2024 NBTHK SHINSA SCHEDULE AND SUBMISSION ISSUES

[Keichodo]

2024 NBTHK SHINSA SCHEDULE AND SUBMISSION ISSUES

 

*In addition to shinsa registration now being the month prior to shinsa submission, there are also quota limits for the number of items accepted. Registration should be done early in the shinsa registration period as the quota can be reached within a few days.

 

Anyone considering sending swords to Japan for shinsa needs to be aware of the time constraints. Swords shipped to Japan must arrive prior to the end of the month in order for a licensing appointment the following month. Once licensed, the sword is eligible for shinsa registration after the month of licensing (if shinsa is offered). Shinsa submission follows in the month after shinsa registration. This means just getting a sword into Japan and submitted for licensing and shinsa is a minimum four month process or longer depending on when the shinsa is offered.

 

2024

April Tokubetsu Juyo Shinsa Submission dates 4/1-4/3 on-line registration 3/1-3/25

May  Kodogu Hozon/Tokubetsu H. Submission dates 5/7-5/9 on-line registration 4/1-4/25

June  Swords Hozon/Tokubetsu H. Submission dates 6/3-6/5 on-line registration 5/1-5/25

Aug.  Kodogu Hozon/Tokubetsu H. Submission dates 8/5-8/7 on-line registration 7/1-7/25

Sept. Swords Hozon/Tokubetsu H. Submission dates 9/2-9/4 on-line registration 8/1-8/25

Oct.  Juyo Shinsa Swords/Tosogu Submission dates 10/1-10/3 on-line registration 9/1-9/25

Nov.  Kodogu Hozon/Tokubetsu H. Submission dates 11/5-11/7 on-line registration 10/1-10/25

Dec.  Swords Hozon/Tokubetsu H. Submission dates 12/2-12/4 on-line registration 11/1-11/25

2025

Feb.  Kodogu Hozon/Tokubetsu H. Submission dates 2/3-2/5 on-line registration 1/1-1/25

March Swords Hozon/Tokubetsu H. Submission dates 3/3-3/5 on-line registration 2/1-2/25

 

 

Best Regards,

 

Robert Hughes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Stockfball11]

Brand new to this world of Japanese swords. I have just inherited one and am looking to complete this process if you could shed some light on what I have to do to begin/complete this process. 

[Keichodo]

Hi Andrew!  I have sent you a message.

 

Best,

 

Robert

[Curious Cosmos]

I would be interested too if you could please share this information, thank you!

[Lewis B]

I would be interested to know how to submit a sword for Juyo shinsa. As I understand it using a locally based intermediary would be required to complete all the necessary paperwork and registrations. Robert, please PM me with the details how the process works when based in Germany. If I proceed I will most likely submit in 2025.

[Gokaden]

Did anyone submit a sword to the 2024 Juyo shinsa? As we know, the competition is set to very high standards these days, and the possibility to get a sword to pass Juyo now is small.

[Lewis B]

2 hours ago, Gokaden said:

Did anyone submit a sword to the 2024 Juyo shinsa? As we know, the competition is set to very high standards these days, and the possibility to get a sword to pass Juyo now is small.

Do you have the numbers of blades submitted vs number that pass? 

 

I was planning to submit a blade for Juyo next year but will wait for reports from this year to see if the trend of continues. 

[Gokaden]

Here are the numbers for 2023 / 69 Juyo Shina:

 

Blades submitted: 828

 

Blades that passed: 56

 

[Lewis B]

Yes, that appears exceptionally low rate of pass. Could have been the blades not being worthy last year and/or particularly strict. It will be interesting to compare with 2024 stats to see if it's the start of a trend. 

[Jussi Ekholm]

I think the Jūyō results would pop up around early December at NBTHK website.

