Most Expensive War Era Sword

[w.y.chan]

This has got to be the most expensive sold so far

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20131022071109/http://yushindou.com/人間国宝%E3%80%80月山貞一（二代）%E3%80%80（白鞘）%E3%80%80太刀/

 

 

 

Wah

 

 

[ggil]

Good horimono to my eyes. Lifelike and natural looking, but the eyes make the dragon look Chinese, sort of. Must be a nice hada and hamon, but translating the page on my iPhone isn't easy for me.

 

Someone didn't think it's overpriced, it seems. Seems like a new one could be made for that much. Is the smith a really highly ranked one?

[SwordGuyJoe]

VERY highly ranked smith, excellent horimono, and very rare TH papers for a gendaito. It's interesting to me that it got the TH nod since it isn't especially long. I am not sure if this is the most expensive war time sword ever sold (I'd assume not), but even if it is, I'm sure that when Clive decides to sell (me) his Special Order Shigetsugu, made for hitler, it'll surpass 4.5M yen...

[obiwanknabbe]

I seem to recall seeing a sword from the Black Dragon Society on ricecracker a few years back that was going for some serious coin.  Actually.. here is the old link.

 

http://www.ricecracker.com/inventory/722_katana/722_katana_shigetsugu.htm

 

There was another one if i remember correctly.. It had a dragon Horimono as well but much larger. I want to say it was going for like $25k.

[SwordGuyJoe]

Sounds like the sword Eric was selling. Goes to show, you can charge anything you want for a sword.

[Stephen]

id think this would be up there

 

[SwordGuyJoe]

Agreed. Probably break 4.5M since it's so famous

[Kai-Gunto]

Good horimono to my eyes. Lifelike and natural looking, but the eyes make the dragon look Chinese, sort of. Not mean enough eyes. Must be a nice hada and hamon, but translating the page on my iPhone isn't easy for me.

Someone didn't think it's overpriced, it seems. Seems like a new one could be made for that much. Is the smith a really highly ranked one?

Japanese dragons has 3 claws, like the dragon on the sword.

[w.y.chan]

I remember the Sadakatsu genshi-to that might go for a lot more.

 

The Sadaichi sword above did not come with anything special or with whome it was made for or anythng other than a blade by a young promising smith during the war almost 30yrs before he became Ningen Kokuho. That for me what made it most expensive. If it was an emperor's gift, etc, the value added would go beyond what is "traditionally" for a nihonto.

 

I suppose if a sword is made by a particular famouse smith and his work of a high standard and it is sought after and rare you can ask for whatever price you want.

I've been told modern masterpieces are tomorrows Juyo token and that was 20yrs ago so perhaps that time has come for war era blades.

 

 

Wah

[Eric Santucci]

There was a Gassan Sadakatsu gensui-to for auction a few years ago that was posted with a starting price well over $100,000 USD (yes, I wrote that correctly).  We discussed it here on NMB so there should still be a thread regarding it.  To my knowledge it ended without a bidder, but I have no idea if it eventually sold or not privately.  It was a complete package having the koshirae, box with hakogaki, documents, the Admiral sword belt, as well as, the provenance associating with the Admiral it was made for.  It was a lovely package and the only time I have seen a gensui-to for sale on a mass (public) sale. 

 

Gotta love the war-time history of these pieces.  As Joe mentioned, Clive's Shigetsugu is a rather excellent example of what came out of that era and shows especially strong provenance.  The Sadakatsu above was another great one as well.  There have been other blades I've seen lately for sale with indications of big-name war time provenance, but the provenance is not nearly as strong (more hearsay really and you have to take it with a bit of a grain of salt).

 

The Sadaichi sword noted above is nice - as Wah mentioned there is no provenance.  However, we do not often see this mei being used, which is why it is a bit rare and why it is likely posted at a larger amount than what we are accustomed to seeing.  By the way, I have seen this sword offered before either on the site it is listed now or sometime in the past as I have an archived picture of it.

 

Regarding the TH papers, there are many WWII Gassan era blades achieving TH status now.  This is probably the 4th or 5th I have seen achieve it, although most of those were Sadakatsu. 

[w.y.chan]

Eric, you mean this?

 

 

Wah

[Eric Santucci]

Hi Wah,

 

Yes, that appears to be the one.  Although the pictures you have added are of much higher resolution than what appeared in the auction at the time I saw it and there are additional pictures that were not present as well. 

 

It's a beautiful sword and koshirae.  I know some folks are not fans of that style of koshirae, but I quite like it. 

