Jussi Ekholm

Very nice work Mike, it was great that they brought in a real expert on Japanese swords for this episode. You did very well performing on television. The information you shared was very nice, and informative to us collectors as well as the general public. Hopefully they'll get another sword and you again on the show in the future too. I know you probably can't answer to this question but I'm intrested to ask it. Have you done inspections & appraisals to the other Japanese swords they have at Gold & Silver Pawn? I've watched Pawn Stars for years and unfortunately I have understood that it's somewhat of the Antiques Roadshow, people bring only items that have historical / television entertainment value as I think there are application forms and of course they take the most intresting ones to the show. I think there has been only a handful of actual pawning in the 100+ episodes of the show. I'm kinda hooked on American "reality" television series that run on History, Discovery, National Geographic and other networks and I've learned a lot of them (how they are made etc.) during the years I've watched them. I'd say about 60% of these shows is fake and scripted, networks want to make intresting television not 100% real television. I agree some of the people will probably get in the show just to get their television time, and they sell & do things for television entertainment, when the item would be wiser to sell elsewhere. I don't want to get into details about these big television networks and shows, as there is lots of talk on that on other forums and this forum is about swords and related stuff. I've read that Gold & Silver Pawn in Las Vegas is actually a huge tourist spot today. Of course some deals can be had there, but as it's a huge tourist attraction prices are probably sky high, and stuff still sells. But if I'd some day travel to Las Vegas, I might still check it out just to see it. But these "reality" shows that now fill most of the History channel & others are great television entertainment. Sure there are starting to be too many of them now, but I keep watching the good ones in the future too. Hopefully we will see more swords and sword related items on these shows.

For Tatami Omote I could recommend Karasu, http://karasu.se/KARASU_swordworks/Targets.html

Well I try not be be affected by the answers by more experienced collectors and I'll go with my initial gut feeling. (plus I got to handle one similar blade yesterday to one of the examples). 1,5,6,9,10. Can't wait to see the answers.

I tend to think 1392-1573 for Muromachi, and as Connoisseur's book was amongst my first nihonto books it mainly comes from there. I think Oei which began 1394 is the first era for Muromachi as Genchu and Meitoku are overlapping the periods. And Genki which ends in 1573 is considered to be the last era of Muromachi. However there are slight differences give or take a year in different nihonto books. For example, Kanzan Sato has 1333-91 for Nambokucho, 1392-1572 for Muromachi. Yamanaka has 1334-1393 for Nambokucho and 1394-1466 for Muromachi and 1467-1595 for Sengoku. Few notes worth mentioning, Nambokucho is the 60 year period of competing courts (North / South). In sword collecting the Bunroku era is usually considered to be the last Koto era, ending 1595. And Keicho starting 1596 is considered to be the first Shinto era. While Edo period itself usually is mentioned to start 1600. Kenmu Restoration might be affecting the varying dates for the start of Nambokucho (or if you include it as a part of Muromachi), Because the Southern Court, the loser, is considered the legitimate one, its time reckoning is the one used by historians. Both courts had slightly different time reckonings. As I personally have great intrest in Nambokucho era blades, at first I was puzzled as many non-swordrelated sources listed it just as a part of Muromachi, when in swordrelated information it's usually always listed as Nambokucho. These are just beginners thoughts, and mainly related on swords and timeline in that sense. Hopefully this helps a bit.