[Gokaden]

2019 Shinsa:

 

Token:  101 passed (out of 1003 submitted)

Toso:  8 passed (out of 45 submitted)

Tosogu:  29 passed (out of 293 submitted)

[Gokaden]

I think Jussi has the best stats already :

 

 

Jūyō 42

Swords 1174 (not sure about this) submissions – 115 passes (95 Kotō, 20 Shintō)

Jūyō 43

Swords 837 submissions – 144 passes (120 Kotō, 24 Shintō)

Jūyō 44

Swords 805 submissions – 147 passes (113 Kotō, 34 Shintō)

Jūyō 45

Swords 938 submissions – 155 passes (114 Kotō, 41 Shintō)

Jūyō 46

Swords 911 submissions – 200 passes (152 Kotō, 48 Shintō)

Jūyō 47

Swords 994 submissions – 189 passes (149 Kotō, 40 Shintō)

Jūyō 48

Swords 1011 submissions – 186 passes (140 Kotō, 46 Shintō)

Jūyō 49

Swords 1020 submissions – 226 passes (181 Kotō, 45 Shintō)

Jūyō 50

Swords 1073 submissions – 185 passes (145 Kotō, 40 Shintō)

Jūyō 51

Swords 1106 submissions – 203 passes (164 Kotō, 39 Shintō)

Jūyō 52

Swords 1001 submissions – 114 passes (97 Kotō, 17 Shintō)

Jūyō 53

Swords 992 submissions – 155 passes (135 Kotō, 20 Shintō)

Jūyō 54

Swords 979 submissions – 88 passes (83 Kotō, 5 Shintō)

Jūyō 55

Swords 703 submissions – 107 passes (93 Kotō, 14 Shintō)

Jūyō 56

Swords 724 submissions – 53 passes (47 Kotō, 6 Shintō)

Jūyō 57

Swords 552 submissions – 31 passes (26 Kotō, 9 Shintō)

Jūyō 58

Swords 356 submissions – 47 passes (38 Kotō, 9 Shintō)

Jūyō 59

Swords 467 submissions – 105 passes (80 Kotō, 25 Shintō)

Jūyō 60

Swords ?? submissions – 127 passes (98 Kotō, 29 Shintō)

Jūyō 61

Swords 829 submissions – 165 passes (136 Kotō, 29 Shintō)

Jūyō 62

Swords 875 submissions – 149 passes (135 Kotō, 14 Shintō)

Jūyō 63

Swords 760 submissions – 140 passes (119 Kotō, 21 Shintō)

Jūyō 64

Swords 923 submissions – 135 passes (118 Kotō, 17 Shintō)

 

[Bruno]

Does that mean shinshinto, gendaito or shinsakuto are too recent to get Juyo papers, or none of them were submitted?

[Gokaden]

Not sure if "Shinto" above covers anything that is newer than Koto, but I have seen several shinshinto with Juyo

 

Here is one example

 

https://www.christie...m/en/lot/lot-2079021

 

[Lewis B]

25th Juyo (1975) Session wasn't the most auspicious year, with 10x as many passing than in 2023. 

[Mark S.]

What would be interesting to see is how many blades each session are resubmitted blades vs brand new.  As has been stated many times, “Juyo is a competition” against other submitted blades and not just an individual judgment.  So how many blades didn’t make the cut one session, but passed in another?  I know they don’t keep track, and there is no answer.  On the other hand, I guess each session ‘starts fresh’, so it really doesn’t matter.  I think Darcy once speculated that as you start narrowing down the remaining blades, sooner or later blades that didn’t pass previously might pass.  But at that level, great is still great and the path to get to Juyo isn’t easy.

 

 

[Franco D]

A few things to consider when submitting a sword for Juyo shinsa. Yes, it is a competition (as Darcy said). The sword will be in competition not only with other swords being submitted, it may also be in competition with previous similar swords/examples that have passed. And if the sword being submitted is not better than previous examples that have passed, you may be out of luck even when and if the sword being submitted is an excellent sword.

Another thing to be aware of is that a sword's polish matters, and it too is being judged. Old polish or new polish, it must meet their expectations.

