Which one for you?

[Jussi Ekholm]

This is just for fun, not intended to be too educational although it might end up to be, depending on the answers that hopefully follow.

 

Aoi Art has very recently listed 2 blades that are attributed to Sa Yoshisada (2nd one came up today), I just thought to put them up side by side and see which one forum members will like better. I immidiately knew my personal choice but I won't post it here in the first post. I'll post it in few days. Would be nice to hear the reasons why someone would choose one over the other. Both are priced at quite similar level, both are Jūyō items (65 & 15).

 

Left: https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mumeiunsigned-attributed-as-sa-yoshisada/

Right: https://www.aoijapan.com/katana-mumei-den-sa-yoshisada/

[EdWolf]

Hi Jussi,

Both beautiful blades but personally I like the left one the most. I find the sori more attractive and I like the smaller kissaki.

Regards, Ed 

[Gakusee]

Jussi, I think we know your preference for large dimensioned blades ...;) 

[vajo]

I would prefer the second one. Looks like a strong sword with a nice barracuda boshi.

[Rivkin]

One of the cases where I have to start with a disclaimer that my opinion on this topic is likely to be uneducated, erroneous and subjectively personal.

I think these two blades are very different and "Den" here has strong connotations.

The underlying problem is Sa school excelling in basically every single style of their time. They can be strongly Soshu flavored, Bizen, Rai or their old, provincial Yamato-sort-of style. Frankly speaking the last option is the least impressive, but every seller of such items always insists it still has some connection to Masamune and O-Sa's fame. Which it does not - its just a provincial style, and more often than not  - a coarsely forged one.

Within "Soshu works" you also have a big spread - from things that are almost Bizen, some could be mistaken for Chogi's school flavor, with ko nie and nioi and very sparse usage of any distinctively nie based activities, to the works where the foundation of hamon is sort of in nioi, but there are lots of nie activities, sunagashi, very often there is inazuma etc. Interestingly enough, the hada can in both cases can be either more or less pure itame or large featured mokume/itame/nagare based.

The work on the left is in more Bizen-like style. Jigane is probably very good, but its mostly nioi/ko nie and will not have strong Soshu feel to it. Its a style which is distinctively Sa. Its also much harder to photograph and thus pictures might not reflect the real quality out there.

The blade on the right is late Nambokucho, of distinctive later style, sunagashi dominated with somewhat rougher nie. It will be much brighter, but I wonder whether Sa Yoshisada is a strong attribution here. I feel today such items would have a strong chance to be attributed as Sue Sa, or something similar. The ones with stronger nie and masame would even go Mino Kanenobu.

I think most learned collectors today assign lesser value to this type of work, though I personally like it a lot. Here is an example. 

Still of the two blades I would take without question the one from 65th Juyo session. Later Sa works can have rougher jigane, and I suspect the 15th session examples is like that.

 

[Katsujinken]

65th for me. Although it is a touch shorter it is definitely healthier save for the small issue by the kissaki. I’m not really willing to tolerate rough jigane in a Juyo blade outside of very specific circumstsnces. 
 

By the way, it looks like someone had a mei removed...

 

To be honest, I don’t love either of these swords! 

[Michaelr]

My choice from just your pictures is the one on the right. No reason what so ever other that that one speaks to me. Thank you for sharing    
    
   MikeR

[Vermithrax16]

A Sa blade needs a long kissaki for me to want it.

That said, both are weak for Sa. 

[ribendao]

I like the hamon on the left sword but prefer the sugata of the one on the right. If it came down to it I would pick the one on the right.