Yahoo Auction Tsurugi?

[KuraiValo]

Hello,

 

I was looking through yahoo.jp auctions and came across this one: 

 

https://www.jauce.com/auction/1117263399

 

Forget me, because I don't know for sure the name for this style of blade. I guess a tsurugi or ken style blade. 

 

Thoughts on this? I think it is a beautiful blade but in my amateur opinion it doesn't seem to be nearly as old as the auction seems to indicate it may be. Maybe I am very wrong on this, any thoughts?

 

Thanks,

Jake

[Shugyosha]

Hi Jake,

Yes it’s a Ken or Tsurugi.

 

I’m firmly in the “dunno” camp as regards age - it’s hard to tell with this style blade as there are no obvious “tells” from the photos as the shape is invariably straight and a bit like this. There are, however, some red flags - no signature, no papers, red tinge to the rust on the tang, photographed with the habaki on so you can’t see the depth of the machi, sayagaki presented off-centre so it’s hard to read, no detailed shots of the blade.

 

It’s presented as being very desirable in terms of age and school and is of exceptional length. So if it’s that good why not confirm that at shinsa? 
 

There’s lots of this stuff all over the internet auctions and if it’s sold as being by a big name, a desirable school or very old but with no papers, it’s probably not what it’s tricked up to be. 
 

 

[ROKUJURO]

They seem to relate it to KO GASSAN, and if it has indeed AYASUGI HADA, it is perhaps worth a second look. Nice HABAKI. The actual price is indeed not on GASSAN level!

[Curran]

I stumbled across that one somehow while looking at tosogu.

The gassan style hada on a large ken did catch my attention.

 

I liked the blade, habaki, and shirasaya, - but what is up with the nakago? 

Repatinated? Attempt to make it look older? Signature removed?  No idea.

Nakago looks off.

 

Tosogu is more my thing. This was a curiosity. I wanted to ask someone about the nakago, but figured it didn't matter that much since there was only a 0.1% chance I would bid on it.

 

[KuraiValo]

Thank you to everyone for the responses. It helped reaffirm my thoughts on it. The nakago did look off to me in that it didn't seem to match the age in the description. Additionally for such a rare blade, if as described, then why no paperwork? The amount of bids however threw me off though, as in maybe I don't know what I am looking at or maybe everything they are saying is possible.

 

I'm still learning a lot, so I really appreciate the explanations and thought processes.

[Shugyosha]

If I was bidding I’d be pricing it as an outsize, mumei shin shinto blade. My guess is that it’s this sort of age with some work done on the tang to try to make it look older. Jean has confirmed the hada which I couldn’t see on my phone, but a long blade with Ayasugi  hada is appealing of itself so if the price doesn’t go too high it could be a nice enough buy. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone takes the bait though…

[Rivkin]

Its an interesting blade, however hamon with very fine and pronounced bluish ayasugi looks shinshinto. There is overall "freshness" in work uncommon in koto.

Still most likely going to be a major smith, but its not that old as they claim. That's the reason why no papers.

[Curran]

20 hours ago, Shugyosha said:

If I was bidding I’d be pricing it as an outsize, mumei shin shinto blade. My guess is that it’s this sort of age with some work done on the tang to try to make it look older. Jean has confirmed the hada which I couldn’t see on my phone, but a long blade with Ayasugi  hada is appealing of itself so if the price doesn’t go too high it could be a nice enough buy. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone takes the bait though…

 

I concur with John and others. It looks legit, but probably shinshinto.