Jussi Ekholm

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.

Awesome job Bojan! I think the exhibition looks very well organized & displayed and I wish many slovenians will get the spark to visit and enjoy Japanese warrior culture.

I like your ideas Derek and I think they would be helpful to many if they would be implimented but... I have to second the above post by Paul. I think it is far too common that people think NBTHK and NTHK and others just as organizations issuing attribution papers. However they are great organizations that are in my opinion well worth joining as they indeed are doing as their mission statement says. In my opinion NBTHK European Branch is doing amazing meetings and I greatly enjoy reading the meeting reports wishing that I could travel to each and every single one of those. In every TB you can see reports about various meetings held in Japan. You can read here at NMB the meeting report Piers wrote about local NBTHK meeting with amazing lineup of swords to study. The overseas number of NBTHK members is unfortunately very small. I was actually bit shocked when I found that out. So it is very important that we keep the numbers and increase them. European and American branches are doing great stuff in organizing various events and I keep scratching my head why the membership numbers are not going up. Well swords are not that hot among the common folks and it will always be a very niche hobby. So it will be very difficult to attract new interested folks to this hobby. In overall I think that English language is still very minor to NBTHK. Like Paul said above it is not cost effective for them to provide much in English language. However here again NBTHK oversea branches have made very nice thing as Markus is doing spectacular job with partial TB translations. I think the announcement about fake papers might have made people bit too nervous. Of course I do not have the slightest idea about the severeness of the issue but I thought it wasn't / isn't a too big deal (of course I can be totally wrong). Also while it is no official shinsa panel the opinion of experienced members of my local NBTHK branch means very much to me. It is always amazing to hear their thoughts on various items at meetings.

What Jean said about top quality is really important. When you see excellent swords it will make you rethink many things you thought differently before seeing them. They are just so far beyond my personal ability to grasp as they are such a rare treat for me to see. Some of the famous swords are in incredible condition and it is mind blowing to think how old they are. One of the most interesting swords I have seen has to be the Naki-gitsune. http://www.emuseum.jp/detail/100503/000/000?mode=detail&d_lang=en&s_lang=en&class=&title=&c_e=&region=&era=&century=&cptype=&owner=&pos=665&num=8 One of the earliest surviving examples of uchigatana from the late 1200's. Now after seeing it I understand the appeal of Awataguchi. The historical meaning of this sword (age, provenance), the amazing condition it has after all these years. Truly remarkable piece of history... There are lots of amazing books & catalogs of top quality swords in print. Usually the exhibition catalogs are in Japanese with English index page. However weight is rarely listed in these as a measurement. My collecting is now mostly focused on getting lots of these books & catalogs and drooling on stuff for many years to come. As an online resource E-Museum is nice, here is the list of swords: http://www.emuseum.jp/result?d_lang=en&mode=detail&s_lang=en&itemCount=8&class=6 As for the sword in opening post I think 0,93 kasane is reasonable for it so I don't think it is a typo. To me it looks like thick and heavy sword. I am not personally too big fan of these late Shinshintō swords so my opinion on them is bit skewed as it is old stuff for my heart.