Curran

Would mostly agree with John. Peanut gallery quick opinion: Katchushi, early Edo. Nice one. Well done. Walls of the sukashi would give a partial clue to age.

Gents: Chris, I enjoy seeing the photos of the house as it has progressed. Reinhard, I regard myself as only half qualified to discuss the blade if it is Bizen or near Bizen. If it is not, I will shut up and wait to learn. However, if I may stand on my ant hill and declare myself king of the world, it would be to correct you the one time I will probably ever correct you...... .....that is you want the Whisky, not the whiskey. Geez. What good are you if your mastery of the language is only 99.99999999999999999999999% perfect? John: http://www.lfw.co.uk/ The storefront is smaller than Aoi Arts shop. When I first wandered into this place 9 years ago, I quickly realized it wasn't the tourist shop I was expecting. It feels wrong to imbibe it here in our tropical region, therefore I have had only a glass or two in years. This may change with upcoming move. Okay, back to the Study Sword... anyone able to advance the discussion more?

I think the horimono are fine. I forget the correct term for these long sharp ended "gombashi" like hormono. My Nobukuni has them and I've seen them on a number of blades from the period. The horimono look old to me and the way they taper off where the blade has been o-suriaged, looks correct to me.

Most of my bizen sword books are put away pending a move of about 1200 miles. Wish I could consult them now, as I don't remember much about Hidemitsu and how the line fell out relative to others. Thinking about original shape, this was probably a monster. Reminds me of the Tomomitsu monster blades. Gut feeling is Veli is right about the age. Chris, John, Jean and others with their books feel free to correct me here. Also, if this thread is forwarded to Ted Tenold- he can best club it, "like a baby seal". Utsuri is wierd. The jigane also has a loose sloppy feel that sometimes seems to appear in that vague area of Soden <-> kozori smiths. A large blade shortened and extensively polished? Veli can observe how much it looks polished down from original indications. Most of the good earlier Oei Bizen blades can withstand being polished as thin as a pen-knife without showing an unraveling of jigane like this. Polish looks 'middle of the road' and not ideal for this sort of blade. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ An interesting blade in terms of size, shape, and origin,- but Veli said it was the price of the polish of two daito. For a study piece, there are a few o-tanto or good sized Oei Bizen "wakizashi" in Japan or stateside with Hozon or better papers at the price of polish of 1 daito. For the price of 2 to 3 daito polish, some very good pieces are available. Got privately offered a signed Oei Bizen o-tanto with Toku Hozon at the Tampa show, and had to remind myself I am only collecting fittings until we determine where we are going to live long term. US$ being as weak as it is currently, I regret not ex-patrioting to Hong Kong or Switzerland when offered the chance in 2001. Now every time I decide to sell a tsuba or help place a fitting, it either goes East to Europe, or far West towards Asia. Gotten so that I know the international customs codes by heart.

Well, cannot zoom in on the JSSUS print to compare and I don't the texts in my library to verify of this on its own....but maybe it paid to subscribe to the JSSUS. Photos of the blade if you could be so kind. Blow up the JSSUS article if you want any of us to try and give our peanut gallery 2cents about it.

Morita-san, For the 1000th time, thank you for helping us here in this section. I would never have read it 'Nobu'. Because of my interest in Nobukuni nihonto, I thought I knew many variations of Nobu and of the Kuni kanji. Apparently, I do not read as well as I hoped. :? Try, try, and try again.

Relaxed signature. Reads: Tomo ___ ? ___ Anyone able to translate it or help me see it more as it should be written? I'm just trying to practice reading signatures and the sloppy ones like this are good practice, but I couldn't make any conclusions about what I thought would be a simple character.

I give you 10pts for that one. Still wish I had made the lecture. I have had very little experience with Kaneiye work.

Bump. I have one reply, but not been able to reach Lee. Anyone have detailed contact info for him?

Matt, Nice write-up. I arrived to the show on Saturday expecting to sit with one person, but couldn't find him. I ended up sitting with 2 friends and watched over their table so the gents could go Mr. Klein's lecture. I wish I could have caught the lecture and seen the examples. Point of kantei: I thought Fozzie was only on the Muppet Show.

