Nihontocollector752

Absolutely, and few here have seen what museums and private museums in Japan have in their collections so on the NMB you have to take the members at their word.

@paulb just my opinion, no argument intended

@paulb no one here owns museum quality pieces such as those found in Japan itself, that is all i meant 🙏

@Peter Bleed unfortunately no one on the NMB is able to come close to what are regarded as the BEST and definately there are collections that represent both diversity and quality and again, none of those collectors are on the NMB (some think so, but no) @Jacques D. the very title itself establishes a public opinion you Jacques ass

I don't think the question had anything to do with the comparison of 2 smiths against one another. The OP was simply asking for personal preferences on smiths and a list of ones top 10, again, personal preference. Why did this all lead to comparison? Read the OP @Jacques D. and stop trolling.

Sorry just to add to this annnnnd reiterate the 1% remember the recent Kiyomaro and the recent Norishige 😀

Ko-hoki Yasatsuna Yamshiro Sanjo Ko-Bizen Tomonari Bizen Saburo Kunimune Rai Kuniyuki Bizen Osafune Chogi (Nagayoshi) Hasabe (any Hasabe from the Nanbokucho) Horikawa Kunihiro Hizen Tadayoshi Kiyomaro Gassan Sadakazu Gassan Sadatoshi

If the starting budget is 1500 USD then i think the educated will soon see that they are well under par and need to up budget to sustain their learning experience. My method has no flaw except Harvard vs street ed, i like street ed

Well say whatever but we lose and win as we go, no one is coming into this winning 100% of the time and if thwy do it's 1% of us.

There's also the all round learning curve, buy a few unpolished swords for very cheap, let's then look at identifying the ones with the best shape, worthiness of further polish, send them to a polisher for a window, identify which ones warrant more extensive full polish, identify which might be worth papering, send them for papers, see what they (NBTHK, or other) say. Whilst this is all going on delve into books along the way because the process described can run parallel to books and reading. Once you have the papered swords back enjoy them and then sell everything and begin again from a new benchmark with more knowledge. There you go, decades of wisdom in a post. You're welcome @Morelp34

If you're just starting then forget the paper issue or polish, buy a few mumei, unpolished blades and go from there.

I agree with @almeister in cases involving such important and upstanding members of the community and educators we should all be understanding of the constraints involved and time limitations. Patience garners the best fruit people.

This is a shortened Muromachi sword? Best avoid shortened swords from after Nanbokucho, or so I've seen discussed here before

I think the point here is that any seller with original Nanbokucho koshirae to an original Nanbokucho, ubu sword isn't going to get Tokubetsu hozon and chill, they're going for full status and that's juyo minimum just on rarity alone.

With original koshirae and ubu Nanbokucho, at juyo for both the sword and the koshirae please set aside 350k USD for the set.

So many experts on NMB and no replies?

I will take a guess and say it reminds me of Shitahara (Terushige) or some connection there, but just my guess. Others?

Can we see the full sword?

I don't think that has gone for juyo yet (the Masayuki) but given the rarity and renown of the smith it will probably pass even if slightly machiokuri

@Grey Doffin interesting, any links to the zufu on that?

Mumei and suriage edo sword has no chance

Forgive me for throwing water on the fire but neither of the examples in the links above are "true" Daisho

Well shinto and shinshinto, they experimented with everything and implemented everything

The 0.66 on the kasane though is a bit thin for a shinshinto, even if it were polished through, at 0.66 i'd expect a shinshinto to show ware of some sort. The mihaba to saki haba ratio also seems off for a shinshinto. Hmmm nice conundrum.

Those are very fair points, i neglected to look at the ana, and now also see some red rust there which is a sign of a younger sword. Do you think artificial ageing on the nakago?