Questions: Kamakura (?) Yamato Tachi in Tombo Dragonfly Koshirae; Mei: 保昌貞宗 Hosho Sadamune

[Tater]

Hello, 

 

A friend of mine offered to sell me a Tachi and I don't really know much about it, so I have questions and need some opinions. The blade originally came from a Japanese ebay seller "basara_jp," and I will link the original sales post for this blade below. I will also attach some pictures.

 

The smith is supposedly Hosho Sadamune (Sadamune - SAD548 | Nihonto Club) who was a principal smith of the Yamato Hosho school. 

 

1. Does this blade look Kamakura, or later? How tired does the blade look? My friend tells me it has no flaws, no rust, no kizu, or inclusions. Masame hada is very pronounced.

2. Nakago only has 1 mekugi ana; I'm surprised that the whole mei is still intact, so I'm unsure if it's been shortened or ubu. The nagasa is only 23.11" which seems short for a Tachi.

3. Does the mei look legit or gimei?  

4. The koshirae is newer than the blade, and I was told it could be worth up to $4500. Opinions?

 

I'm not sure what this whole package is worth, it could be a treasure for all I know... here is a link to the original ebay page for more pictures: Japan Antique 保昌貞宗 Nihonto katana Tachi sword Makie koshirae yoroi samurai t1304 | eBay

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

[Tater]

[Brian]

It is 100% certainly NOT by Hosho Sadamune.
You can safely assume no Japanese dealer has listed any Hosho Sadamune on eBay, especially without any NBTHK papers. Never happened.
There is lots of masame, so you would need to submit it for papers to see how old it really is, and who did make it. But note that these Japanese dealers do not list stuff on eBay without problems. They can easily sell good stuff in Japan.
Also, is the blade length really 58.7cm? If so, that changes everything. It would be a wakizashi and in those fittings...likely for a youth maybe? Hard to judge scale.
Being under 60.6cm, would greatly affect value.
The fittings are nice. Not fantastic, but very nice. Hard to put a value to them, but not $4500. Maybe half that at a guess?
Looks like a decent package if you don't worry about it being gimei and short.

[Gakusee]

Ok, so to help progress your understanding, please ask yourself these questions and please consult some of the books / online references:

- in the Kamakura period, were swords generally and mostly signed tachi mei (tachi side) or katana-mei? On which side is the mei here?

- what was the typical shape (sugata) of the Kamakura tachi?

- please compare to the patina colour (as well as file marks / yasurime) of some other old, Kamakura swords - eg refer to aoijapan.net and search

- have you done some research into the smith Hosho Sadamune? What does the research say? Hint: very, very, very rare.....In fact, probably only a handful blades exist

 

Separately, I have dealt a bit with basara_jp. Caveat emptor: you need to be very experienced and know what you are doing there.....

[Tater]

17 minutes ago, Gakusee said:

Ok, so to help progress your understanding, please ask yourself these questions and please consult some of the books / online references:

- in the Kamakura period, were swords generally and mostly signed tachi mei (tachi side) or katana-mei? On which side is the mei here?

- what was the typical shape (sugata) of the Kamakura tachi?

- please compare to the patina colour (as well as file marks / yasurime) of some other old, Kamakura swords - eg refer to aoijapan.net and search

- have you done some research into the smith Hosho Sadamune? What does the research say? Hint: very, very, very rare.....In fact, probably only a handful blades exist

 

Separately, I have dealt a bit with basara_jp. Caveat emptor: you need to be very experienced and know what you are doing there.....

Yes, I do know the tachi side for a mei ,for some reason I didn't think of that when I saw the photo. I have a resource that says Hosho Sadamune Tachi are almost nonexistent. I knew this was too good to be true, I will have to pass on this offering. Thank you for making me think. 

[Tater]

28 minutes ago, Brian said:

It is 100% certainly NOT by Hosho Sadamune.
You can safely assume no Japanese dealer has listed any Hosho Sadamune on eBay, especially without any NBTHK papers. Never happened.
There is lots of masame, so you would need to submit it for papers to see how old it really is, and who did make it. But note that these Japanese dealers do not list stuff on eBay without problems. They can easily sell good stuff in Japan.
Also, is the blade length really 58.7cm? If so, that changes everything. It would be a wakizashi and in those fittings...likely for a youth maybe? Hard to judge scale.
Being under 60.6cm, would greatly affect value.
The fittings are nice. Not fantastic, but very nice. Hard to put a value to them, but not $4500. Maybe half that at a guess?
Looks like a decent package if you don't worry about it being gimei and short.

 

Yes, it's pretty much a gimei wakizashi in nice fittings. I will have to pass on this offering. Thank you for your feedback.