I was talking to Lee Satterwhite on Saturday at the Tampa show. Unfortunately, I did not know he was leaving that night. I need to get in contact with him. Anyone have his contact info? ~~ If so, please PM me the info. ~~ I've already reached out to the show organizer, but thought this might be easier than asking him to dig through records. Any help is appreciated, as Lee seems to be old-school and not have email of any sort.

I had a look at the Dr.'s Yasumitsu. You really should paper that. I also saw a nice Toku Hozon Morimitsu with koshirae that was tempting, though I was really tsuba hunting. I regret that by the time I got to the show I think Cyrus had sold the Ishiguro tsuba. Not my main avenue of collecting, but neither really is Goto and he had one of the most impressive sets of Goto shi-shi menuki I have ever seen. Regrettably, way above my pay grade for the moment. I took 5 tsuba. Two cleared out within the first few hours, and 2 of the higher end ones had several people coming back with that strange question "why are you selling?". I never know what is the intent of that one question, but got asked it a few times. I reached my sale goal to fund a koshirae project that has been on hold and part of a recent wedding anniversary purchase, but then I caved and purchased this very large Umetada with Toku Hozon papers. (see photo). Sort of a guilty pleasure for me, as far outside of my main Owariesque focus. I also found an old friend closer to my Owari focus that resurfaced after years with a new owner, but at that point it had to be trade+cash for his tsuba and owner stuck to his all cash wants. That tsuba and I have been dancing for years. If I ever take it home, it will probably be with me for a decade or two. Show: lots of lower level action Saturday and supposedly a mix with higher end action on Friday, but West Coast crowd and snow country boys all cleared out early on Sunday. Not as many last minute bargainers as I've seen before. Two non Nihonto collectors I had invited from Sarasota showed up Sunday and went home with some paintings that might have been bargain hunting end of show buys. I took a few photos of tsuba and forwarded them to people I know interested in certain things. Basically trying to helping facilitate things for people who couldn't make it to the show, but I had very little chance to attend the lectures and photography much else. Swords below a certain price point seemed to be moving more than in the recent 4 or 5 years and the table to my right cleared out EVERYTHING except for one out of polish blade. The one sitter there even sold something his partner didn't want sold and he had to go chase it down. The NTHK shinsa next year will be the first one I'm aware of in the South (Texas is a country unto it self and that shinsa was 30+ years ago?). If promoted correctly by Mr. Bardi, it should have many many drive downs from Georgia and surrounding states. Umetada with Tokubetsu Hozon:

The show is this upcoming weekend. I will take a camera, but others always take more & better pictures. I will be there Saturday and probably Sunday. Anniversary gift arrives on Friday. We have a nice Spanish dinner then, celebrating 1 day early. Then I go off to Tampa and play. I begrudgingly put 3 or 4 items on a table. Sell one or two to cover the expense of the gift. It looks like Cyrus has the Kunitomo Teiei covered, so I won't offer mine out. Afraid I will be tempted to buy one of his. I'll contend with Valentine's day when I get back. I always wonder about the wisdom of placing this predominantly male event around Valentine's Day every year.

I will be driving up to Tampa on Saturday. Not sure yet if I can stay for Sunday. Anyone have a spare Exhibitor badge and 1 to 2 feet width of show table space to buy? PM me.

For the most part, the 0s are suspect as shill bidders. Not always. Sometimes they scare away bidders, and they know it. I had an antique electric fan up for sale recently with 50 watchers and an insane number of questions. Possibly an unusual size and model# of a collectible antique. Then a "brand new" 0 feedback bidder came in and would outbid anyone who bid, yet he did so in small bids. He ended up winning it and paid for it. He definitely scared off some people and got the item at a discount. Just because it has a fin out of the water doesn't make it a shark. If ever I find something I ___really gotta, gotta, gotta win__ on ebay and want to scare away competition, I might try that "brand new, 0 feedback" tactic.

JPenn of Western New York formerly South Jersey, I spent many years in Jersey City with a nice view of the Statue of Liberty's backside, with the future wife in grad school in Phili and the extended family in northern PA. I am sure we've traveled many of the same roads at different times over the years. I'm now in Florida sharing responsibility for my parents and very senior grandparents. I don't miss the weather you've gone through this season, but I do miss the sort of character to be had in that part of the country. To get to 1000 Mito-shoami shiiremono without serious wear and tear on the wallet, flipping through tables at Tampa, San Fran, Chicago sword shows helps a lot. I owned at least two in my early collecting days.... both off to ebay long long ago. Get to a sword show or two whenever you can. I know there aren't any in the New York area (even the shinsa related ones are weak), so get to Tampa or San Fran when you need a break form that latitude.