Thank you very much Kunitaro san for all the information you shared in this thread. I can shed bit light about the modern Chinese made replicas. In most cases you have something that bears little resemblance to authentic Japanese sword. Sure for inexperienced collectors looking for "Japanese style swords" they look and feel as authentic swords, but there are many fine details that these swords are missing. Most of these are made from monosteel or in the last few years (I haven't paid that much attention to these Chinese replicas anymore) different lamination methods have became more common. The way these swords are made, corners are cut. Chinese forges offer Japanese style blades at low cost (so low it's sometimes hard to believe they make profit), but there are lots of buts... Some of these swords simply have even sugata that lacks finesse, so to say. Some better examples are modeled after good examples, and with people who have knowledge. However their problem comes with rising cost. There are people working with Chinese replica swords that have the knowledge to make pretty nice copies of authentic Japanese swords. But... they cannot use that in full, as if they would pay so much attention to the blades, they would cost lot more than majority of people are willing to pay for it. Kunitaro san gave great insight on some important features of Japanese sword, and I'll try to explain how those things are with Chinese made "shinken". Niku - This is somewhat hard term to grasp. I feel quite confident to say that the vast majority of Chinese made blades don't have niku. I've recently studied niku quite a bit (with my very limited amount of swords), but seeing and studying authentic Japanese sword hira-ji and Chinese replica hira-ji they are completely different. Like Kunitaro san explained the polishing process of Japanese sword is very complicated, but the polishing process of Chinese replica is very simple. Chinese replica swords that I have seen are flat hira-ji, excluding the rare few "higher end production swords". This is thing that is very hard to understand without seeing it in person, but the difference is huge. Many "shinken" are designed to cut mats, which further explains the lack of niku. Fumbari (or is it proper to write funbari?) - This is feature I have never seen in a Chinese made replica blade. Because they make the swords cheap, they have to cut corners, as Kunitaro said it's very hard to make. Fumbari is very beautiful sight, now that I have old tachi with amazing fumbari it's a sight to behold. Chinese replicas don't have this kind of beauty. Kissaki/Yokote - Many Chinese replicas still have improper kissaki. Yokote, ko-shinogi, fukura etc. are off. Some forges have improved this and the better ones had better resemblance from the beginning. Polish - I believe all Chinese forges use various etching processes to enhance the hamon. Those made from various carbon steels have indeed true hamon if they are differentially hardened, some are through hardened with make up hamon. Average Chinese replica blade will resemble a Japanese sword more or less, and most likely it will cut mats well. However it lacks many fine details of Japanese sword. However there are smiths in China who have studied under Japanese smiths, swords made by them and higher end production swords they are involved in resemble much more true nihonto. I have never owned these "top-Chinese products" as they are very expensive and I rather save for nihonto related stuff. But I just wanted to note that there are products of various level in China. How all these small details affect the difference in cutting, unfortunately I cannot say as I'm no engineer and I think swords are individuals. I have never cut with a nihonto, and I kinda think a person with such limited skill as mine does not deserve to cut with a blade of such quality. Kunitaro san that thought about Tameshigiri seminar in Europe is great. I've seen and read things about Isao Machii sensei, and it would be amazing to see demonstration and explanation of cutting mechanics by him and you. My apologies that I talked so much about Chinese production stuff, but I think that it's somewhat relevant to this thread.

Thanks for sharing this Barry, so many fine pictures too see.

Brian, as a fellow novice collector I'd like to say that please pay some attention to the advice that is given to you in here. Many of the members here have been collecting nihonto longer than I've been alive, the knowledge and wisdom that they offer here is very generous, and we should be glad for that. And we should try to absorb as much of that information we can. I've seen you've been buying a lot of blades lately, and my advice might be to slow down the buying phase a bit and lenghten the study phase of each sword. I know by experience that in the beginning you can actually learn a lot even from the "bad-mediocre" blades. Just take a lot of time studying them, and you'll probably see some things you might have missed before. I tend to think in similar way that you should buy what you like, but... take time thinking what you actually will want. Then maybe further narrow it down to few possible purchases, and keep looking and waiting if something like that will come up somewhere. Eventually it will show up and then it's buying time if the price is right. I remember you also have purchased some books of this subject, and I think that is a well made investment to this hobby, and will be very important learning material. As a final note I'd suggest you to think why you see this as high quality blade. I mean this post in no bad manner, and have fun collecting swords, but please pay some thought to comments given to you in these threads.

Visually this book is really stunning, and it provides excellent pictures of the craft. The black background works surprisingly well, I had my doubts before I had this in hand. Just for heads up, Susan from Tuttle informed me that they will be publishing more sword literature in the future, hopefully the future book(s) will be as good as this one.

Brian I'm with Paul, if you don't have the item in hand or payed and closed the deal, it's not really yours yet. Sure you can make offers to the seller but unless you 2 agree and close the deal it's still anyones game. You can't really blame the seller if he doesn't end the auction, if you 2 haven't agreed on a deal. If you both have agreed to it you might question the credibility of the seller. However I tend to keep a policy on Finnish auction site that if there is a bid on the item I refuse to end it early because it would be very rude regarding other intrested parties. As I don't follow eBay I can't tell how things usually work there, but there have been several buyers (10) bidding on this item so it would be very rude to cancel this auction before the ending time. Someone might wait until the last moment before making their final offer. And this is an open forum, if you put information (measurements, pics etc.) of an ongoing auction/sale on an open forum, and people discuss it then everyone intrested can see the outcome of that discussion. Someone might get a spark on that item and maybe buy it. The outbidder in last case may or may not be someone in this forum, as the information is available for those that search. Many people who are not members here still browse this forum. *EDIT* Well I missed that it's not yours yet fact. I thought that agreeing on the price meant you had bought it.

