Tadayoshi

[nambo]

I seek an opinion on authenticity of the signature and paper. it as a real TADAYOSHI (忠吉), 1st gen., Keichō (慶長, 1596-1615)? 

 

肥前国住人忠吉作 

弘化三年二月四日 弐っ胴落 清河八郎正明 花押

長さ 70cm

反り 1.5cm

元幅 2.9cm

先幅 1.8cm

元重ね 0.58cm

鎬厚 0.61cm

先重ね 0.45cm

鋒長さ 3.1cm

茎長さ 21.2cm

重量 642g

 

Eli

[Hoshi]

I bet the dog ate his papers. 

 

Same source I suppose. Again this is highly suspicious, and I'm not a good Tadayoshi judge either. This has to be one of the worst gold onlays I've ever seen. It's so fake, it's a disgrace. The thing is in many of these cases you don't even need to study the piece. if it doesn't have papers, and the photo are professional photos, it means its someone 'in the business' who is selling it to you. This means he knows his stuff better than you, and will not reveal his private information in hope of catching a greedy fish. 

 

Rule of thumb: if it has no papers and it looks like a deal and its a professional selling to you, it's a scam. 

[CSM101]

Simply No.

 

 

Uwe G.

[Shugyosha]

Hi Eli,

 

Without NBTHK papers to confirm the signature, I would leave well alone. The owner could have submitted to NBTHK shinsa and either hasn't done so, if not why not? or the blade has failed and he is trying to make the blade someone else's problem. The same goes for the Muramasa tanto in your other post.

 

The gold tameshimei looks like it was done yesterday and there is a market for handwritten papers that get used to lend apparent legitimacy to gimei swords so there is nothing to suggest that the papers actually relate to this blade or were made by any kind of authority - the kakihan doesn't look like any of the Hon'ami ones that I have as a reference. 

 

Save your money - at the price point of a genuine Tadayoshi or Muramasa you can have your pick of any number of excellent legitimate blades. If they are going cheap, it's because they aren't the real deal.

 

Best,

John