Bonham's NYC Auction

[Soshin]

  Curran said:

I should point out that the Yushu papers on the Muramasa were not from the NTHK.

 

Yushu papers from some lesser or unknown 3rd party don't carry much weight.

 

Dear Curran,

 

Never heard of a Yushu paper before... Best way to find out if it is a real Muramasa blade is to mount the blade in a new koshirae and practice Batto or iai with it. If you seriously cut yourself with it you know it is a real Muramasa blade.

Alternatively you can just submit it to the NTHK or NBTHK.

 

PS The above is just an attempt at a little bit of Nihonto humor. :D

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Jean]

  Quote

Never heard of a Yushu paper before

 

David,

 

Don't tell me you are not aware of different Kantei organization rating

 

http://home.earthlink.net/~steinrl/origcomp.htm

[Soshin]

Dear Jean,

 

I am familiar with this very helpful website. Thanks for point out what Yushu is. It is the NTHK rank similar in level to the NBTHK Juyo. Being a member of NBTHK I am most familiar with that organization's shinsa ranks and requirements. Curran is quoted as saying that the Yushu paper was not done by the NTHK. Does any other groups outside of the NTHK and NTHK-NPO issues a Yushu paper?

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles

[Jean]

From Bonham's website:

 

  Quote

kantei certificate issued by the Higashi Nihon Bijutsu Token Kai (Eastern Japan Art Sword Society) ranking this blade as a Yusho token

[Curran]

David,

 

What I was getting at is that when we hear Yushu or Juyo, we reflexively think NTHK or NBTHK level rank.

If it had been an old Yushu issued by the NTHK, that would have been *much* more interesting.

We don't see many Yushu NTHK papers outside of Japan these days.

 

We see high level & low level juyo, with many of the mumei lower level Juyo of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s starting to flood the market a bit. I do not recall seeing 'low level mumei' Yushu.

This is not to say they don't exist.

 

As an aside: I don't think I've ever seen a Yushu NTHK fittings paper. That too would be interesting.

[Soshin]

Dear Curran,

 

That has been my experience of 10+ years of collecting. I have seen and handled a number of NBTHK Juyo level tosogu and Nihonto out of Japan but no NTHK Yushu level tosogu or nihonto. I have a few hypotheses why but nothing worth commenting about without hard evidence.

 

 

 

Yours truly,

David Stiles