Ilovekatana

Good luck on picking out a sword. Yahoo Auctions Japan is a minefield.

You can request Jauce unblock the auction(you need an account for this). So you don't need an intermediary. They just ask you to agree pay a 20,000 yen fee if you win and for your location for import/customs purposes. I told them the state I'm in, but just mentioning the country your in would probably work just fine.

I checked my jauce account and I did pay for the shipping to jauce and to me. Edit: Also you should treat any claims made by the sellers on yahoo auctions Japan with a grain of salt.

One I know and have used is Jauce. So far I have bought one sword from Yahoo Auctions Japan through them. You just have to agree to pay a 20,000 yen documentation fee and tell them where you are located(I told them the state I'm in, but I'm pretty sure just saying the country you are in should work as well). Though be prepared to pay quite a few fees in addition to the documentation fee. For a sword costing 76,000 yen I ended up paying 36,860 yen in fees, including the documentation fee and shipping.

I agree that its pleasing to look at. I mostly posted this because at least among the numerous "Masamune" on yahoo auctions this one at least has what seems to be juyo paper, albeit an older one. Most either have unverifiable older papers, kicho/tokubestu kicho papers, a "Masamune" signature , or nothing with with seller going "trust me bro".

I regularly look through yahoo auctions Japan for fun to see what's there. I also look up Masamune on there sometimes just to see what swords are being passed off as his work. Recently I found that what appears to be a juyo den Masamune on there. The paper is from 1975(according to google translate). I can't speak to whether the juyo paper is real or not(It looks the same as other juyo papers to me, but that is not my area of expertise). It also costs more money than I will ever be able to afford at a starting bid of 180,000,000 yen. Here is a link for anyone who wants to look https://www.jauce.com/auction/p1136582379 .

Thats good. I kept reading that you not get solvent on the nakago, so I was panicking a bit.

While cleaning and oiling my sword a small bit of isopropyl alcohol got on the tang( it had gotten on the latex glove I was wearing while holding the tang). I immediately wiped the nakago with a dry microfiber cloth to remove it. Am I good?

Interesting. I'll have to take another look at my swords nakago, but that might be what I'm seeing. Thank you.

I just looked closely at the other side the nakago. It doesn't have the the diagonal lines and is in standard kiri. So maybe it is from a previous polish. Edit: Also to add this is the same unpapered "soshu masahiro" from some of my previous posts

That makes sense. Thank you for the help.

I have a sword that I am currently trying to study and the yasurime on it has me confused. I can't figure out what type it is. The closest one to it I could find is kiri(what throws me off is the diagonal lines at the top). Here is a picture of the nakago with rough drawings of the yasurime.

Welp, I'll probably have to save for while to get one. Thank you for the info and extra references.

Thank you for the help. I don't really have a frame of reference for what something like this costs and having some kind of starting point helps.

I am curious how much a late nanbokucho soshu masahiro tanto would cost, specifically one papered hozon or the NTHK equivalent. The only example I could find that included a price was this one from 2015 (https://www.aoijapan...umei-soshu-masahiro/). I mostly want a sort of general price range so I know how much to save to purchase one.

In a sword I recently got there seems to be a dark area in the boshi and I don't know what it is. For one its only visible on certain angles under light. Also the temper line/lines around it are weird. Here are some pictures of it(apologies for the quality, this is hard to take a photo of with my phone). The blue lines are a rough approximation of the temper line to show how its kind of weird(the lines might connect at the kaeri, but I don't know for sure). Does anyone know what this might be?

2devnul, its a hira zukuri wakizashi(some of picture's angle shows the mune). As for how much I paid, excluding fees and shipping, was 76,000 yen.

Here are some more pictures.

Here are some pictures I took of the blade. Apologies for the the quality. The picture of the tang came from jauce.

I can try to take some pictures of it, but I can't guarantee that they will look good( I don't have easy access to a good camera/ setup and have almost no experience taking pictures of nihonto). As for the backstory, I was looking through yahoo auctions Japan via jauce and saw a sword I liked at my price range, bid on it, and won. Edit: the sword itself is unpapered and signed Sagami kuni junin Masahiro Saku. I plan to submit it to shinsa when I have the chance, hopefully to learn more about it(Such as if its a gimei or not).

@2devnul Yes thats what I was refering to. Brian, it doesn't appear on the other side. Thank you everyone for the help. I was really worried there was a crack.

Thats good. Also just to clarify Its the thin sort of wavy line that goes sort of parallel to the boshi/ hamon, not the short one that goes past the boshi below it that you are referring to?

If you open the image in a separate tab(it makes the picture a bit easier to see). Look just above where the light is and a little bit to the right, you should be able to see a very thin line(thats what I think the crack is).

I just got a sword that I purchased from Japan in the mail today and decided to take a close look at it. I found what might might be a karasuguchi. Is it one? Apologies for the picture quality. Also the hamon seem have a darkened line in the same area does any know what that might be. Also one more question which pertains to the second photo, why does color on the steel of the mune change.

Thanks for the info. That gives me more insight to avoiding sketchy sellers.