Mark

Den Mihara, Tenbun, the rest (other than length) is standard see http://www.jssus.org/nkp/tosogu_kanteisho.html

Mike you are welcome. I appreciate your manners and glad i could work it out for you, good guys don't always finish last. Hope you enjoy it mark

i seem to remember a very good sword that had a hagire, it was "cut out" (there was a deep cut made into the blade) the blade then passed Juyo, i guess the big cut was considered a chip. I am sure others remember this and will correct me if i remember incorrectly. My thought at the time was that the blade looked ugly after the cut and i thought it looked better before (the hagire was not as noticeable as the cut), but the sword's value was much higher as before it was unpapered and had a hagire but after it was Juyo, so i guess it made sense financially

if numbers match maybe $600 if not 350-400 in Michigan or even net on ebay. the paint is worn otherwise looks ok

thanks! they seems rare, think i have had maybe 3 in 20 years. problem is they fake them now so i think people get worried, sort of hurts the market

no points mentioned so did NOT pass, Did not fail. So makes sense as they are not familiar with these.

https://markussesko.com/2013/04/03/info-index-of-Japanese-swordsmiths/

at a quick glance it looks fine to me. i am not into gendai but have seen a few by this maker (2 generations i think)

Amahide from Mino Province. there is info in books and probably on line about him

i saw at least one other marked Horyu, i thought it had passed till i looked for the points, there were NO points noted so that helped me understand that it had not failed, but also not passed, they needed more research. As for time spent, i think some swords did not need much time (clearly bad etc), but a few they put aside and went back to. A friend of mine submitted one and had to wait a long time, he said at the end of the session they went back and spent 30 minutes discussing it before they came to a conclusion. The owner of the sword i mention is a member here, maybe if he sees this he will comment

i think i see 79 an assembly number meant to keep all the parts for a sword together when assembled in a factory

the 2 small kanji (Naga____) are written upside down, i have always seen the kanji written to be read with the tip pointed up

John, Steve, Ray and all Thanks for the insights, i have a better idea now and can do some research. I will watch for that Masa kanji again, don't think i have run across it before

This one is a bit of a challenge for me. The top part is hard, the lower part I can make out ChoShu Ju Ni ????? Kiyo Zai Mei any suggestion appreciated thanks mark

James I would have taken it back to the shinsa and pointed it out, they would have corrected it. I am sure they will catch it when the produce the paper but just to be sure contact Chris and let him know. You can email him at swords@ejapaneseswords.com they get a bit busy and probably just a simple mistake mark

Robert a quick count on my fingers from just thinking of the table layout i can immediately think of 38 tables that the vendors have a website, some of the guys with websites have multiple tables so as a percentage of vendors maybe not 40% but as a percentage of tables in the room yes i think 40% is about right

there are close to 100 tables at the Chicago show, maybe 1/2 are people you see at all the shows, the professional guys, probably 75% have a web site, the other 1/2 of the people are "local" guys who only come to that show, they don't travel. Many of them are old timers who bought stuff out of the wood work 20-40 years ago and they bring some and put it out for sale, maybe 10% of they have any web presence at all. i had a couple of people who had not been to any shows in 10+years, i had one person who had a table because they inherited a large collection and knew nothing about them (were calling tsuba Otani) they had 10+ pole arms a bunch of swords, they had a pile of papers and did not know what they went to (i spent a hour and tried to match up some and others helped them with some others. They had no idea of value or prices but at the end of the show i don't think they had anything left...... not sure how you can contact people like that, it is sort of hit and miss.

i submitted 5, 4 passed. Chris commented that the quality of items in general was higher than they had seen in the past so that may explain the better than usual pass rate if it is higher (i don't know the numbers ). In my experience the points were in line with past shinsa but you do have to remember that the 2 groups have a slightly different system or something so you can't compare points from a NTHK (Yoshikawa) paper and NTHK-NPO, but you can look at past NTHK-NPO shinsa (Tampa, Minneapolis) and they seem in line. They were working hard. Saturday late morning the announced there were a few re ahead of schedule and within minutes there was a line of people trying to submit.

Mark S All presentations are Saturday. 10:30 Care and etiquette by Grey Doffin (JSS/US) 1;30 NBTHK-AB by Mike Yamasaki Lecture will be on judgment by team, with some new twists and info. 3:30 yari lecture: "A Sharp Key to Hell: A brief history of the yari and collecting them" Bobby Block with Pat Giacobbe and assistance from Marcus Sesko. Times may vary slightly

Tom In case that does not work i have a link on my website to All Star Cabs, it seems their rate is $59 so similar. If you are going to use them verify it in advance see you soon http://allstarcab.com/airport.shtml mark

not sure deleting is appropriate, this seems good reference material and an educational discussion.

i see Mitsunaga saku

thanks Ray and Steve. Maybe this is a little know maker, he is very late so probably not a long career. I will keep looking for references. thanks again for the help

i had thought Yasu was an option but checking my Hawley's and Markus index i did not see any Muneyasu listed using those kanji, maybe i am missing something thanks for the picture, that sure looks like similar kanji

i have a katana dates Keio 2 (1866). The mei is giving me some trouble. ?? ??(place) Ju Fujiwara Mune ??? (yoshi, hide, Soei ) any suggestions appreciated.