 

Also, more than a decade ago I was about to submit a sword for Juyo shinsa when I was tipped off that a stash of Toku Ju swords that had been discovered were being submitted because it was a Toku Ju shinsa year, and it was unlikely that anything else would pass. I wonder how many other swords were submitted that year with absolutely zero chance of passing? 

 

Their game, their rules. Entry is voluntary. Which means that when you enter you're agreeing to play by their rules. 

 

Best of luck!

[Lewis B]

Good point. I get the impression it can be a bit of a crap shoot. Timing is important and any info gleaned that might improve your chances should be carefully weighed. The low pass rate is certainly a big one and knowing Yamato swords have a tough time passing anyway isn't confidence inspiring. Less of an issue if the blade is in Japan but when you have to send it from outside the country the costs of courier, handler in Japan and registration, costs quickly add up. Based on the info available as of today I would not submit in 2025. 

[Jussi Ekholm]

NBTHK just uses two categories in results. Usually in the Jūyō books, Book 1 is Kotō and Book 2 is all other stuff, swords generalized as Shintō followed by koshirae & fittings.

 

There are currently some items that are made in 1900´s that have passed Jūyō evaluation. Gassan Sadakazu (貞一) has 3 blades 1906, 1906 and 1908. There is an uchigatana koshirae that has a tsuba by Gotō Mitsumasa dated 1905, meaning the package as such cannot be older than that. There is also a daishō tsuba by Hashimoto Isshi dated 1901. I believe only criteria of NBTHK is that they don't judge work of living smiths. I suspect some Tokubetsu Hozon items by quite modern smiths have been sent in for Jūyō but that is purely my speculation.

 

I admit I have spent way too many hours with Jūyō results and some cases I still don't understand why they pass Jūyō. Just seeing the item & description in book does not give total picture, however in Japan I have seen several Jūyō that were not that special to be honest. I have never sent an item to NBTHK and unfortunately I think I might not send even in the future. As HB described above sending a sword internationally seems to be getting extremely stressful lately. Even though I have addiction in sword info and NBTHK Jūyō books are amazing resources, in general I am not a fan of multiple levels of evaluation papers in separate sessions. Of course that is NBTHK proven to work style and it brings money in. I would just personally wish it would be a single session where the sword would be evaluated and given the paper level at the same time.

 

I believe the shinsa staff will remember many items that have been sent in multiple times. Of course that information is not really open to public how many times item X has been sent in etc. As items need to currently be Tokubetsu Hozon for Jūyō submission it would be extremely easy for them to make a file with the Tokubetsu Hozon numbers of the items that have been sent in, so it would be even super fast to check up as I believe they operate with very small time window for each shinsa.

[Franco D]

13 hours ago, Jussi Ekholm said:

I admit I have spent way too many hours with Jūyō results and some cases I still don't understand why they pass Jūyō.

 

Much appreciated, Jussi.

 

Historical importance is not always readily obvious. Plus, a "competition" where judgment takes place will be open to subjectivity. 

 

13 hours ago, Jussi Ekholm said:

I believe the shinsa staff will remember many items that have been sent in multiple times.

 

 

They do remember. 

 

A new polish might even be the only reason for a resubmission, and that might be enough for a sword to pass the second time around.

Pay to play.

 

Prepare the best you can (which means do your homework, check all of the boxes, presentation matters), go in without expectations. 

 

Again, it could be the sword itself that's not good enough. It could be the polish, too. 

It could be the new competition that presented an obstacle, as well as the competition from previously passed swords that was too stiff. 

We don't know what the judges are looking for. Perhaps rarity took precedence over quality in one instance.

And then, there is subjectivity.

 

It's never easy.

 

Participation is voluntary. 

 

 

Quote

Games people play
You take it or you leave it
Things that they say aren't alright
If I promised you the moon and the stars
Would you believe it?
Games people play in the middle of the night

The Alan Parsons Project.

 

 

Desire is the cause of suffering.