GreyVR

Pardon me, but is there a way to see if the papers are genuine? Like, does NBTHK have a place you type in the number and see if it matches? Was thinking of getting a Jauce account as buyee doesn't seem to be interested in handling even very short blades. I see this thread is a little old, is Jauce still good?

Seems like a good question to me. If it was my art it would bother me for the horse's head to be covered.

I fear it might not be the photo so much as the blade. Is this any better?

Hello all. Last april I bought the most wonderful sword at Tozando in Kyoto. It's a Edo period Wakizashi, my first nihonto, and has a 'lived in' koshirae that I just love. That said, it came with a really beautiful kogatana which has an inscription on the blade. I asked chatgpt to read it, and it tells me that it reads "Shanghai's tapwater comes from the sea." You will all understand I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever of kogatana blade smiths being deeply concerned about water supplies in Chinese cities... ...but even so I thought to ask here.

How much can be cut out of a seppa before the whole loses out? I actually bought that rain dragon one above because it enchanted me so, and I have seen seppa with a little bit cut out for the kogatana... (forgive me not putting a lot of time into the shop for this image... But what about....

Now I'm going to have to find an artist and commission one like that but with a cat.... O maybe two cats, on on each side.... Do you really think so? Seems like it would be so very close if not on the face of the carp. But I fully grant I'm a beginner....

Here's the flip side of the one above with the dragon. As someone who studied art a bit, it seems like the artist would want to consider the 'canvas' to mostly be the space that won't be covered. Seppa are a required bit of equipment, or so I understand, and thus it's a artistic choice that perplexes me. Granted menuki are often magnificent and often almost completely covered.... but even so.

Hello all, I'm curious about why it seems that some tsuba I've run across on the internet seem to have art that would almost certainly be covered by seppa. Were these intended for display only, and not use? If this has been asked before, I apologize, as I'm unsure how to search for the question.

I started collecting antique Japanese swords not long ago, and this is my first post here. If it is in the wrong place, please let me know. I'm brought to understand that the fit between blade, habaki, and saya needs to be exact, yet I noticed almost at once is that there are many koshirae, complete, for sale with no blade and there are many blades with no koshirae in a holding scabbard. How did they get separated? I'd imagine they can never be reunited due to the exactness of the fit required, but is that wrong? Is there a secret I'm unaware of whereby one can purchase a blade in shirasaya and not have a koshirae made but bought off the rack like a pair of pants? (I imagine that's silly, but I still wanted to ask.) And I ask because some koshirae are absolutely magnificent just by themselves, even the unreplaceable parts. It would feel bad for those really fine ones with unrecoverable art to be broken down for parts to be matched to a blade... but also sad for them never to be matched to a blade again.... which raises the question how so many swords ended up without their koshirae? Surely most of these shirasaya blades at one time had one or many koshirae... and if they are the only ones those fit... were are they? Why weren't they kept together? Tt would seem that a sword should always be sold with every set of Koshirae that has been made for it, yet it is clear this very rarely happens. (That said, I did have the idea of using cat scans or xrays to map the koshirae and 3d scanners to figure out how many might be made to match, but I know how difficult that would be logistically.... even if theoretically possible.) So my questions are "IS there a secret I'm unaware of to buying a koshirae and somehow matching it to a blade beyond just using it for parts?" and "How did so many get separated instead of kept together, especially in a culture so very good as taking care of their antiques?" Thank you all in advance for helping with my ignorance on this matter.