Curran

Totally don't bother trying to understand DEN usage for a while. Or go search NMB for Darcy's epic posts on it. Still, it is something the western scientific mind educated have a hard time getting the right feel. Perhaps like rolling your rrrr(s) in Spanish, certain tonal shifts in Chinese, or even "gli" in Italian -it takes a while. Most westerners make the huge mistake of defining it as negative, when sometimes it means something much greater or better than normal. Some Japanese organizations use DEN for everything. Ex: NTHK papers. What sources are you reading from about Nomura? It is a good school, but not one that people usually start with. If you are near Piedmont Park area, PM me for a visit to my building and we can have an opening discussion. I will bring out a few decent things that I don't usually transport or share.

Hi Richard, Midtown ATL here. Ironically, I had thought of starting up an Atlanta group that might include Eastern Tenn and Western NC. Please share what you feel like sharing.

Tadahiro instead of Tadayoshi. There is a lot there.

More towards Shoami. It might be just the two photos, but the tsuba seems to have some condition issues? Third photo looks fine, so I am left uncertain of the condition of the tsuba.

Very sound advice. " focus on items that you really love, decide what you want to pay for them, and don’t go past that." Long ago, I collected wine before I really got into tosogu. Luckily, the wine markets taught me Justyn's advice. You may not get what you most want at a moment in time, but you will probably end up with what makes you happy.

And SOLD. Sales section Mod: please leave it up a day or two until I get it shipped off.

Also, somewhat choppy chisel marks along the northwest edge of the front seppa dai. Who'd bother to fake that? I don't think they'd have come out so choppy if it were a cast job.

ALSO: Will include a basic tsuba box

$90 + shipping. Proceeds will 100% go towards supporting NMB and another Nihonto related non-profit group. I picked this tsuba up 1.5 to 2.5 years ago, as part of a package deal. It was the surprise sleeper of the group, being much nicer in hand than I could perceive from the photos. Nice iron. Fine sukashi. Good seppa zukuri from having been mounted. Anyone interested, PM me.

Thank you Victor for the well written breakdown. I think the OP's question has been answered. Like Mr. Sinclair, I worry that we freak people out too much with rapid fire dismissals.

Antiquities are now excluded from tariffs. [However, my new expensive Shimano fishing reel is not.] Without even looking up the specific maker, I assume it is a Tanaka tsuba. The fan-base is quite rabid. Given size, condition, and authentication papers, -I am surprised it did not go for more. To some people, including a few members here, this is really cheap. Welcome to the K-shaped economy.

I am going to reduce the price to $350 for the daisho pair (4 menuki) for 1 week. The local experts with the XRF machine and a lot of knowledge say: "Gold plate or foil over base material" They seem to think the base is some sort of brass. So probably: cast+finished+ gold foil or such over the front I am going to reduce the price to $350 for the daisho pair (4 menuki) for 1 week. If they cannot sell at that price, I will keep them ad infinitum for a koshirae project or tsuka project. Interested people PM me.

Hey..... Otsuki Mitsuoki was quite the grandmaster known to have liked his sake and worked during his enjoyment of sake. His carving style certainly has a sure -why the f**k not- madness about it whereby I think I could recognize his work by the mad drunk genius carving style. Given that he was a popular target of gimei signatures, anything I see with his supposed signature- I look to the workmanship for the mad drunk style before bothering to check the signature. I doubt I could imitate it if I didn't have half a bottle of sake in me. There is a certain looseness to it that you'd have to be very very relaxed to pull off. Of course, I might not recognize the work from one of his more sober AA periods.

It is signed with his teenager name, before he became the 3rd gen of the school. Not bad for a teenager. Still, not at the level he'd reach in only a few year. Not sure if I have any other pics. Above and below the hitsu ana here, see the slight carving into the tsuba near the sakura and the tomoe. Only the nidai Shigemitsu really did that on a consistent basis, so it is considered a kantei point. Here you have a dad double checking junior's work, like my own dad spell checking my middle school projects. Spellcheck didn't quite exist yet.

Of the Hayashi Tohachi?