How old where you at your first nihonto acquisition ?

[sabiji]

Stupid and ignorant in 1991 at the age of 21, but actually much more stupid 1 year earlier at the age of 20.

 

I went to my first gun fair in Berlin in 1990, when I was 20 years old. I bought 2 Gunto from an English dealer who was quite well known at the time. Both had silver, inlaid Kamon and were among the more expensive Gunto from this dealer. I was absolutely delighted.

 

Well, one room further on, a well-known Berlin dealer became aware of my package. I was persuaded to show him the swords. 

"That's all well and good, but they're gunto and not real samurai swords." I could buy them from him, of course they are much more expensive, but that's the way it is. I could sell the gunto and I would have the starting capital for my first real samurai sword.

 

The implanted worm gnawed at me for a year and finally won. I sold the Gunto for less than half the purchase price in favor of an O-Suriage Mumei Koto blade in an old mount. More were to follow.

BUT: Years later, while cleaning up, I found Homemade oshigata from the Nakagos of the signatures of the two Gunto blades. One was a Kane...someone with a Seki stamp. The name of the 2nd smith was Kato Tsunahide (the big brother of Tsunatoshi), dated Bunka 9.

Looking back, the O-Suriage Koto was not my first historical blade. 

 

That was something of a turning point for me to really sit on my ass and learn, see and understand. I became "unfaithful" to my dealer and soon became a member of the NBTHK EB.

[ZH1980]

Age 42 (2022) - I had been living in Japan for twelve years by that point and had been studying Japanese and collecting books on nihonto (as well as reading this forum!). I finally made the investment into my first katana - a significant purchase (at least for me). That, almost immediately, spurred an interest in tsuba. The ability to collect historical works of art and - maybe more importantly - learn the stories behind the artisans and the context under which they lived, is why I love this hobby!

[Benjamin]

So far : average age is 31 yo, Median age is still 25,5 yo, youngest was 10 or 11, oldest was 64.

[Mark S.]

57 y.o. now

 

40 y.o. First purchase was from an acquaintance at work whose “uncle brought a sword back and it has been in a closet”.  WW2 blade by an undocumented smith Unjosai Katsunaga in gunto mounts.

 

47 y.o. Second purchase at Chicago show.  Mumei Kai-Mihara blade with NTHK-NPO papers attributing blade to Masamori.  Felt like this was my first ‘real’ blade.  

[OceanoNox]

I am not sure if this is perfectly in line with the topics, since it is a gendaito made for iai.

I was about 28, had relatively recently gotten my 3rd Dan in ZNKR iai. My sensei told me to save some cash and later said he found a very nice, long (2 shaku 6 sun and more than 5 bu) and balanced sword from Akamitsu Taro from Kumamoto.

It fits my body perfectly and funnily enough it was made the year I arrived in Japan (2008, but I got it more than 5 years later).

[waljamada]

I was like 35, and I'm 42 now.  Started with wanting a parade sword from ww2 and then noticed a guy selling some actual gunto was located in a nearby city which lead to me buying my first gunto with a shinto period mumei blade that has some issues but was still nice enough to appreciate.  A quote of mine st the tome that is held against me was "just owning one is enough for me."  12 or so nihonto later they are famous last words and ended up being a total lie.  Here's that first blade that set me down the nihonto path.

[Bugyotsuji]

Nothing to brag about, so facts and figures it is.

At 56? when visiting a well-known sword shop in Japan. (Fin)

 

*Additional notes.

Daringly bought a cheap, mumei wakizashi in black lacquer koshirae as a starter piece. Carried it home guiltily and hid it from the wife, taking it out occasionally to stare at it, expecting some miracle to occur.  

 

When nothing happened, a week later I took it back to the shop, disappointed, also shocked at the realization that a sword is for life, not just for Christmas. Well, you don't just 'own' it, there is responsibility to maintain it in the same condition, and there are those future generations somehow involved, waiting their turn. So as they say in Japan, 泣き面に蜂 naki tsura ni hachi, (when the kid is bawling its eyes out, a wasp comes along and stings him on the face) the store paid me less to take it back.

 

A customer in the shop assured me that the loss was just 'school fees' and the opportunity to upgrade. I knew I would need to know something about Nihonto first, so I joined the NBTHK.
 

All of the above were sobering lessons I learnt from the brief process of buying and selling my first real, traditional Japanese blade.

[1kinko]

About 65, only to house my tosogu, created after courses with Patrick Hastings and Ford. Also created sayas and racks for several.

[Benjamin]

Current average age at first purchase is 36yo, with median age at 27 yo, youngest was 10 or 11 yo, oldest was 65 yo, amoung 35 collectors.

[Apercus]

First purchase was at age 38, which was 33 years ago. I paid $10 for for an early kamakura tachi which now has juyo papers and an attribution to the Ichimonji school. Great way to start. I still have it.