noneed2hate

Indeed, the mei does give me some apprehension for submitting to shinsa. If I feel the urge to submit it, I might have the mei removed professionally prior to doing so, otherwise I'll just appreciate the sword as is for now and study some more.

Thank you very much! It was the only Tsuba I saw that I immediately felt the urge to buy. I quite like it.

Will attempt this advice for some more photos a bit later, thank you No problem at all! I think so as well Can't stop staring at it Sadly not, perhaps I might submit it for shinsa in the future depending.

Here's a few more photos as requested:

Picked this Mokume Tsuba up at an antique shop in Japan. I thought it was a particularly interesting Tsuba overall give the oddly shaped ana and samegawa inserts as well as the copper braiding on the sides. I believe the signature reads 明珍「_」宗晴　Myochin [?]Muneharu? Could not figure out the top left Kanji however if anyone could assist with that one. Any thoughts on the Tsuba overall? This is more or less my first serious approach to Tsuba

Finally got the sword back from polishing by Woody and has a fresh shirasaya made by Mike Virgadamo. Absolutely stunning nie and well worth the wait.

It's Uda Kunimune, what is giving you doubts about it? All the papers also say Uda Kunimune, especially the NBTHK one.

I've just received 3 items from this seller, no qualms with the description or what I received and she was willing to negotiate a large sum off the initial listing prices. She posts a lot of items up for sale regularly, so it would stand to reason mistakes may occur here and there. All that said, I'm sorry you gentlemen had a poor experience

Was this not in the same condition when it originally sold for $400? If so, that's a shame

I had a great time at this show and very much look forward to the next one! A lot of really nice swords to look at and appreciate (even if I couldn't purchase anything this time around), the antique guns portion of the show was also nice, as it allowed me to take a break from Nihonto (WHO WANTS TO DO THAT?!) and just galivant while looking at some other equally neat pieces of history. In terms of size, scope and quality, I'd say it was on par with the SF show. The lectures and demonstrations were fantastic, and they provided a lot of context for me as a new person to the world of Nihonto. Here's a small summary of each to the best of my memory. Brian Tschernaga showed each of the major stages to making habaki. Demonstrated drawing out material with a hammer and then the annealing process once the material (copper in this case IIRC) had gotten too hard from the hammering. He also demonstrated how to shape and then solder/weld the habaki once it was at the appropriate dimensions. He then demonstrated the process to create the "cat scratch" marks on the sides of a habaki, as well as adjusting and explaining final fit and finish with emphasis on where the habaki should be "grabbing" the nakago, and where it shouldn't. Overall, I think this gave me a new found respect of how much work goes into even something seemingly simple like a habaki. Woody Hall's demonstration was excellent as well, he show essentially each of the major steps for both the foundation polish as well as finish polish. He worked through the various stones he had on hand for each major polishing phase explaining what he was doing and why he was doing so each step of the way. Overall, he showed us A LOT in the given short amount of time he had, and was even able to produce an example of a finished polish in real time (as much as possible given time constraints.) Both presenters had a plethora of tools and material laid out for reference both prior to and at the conclusion of their respective demonstrations. Mike Yamasaki's discussion regarding kantei and purchasing of swords was also very good and absolutely touched on a lot of key things I often personally overlook in my own hubris. Discussion about doing research PRIOR to buying a sword as he is often asked on whether someone had gotten a "good deal" etc on swords they didn't research but ended up purchasing. Paying attention to the characteristics of a sword, rather than the mei chiseled into the nakago etc. Treating non-papered swords with mei as mumei in that the mei might not be legitimate but the sword itself is still something worthwhile assuming the price is right. Thanks again to Mark for putting this together!

Someone really wanted it badly, went for $3638 I hope whoever got it was paying attention and realized the nakago had since been cleaned among the other lackluster aspects.

Planning to go as well, really looking forward to it!

Never really had one, but to the best of my knowledge, this registration card follows the sword rather than the person, and is subject to police verification/confirmation whenever asked.

The "certificate" is just a sword registration paper AKA Torokusho that more or less has to follow the sword while it remains in Japan. These papers are turned in to the Japanese Government on exportation of the swords. They do not validate or certify anything beyond this being a sword AFAIK. Hard to see much detail on the sword, a lot of glare/glow in the photos

Perhaps an effort to keep the saya more balanced assuming it was used with a shorter sword?

This was the best I was able to come up with but still wasn't able to piece together something that sounded grammatically correct - 伊藤昌盛因好 - 伊(kore/i?) 藤 (to/fuji?)昌(sho?)盛(mori?)因(in?)好(yoshi/suki?) I asked a gentleman in Japan who is also involved in the Nihonto community and part of a group I'm in, and he advised me that portion doesn't not make any sense.

It's back up on ebay - https://www.ebay.com/itm/134375920654 Seems the seller in their grand "wisdom" cleaned the Nakago.... In any case, the sword seems spurious to me in terms of being even a legitimate Nihonto, something about the way the sword appears in the photos leads me to believe it is of Chinese production but I could be wrong. Seems many folks are willing to shell out for this sword sadly, it's already at $1300 with 8 days left to go.

He answered my inquiry with the following Nakago pictures just a few hours ago: Ura: 大慶直胤 - Taikei Naotane allegedly Omote: Made in the 10th Year of Tempo - 天保 Wasn't really able to work out the rest grammatically in a way that made sense to me- 伊藤昌盛因好作之 Kind of frustrating they can't seem to take good pictures of the sword itself. Good to know it went as high as $1500 at auction before they cancelled, because now I know they think it's worth much more and that I'm priced out haha

Seems my ugly mug managed to make it into the documentary in a portion of the SF Token Kai footage haha Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for that, I do see some of the similarities, I may need to track down a Munemichi katana for purchase when time/funds permit, would love to have multiple examples from the same smith or line of smiths

Thank you gentlemen, it really was a great experience being able to hold as many swords as I was that day. I'm glad I wasn't super impulsive with my spending and also didn't inherit any more potential projects (have way too many as is!). The overall sugata of this tanto was the immediate seller to me, a really nice wide mihaba compared to much of what was available on floor that day within my pricepoint. I've been appreciating every day since.

San Francisco Token Kai acquisition - Munemichi Tanto Had a blast at the San Francisco Sword show, didn't have a lot of spending cash this time around unfortunately but I managed to pick up this Kazusa Munemichi Tanto. This was the only sword I held that day within a price target I could afford that gave me the immediate fizz as soon as I picked it up and looked at it. Papered Tokubetsu Kicho. Pictures below: enjoy!

Those swords are pretty nice to be honest, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being awestruck by them. I wouldn't go so far as to call them a fake, moreso an enthusiastic interpretation of what a Japanese sword is by foreign artisans/smiths (or perhaps - someone who learned traditional smithing in Japan, relocated to China/was from there originally and wanted to continue the craft.) Reproduction would be a better term than fake in my opinion but of course they are definitely not Nihonto and that should be acknowledged. It's all just a matter of time, learning, and holding real (confirmed) examples of Nihonto that will increase you knowledge on what is and isn't a true or good example of a Nihonto. Since they are not commonly in your country as stated, this might be something you'd need to travel for unfortunately to get eyes on real examples.

Would this be considered predominantly masame with bits of mokume in the mix?

Very much looking forward to the sword show! This will be my first show and first Shinsa. -George