Collectibles in general are falling off

[tokashikibob]

I wonder if anybody can chime in about the number of collectors in China?   If the traditional historical negative view of Japanese in general is overcome the Chinese market could be a game changer.

[drbvac]

Surprised at the interest in this topic and I have always said you never buy Nihonto - you rent them for your lifetime or as long as your interest lasts and then move them on. Any collector really doesnt expect to make a profit on collectables with the 50% change in price buying or selling - especially with dealers. We hold these pieces of history and do our best to not have them in worse shape when you pass them on than when you got them.  My concern was having them donated to a museum to go into storage and actually degrade, or have someone chopping sugar cane with a 500 year old katana. I am glad to hear that you are convinced that the next generations will pick up the flag as it were and carry on where we stopped but its something I do thing about. I have one son and 5 grandsons so I am certain they will love to get them but I will have to do - get them interested in them as history and art objects and the appreciation of that. Then I know they will be rented again for another generation. That said - you should all have some sort of forward thinking plan in case your heirs don't want to keep them and I am sure the market will let them sell them but probably closer to what I told my wife I paid than what they are worth. I did toy with the idea of putting in my will they are to be sold to the dealer I bought most from at what he considers a fair market price at the time and let someone who loves them continue to pay the rent. 

Edited March 17, 2023 by drbvac
spelling

[Anthony de Vos]

Hi!

 

One thing to consider when talking about prices on items, collectibles and otherwise, is the loss of buying power in fiat currencies. We tend to compare the amount of money, an item cost, in a certain currency between years or decades, without taking into account the loss of value in the currency itself. If you look in a chart decribing the actual buying power of a certain currency you will notice that some prices hasn't changed that much at all. You pay more in nominally value but in reality it's the same price as for a decade or two ago. A great example is the buying value of one ounce of gold. Almost the same today as 1900 while the grenback lost more than 99% of it's buying power.

 

Anthony

[Larason2]

It's been a while since TokashikiBob asked the question, but I thought I would say something about it since I meant to before, but didn't get to. I don't think there is or will be a lot of collectors in China. Part of this is that the Chinese don't really consider Japanese blades to be superior to their own. In China they have a long standing history of sword manufacture, and many different periods, and I'm sure to them what kind of steel it's made out of or whether it's folded or not doesn't matter that much. If a wealthy Chinese person wants a fancy sword, they get a well made reproduction, possibly made out of meteorite metal. Those are expensive enough to give nihonto a run for their money! Also, the Chinese have a long history of the decorative arts that rivals the Japanese, so the Japanese decorations probably seem a lot like theirs. The next element of this is that control over import and ownership of swords is very tight in China, and it's probably not worth the headache to try and buy a Nihonto when you can just get a Chinese sword.

[Baba Yaga]

I knew a Togishi / Sayashi  in the SF Bay Area who collected Chinese swords a few decades back. He foreseen the upcoming Chinese collectable sword market. I remember he tried to get me involved, but I thought he was nuts, No, I was the person who was wrong.   

[PNSSHOGUN]

There is quite a strong market for Japanese swords in China, for instance this is a Chinese site selling some very high end swords: 

http://luoyangong.com/prod_ListCategory.asp?cid=31

[DoTanuki yokai]

A cool example of a polished Chinese  Sword http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/chinesesword3.html

 

And for me as collector falling prices are a very good thing, just waiting for Awataguchi become affordable  

[Baba Yaga]

12 hours ago, PNSSHOGUN said:

There is quite a strong market for Japanese swords in China, for instance this is a Chinese site selling some very high end swords: 

http://luoyangong.com/prod_ListCategory.asp?cid=31

 

Chinas population is only 1.5 Billion.  We export 80% of our Almonds grown to China.  

I wish I had payed more attention and got into collecting ancient Chinese Swords back then. I guess the Almonds will have to do.   

[Sutraken]

To give an actual example for a nihonto related anime: the first episode of the third season Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba was released last Sunday in Japanese with English subtitles. The name of the current arc is to the swordsmith village.

 

Some very aesthetic images of sword forging and other things related are shown quite accurate for a mainstream anime. In the first season they even show tamahagane. On the other side I am relatively sure most members here won’t like the anime that much, because off its sense of humor.

 

I love the manga and the anime even more, so perhaps it will have a positive impact on the nihonto community, especially for the younger ones.