Stunning results, very well done. And yes please share more of your work in the future.

Sesko's Index has 2nd generation working in Genbun (1736-1741), Hizen province, signed Hizen Ichimonji Fujiwara Hiroto, Hizen no Kuni Musashi no Daijo Hiroto, civilian name Hashimoto Chu'emon. He was son of the 2nd gen. Hizen Kanehiro, he died in the third year of Kanpo (1743). Unfortunately I haven't got more info on the Nidai as most information seems to be of Shodai. But those with more knowledge about Hizen can hopefully help you.

I think this could be from 70's/80's, I don't really know (cause I'm too young) when these Chinese fakes started to make their appearance, might even be bit older but I think WWII might be bit stretching it. I believe that hamon is just pure acid etch, but I'd say it's imitation of midare too.

Easy way to find that elephant head tachi from them is to choose Japanese Swords and Tachi. Even though I love tachi koshirae, that koshirae doesn't do it for me... Personally haven't done any business with that company, and I probablt won't do in the future either (nothing against them but there are better options for me) but I've browsed their stock every once in a while just for fun. That tachi from Strebel that Leo posted, I've eyed that for a while but unfortunately it's out of my current budget. That is a Ko-Kongobyoe blade with TH papers. Personally I don't like that koshirae that much either but that blade is really relevant to my intrests. I believe that's a turtle on the kojiri on it as well. Brian, you are of course allowed to like everything that you personally see pleasing. However what the more experienced collectors here are trying to say that your taste will change in time. As a young collector I can confirm that. Some stuff that I found worth looking into couple years ago I now just skip right through, because they aren't really to my liking anymore. Like others I would suggest on looking some good dealer sites (lots of good ones at NMB links), and reading some study material. Plus it's so nice to drool over fantastic pieces.

Well here is some beginners translation help, it may be bit off but more experienced members will correct errors. Kozuka 1: I got this as Na Yoshi Toshimitsu, not entirely sure of that Na. Many Toshimitsu's listed in Haynes, as I don't know much about fittings I can't give any further info. Kozuka 3: Toshiyasu, Only Toshiyasu with these characters that I found from Haynes was H 10637.0. He was of Enomoto family and worked in Tokyo c. 1900-1920. Rest are bit too hard for me to translate.

Well I couldn't find a thread that discussed only of tsukuri-komi, kitae, blade construction methods (I'm not entirely sure which term is the proper one). I got the idea to make a seperate thread from this one: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12594 , there was a lot of very intresting talk about construction methods and how they were used historically. The main intrest of opening a thread on this subject is the famous Soshu kitae, it is a construction method that everyone seems to know (due to connection to Masamune), yet I have no information of it in any of my resource books? What surprised me most was the fact that even Kajihara's Glossary (it's my go to book on terms) has no mention of it. I know that Soshu kitae is used when talking about the 7 layer construction but doesn't the name only mean Soshu forging method? In the same way as Kyoden is referred as method of forging used in Kyoto? On the subject of complex lamination methods from the book The Craft of the Japanese Sword: "More complicated composites might use four or more different pieces of steel for the core, the edge, the sides and the back of the blade - each of which must be attached in seperate welding operation. Sometimes these involve intricate layerings of high-, medium-, and low-carbon steels. The effects of these various combinations have never been fully analyzed. Presumably there are indeed differences in the amount of toughness, brittleness, hardness, and so on, but it is unlikely that the smiths who first forged these blades could have been fully aware of them. The great variety of forging methods is no doubt a reflection of the way schools developed in isolation from each other over the centuries. In some cases, complex welding schemes were misguided attempts of smiths in the late Edo period to re-create the "lost secrets" of Koto masters." From The Connoisseur's Book of Japanese Swords "There is no question that steel manufacturing processes were much better developed in shinto times than previously, and that Shinto smiths were able to obtain steel of far better quality. During the late Muromachi period, older methods of sword production were abandoned amid the increasing reliance on mass production of low-quality swords. At the same time,new methods of sword production were invented, such as kobuse and makuri, which have been handed down to the present day." Based on these two above quotes one might easily think that Koto blades were made by complex methods until the late Muromachi. However Chris Bowen made excellent post about maru-gitae: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12594&p=108453#p108453 I hope that this opening might stir some good conversation on the subject.

