Katsujinken

Reduced to $5200 with free shipping in the USA until 11:59 pm ET on Tuesday!

新藤五国光 (Shintōgo Kunimitsu) was, in effect, the founder of the Sōshū tradition; three celebrated smiths—Yukimitsu, Masamune, and Norishige—trained under him. At first glance his workmanship recalls the Yamashiro Awataguchi school, yet the prominent chikei (dark steel lines) and kinsuji (bright “golden” lines) that appear in the steel surface are hallmarks of his blades. Kunimitsu favored straight hamon (suguha) of varying widths and, as a master of tantō, is considered a peer of Fujishirō Yoshimitsu. This tantō is forged from well-refined steel showing delicate chikei and is tempered in a neat, narrow suguhahamon. With a slight inward curve (uchizori), the harmonious balance of its steel texture and hamon gives the piece an appearance of dignity and refinement.

Hello Lewis! Wonderful post, thank you for sharing it and best of luck! The video of the Kunimitsu you shared is mine, so I am happy to say I have additional photos, attached here and in subsequent messages.

With respect, I disagree. 9mm would be on the extreme end for a motokasane, far from average. Most brand new swords made for iai and tameshigiri are generally 5-7.5mm at the motokasane.

5-7mm is average, and strength at the motokasane is very important due to the concentration of stress right at that point when the sword meets resistance or some kind of impact, just above where the hands hold the tsuka. That said, swords were generally designed for a purpose, for example armored combat (much more kinetic) vs unarmored combat (more of a slicing action needed), so you’ll see variations. An engineer could certainly explain this better than I can though!

Bump! Open to negotiation.

I don’t want to derail the thread, but this is a common misconception. There’s nothing good about a tip heavy sword — it leads to poor technique and other bad habits. Styles that use shinken, where tameshigiri is integral and not an afterthought, generally advise their practitioners to use one sword for everything because tameshigiri is meant to be an extension of kata and vice versa. Great looking sword!

Still available.

Bump for the weekend.

Definitely looks like a repair of some kind. That is not natural.

Would love to hear your point of view on these numbers given how extensive your research has been.

Just wanted to share my experience. I received a blade from a dealer in Japan the other day. It was shipped using the antiques tariff code and passed through US customs on May 2nd. No tariffs / duties! I honestly had no idea what to expect.

Open to offers!

Excellent. My dojo is also part of ZNTIR, and I had a great time with some of your colleagues in Japan last May. Ping me anytime.