Shinsakuto... What Are We Looking At Here?

[drjoe]

Can someone explain what we're looking at here?  http://www.sanmei.com/contents/media/H108558_S8909_PUP_E.html

Obviously a "real" shinsakuto by Gonda Norihide 摂州住人則秀, but with the coarse jihada and hitatsura hamon in what I assume is a terrible polish, this looks a lot like some of Chinese fakes that we've been seeing lately.  It seems like an eyesore, though perhaps in a better polish I might feel differently.

Would make sense if this was an utsushimono, but it doesn't say so and my kantei skills are not good enough to know what the smith might be trying to recreate here.  Certainly I'm aware that some smiths did and do forge blades with this kind of low-count damascus-looking jihada.

The text says it's a "special order" sword though, so who knows what was requested.

It does seem that this smith isn't afraid to get a little adventurous: http://www.samuraishokai.jp/sword/14151.html



 

[Brian]

Yeah..umm......err....
Ugly.
They are doing a superb job of hyping it though. "flamboyant....splashed...super..masterpiece....delight"
And what is this masterpiece selling for?

[mywei]

Looks kind of like if Norishige was on crack cocaine

[drjoe]

This masterpiece can be had for 320,000 Y.

But seriously, I’m not trying to bash this blade so much as I’m trying to understand if I’m missing something in terms of the smith’s intent.

[vajo]

Boah, that is so ugly and looks like a chinese made katana 

[Stefan]

Late Shimada style. Does  not like  it. 

Stefan

[SAS]

The sugata and signature look nice; as for the rest, many Chinese swords exceed it aesthetically.

[J Reid]

Ew. Looks like an acid polish gone terribly wrong. However.. Try looking at the same sword with a professional kesho-Hadori polish. Could possibly clean up.. (feeling hopeful)

[PNSSHOGUN]

"Masterpiece". Is this used in the same way a parent claims their young kids finger paintings are masterpieces?

[Surfson]

I think that it has quite a "standing out" hada, perhaps "hadatatsu", combined with a hitatsura hamon that looks like the maker put minimal clay on the blade before yaki ire.  In other words, it almost looks as if the entire blade, minus a few spots, was tempered.