Jussi Ekholm

I thought writing to this topic earlier but my ideas came out too sharp and I think they were too discouraging for new collectors so I didn't want to write them up. However I must say that it seems that todays day & age people want instant results without putting in the hours. For those who just want a good sword fast I hope you have a strong wallet and you can just go and buy from good shops and not give much thoughts if you go that route. For those of us who need to do a lot of research and try to pick our purchases here are some tips. 1. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING I had to make that in bold letters as that is the most important thing. If you buy something instantly you are most likely going to regret it. This is also probably one of the hardest things, as everyone getting into the hobby will want to own a sword. However I think that if you spend at first maybe a year or so just without actually buying swords, just doing research you are going to see what kind of things you like and they will act as a guideline on how to develop your collection. Of course it is only logical that people will fail this step (I did, and I bet most people too), as you get into a new hobby you want to get into it, not just researching as that will be boring to most. 2. Owning swords (and other stuff) is overrated This is actually for study & research view. Yes you can learn lots of things by looking at your swords but there is a limitation. When you own a sword or two, yes you can learn things but it is more important in my opinion to see more swords. The broader field of swords you see the more you will learn. I will recommend travelling to sword meets, shows, shops all over the world above buying stuff. This will be actually my own main thing from now on. As I know my finances wont allow me to collect what I want I will just focus on travelling to Japan, NBTHK meetings etc. For example attending the NBTHK meeting with the theme being Gotō fittings I learned a ton more on Gotō than I would by owning one example of Gotō work. Being able to see lots of stuff with people who focus on the stuff giving guidance on them is much better than owning one piece. 3. Focus your collecting I think we had a thread about different collecting focuses but that is very important so you have a focused collecting goal instead of just buying things. You can for example go for 5 traditions, focus on Yamashiro swords, collect various tanto sugata etc. etc. The better job you do on the "groundwork" the happier you will be on the long run. You wont figure out your collecting goals immidiately and they can change over time but it is important to have some guideline what you want to collect and why. 4. Plan your purchases As was mentioned earlier I see many people have bought swords not knowing what they are. This is often due to not planning the purchases well ahead of time. Yes I've seen some very good deals pop up but I've skipped them as they wont fit to my own collecting goals. I recommend you will for example think what you aim to do on 1-5 year period and 5-10 year period. The planning will help you with future purchases and it will also make easier to realize your collecting focus. For example if you are aiming for something like good quality Mino katana within 5 years, then you should avoid buying a random cheap wakizashi every year and instead focus on saving up for the better sword. 5. Buy less Ok this might not make me popular among dealers or those who sell a lot of stuff but I say avoid most of the stuff on the market. My own personal interests have narrowed quite a bit and I have very clear view on what I want and what I don't want. When I browse online I see lots and lots of stuff that I have basically 0 interest in owning, and some of these are really good swords, much above anything I might ever have but still those swords would not fit me as I wouldn't enjoy them fully. It is great to see good swords like that in sword meetings for example. And of course you will see lots of swords for sale that have very little historical or artistical merits. Avoid buying junk stuff. Those above tips might have bit of an "elitist" approach and will most likely be too tough for new people entering the hobby as most would lose interest without buying anything. As Christian said earlier you need passion for this hobby but to be honest new people with passion are very hard to find. I have made the realization that I should be doing steps 1 and 2 for several upcoming years. I have decided a focus for my collecting but the unfortunate fact is I don't have the funds to make it reality, so I will avoid buying stuff and just focus on travelling to Japan & within Europe. For me just travelling and avoid buying will make me much happier than getting some low end stuff that does not really interest me. As for the buy high sell low or vice versa, I think that is extremely difficult for new collectors. I don't really think that should be a priority early on as it will takes many years to establish basic knowledge about the market, and even after years and years of looking it closely there are very often things that amaze me, why is sword X worth ??? of money etc. In the end swords & other antique items are worth as much as someone is willing to pay for them.

Someone needs to make the bad deals or nobody can make the good deals.

Steve explained very nicely the problems that there seems to be with signature & these papers combined. I only glimpsed through the papers quickly as I tried to focus on the signature as longer texts in Japanese are difficult. 1,2M Yen is a lot of money. Of course people have different tastes and some swords just seem right for you. However I would look around a bit as you have wide variety of available options with so large budget.

