Cola

How do you see the difference between hamon and hadori in pictures like these?

What does it look like when a sword is crying out for a hi (other than the absence of a hi)? Not meaning to criticize of course, it's your sword you can do whatever you want with it. But what makes you reconsider the choice of the smith not to cut a hi in the blade?

Yes, so far so good (knocking on wood). They can insure the shipment, and I don't mind waiting a few months. The most annoying thing is our local customs office, which asks import tax and VAT; which should be 9% antique objects, but sometimes they ask 21% for regular goods, and then you have to protest and prove that a sword is antique.

https://www.aoijapan.com/ is nice, if only to just gape at all different types of swords that you or I can't afford. https://www.samuraishokai.jp/sword/index.html also has interesting swords in your price range. They are both Japanese, so if you order from them you are at least sure it's not a chinese fake; you do have to send them by international parcel, which can be scary. Ideally you also buy something with NBTHK papers, then you are as sure as you can be that it is what they say it is. Without papers it could be gimei, ie. a faked signature, or if there is no signature it could be from an entirely different period or smith.

Which religions encourage one to have a "zombie knife" or a machete?

Which is still outrageous. Perhaps they meant in Iranian Rial?

Well it's as I said: there are no legal rules. Whoever owns the blade can do whatever they want with it.

This all sounds very confusing to me. There is no "protection system" for swords, aside from registration and export laws. If you want to wrap your sword in an old newspaper oiled with old frying pan grease as a way of preservation, there is no law against it. So for that matter, you can make a shirasaya or a paper mache sheathe, but what do you hope to learn from it? Who will judge whether it was done correctly? I can guarantee that whatever you make, people on the internet will tell you you did it wrong. If you want to look at best practices for conservation, or common practices for that matter, of course you can find a lot, but as it's not laws as much as many different opinions (people fight wars over the correct oil or uchiko). From an academic perspective, I would recommend to define a research hypothesis that can be tested to some extent, and to define a scope that fits within the timelines of your project (comparing European versus Japanese "sword conservation practices" in general is way to broad).

Purple guy could have put in a little more effort to be honest.

But then there's the question whether we're talking about: -a long and short sword made by the same smith, collected at a later time. -a long and short sword made as a pair by a smith to be worn together. -a long and a short sword used by a samurai for which he had matching koshirae made. -a long and a short sword for which some collector at some point made matching koshirae.

Be honest now: how many of you are dreaming of the day an unsuspecting burglar breaks into your home?

If I do the translation to euros (1M yen = 6200 euros), then plenty of local dealers ask more than that for hozon or unpapered blades. But perhaps they don't count for your question because they cannot easily be submitted for shinsa here? https://kyodaiorigin...shi-in-the-year1973/ https://kyodaiorigin...74-with-nbthk-hozen/ https://www.samurai-...hi-nbthk-hozon-token

Thanks for your replies and advice! I think it's a very interesting blade, and I will check out the references. It just baffles the mind how there are many smiths over centuries using the same name. Imagine the chaos if there were 10 Vincent van Goghs of varying skills active between 1750 and 1920 signing their paintings in the same way.

Hello all, I came across this blade at samurashokai.jp, and it seems very interesting; But I am a rookie and a little bit scared of all the possible problems with forgeries, questionable inscriptions etc. https://www.samurais....jp/sword/25103.html It is signed bishu osafune norimitsu, and dated to 1470. But since there are (apparently) a lot of smiths that signed osafune norimitsu, I can't really find many other examples to compare the mei. Bishu Osafune Norimitsu is mentioned here as a famous smith; https://nihonto.com/...f-the-muromachi-era/ But the hozon certificate and the asking price do not seem to support that this is indeed a blade by a very famous smith. So my lazy question is: Would you trust this blade and mei to be genuine (or rather trust the NBTHK papers)? And a less lazy question; how would you go about finding works by the same osafune norimitsu to do the comparison myself?

While we are on the topic; what do you guys make of this sword for sale from tokyo nihonto: https://tokyo-nihont...a-73-3cm-kizami-saya I never saw such a clear pattern before, but the sword is unpapered; is this acid polishing?