Chiyozuru there is smith Morihiro that was for few generations. He is currently the only early Muromachi Chiyozuru smith for whom I have many signed items in references. NBTHK has many mumei attributions directly for Chiyozuru Morihiro. This is not the only school/attribution where this happens to me, I am often puzzled how things can be attributed as X when there are extremely few signed references of X. I do think you got a very good deal. The negative of the blade is the short length but I feel it was more than compensated by the price you got it for.

Oh, sorry Mark. I have been member of NBTHK for 10+ years but I haven't realized they do not have an email on their website... The organization is so slow in their modernization. I think I have never contacted HQ in Japan by email, I think I should have an email somewhere for them as I did an online registaration of some sort few years back but couldn't find it anywhere... As you live in Australia, perhaps you could try to contact the American Branch: https://nbthk-ab2.org/ or the European Branch: https://www.nbthk.ne...opean_branch_english if they would have an email for the Japanese NBTHK. It is bit comical how difficult it seems to be to find an email... I will be visiting the HQ in probably c. 3-4 weeks time when I get to Japan. If you haven't gotten the email by then I can try to ask about it when I buy some of the books for myself.

Congratulations Adrian & Andrew

If you are needing some specific info on an item or 2 in the book you can PM me and I can send it to you after the weekend. Depending on how dire your need is for the book, NBTHK will probably have a new one in storage: https://www.touken.or.jp/shop/ Of course their price is quite steep but it is a sure way to get one. If you are not in a hurry they do occasionally appear on Yahoo JP or Japanese book dealers, that is how I got mine but it could be a long long wait that is unpredictable.

You made a nice find. I feel the research on the signature, and the whole item, is also warranted as there are several generations of Heianjō Nagayoshi. Here is quote from Seskos swordsmiths (I am not sure about the original source of this following information) for 4th gen Bunmei era Nagayoshi I know it is said in most (pretty much all) sources that there are no extant blades by 1st generation. However there is a 1339 dated katana in the collection of Kunōzan Tōshōgu Museum. For me it is way too difficult to differentiate various Muromachi period Heianjō Nagayoshi. However there is some variation in signatures that are authenticated.