Gerry

If you check out the username of the winning bidder, you can kinda guess that he really wanted this sword.

Mumei Shinto blades don't pass TH easily in general. And with a kasane of only 0.53cm, and worn down horimono, maybe the tiredness of the blade stopped it at Hozon.

I was quite surprised to see how high this mumei 1st gen Yasutsugu eventually went for on Aoi Art. It seems like the winning bidder was very determined to own a really expensive Hozon blade at 3.75M yen. I checked with Aoi, and they confirmed that this blade failed TH 2 years ago. https://sword-auction.com/ja/product/32851/as24571-katanamumei-attributed-to-the-first-generation-echizen-yasutsugu-kiritsuke-mei-nisshin-chuko-zanmai-hereditary-possession-of-matsuyama-atsuhisa-dated-april-27-kanbun-4-1664-gold-in/

Hi Ray, Thanks for sharing this excellent point, and it's really a shame that however originally owned the sword chose to remove the provenance and damage the nakago. I'll just have to wait for a cleaner example to show up in the market.

I'm considering purchasing this Gassan Sadakatsu katana from Aoi Art: https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-osaka-ju-gassan-sadakatsu-kinsaku-written-seal-marknbthk-tokubetsu-hozon-token/ What bothers me is that even though this blade has TH papers, the ura side of the nakago looks suspicious. Pretty much all Sadakatsu blades I've seen are dated, and this one isn't. However, if you zoom in on the ura side of the nakago, you can see faint chisel marks where the nenki used to be. Most of the Sadakatsu blades I've seen have very little to no corrosion on the nakago, whereas this sword seems to have rather pronounced corrosion only on the ura side. I'd like to know if anyone has opinions on why someone who purposely remove a nenki inscription from a perfectly good Sadakatsu blade.

Gosh, I wonder if the NBTHK would paper this sword. https://www.jauce.com/auction/1241067885

Ah, the horimono carver sometimes leave their name on the nakago with the swordsmith, and quit often it's the swordsmith carving the horimono too. For the bottom sword, Senshu actually left his name incrription on the ridge of the nakago.

Just happened to have 3 of my swords with dragon horimono out, so I thought I'd share a picture of the 3 different types of dragons, from top to bottom: Jinikubori, Hitsunaibori, and Hinaibori. The bottom dragon was done by Mukansa carver Kokeguchi Senshu. I'm missing a sukashibori one to finish the collection...

Just to add some reference points for you on the koshirae, if you're doing it through Aoi, then it's probably Nosyudo, which generally does good work. I've had 5 koshirae done with them in the last 2 years; one daisho set with antique tosogu, one custom hand crafted shikomizue, and 2 katana koshirae with modern fittings. The koshirae with modern fittings I commissioned in early 2024 cost me only 150,000 yen through Aoi for everything, which at that time was only about $1K USD, a bargain in my opinion. The whole koshirae took about 4 months to complete. Then as 2024/5 went by and more gaijin were buying swords because of the low yen and commissioning koshirae with Nosyudo, the wait times stretched out to about a year, and the prices went up slightly. I eventually went direct with my commissions at Nosyudo, and Koji-san there was very easy to work with. He always threw in free matching sageo tied to the saya and a sword bag. The shikomizue they made for me is a work of art, with a hand scraped exterior and custom metal fittings with bonji characters and a locking mechanism.

Ah, thanks everyone for sharing all the data on dated Hizen swords, and it seems that they aren't too rare at all.

I've been looking at purchasing a Hizen katana either from the Tadahiro or Masahiro lines, and notice that I don't ever see any date inscriptions on the nakago. Is there a reason for this, or has anyone seen dated swords from these Hizen smiths?

I think many people on this forum saw Aoi's listing for this ubu signed/dated Kamakura tachi, but how the auction ended was really odd. I'm not sure if the only 2 competing bidders are on this forum, but one went from 8.1 M yen straight to 71.23M yen, and the other followed! Tsuruta-san is definitely twiddling his fingers and smiling. https://sword-auction.com/en/product/31779/as25765-tachi-bizen-osafune-ju-shigemasa-december-1334the-46th-juyo-token/

Mine is from a different year, and doesn't state the swordsmiths name on the nakago, but has the same habaki, and a high end shirasaya.

Here's the only 2nd ever koa isshina mantetsu sword I've ever seen with a gunome temperline: https://www.jauce.com/auction/b1230588478?allow=1 The other one I've seen is one that I owned, and I sold it in 2021 for only $2500. I should have found a way to sell it in the Japanese market, where koa isshin mantetsu blades apparently command exorbitant prices!

I received this EMS shipment from Jauce. It's been 3 weeks, and I haven't received anything from USPS about paying for a tariff.