Surfson

Calimero, these all appear to be fine tsuba and most of us would gladly have them in our collections. You have done very well. I presume that you have had some guidance, some luck or both in getting these great pieces!

Kimura Yasutoshi F/K Daisho

These two are Tosa Myochin and Tachikanagushi

Here are a few I picked up (all from Yahoo.jp), in no particular order. These three are Higo, Satsuma koshirae and Umetada.

You did very well Carson. Most of the first purchases that we see are train wrecks. Either Chinese fakes or too far gone old swords. Yours looks very promising.

Looks like a genuine Japanese sword, likely to be at least 400 years old and appears to be in good shape based on the limited photos. The mounts are interesting, but not likely to contain most of the value of the piece. Curbside appraisal would put the piece at $2000-3000 or so, though these days one never knows what will happen at an auction, good or bad. Mark will give you a fair appraisal on it.

Victor, just guessing, it is a hand made sword from 75-300 years old. The problem of course is that it has fatal flaws and there is no value or reason to spend money to restore it. The cutting edge has been damaged so badly that the entire hamon is likely lost in those places. In addition, the pits are so deep in many places that a polisher would have to polish it down to the size of a toothpick to get a natural shape out of it. If this is your first sword, don't spend any money on it and save it as an example of how far you will go in sword collecting in the future.

Is there uchizori?

Interesting hamon

It does indeed look like Kanzan Sato's work.

Thanks again Ian. I will have to see what I can find out about Tanaka Kunichiro now. Cheers, Bob

This is the closest angle to the one in the book Ian. I think that the back side makes the shishi claws look different, but it looks right.

Wow Ian, great find!! Did you just remember that? I am amazed. I guess I need to get a copy of that book!

You guys make a fantastic team! Thank you so much. I am feeling better about the purchase now, especially hearing that it came out of a large collection and Kyle's view of the work. Can't wait to see it in hand.

Curran, I saw that Hazama - a real beauty, though I didn't bid. A kiku design as I recall. Sorry you missed it.

Thank you Steve! Not only are you generous with your help, but you have gotten so amazingly good at it! Any opinion about the work itself and Torigoye's appraisal?

Hi Kirill, is that your translation or were we actually bidding against each other on this? So sorry if so.

Hi All. With a rush of blood to the head, I bought this kojiri with botan shishi (shishi dog with peony, a classic theme). It purports to have a hakogaki by Torigoye (which looks possibly ok to my untrained eye). It' mumei without any papers. I can pick out a few statements in the hakogaki, such as Showa 46 (1972?), Den Yokoya Somin, Kojiri (on top right?) and Mumei. Any help you can provide with the rest would be greatly appreciated, including opinions on whether it is likely to be Somin work, and the veracity of the hakogaki.

It may be that he sold them out in a group. Is his Beatles memorabilia still listed? The other alternative, which is less positive, is that his health problems, which prompted the sale, may have worsened. I certainly hope that Gary is doing well and send him best wishes if he is reading this.

I couldn't open the facebook link, but sorry I missed the event.

Did the appraiser pass good judgement and provide good descriptions for the other items in the auction? The description here seems reasonable to me, though I have never seen one of these before.

Can't access that link for some reason Dale. Does it end in html?

Bill, as you can tell by the rating of 100 points in Hawley, he is a famous maker. He was the son of Tsuda Sukehiro, one of the most famous shinto smiths, and there are many gimei blades with his mei, so on both accounts it is worthy of study. There are many examples of his mei available.

That page from Markus' book indicates that Akao and Ito are similar lineages, which resolves my earlier questions. I like the work a lot.

It looks like it may well be healthy to me and deserving of restoration. You might try some Nevr-dull or acetone on it, in case some of the dark color is old grease that has hardened. The hamon does have a Mino/Seki feel to it, but the yasurime is not the classic criss-cross that older Mino koto blades have. The more distal nakago ana appears to have been chiseled, so it may be a koto blade with little sori or it may be kanbun shinto as has been suggested. I doubt it is younger than that. The mounts appear to be decent Edo era mounts and the tsuba looks like it might be a Tadatsugu pierced design (is it signed?).