Warning On Ebay Muramasa Blade!

[Ken-Hawaii]

I feel an obligation to post a warning to NMB members on http://www.ebay.com/itm/MURAMASA-Certificated-Sword-in-KOSHIRAE-16th-C-MUROMACHI-Period-C393-/272449917573which was just reposted by Matsukaze after a sale cancellation.

 

In his listing, he offers a "Certificate by Kobayashi Yukinobu of Juho-Token-Kenkyukai. (the Former Executive director of NBTHK)" However, neither my sword mentor nor I are able to confirm that Kobayashi Yukinobu was ever associated with NBTHK, let alone being a director of any sort. My mentor won the original bid, & when he couldn't confirm Kobayashi Yukinobu's affiliation, he contacted the seller, who said that all sales are final, & would not change his mind about the certificate, nor would he honor a refund if the blade turned out to be bogus. So my mentor checked with two of the current NBTHK American Branch directors, & neither of them was familiar with Kobayashi Yukinobu except as a polisher, who issues his own certificates. So my mentor cancelled the sale, which the seller said was the only thing he would honor, & is sumbmitting a formal complaint with eBay.

 

What is particularly frustrating is that if you go by the photos, the blade could indeed be the Nidai Muramasa, but the fact that this seller is insisting that Kobayashi Yukinobu is a former NBTHK Executive Director makes all of his statements, & his sales items, highly-suspect. I, for one, will no longer deal with this seller at all. Your mileage may vary.

 

Ken

[Jean]

Current price for a nidai Muramasa is at least 20k$

 

http://www.nihonto.ca/muramasa/

[Kronos]

Anyone in Japan who knows enough to know who Muramasa is and that this is reminiscent of his work has submitted it to shinsa and didn't like the result. I'd wager this has papered to something with a value approaching the asking price.

 

 

[Gakusee]

A Nidai Muramasa wakizashi (not so common, by the way, as he made mostly katana and tanto length blades, as well as various yari) will likely cost ten times as the current Ebay pricing of this item. In fact, Tsuruta san sells at least one Muramasa tanto per year, sometimes two, and usually prices them at 3.5-4million yen (again - tanto, not wakizashi) depending on Hozon vs TH certifates they come with and the lavishness of the koshirae.

Supporting one of the posts above, I have seen how dealers do paper and upgrade items when they know exactly what they have. In fact, Tsuruta san himself had a splendid hitatsura Muramasa wakizashi, which he papered to Juyo, and was displayed in last year's new JuTo exhibition. He never put that sword officially on his Aoi Art website for sale but sold it nevertheless.

 

Personally, I would question the nakago shape if you are trying to match Nidai here, as well as request to see the nakago close-up from all directions, including the mune. Finally, please note the clever seller wording 'late generation' in the description. He does not state nidai or sandal even but 'late', which one could construe as beyond sandai (let us not go into the number of generations here - suffice it to say, it also does not look like a Masashige).

Good luck,

Michael

[Brian]

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/14785-kantei-origami-never-seen-this-one/

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/6642-mr-takahashi

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/4416-can-i-get-a-reading-on-this-paper-please

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/659-kantei-paper

[Ken-Hawaii]

Thanks, Brian. I had probably seen those posts before, but never put them together. Probably would have saved us some time, but at least my mentor carried it further, so we all know that Kobayashi Yukinobu is definitely not associated with NBTHK.

 

Ken

[christianmalterre]

No Ken!

 

i do disagree in one certain- i but think very specific pont!

This blade never "could" nor "can" be a Muramasa!

 

i have never seen such strong Soden-Mino-Bizen "style" of forge- in any Muramasa blade.

 

so, i think, this all discussion is starting already in it´s very beginning- to obsolete!

 

Study!

 

Christian

[Stefan]

At  a first glance I would say low class Shitahara...Sengo ? Absolutley No.

[christianmalterre]

could be Sengo indeed....

i even do dare worser....

 

No good blade!

 

Christian

[Darcy]

There is a reason that sellers in Japan will use ebay to sell a big name thing with ridiculous papers and it's not because ebay is a great place to sell good swords. 

 

People need to use some common sense.

 

If you want one ounce gold coins, and you want to pay 10% of the market price for a gold coin, and continue to hunt, eventually you will find someone who will sell you a gold coin for 10% of the market price. And when you show it to an expert you will find out that it's gold plated copper and you paid 100x the real value. 

 

There have been great finds on ebay and some members here found important and rare things there. But it has never been a Japan based seller, it's been what you would expect if you have been around a while. Guys digging and flipping things without doing study, rusty mumei blades, mislabeled auctions that never get eyeballs on them, people who just want out of a blade and put up something papered for a low entry price and let it coast, and so on. This is how you ebay.