Heianjo for beaucoup bucks

[Surfson]

This Heianjo just went for 185,000 Yen ($1850) on Yahoo Japan.  It is around 8cm and has TH papers.  I had no idea that they could fetch this much.  Or is it an anomaly?  

[John A Stuart]

It is a great exemplar in very good condition. Well worth the price. John

[Surfson]

Glad to hear it John.  I like Heianjo and have quite a few of them, including many very good ones that I bought from Gary Murtha.  

[Rich S]

Robert

 

That is a glorious Heianjo. Thanks for posting.

Here's one of my favorites (nice dark patina - washed out by flash);

it's not the "classic" Heianjo, but I like it because it tells a story/poem.

All inlay intact (I think).

Rich

 

 

 

 

[rkg]

"Perfect" ones (almost no (or no) inlay loss, all the major inlays intact, no appreciable corrosion damage, etc), tend to go for a lot (unless the seller really doesn't know what they have/mis-describe/photograph a piece 🙂 ).  This is kind of a "Yahoo Japan special" - its a nice piece with reasonable work, the large inlays are mostly there,  somebody sprang for expensive papers, whizzy box, etc, but it has er, issues that make it less desirable to the Japanese collector*.  A surprising amount of the fine inlays are missing, and there's a hole at the top that seems to be either a piece of missing inlay and/or corrosion damage (note that the seller doesn't show it very well - an oblique image from the top like he shot of the sides would show it so you could see what was going on, so perhaps he thought this was a less attractive feature as well, but I digress). 

 

IMHO these detriments put it in kind of a grey zone - while its clearly much better than the usual online offerings, (rusty, missing large amounts of inlay, mediocre work, shined up, etc),  when you start getting up into this price range it kind of makes sense to just spend a little more (what, 2K-3K) and get a real prize (no corrosion, little or no missing inlay, damage, etc). On the other hand, its "worth" this because somebody bot it at this price, so YMMV.

 

* I've posted before about discussions with Haynes about Dr. Toyigoye's thoughts on these pieces - in a nutshell, the Japanese like to see them with at most 10% or so of their inlays missing, no missing (or damaged) large inlays, and little or no corrosion damage (for whatever reason these pieces seem to be really susceptible to this).  It doesn't mean they're "bad" if they don't have this, but....

 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)

[zanilu]

This is in my collection. 

 

It is in overall good conditions with no rust, a nice brass patina and still a good portion of the hira covered with lacquer. Also it has a Tokubetsu Hozon paper by NBTHK. 

 

Regards 

Luca

[Surfson]

When I finally unpack from our move (everything in boxes since the pandemic has kept us from serious furniture shopping), I will take some photos of some of mine from Murtha.  Most of them are Momoyama or earlier, 8cm+ and in good condition.  

[Fred Geyer]

I paid more on my top example on the Heianjo tsuba for my collection 

 

Good stuff is going higher, cant use 1990 prices anymore 

 

 

Fred Geyer 

[Surfson]

Glad to hear it Fred!

[Japan2112]

That's a super tsuba. While Heianjo tsuba often seem "plain" to me, this one is very nice, in its iron, inlay, and design. The price seems right to market.