I keep mine bagged in shirasaya so not display tips from me personally. I do keep my replicas of European swords out in the open, and never had problems of them developing rust even when handling, touching and using them. I was very impressed by displays that several high end shops in Japan had. While many had spectacular displays I must point out that in my opinion the display at Taibundo is god-tier. Weather conditions around the world are so different, Japan is so humid total opposite what we have here in Finland. I found this as really interesting subject but my lacking ability of speaking Japanese made the conversations almost always very brief as language barrier was really steep. Pic borrowed from their website.

Here is info about the signature so you know the smith(s) 藤太安吉真十五枚甲伏作之 - Tōta Yasuyoshi shin jūgo-mai kōbuse saku (last part is a rare inscription indicating making blade in kobuse with 15 times folded steel) 越後士大村加卜?之 - Echigo-shi Ōmura Kaboku ? Kore I think I found the sword you are talking about, as it is such rare inscription. Now I am not too big on these new Edo period smiths but I would be cautious with this one. All examples from Ōmura Kaboku that I can find are signed 越後幕下士 Echigo Bakkashi and this is signed 越後士 Echigo-shi. I'd guess the signature would maybe show this as a joint work of Ōmura Kaboku and his student Tōta Yasuyoshi. If you are a dealer in Japan and you have a sword by jō-saku smith and chūjō-saku student, you wouldn't really let the blade have (financially worthless) JTK papers when you could have NBTHK papers for this if it is legitimate. Japanese dealers who sell a lot of swords know pretty much better than anyone how the attribution & papers will affect to price. So if you see blades with old NBTHK papers or JTK papers etc. sold in Japan (and elsewhere too) be skeptical. I would recommend taking things slow. I see you are located in Minneapolis and fellow board member Joe recently put up Midwest sword club (Minneapolis): https://www.jsc-mw.com/I would recommend hooking up with some local Midwest collectors and they will offer great help to you. I know Grey is also located in Minnesota: http://www.japaneseswordbooksandtsuba.com/ You have plenty of great guys around your area who can help you to get a good sword for you.

I am guessing this is the same sword: http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/10213-shinto-wakizashi-i-spotted-at-a-flea-market-today/ At least I get the feeling when I look at the weird tip, and also you can see the black dimples that show as white dimples due to lighting of Meirin Sangyo pictures. They are advertising it as sakabatō that was famous in anime/manga Rurouni Kenshin where main character had a reverse bladed sword. However I think this is intentionally made like this and edge is in regular side. I'm away from my books so I can't check info of this blade type but I think this might be an oddity that might not gotten into terminology books.

These are just some thoughts, I'm well above my league as usual as owning blades of this level might never be in my future. But speculation is always fun. I think works of Rai Kunizane are rare. In Nihontō Kōza it is mentioned about Kunizane that only 2 of his works can be identified at 100% certainty (as in they are signed) and both are short blades. In Nihon Kotō Shi 1 tachi and 2 short blades are mentioned, along with Tokujū signed wakizashi (which I believe is seperate from those mentioned earlier). Maybe some more signed examples of his work have surfaced after these books were written but I don't have further knowledge about that. Also unfortunately I don't yet have the jūyō index so I cannot check about jūyō status of his attributed works. Seems like the sword got Tokubetsu Hozon papers in 2014. It has been for sale now 2 times at Aoi and also has been for sale at Maruhide Tōken before: http://www.maruhidetouken.com/k-5.html I think that swords in this price range need a certain buyer, a very serious collector who is not filthy rich. Why so? Because rich people can just walk to top dealers in Japan, US or Europe and get top notch swords with full service. The less wealthy serious collectors tend to usually be quite picky and do the research as well as they can. Because a sword like this can be the dream sword that will fulfill the collection. So I would think the collectors that fit the above profile especially in Japan, and around the world know reasonably well what is being sold by various sword shops. If you are looking for medium priced Rai swords (not the top smiths of the school), items like that will surely catch your radar. I think one important thing would be comparing prices of cheaper mumei jūyō examples of Rai school and see of this fares in comparison. How much rise in value could you expect (if any) IF this sword would pass the shinsa. Taiseido had TH: http://www.taiseido.biz/cn11/cn22/pg548.html Iida Koendo had TH: http://iidakoendo.com/514/ Sanmei, sayagaki to Kunizane - Hozon for Echizen Rai: http://sanmei.com/contents/media/I21966_W2771_PUP.html I think the thought of owning Jūyō and getting the sword upgraded is tempting thought but I don't stress about that as it is so far away from my reach. However I think that there is nothing wrong with owning a good sword that will not make "to the next level". Yes the better papers are usually an upgrade as far as value goes and they add certain amount of prestige but in the end the sword itself remains the same. There are different levels of collecting and I am happy to stay at the "basic" level but I understand that many seek higher and more expensive stuff to their collections. Darcy wrote a good blog post about that: https://www.nihonto.ca/ha/?p=320#more-320I know that daimyō swords will be out of my league, so I will try to collect few good utilitarian swords that fulfill my collecting intrests. Then there is always the fact that with c.2M yen budget there are so many possible options around the world. I lost the line of thought bit towards the end as it is getting so late in here.