 

Thank you for posting these pictures - cheers!

[Stephen]

+ the cost to have a togi touch it up

[w.y.chan]

Another sword that was sold almost immediately after I posted on Chris B old email list a few year ago

Again this sword price is reflective of its provinance as oppose to just being a sword without

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20130721093825/http://www.e-sword.jp/sale/2013/1310_1080syousai.htm

 

 

Wah

[w.y.chan]

 

There was another one if i remember correctly.. It had a dragon Horimono as well but much larger. I want to say it was going for like $25k.

 

 

Was that one a wartime Takahashi Sadatsugu?

 

Wah

[Stephen]

Sword Kasama ShigeruTsugi structure Noriyuki 

Tomoyuki Yamashita Excellency your Jin sword 1929 years in November for three days (Army general was called the Malay tiger) 

Katana [Kasama Shigetsugu] (Kasama Ikkansai Shigetsugu) 

[sword Of Tomoyuki Yamashita] (Japanese General who called The Tiger of Malaya)

[w.y.chan]

Wartime blade by Takahashi Yoshimune, brother of LNT Takahashi Sadatsugu. 2.5 million yen much higher than for his blades without horimono

 

http://1st.geocities.jp/japan_antqs/sword3/top.html

 

 

 

Wah

[Stephen]

Glad to have a blade by his student, Yoshu Hojo ju Hiromasa

[SwordGuyJoe]

Wartime blade by Takahashi Yoshimune, brother of LNT Takahashi Sadatsugu. 2.5 million yen much higher than for his blades without horimono

 

http://1st.geocities.jp/japan_antqs/sword3/top.html

 

 

 

Wah

Pretty!

[w.y.chan]

According to Chris B Yoshimune mainly had his students and his brother Sadatsugu made swords for him. Notice the signature there is no "hori do saku" which made me think the horimono is done by Sadatsugu and even the blade is either assisted or a daisaku by his brother.

 

 

Wah

[w.y.chan]

No price but just want to add another nice war era gendaito

 

 

 

 

Wah

[SwordGuyJoe]

Not dissimilar to Bill's Akihide.

[w.y.chan]

I think its different

 

Wah

[SwordGuyJoe]

Yes different sword. I'm just saying it's similar.

[w.y.chan]

Yes different sword. I'm just saying it's similar.

 

In what way?

 

Wah

[SwordGuyJoe]

Really? Okay.

Sugata, Horimono, hada. Hamon is different, but the smiths of the Denshujo worked in a few different hamon obviously. Even still suguha based choji. Mei is different, but since Akihide didn't sign all of his work, mei variation is to be expected, and since Akihide didn't make all of his swords (perhaps most) outside of yakiire, there is going to be craftsmanship variation. I was just calling out the similarities as it can be easily seen the school's and instructors influences.

 

Outside of that, it's Japanese, it's a sword, and if I were a betting man, I would guess both are sharp.

[w.y.chan]

The sword above was from Showa 9 which is June 1934 if I'm correct was less than a year after the founding of Kurihara Akihide's Denshujo. At the time the head instructor would have been Kasama Shigetsugu. Bill's sword is from Showa 16 or 1941, the influence by the instructors at that time would have been somewhat different from the early days with Kasama with the exception of Kurihara insist on signing many of the best works.

 

 

Wah

[w.y.chan]

Here is a special sword made by Kasama Shigetsugu for Isoroku Yamamoto in 1936.

The auction closed at over 4.2 million yen

 

http://y.aucfan.com/aucview/yahoo/h204535794

 

 

Wah

[SwordGuyJoe]

The sword above was from Showa 9 which is June 1934 if I'm correct was less than a year after the founding of Kurihara Akihide's Denshujo. At the time the head instructor would have been Kasama Shigetsugu. Bill's sword is from Showa 16 or 1941, the influence by the instructors at that time would have been somewhat different from the early days with Kasama with the exception of Kurihara insist on signing many of the best works.

 

 

Wah

With the caveat that the instructors of the school were direct students of Shigetsugu.

[w.y.chan]

With the caveat that the instructors of the school were direct students of Shigetsugu.

 

But not traditional students of Shigetsugu. While still developing their skills these students would have even less leverage than Shigetsugu over Akihide. Showa 9 was still pre-war era, the sword made from that era like the one I posted is head and shoulders above many later wartime blades even most relatively good ones from that era. More likely this sword was a showcase example to advertise what the Denshujo can do given that it is also josun length. That is also why I don't conclude this and Bill's sword as "similar".

 

 

Wah