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Thanks, @Toryu2020! They are the Taoist symbols for Mount Hengshan (South) and Mount Tai (East).

These appear on a tanto koshirae I own. Do they mean anything to anyone? I have searched bonji charts online, but I am struggling. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for sharing this index, Rohan! I got the book just last month, so this is super helpful for enjoying it.

As a proportion of their work, there are a good number of signed Hasebe tanto. There is, of course, a price premium when buying a zaimei Koto blade. But I think there is a distinct downside to buying a mumei blade when zaimei is more common among a particular smith or school (unless that mumei blade is an extraordinary work). That may partially explain the pricing of this wakizashi.

Beware that shipping is not without its own headaches. A couple of months ago I tried to ship a blade to Japan via U.S. Post Office Express Mail International. I carefully followed the instructions of Robert Hughes, who was going to coordinate submission to shinsa. My package cleared outbound U.S. Customs. But despite my blade being over 700 years old, someone at the U.S. post office rejected the parcel before it was loaded on a plane and sent it back to me because the "destination country rejected shipment"--in other words, they erroneously thought that all Japanese swords are illegal to export to Japan. I later learned that a very experienced U.S. dealer had the exact same experience with his shipment of blades to Japan within a week of my shipment. That dealer was able to successfully reship with a new description of "Traditional Japanese Art." I, on the other hand, decided right now is not a good time to try shipping to Japan, so I'll wait for shinsa some other year.

Although a separate topic (like yours) probably would have been better, it is being discussed here:

It is somewhat rare when a Masamune comes to the open market. I certainly enjoy looking when they come up. But as others have said, Aoi Art's Masamune leaves a lot to be desired. In addition to the photos, there are plenty of hints in the listing about its condition. This is not an entirely fair comparison since they have much different asking prices, but compare Aoi's Masamune with the TJ Masamune tanto that @Ray Singer has available for sale: link. The latter has a far superior condition, TJ papers, and Honma and Tanobe sensei sayagaki confirming the attribution. If you are among the elite who can afford to buy a Masamune attributed blade at 42M JPY, you are probably also able to buy the much nicer tanto. This is not intended to be a slight to Aoi either. I think a lot of dealers would love to list a blade attributed to Masamune, regardless of its condition. It is a consignment sale, so Aoi is doing its job by listing what their client is offering. It is obviously working as we are drawing attention to the listing. Even if it does not sell at auction, I cannot imagine this blade sitting unsold for years. Someone will buy the attribution (and overlook the condition).

I have not yet done business with Eirakudo, although my interactions with them by email and at DTI have been very professional. They seem to have a good reputation, so I would be comfortable buying a sword from them.

There is a subforum for translation assistance, so you are better to post this there. Even better, pay @SteveM or another translator to professionally translate this for you. You’ll get a better result, especially since Tanobe sensei sometimes has some nuance in his commentary.

I bought a zaimei Hasebe Kuninobu tanto, although not at DTI per se. Sokendo sold it to me after DTI as it wasn't there. To build on what @Hoshi said, there was a wide range of asking prices, with pricing on higher end swords seemingly higher than last year. There were a couple of nice Juyo swords of interest to me that had asking prices of 15M and 18M, which I thought were substantially overpriced. But by Sunday they seemingly had sold as they were no longer on display. Of course, we don't know what price was actually negotiated. I saw some solid TokuHo and "lower" Juyo swords at decent prices--mumei Aoe with nice koshirae and the like. And some dealers were volunteering discounts of 10% on any expression of interest.

Even though I recently bought a blade in Japan, I would not try shipping it to the U.S. right now. As noted, EMS is not an option. UPS is reportedly destroying some international packages (link to article), which is not a risk I will take. OCS may be an option, but I don’t know if they have a U.S. customs broker. Then add in the usual chaos, volume, and theft of shipping around the holidays. I asked several dealers at DTI how they were shipping to the U.S. Answers varied from “UPS is no problem” to “OCS” to “we cannot right now, but maybe we can ship it next year.” The answers did not give me much comfort. And even if they can ship, tariffs still add 15%. I will just have my blade held in Japan unless things improve soon. Maybe I will make a special trip to Japan next year just to bring mine back personally. In that case, I should buy a couple more to make the trip worthwhile.

I could be mistaken, but I do not recall seeing this Rai Kunitoshi at Eirakudo’s booth—and I visited there several times.

I will be there both days.

I recommend asking Aoi to arrange a sayagaki from Tanobe sensei while you wait for the export to be approved. It is a nice sword, and adding a sayagaki would be a great addition.

Thanks @ROKUJURO. That’s a typo. My fingers were typing faster than my brain!

Catalogue

Thanks. If I remember correctly, I had a naked bulb on the mune side and within a couple of feet of the sword. I held the nakago of the sword and kept adjusting its angle relative to the lens as I took photos. That's probably one out of 20+ I took in that position. Photos of the other side of the sword were also good for showing the activity in the boshi, but it shows the reflection of the phone.

I am always impressed with the good photos of nihonto that some people are able to take. I’ve tried playing around with it a bit, but it seems like the fancier I try to get, the worse the photo. So I’ve resorted to just using my iPhone. Dust, reflections, lighting—all so frustrating. Just when I think I have a decent photo, I notice something is off. And good luck capturing a boshi!

I just reserved my room. This is a great show, and I am looking forward to attending it once again.

I have my collection insured on a dedicated collectibles policy, which is cheaper for me than a homeowners insurance rider. I’ve used this program for many years, and it is nice peace of mind. Any item valued over $10,000 needs to be listed individually. Anything over $50,000 needs an appraisal. Otherwise, they insure for the value you want. Historic Firearms, Collectibles, and Sporting Arms Program

I am a novice Japanese learner, having used Duolingo and tofugu.com to learn hiragana and @Ray Singer flash cards for swordsmith and province kanji. As others say, learning hiragana helps a lot with pronounciation. I am on to katakana next. Before learning hiragana, I initially learned basic phrases through Duolingo and memorized them phonetically so that I could say basic things while ordering food or purchasing something in Japan. That worked well enough for most tourist situations, but I was lost on reading anything.

Thanks for sharing your experience in detail @MEENag. Sorry to hear it took so long and was so frustrating, but I hope receiving your sword makes it all worthwhile in the end.

Duties and tariffs are different things. The referenced HTS Code has been in place for some time, and it has exempted antiques over 100 years old from the imposition of duties. I have not seen the signed US-Japan trade agreement to see if it uses this HTS Code to exempt antiques over 100 years old from the imposition of the 15% tariff. The first executive order in April did not have this carve out. In other words, if the signed US-Japan trade agreement does not have an exception for this HTS Code, US buyers/importers may be in a position where, technically, antique blades are exempt from duties but not exempt from tariffs. Of course, actual enforcement of the tariffs and on-the-ground confusion over whether the HTS Code applies is another matter.

@Toryu2020 has given you an excellent suggestion. As a bonus, Robert Hughes @Keichodo is a fun guy to be around.