Someone with access to something like jūyō index could check about this Masamune smith how rare his works are. As the reference example at Merin Sangyo is one that passed 12th jūyō-shinsa. This seems to be only mei example of this Masamune smith I have in my books as this one is also featured in Koto Meikan by Markus. So it could be difficult for shinsa team to verify the signature 100% if the smith is very rare or something else unusual with the signature? I will quote Darcy, taken from his write up of Rai Kunitoshi tanto: http://www.nihonto.ca/rai-kunitoshi/

Do you have more pictures of it? I think it might be a really good buy for 25$'s. You normally won't get even stainless steel wakizashi replicas that cheaply.

Ah yes sorry Matt I was so brief, happy that Curran gave you more detailed info. I was in bit of a hurry when I posted so I just did translation part. I try to focus on older swords so I am not too good with these "new" smiths (it's relative when you talk about 1600's). However to me the signature looks different from published examples by him. Like Curran said earlier I think you have good genuine Japanese sword, it just happens to have false signature of very famous maker. I hope you will have fun time researching the swords you inherited and you might catch the bug for this hobby.

It is not *The* Masamune but a Ko-Bizen smith, still remarkable sword in it's own right. *The* Masamune signed with 正宗 and this Masamune signed with 政宗. Of course you might already know this but not everyone knows the difference. I think the condition explains why this is a signed Ko-Bizen sword so cheaply and also explains the paper level. I saw some pretty nice Ko-bizen swords at few Tokyo shops & museums but they are in different ballpark from this. Still that sword might suit a historical collector like myself (way way out of my league) who seeks a Ko-bizen sword on a budget and appreciates signature over condition. Highly collectable sword regardless of the condition, you just have to look past that and appreciate the good things on this sword. I think this is quite opposite of the wakizashi sized Ko-Bizen sword posted a while ago. I remember it was in lot better condition but of course shortened and this one is signed. Still these less than perfect examples offer a chance to add a Ko-Bizen sword into collection if that is what you dream of because the good examples from this school cost a lot.

I visited Sakamoto Ryōma exhibition in Edo-Tokyo museum this summer. I was surprised how popular figure he is among Japanese people. He is among favorite samurai of my friend and she took me to the exhibition. https://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/en/s-exhibition/special/15055/%E6%B2%A1%E5%BE%8C150%E5%B9%B4%E3%80%80%E5%9D%82%E6%9C%AC%E9%BE%8D%E9%A6%AC/ The scroll was on display (among lots of other written documents) but it was bit too difficult for me to fully enjoy the exhibition as so little info in English and my Japanese is not up to par, my friend gave me little info on what some interesting texts were (letters etc.). Also the exhibition was really crowded, so it was very difficult for me to try to read the old written texts.

津田越前守助広 - Tsuda Echizen no Kami Sukehiro , 延宝三年八月日 - Enpō sannen hachi gatsu hi. See example here: http://www.tsuruginoya.com/mn1_3/f00197.html

Unfortunately Carlo I think the article has never been online and only the original Japanese language version as in the magazine. I have the issue and I looked at it briefly and tried looking at it but translating at my Japanese level is not possible. (I must have at least dozen NBTHK articles pinned that I should run through Markus at some point ) I quote myself from another thread: Some other interesting NBTHK articles (which I unfortunately cannot read, just browse) include these (and there are lots of more interesting articles over the years in the magazine) Experimenting with satetsu from Kamakura Bay Investigations on steel from Sakauchi (坂内) in Mino province Christian mentioned that Mr. Coutinho has published extremely useful articles to JSSUS over the years. I am not sure if this is article that Christian meant but here is 3 part article series from 2008. (I will post links to it but if it is problem to Mr. Coutinho or JSSUS they can of course be removed) One problem three solutions: The steel of the European, Indo-Persian and Japanese swords compared by F.A.B. Coutinho http://www.naippe.fm.usp.br/arquivos/hobby/Artigo-1-European_swords.Artigo_sobre_ac.pdf http://www.naippe.fm.usp.br/arquivos/hobby/Artigo-2-Indo-Persian-swords-final.pdf http://www.naippe.fm.usp.br/arquivos/hobby/Artigo-3-Japanese-swords.pdf

There was one quite recent article few years ago at Tōken Bijutsu 664 title of it translated by Markus is "Comparison of jigane from different domestic satetsu sources".

