Yama Arashi

$5200 shipped/insured

Down - $5400 shipped/insured worldwide Open to offers, no trade please

Drop $5500 shipped/insured

Down to $5600 🙃

Bump @ $5700

No - apparently I need to stop taking handheld pics over that surface 😂

Nakao (Koku Ju) Kazuyoshi swordsmith Utsushi Kiyomaro, Saga prefecture, Heisei period 1992 In shirasaya, solid silver habaki - pristine polish, no flaws 74.1cm Nagasa 8.5mm Motokasane, 7mm Sakikasane 3.6cm Motohaba, 3.1cm Sakihaba 1.95cm sori, 1307 grams (with habaki and shirasaya handle) Hizen Koku Ju Kazuyoshi is a swordsmith of Saga prefecture. He was born in Showa 14 (1939). His real name is Nakao Kazuyoshi. He has won numerous awards (two Yushusho prizes, four Doryokusho prizes, and twelve Nyusen prize.) He is the son of Nakao Tadatsugu and a student of Horii Toshihide. $5900 USD - includes shipping and insurance

Have a sword inbound from Tokyo via EMS/priority mail express international. Accepted by Japan Post last week on wednesday June 23rd, and departed the export office on saturday the 25th. No updates since (technically only on the 3rd business day in the U.S. at this point) Will update as I'm expectantly watching.

$6300 🤷🏻‍♂️

Tough market apparently. Further reduced to an asking price of $6500 A donation will of course be given to the forum if it moves here.

$6800 shipped/insured Open to offers, but no trades please.

Some more blade/koshirae photos. Same smith discussed in a thread from earlier this year: https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/35772-yasuken-swordsmith/

Dojo group buy. Have another in the works. Everybody is quite impressed with the quality and price.

You can order them through her direct email (gmail address shown on her business card in francois2605' post - 10th down on this page) She will also answer through Facebook messenger. I've ordered around 25 bags so far - top notch quality and materials. She will also make custom lengths as requested (waki, jo/bo, etc.) with or without leather end caps on the bottom.

$7000 shipped/insured.

Shinsakuto daisho by Gendai swordsmith Iyo Matsuyama Ju Seiken - Dated July 1988 Katana and wakizashi in full koshirae, along with shirasaya and koshirae insert for saya, and matching brocade sword bags. (pattern pictured behind menuki photo) Kogatana with the wakizashi. Simple fuchi-kashira with mountain/shrine theme tsuba and kirin menuki. Polish on both blades is pristine. No damage and have never been used to cut. Both sword still have ubu-ba. Impressive swords in both size and weight - gunome midare with heavy sunagashi and kinsuji worked in the ha. "The real name of the Yasuken (Yasukuni) swordsmith is Gouda Toshiyuki, born in 1926, living in Heiwa-dori, Matsuyama, Ehime. He learned Soshu-den from the family of living national treasure swordsmiths Tsukiyama Teiichi and Takahashi Sadatsugu, and was introduced to the swordsmith Torio Hiromasa in 1939. In 1944, he began making swords at the Torio Gunto Forging Factory. In 1970, he was introduced to Sakai Shigemasa, who further refined his sword making skills. He is a member of the All Japan Swordsmith Association and has received many awards including the Special Prize and the Award for Effort." According to this resource, this smith has been papered by either the NBTHK or NTHK. https://www.japaneseswordindex.com/gendai.htm Please see attached photos of blade in hand, as well as the original photos from the seller in Japan, which include specs/dimensions. Additional specific photos available upon request. Please PM with specific questions. Looking to ship/sale within the continental United States. $7500 shipped/insured. A couple link examples of the same smith from other vendors: https://www.aoijapan.net/wakizashi-iyo-matsuyama-ju-seiken-hori-dosaku/ https://www.trocadero.com/stores/meijibijutsu/items/1215403/Katana-Koshirae-by-Iyo-Matsuyama-Ju-Seiken https://www.e-nihontou.com/html/upload/save_image/esg20101158049314589.jpg

I have ordered a few as well. Can they be purchased directly via email or facebook? (vs. her having to pay ebay fees)

