Jussi Ekholm

Yes you are correct on hira-zukuri. Most often katana in this form are little bit over 60,6 cm in length. Occasionally you see long ones of 70cm+ but yours is very long. My opinion doesn't really give any weight compared to professionals but I would agree with them. For what little I can see Uda Kunimune of late Muromachi is perfectly good judgement.

Ah now I understand. In general I personally have 0 trust towards auction houses. I dislike their business model in general. For example the description of Norimitsu is completely wrong. Of course I am limited to phone but I zoomed images and it seems to be ubu mumei with 1 hole. Description says 2 holes ubu signed Norimitsu. And blade is not papered only koshirae. I think the Daido package is the best of the bunch but none of these items are interesting for me personally. I would skip the items but I am not really a buyer in general. So others will be able to give more "real life" perspective.

I do not think "Art sword" is a really good word to describe good swords. I would rather just use good sword, and also if the sword is famous then it can be famous sword. Historical provenance etc. Also plays a big role. Also I have now understood what my heart wants and what is right for me personally. It is not traditionally "correct" sword appreciation but it hits me. I have seen so many top items of Japanese designations on this trip. Now this might sound crazy but several of the Kokuhō or Jūyō Bunkazai items did not evoke any feelings in me. Sure they were of excellent craftsmanship... but show me a rusty ōdachi or a big naginata with battle damage and I am bursting with joy. I am not an Art sword connoisseur, I like what I like and my feelings just get stronger every year. Now I do feel it is very important to study the best possible items and get understanding of what that work is like. I admit my eyes are not nearly trained enough to understand the fine points of sword appreciation, maybe I never will fully understand quality.

Oh I did not understand that you could buy these, I thought they were sold at auction? So you could make an offer to the person who bought them? I see a price or more but I didn't get that someone just bought an item and would immidiately flip it. For me it shows: Sold on Jun 10, 2024 for: Sign-in or Join (free & quick) The Norimitsu does not show any buy price. As I would look into that item. Notice also wrong information in the descriptions. For daishō the text says about Wakizashi that it has ubu nakago with signature Kanesada, while in reality it is mumei blade with Fujishiro attribution Sue-Seki.

The Hasebe Kuninobu tachi was absolutely stunning. I was very lucky to view this in hand. I have also seen 2 other Hasebe Kuninobu blades now in Japan but them through the glass. Now I might be very biased on what I like as I am not a huge fan of tantō... I do think this tachi might be my favorite out of all 3. Followed by Jūyō Bunkazai tantō of Atsuta Jingū. The Jūyō wakizashi that NBTHK has currently on display does not even come close to these 2. Personally I am starting to like more and more wild Hasebe wakizashi with good Nanbokuchō sugata. Unfortunately for me both Kashū Sanekage and Sekishū Sadatsuna blades felt "normal". They seemed to have average sugata and most likely characteristics of typical workmanship, however for me personally they didn't evoke too much feelings. However I overheard discussion that Sanekage caught interest from experienced pair of eyes. So definately much to enjoy with better eye and knowledge for details.

I would agree with Jacques that I don't think it is utsuri. However I cannot explain what it is or what creates an effect like this. However it is nice looking sword in overall. 😊

Very long hira-zukuri katana. Rare to see them in this length.

I agree with Doug I feel it could be Morimitsu. And there could be potential. I should have few reference katana of Morimitsu that are around this length. I can dig them up next week when I am back home.

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.