I think it says 濃州孫六兼元 and the sanded portion says 九八六丙寅年二月於久我山房　薫山誌 I was surprised at the start price of bidding on this one as it was higher than I thought it would be.

EDIT* Just saw this was on tosogu section, didn't check that as I was on my phone... I don't know much about fittings but I would participate just for fun if I would have time at the moment.

If you can save up like in your example then you have no problems tapping into some very good items if you think on the long scale. In 15 years you would have c. 160,000 saved up. You could for example get 3 - 5 really nice swords for that. I read originally that 10,000 + 1,000 a year so by that math in 15 years you would end up with 25,000. You could get couple nice swords with that too. It is not always just about money. It's all relative as some can put 0€ towards collecting yearly, some 5,000 some 50,000 etc. In your example if you think you would save up 3 years for a sword purchase you would have 30,000 budget. Then you could think how to advance and if there is something that you want. Of course there is always the possibility of buying a sword every year for 10,000. Then in 15 years you would have 15 swords that could possibly show and teach you lots of interesting stuff. (I know this is the opposite what Darcy spoke on his blog) I think going wide has interesting merits and should not totally be left out. The most important thing is you are collecting for yourself so you should love what you collect.

I am at work so I can't give you full translation but I believe it is 備後其阿弥正信 Bingo Go'ami Masanobu? I am not totally sure about the Go'ami. So it would point towards Go'ami school work and not Gassan. But it is good to read what Darcy wrote quite recently about attributions on mumei swords.

Some great thoughts in there as usual Darcy. I agree that top stuff is top stuff but I do think you might sometimes be bit too harsh towards mediocre stuff (as that is what many of us [me included] collect). Of course it is understandable as you are continuously among the top stuff it is easy to understand how mediocre stuff will not be of interest. But this might be my two cents of constructive criticism. I particulary enjoyed the collection tells a story post. It is always interesting to hear what fellow collectors are collecting and what is the story of their collection.

Here is a Muramasa tanto currently for sale: http://toyuukai.com/2016/12/%e6%9d%91%e6%ad%a3/ Not my taste and for that kind of investment I would have lots and lots of other blades I would rather go for if I would ever had that kind of cash for a sword. Lot just comes down to taste in the higher end market, so many amazing swords can be had around the 5M Yen range.

Usagiya offers an easy way to get tamahagane from NBTHK tatara: http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/others1.html As for traditionally trained Japanese smiths in foreign countries, the latest issue of JSSUS just happened to have an outstanding article by W.B. Tanner about Japanese smiths in Brazil. Back in the day it was easier as Japanese people made Japanese swords, Chinese people made Chinese swords, Europeans made European swords etc. Now that swords are not needed any longer, smiths have information about various cultures, information is exchanged all over the world so things are changing.

Thanks for the info Dave & Ian. I have heard about this upcoming museum from few sources and my mind is bit blown. Guess I'll definately have to visit Berlin again.

Congratulations Francesco! I wish all the best for Italian branch, it is good to have more study of Japanese swords in Europe. I think only good things will come in the future.

I think it is a good thing that you voice your opinion Derek. As we talked about numbers I think the c.1% that Mark suggested earlier might be close to my estimate of EB & AB memberships compared to the whole NBTHK. I am not sure about the actual membership numbers in Japan currently. Of course I am rooting for dramatic increase in EB & AB memberships but in realistical view I think it is a slow process. It will take a long time to increase the membership numbers in slow steps, as like I said earlier interested folks are quite hard to come by. This is quite small hobby. Yes the membership fee is high for this year but there are nice things planned by European branch in 2018 & 2019, and a higher fee will help with those. The membership fee is fluctuating depending on the situation on hand. Joining and being a member should be an activity that you enjoy doing. Nothing good comes out from forced things. Personally I am not sure if "recruiting" is right way to approach folks in a hobby like sword collecting. I've tried my share on trying to spark interest about swords to Finnish martial arts crowd over the years but it is futile if people don't have the passion for the hobby. I feel that those who want will eventually join in sword groups. Creating interest is great but you cannot force people to join in (or well you can but it is not a long term solution usually...). I am liking that database idea you have, and I can give my very small contribution to it too if you start building it up.