I am in in the US. I actually haven't needed to have anything sharpened up to this point, but I also have other modern blades that I cut with. Various monosteel, etc. The Kazuyoshi is/was still in original polish and is quite sharp - the original owner was an Iaido practitioner who never used it to cut. As to your specific question, and attempting to be careful knowing the general forum views on cutting with nihonto, and polish work by anyone other than a togishi; based solely on what little firsthand work I have seen from the states, and strictly where only a cutting edge is concerned, I would have no issue with Josiah Boomershine or Walter Seton. (Josiah has edge honed a shinsakuto wakizashi for me as well.) I can't speak to his work with more intensive polishing, but as for myself, I wouldn't be sending a nihonto to anyone outside of the few known Japanese trained polishers for an art polish and such. (and even then, I may just prefer to send it to Japan.) For reference, I'm aware of a sword by Yasuhiro Kobayashi that has been used to cut tatami and bamboo for the past 43 odd years, and has never been sharpened. I started typing a paragraph here about various gendaito/shinsakuto that I have cut with over the years (including a Nagamitsu that may as well have been a spoon, and still would cut tatami-omote and bamboo just fine) and the niku/geometry of a traditional Japanese blade not requiring the kind of paper slicing razor edge that so many are obsessed with in order to cut well (as is seen on a lot of modern competition oriented blades with geometry catering to soft targets, nihonto or otherwise) - but such tangents and/or opinions never seem to bode well for the thread.

Sharing a few examples of my shinsakuto by the swordsmith Hizen (Nakao) Kazuyoshi. It can be a challenge digging up detailed swordsmith information, and often, even moreso with shinsakuto. I have found a few excerpts, and it seems his father and one of his brothers both achieved Mukansa status, but the little info that I've found is mainly from google translated pages and often has to be kind of puzzled together. I stumbled upon this particular smith in my early travels, and I always found his work quite appealing. Thus far, I've ended up with 5 of his katana and 1 tanto. A few other examples have been popping up recently on the usual Japanese sword sites. 176cm Odachi 1972 (this is my main tameshigiri blade, and the only nihonto I have that I actually cut with) 71.4" Nagasa, 7.2mm Motokasane, 3.3cm Motohaba, 2.4cm Sakihaba Next to a Sabatier 1992 Utsushi Kiyomaro 74.1cm Nagasa, 8.5mm Motokasane, 3.6cm Motohaba, 3.1cm Sakihaba 2006 Utsushi Kiyomaro 75cm Nagasa, 8.2mm Motokasane, 3.7cm Motohaba, 3.2cm Sakihaba

I'd say gunome if someone asked me; perhaps gunome-midare.

I've been lurking a lot longer than participating, and it's always enjoyable seeing people extrapolate the steel as it were. People/you guys can be quite impressive with the ability to determine a tight time window based off of specific features. (Hence kantei of course, but most of what I've seen in here far exceeds my own ability with such.) I posted this same sword a number of months back, and have had a few other well learned individuals look at it, including a professional togishi, and anyone that has sounded an opinion has pretty much sourced it to the same school/style and era. I'm not concerned with the value, and it will stay in my collection irrespective of what the consensus is; I'm more curious as to an official answer on quality, era and school , and have been seeking opinions without being blinded by the mei, so to speak. The only question/doubt that has been raised, are whether the mei cut and nakago condition are almost *too good*. So it's heading off to shinsa, for what is hopefully a definitive answer. Frankly, even if the sword is to come back gimei, it won't bother me, as it's a ludicrously great piece in my opinion. I own a small number of fantastic blades, including 3 hozon and 2 tokubetsu hozon, and this particular sword is still my favorite. Here are a few other photos from the original source, better showing the jigane/hamon detail.

In the vein of posts by other members, namely Rivkin; I'd like to submit this blade to the forum members for opinions/kantei request-challenge. This sword is heading to shinsa to get a definitive answer - but in the interim, I am curious to see the opinions of members, and what swordsmith/era/school you think it might be attributed to. Specifications: Nagasa - 28.75" / 73cm Motohaba - 1.24" / 3.15cm Sakihaba - 1" / 2.55cm Motokasane - .248" / .63cm Gunome midare, nie-deki, very apparent sunagashi and kinsuji (perhaps inazuma / imozuru) Midare-komi boshi https://streamable.com/2znwpy

Shipping via UPS Worldwide Expedited is included in the price, unless otherwise stated, which is usually in parenthesis next to the price, if so, along with any additional payment fees. (Usually only applicable on very high dollar items.) They will confirm your order via email, and send you an invoice for the amount, which you can pay via credit/debit card without any additional fees. I can't speak to the process with wire transfers or other payment options. In my experience they get the export license at 3 weeks, pretty much on the nose, and ship within 2-3 business days from that time. You will need to provide a tax ID # (I use my social) to UPS Brokerage/International. Keep an eye on the tracking and call them when the status shows that an ID number is required for clearance. After that information has been forwarded, and the package has cleared, you will need to pay any customs/import/UPS brokerage fees. There will be a link in the tracking status result saying COD import fees or some such thing are required. You can click the hyperlink and pay with a credit card, or pay the driver directly when it gets delivered to you. (I've read paying it immediately online speeds up the process.) For antique swords (over 100 years old and around the $4000 range) I've always paid close to $40 dollars total for the brokerage/import fees. For a modern sword (1972, around $4300) I paid almost $160 total, as there is a tariff/tax applied to 'new'/non-antique products, contingent on stated/invoice value.