My copies arrived today, and I'll write few lines about my first thoughts on the books. The books are hardcovers and have quite attractive appearance as I prefer plain covers over flashy ones. The indexing on the book is great, as the smiths are listed alphabetically and then grouped by first character and page number is given so it's very fast to search a smith's name. The entries are in following manner. The name of the smith (with commonly used characters), the generation if available, the period, the province, variations in signature, and information about the smith. The book also has very good kanji list in the beginning of each volume. This is done by stroke counts like in Haynes' so it's easy to follow and locate the required character, I find this kanji listing much easier to navigate than Hawley's. And also a map of provinces in the back. The amount of information on this book massive, I've only eyed it for an hour or so jumping from one intresting smith to another. I can recommend this book without a doubt. The extra information about the smiths is the most important part for me as my Japanese is very limited. Reading information (that is sometimes clashing) from various sources and deciding what to believe is hard for a novice collector. Markus said it really well in the preface "It's not difficult to look up names because the Japanese meikan and the western equivalent, Hawley's Japanese Swordsmiths, are quite comprehensive. But it is far more difficult to consolidate the data and all the theories and approaches from the different sources, to weigh up the trustworthiness, and to exclude misinterpretations."

Well, I was going to add "maybe" in front of that line. And I know something about hada yet I confess that it's usually way beyond my skill to do any attributions by hada. And I understand koto does not in any way equal coarse hada, there are really fine hada in koto blades too. However I remember reading on several places that sometimes more coarse hada was seen in Muromachi era blades, and Shinto blades tending to have tighter hada. Although it might (and most likely) have been just more usual within some schools than in general during that era. Maybe I'm mixing terms loose, coarse etc. together, and I do not yet understand perfectly the differences in steel itself, soft, hard etc. So period most likely wrong, but at least got the suriage correct. I'm always ready to learn and change my opinions to more correct ones

Saw this on SFI yesterday, and well I might try to give some beginners points as the experienced members haven't yet shared their thoughts on the possible era. These are just novice thoughts and as I'm at my parents, unfortunately I don't have access to my sword books or bookmarks... My initial thought was/is that this is a suriage late Muromachi blade (this might be way off though...). I think the sword is bit too slender to be an early Edo blade. Also this seems to have shallow sori (it might be just my eyes), but as I think this is suriage with lower ana being the original one, that would slightly increase sori and together with slenderness that wouldn't fit my stereotypic view of Kanbun Shinto or later Edo blade (of course there are variations but I tend to have my own mental image). Also like Hoahn and yourself noted the coarse hada would be one point that I too as a novice would classify as koto feature. Can't see hamon really well but could it be suguha based midare? I would like to hear more experienced thoughts too, and see if even a part of the above was right...

Just placed my order as Bod.de had Finland as available shipping country I just couldn't resist the urge , like Brian said from what I've seen in the german edition this book is a must-have. Thank you Markus for all the effort on this book.

I don't have enough skill or references to judge the mei. Here is the info on Seki Kanemichi (KAN 1394) from Fujishiro, Kanemichi Seki (Eiroku 1558 Mino) Sue-koto, Chujo-saku. He is of the late Seki Ha, and is said to be the grandson on Shizu Saburo Kaneuji of the ninth generation. He is the father of Iga no Kami Kanemichi (Kinmichi), Yoshimichi, Masatoshi nado. According to one story, he is said to have been appointed in Eiroku 12 to the position of Mutsu no Kami, granted the use of one character "Dai" (or "O") and changed to "Omichi" ("Daido"). Works are the style of late Seki. Here are two links to information on Mishina school: http://www.samuraisword.com/articles/mishina_school.htm, http://www.nihontocraft.com/Mishina.html Seems to be there might have been 2 different Kanemichi working in Eiroku period in Seki area. One theory suggests that KAN 1394 and KAN 1395 were the same smith, and another theory that there were 2 different smiths.

