Tadayoshi sword sold

[Bosco]

So this was sold today for $6000. I guess people not as expert as our member here to spot its a gimei ?

[PNSSHOGUN]

Not quite sure what point is being made here?

[Bruce Pennington]

Minh,

I know almost nothing about older nihonto, but the saying still stands "Judge the blade, not the mei."  A gimei blade can still be valuable because of the workmanship on the blade.  You can have accurate mei of a smith, but if the blade is mediocre or poor, it won't sell for much.

 

And, yes, on the other hand there are, and will always be, people out there with money to throw away and no knowledge of what they are buying.

[Geraint]

Dear All.

 

Minh posted this sword in an earlier thread where he got some feedback, hence his remark about information from members.

 

Be a real shame if someone believed the translation provided by the auction house and thought they were getting a Masayoshi!

 

All the best.

[Mark S.]

I was a bit confused as well.  He is either questioning the buyer for spending that much on a questionable mei or questioning the advice he was given here because someone thought it was worth spending that much?  

[Brian]

The latter

[gatsu]

Why is title and description of the sword stating a completely different smith from the one in question (tadayoshi)? gimei or not, someone is paying $6000 for a sword that consist of completely false information.

[The Blacksmith]

But Kev, I think that perhaps one should simply forget the mei and simply think of the blade as mumei, then the simple question is, is the blade then, as it stands, worth the money? If it is, then nobody loses out.

That said, I must admith that them getting the smith wrong is very annoying and they should be more carful, but as ever with such things, caveat emptor.

 

I bought a Tsuta Sukehiro wakizashi blade years ago, Obviously, it wasn't by Sukehiro, even with my limited knowledge, but the blade was simply gorgeous, so I was very happy to buy it.  Some would decry the blade as it was gimei, but the blade was fantastic workmanship and in perfect polish, so to me, well worth the £700 that it cost me.

[Shugyosha]

Hi Russ,

At the level of your Sukehiro, I think you're absolutely right and I've done it myself at that level but for $6k you can get quite a lot of genuine, authenticated blades from decent schools. As a mumei katana the new owner is looking at having paid two to three times what the blade would be worth if he tried to re-sell it as-is. Maybe he thought it was a genuine signature and bought with a view to papering it or he got taken with auction fever, who knows?

 

Everyone's a treasure hunter these days.

[Bosco]

3 hours ago, The Blacksmith said:

But Kev, I think that perhaps one should simply forget the mei and simply think of the blade as mumei, then the simple question is, is the blade then, as it stands, worth the money? If it is, then nobody loses out.

That said, I must admith that them getting the smith wrong is very annoying and they should be more carful, but as ever with such things, caveat emptor.

 

I bought a Tsuta Sukehiro wakizashi blade years ago, Obviously, it wasn't by Sukehiro, even with my limited knowledge, but the blade was simply gorgeous, so I was very happy to buy it.  Some would decry the blade as it was gimei, but the blade was fantastic workmanship and in perfect polish, so to me, well worth the £700 that it cost me.

I was more interested in the Koshirae than the actually blade. It was signed by Shigenao full set Koshirae. 

[kissakai]

I put some tsuba into auction with a description of every tsuba but they still mixed a couple up

Luckily I could correct the descriptions before the auction