Michael 101 said exactly what I was thinking. "Edo Higo" (aka. Kumagai) may not be as good as the original Jingo (Shimizu), but a very nice buy at $150. If choosing one, go with that one. There will be several things to study about it. As Jim R. pointed out, the mimi is a bit irregular... but it often seems to be in Edo Higo. They were sort of the street level Tokyo sellers, like the main floor room of Tiffany in NYC. Items are/were nice, but lack attention to detail that the original commissioned pieces have. The less than perfect mimi is rather common in Edo Higo and after a while it sticks in the mind as a kantei point. Good luck.

Understood. I opened up a photoshop type program and looked at one of Yumi's tsuba. In the side shot of the tsuba with a bit of zoom it quickly becomes apparent that he painted both faces of the tsuba with something. Sad, sad, sad. Wonder what he is using. Your best bets are probably to get to know the community here and buy from someone you like/trust if they offer out something that appeals to you. At least you are fairly certain to get something real, and some bargains do come across the board. The crowd here is a small fraction of ebay, but most all fakes are screened out. The only drawback is waiting for something good to come across. This website also has a "Links" section up top and links to many dealers in Japan. Get to know them. Like something....you can always get opinions from those on the list.

J. Penn, Mito-shoami shiiremono. A bit more specific than just shiiremono, which is more general. Shape of the plate, poor grainy iron for something only a little over 100 years old, lower right hand minimal vague design done in copper quickly and very lightly guided over with gold and silver. Rubs off so easy. After the first thousand or so, they start to blur together. _____________________________________________________ David, No one else replied. It tells you something. At least they are actual tsuba. Take the info I've given you and pop it into the search function or google it. People are pretty generous here, sometimes incredibly so. Buy a copy of Harry Watson's Nihonto Koza Kodogu volume or track down the Northern California Japanese Sword Society and buy a photocopy of the Tsuba Study book.

The ebay sellers you listed: The Yumi seller: look like real pieces, but something uniformly wrong about them. Grey said he thinks they've been coated with something, which would make sense. They look funky. Buy at your own risk. Edo antiques: quick glance and things looked relatively okay. You'd do better at a show. Third seller: rather low end and/or dubious stuff. You'd probably do better buying something off a seller here. One in a bargain something comes across ebay, but the risk/reward gets worse and worse each year. There have been a few good book deals, but the last time I got a nihonto bargain off ebay was probably 6 years ago. Most of it is catch-study-release for small gain/loss.

*Sigh* #1: Damaged something or other, most likely Shoami. Can't see the signature to tell. #2: Choshu or bushu style tsuba. #3: Bushu-Ito or some close derivative #4: Hizen dragons on a relatively generic plate of a tsuba #5: Namban tsuba, relatively rusted up. #6 Mito shoami, shiremono. Hit the books or research online. To the box maker's credit, they are actual tsuba. The "menuki" do not appear to be real menuki. However, ask yourself if you would glue-gun fine tsuba to a box? Value is relative at this level and should best be assessed on ebay. Thank you for respected the protocol of signing with a proper name. Curran

What looks like a broken or ground kissaki & questionable mei. Ebay being what it is, certain to go for big bucks. Amazing that people still chase the poor odds vs the papered bargains to be had at sword shows and independent sellers here in the USA/Canada. Sure some of the old timers still want 20,000 for their stump monkey of a 'Masamune', but get thee to a sword show or haggle with someone the next time they put something papered up for sale in the NMB section.

1st Tsuba: Akasaka. I'd say 4th generation or a student of 4th gen. 2nd tsuba: not Akasaka or very late Akasaka

Just for others and a bit of reminder confirm: Tomei millet should be 7 down the central row and 7 a head? That is the rule of thumb . ie. In the zip file Martin provided, the ones not meeting this criteria are the non-Araki Tomei copies. <<< This is not to say that all the ones that do _are_ Araki Tomei works, as Ford is about to prove >>> Eric, I haven't seen that koshirae in a while. Saw different photos before, but never saw it in person. A real beauty.

Perhaps the f/k on Cyrus' site would help? Otherwise, must check a few books. I don't remember the millet on any tsuba. Would be quite the knuckle grater.