Well as a real novice in this area I agree it's great fun and the excitement of doing it is much bigger than crossword puzzles, well someone who favors crosswords might not agree with me on that. And I use pretty much same methods as Veli described there, although I'm limited in oshigata references. The method of doing translations for me is having 3-4 books on hand, maybe 2-3 tabs with kanji open, plus search tabs. Then it just takes time, and for a novice like me it really takes a long time. I still usually get only parts of translations correct, and it's really delightful when you happen to get most, or sometimes the whole mei correct. One good trick I do sometimes is go on to some shops site, click few nakagos open on tabs quickly trying not to look descriptions of the item, do something else for a while, then start trying to translate them. The reason I open few at the time is that I can get stuck on some kanji, when I hit that point, I can do the other translation on the meanwhile, and then return for those that I couldn't get. Sometimes a break like this will help, sometimes it doesn't. You may get lots of errors in the beginning, I know I do. Some kanji look very much alike for us novices. Sometimes I use another kanji I know fairly surely I've gotten correct in trying to solve the above or below one. However, there are times the translation I thought was incorrect is actually correct, and the one I thought to be correct is the incorrect one, so I ended up choosing the wrong one... Good luck with translations mate!

Thanks for the insight, after reading my opening post again parts of it did sound more stupid that I originally intended. The main thing is I've eyed some auction catalogs and saw some great deals. And even with the added fees they would still be good prices. So I have nothing against the auctions or auction houses, just the fact that the Buyers Fee put me little off guard as I hadn't heard of it before (thought the hammer price=price you pay). I thought the profit to auction houses came from commissions. I guess within time you'll develop sense by conciously adding one quarter to the prices without even thinking. To be honest I'm very intrested about auctions, well otherwise I wouldn't have brought the subject up in the first place (although I agree, I should have written it in different tone). I've seen plenty of great auctions take place in London, and for me it is within a travelling distance. One part that really intrests me is the seeing of the items, and like Henk-Jan wrote, just seeing people bid on high quality items and trying to guess at which price something will go, and seeing how far off my own guesses will be. Will you be able to get a chance too see the items day before the auction or so, as I believe it works like this? Like I said in opening I have no knowledge regarding auctions, and I would like to learn much of them. What is "clearing the room" or what happens if nobody bids on an item? As some lots seem to have large amounts of weaponry it would be perfect addition to museums and dealers to get to see items in auction house too in one trip. Just trying to maximize my chances to see intresting items if I'd travel abroad.

Well I've just recently started looking some auction houses around the world and what they have to offer. As a student my budget is limited and I already have my mind on what my next purchase will be, however I saw one piece that caught my intrest a bit. I was pondering if it would go for the lower end of the estimate it might be a good deal, I was planning to ask more information and hopefully more pictures from their specialist, until it hit me... Buyers Premium 25% will be added to hammer prices. Now I started to reasearch info on auction houses and their extra fees, and learned about this so called Buyers Premium that every auction house seems to have, and some had other fees too. Needless to say that I won't be buying any swords from auction houses at least for several years. I spun some numbers around and from European auctions I would have to pay c.30% on top of the hammer price and outside EU c.40%. I've read that auctions of these big auction houses seem to be get together places for the elite, and after finding out about the Buyers Fee + other possible fees, I understood why they mainly intrest the upper class. Well my intrest in the subject is purely on nihonto but don't know if this will be more suitable discussion for Izakaya. I would like to hear what members here think of the auction houses in the current state (very high buyers fees) and if it's you have been able to get a good deal sometimes? Well this will of course be purely subjective matter, but I just thought I could write a post about the big buyers fees in case some novice collector like myself might not know how it goes.

I believe this is his website: http://www.takonomakurarestorations.com/ Now I may be just a novice but I wouldn't give him a sword for his 115$ per inch polishing work. Some of the work examples on his site seem to be of lesser quality. Here is one small part of his bio: A consumate perfectionist, Eric's attention to even the smallest details, has earned him the reputation as one of the finest sword restoration artist outside of Japan..., his bio does not say a word about his training. Sorry to hear about your bad experience.

Novices like myself learn a great deal from arguments like these, so thank you to both sides. I have only questions to add to this thread. How about tachi tsuba? As this was only slightly touched in page 2, sorry to bring this up again but tachi koshirae are my favorite and I would like to know more about them. Or are these usually bit too rare to draw any good conclusions (I fear it may be so)? Some of them seem to be very plain to novice eye, unfortunately I cannot say for sure the material in most cases. As the one example from 1200 is just listed to have copper fittings, to my understanding this means all metal parts of koshirae are of copper?