I dont know?

[drbvac]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 3DWatching

 

Could someone explain why this is a wakizashi ans not a ken ? Is it the age?

[John A Stuart]

It is a 'ken'. A lot are shorter than katana or tachi. John

[drbvac]

Thanks John!

 

I thought so but the seller does a lot of business on e-bay and I did buy a small mounted yari from him and a kanatake that were just as described. When I saw this I said to myself - this isnt a wak but who am i !

 

It is kind of neat, price isn't horrendous as I haven't seen a lot of them OR these!

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 3DWatching

[Mark Green]

Yup, That's a ken.

Very nice if the age is what he says. He sells a bunch of swords, but knows very little about them. He knows a bunch about armor though. Great ebayer. lots of cool stuff.

Once in a while he has some gems. This could be one????

wow, I just clicked on the other link.

That was once, my Jumonji.

It is wonderfull!!!!!!!!

here is an old pic of it before the polish. That never got finished.

I may try to buy it back

[drbvac]

I bought a Tanto from the seller who has your yari and I don't know where he had it polished but he is a good guy and probably spent more on the polish than he may get for it! If you subtract what you got for it from your bid you may get it back for a lot less than it would have cost you to have it polished. I know they are a pain to polish!

[Mark Green]

Louis and I did that polish. It just wasn't done when I traded it. Was getting close though. I was getting ready to take the crappy hadori off. I hate hadori, but I felt this yari needed it. You don't see many with such a great gunome hamon.

I have about 300hrs in that puppy!!!!! And a lot of blood!

Without a doubt, these are a bitch to polish.

The hada, and hamon on this one are sooooo sweet.

Perfect dimentions. Too bad about the Nakago. Some ass ground off the mei, on both sides. You can just make out some of the Kanji.

Not sure if the nakago would screw up any papers, but it needs to go for some.

I likely can't afford it just now. I hope it finds a good home.

It really is the best I have ever seen, less that nakago.

MG

[Joseph P.]

Wish I could afford it.

[Brian]

I was watching that ken, but with that very narrow hoso-suguha I am not able to tell if the hamon is complete. Looks close in some places. Also, from the brief profile that you see of the nakago, looks like the blade may have been polished down a heck of a lot. Not sure from the pics, but it is interesting. Japan seems to be unloading a lot of old origami swords lately. I wonder if they are sending out a lot of stuff re-checked and found to not pass scrutiny? Dealers appear to be clearing out a lot of stuff not suitable for the local market. All these sellers probably get their low end stuff from the dealer auctions in Japan, where this stuff is going dirt cheap.

 

Brian

[Jean]

Right Brian. Japanese Shops seem to get rid of what is not up their inland standard for quality. In DTI, since there are charters of foreigners attending, prices are high. Best deals seem to be made about 3 weeks after DTI. Seldom do top swords reach the market, they are pre-empted before, anyway very few of us could afford them. Reason why you won't see thousands of Nagamitsu Tadayoshi, Kotetsu, ko Bizen on the market. One or two shall from time to time appear, that's all

 

For the wealthy ones, cheapest Juyos are Koto suriage mumei, especially in the wakizashi range.

Some less favoured schools are also cheaper, Mihara, some Yamato schools ...

[Jacques]

Hi,

 

  Quote

One or two shall from time to time appear, that's all

 

 

Like this true Masamune

[Jean]

Yes and others if you go to the Japanese commercial sites.

 

High end Juyos are dealt outside the classical commercial circuits.

[mdiddy]

Jean and Jacques,

 

Does a Masamune showing up for sale online at AOI indicate that the traditional behind-closed-doors approach to dealing top swords is potentially suffering at the moment? How often has/does a Masamune show up for sale much less online where everyone can view it?

 

I realize this is off-topic per the original thoughts of the thread but now that we are here I'm just curious. Will start a new thread if needed.

 

Thanks!

 

Matt

[Grey Doffin]

That's Ko-Bizen Masamune, not Soshu Masamune.

Grey

[mdiddy]

That would explain why only 150K eh?

[rkg]

Hi,

 

So, what's the story on this ko-bizen Masamune anyway? I had occasion to check Fujishiro (my mail computer's boot/software drive croaked last week), and I see there isn't an entry for the guy (the second listed is a sue-mihara guy, and..).

 

thx,

rkg

(Richard George)

[Jean]

MASAMUNE JO-EI 1232 BIZEN 600 °MAS 1568 SAI-JO 1000 KO-BIZEN

 

°MAS 1568 : Hawley reference.

 

Depending on taste, apart Soshu Masters, Ko Bizen ranks First along with Ichimonji in the most sought after swords - and a signed one .... Could be a candidate for TokuJu

 

BTW, Fujishiro lists only 5000 smiths

[Jean]

Just an after thought to illustrate my saying. Have a look at the "sale" section, on Aoi-Art website. There is an unsigned TokuJu Ichimonji + Koshirae both on the same certificate fot 15,8 M compare it to a signed Juyo Ko Bizen at 15 M.

 

there are about 7000 TokuJu swords, perhaps a bit more. How many have you ever seen on sale? and Howmany signed ones? Seen many signed Kiyomaro on sale?

[Jacques]

Hi,

 

He is quoted in the Koto Nyumon (Iimura) and in the Toko Taikan (Tokuno). Only 900 man, far from a Sai-jo. The blade for selling by Aoi-art is the same than the one shown in both books.

[Jean]

http://www.sho-shin.com/smiths1d.htm

 

In Hawley, he is rated 30 pts, but there must be few swords by this smith and even less signed as this one seems to be the only available example published