Gerry

Thanks for all the responses. Here's a high res shot of the kissaki.

I just received a sword that I purchased on a whim from from Japan, and it has a rather unique hada, as shown below: My question is, for which type of hada would this be classified? Would it be a type of yakuma or matsukawa hada? It's a mumei blade which appears to be from the shinshinto era.

I have had an old habaki restored with a new layer of gold foil in Japan, so it's possible. It wasn't cheap though, at about $500 USD.

It's interesting to see that Mantetsu-to prices are going up, even in Japan: https://www.samurais....jp/sword/24178.html At 680,000 yen, I can even get a TBH katana with koshirae. Case in point: https://www.samurais....jp/sword/22111.html I still remember being able to get one in pristine shape for $1.5K 15 years ago.

Apologies to dredge up this ancient post, but I thought it'd be interesting to see how opinions might have developed about shinsakuto over the last 15 years. It seems to me that current collectors are beginning to appreciate shinsakuto, especially since many of them have been receiving hozon and TBH recently.

Thanks for all the insightful responses on this topic, and I'm glad that international collectors don't seem to have hang ups about the custom inscriptions on the nakago. I, too, agree that any legitimate inscription adds provenance to the sword which it will carry through its history of ownership.

What a pity that this sword was shortened from 78.7cm to 65.1cm. But an interesting story nonetheless, thanks for sharing!

I've been looking at buying some shinsakuto, and many of them have inscriptions bearing the occasion or name of the person who commissioned the order. For example, some nakago have inscriptions commemorating the retirement of an owner, etc. I've been told that these custom inscriptions are a negative thing among Japanese collectors, because they don't prefer owning a sword with someone else's name on it. Therefore, custom owner inscriptions negatively affect the value of a sword. Is this generally true for international collectors too?

There was also this tanto with a rather peculiar usagi carving.

Hi Jussi, you're correct, this Tomotisu is listed as Tokubetsu Juyo.

It was definitely the star of the exhibit, but was odd that the Sadatsuna nakago had a later mei added in Bunsei 12th.

But one of my favorites is this katana from the mukansa smith Minamoto Moriyoshi.

And there were quite a few Tadatsunas with fantastic horimono.

This Sumitani Masamine o-yari was exquisite.

There was this pretty odd looking nanbokucho era Tomomitsu wakizashi with a 41cm, nagasa, and almost half as wide. Complete with accompanying koshirae with a huge kozuka.

I was at this same exhibition on Saturday, and they had a Sadatsuna that had a sublime jigane.

And these are a pair of male and female dragons on each side a katana I have.

Here's a partially exposed dragon horimono in relief on an osuriage katakuriha wakizashi I have.

John, you make an excellent point on the local climate. I wouldn't do what I do if I lived in the tropics, or lived close to the ocean. And I keep my house air conditioned 24/7, and don't have my windows often very often.

Now I thoroughly curious...are there any members out there who can share their experience with leaving their swords in koshirae, oiled or unoiled, only to find them rusted upon the next inspection of the sword? If rust was found, how long was the interval between inspections for the rust to develop, and how severe was the rust? It's good to have factual data points on this matter for the thread originator, rather than just hearsay or theories.

I guess I must be lucky then...but just to point out that nihonto are instruments of warfare, and weren't originally designed to be babied.

It's fun to see the weekly parade of Kiyomaros and Kotetsus listed for auction.

Yes, I was suspecting that it was a suriage nagamaki too, but gosh, at over 4 lbs in weight just for the blade, that would have been quite a polearm to swing around. So maybe the votive word story in the listing holds some water.

Here's another interesting one on Yahoo Auctions. A 3+ foot long shobuzukuri odachi in koshirae. The supposed story of how the sword is from a museum in LA seems imaginative. The hitatsura hamon looks quite unique to me, but the shape and quality of the habaki doesn't give me a good feeling. I always think that good blades always come with a high quality habaki. https://www.jauce.com/auction/r1159567193

I have been collecting nihonto for over 20 years, and I've always been one to transfer them from their shirosaya to the koshirae once I receive them, and I never keep them oiled either, with no ill effect. Some of my swords have been in their koshirae for over 20 years on my sword rack, unoiled, without developing any rust. And until this year, I lived in a city where the humidity in my house was about 50%. I prefer to keep my swords in their koshirae because I like the feel of how a sword was intended to be handled, in koshirae. And also, I have an unfounded phobia of my hand slipping on the shirosaya handle, and my hand getting cut, so a tsuba is always nice to have. So now I have a huge stack of shirosaya over the years that I really need to get sorted and tagged, ha ha. Maybe it's also because most of my swords are TH and below, and not Juyo or TJ, so I'm not as concerned with keeping them in absolutely pristine condition.