Ubu TBH koto Senjuin tachi on Yahoo Japan

[Gerry]

Seems like signed, ubu, long, koto tachis are still rare and desirable. The 1.65M yen final bid didn't make the reserve price.

 

https://www.jauce.com/auction/s1165164742

 

 

[Lewis B]

Seems at first glance to be a bit of a bargain with early registration papers.

[Lexvdjagt]

It has been reposted. Now with a Buy it now price of 5.5M yen:

https://www.jauce.com/auction/o1166009952

[Lewis B]

Its still an auction without reserve so will sell for the highest bid assuming its not pulled before it closes.

[Lexvdjagt]

Unfortunately, auctions like these by this particular seller (and many more like it) will almost always get pulled, unless it comes close to the desired price. I think the BIN price gives quite an indication of what the seller is hoping to get from the sword

[Gerry]

It's pretty crazy that a seller would think that someone would pay 5.5M yen for something through an online auction. But hey, the Yen's back down again at 157 to 1 USD today, so you never know!

[Jussi Ekholm]

To me swords like this are almost the pinnacle of sword collecting as they are super interesting. I would much rather own this than some average suriage Jūyō katana.

 

This Motoshige smith is not featured in any of the smith indexes. I believe NBTHK sees Yamato influence in this, thus they put it towards Senjuin (as they generally do to unknown Yamato smiths).

 

I see this as an amazing sword but unfortunately far above my collecting level.

[C0D]

37 minutes ago, Jussi Ekholm said:

To me swords like this are almost the pinnacle of sword collecting as they are super interesting. I would much rather own this than some average suriage Jūyō katana.

 

This Motoshige smith is not featured in any of the smith indexes. I believe NBTHK sees Yamato influence in this, thus they put it towards Senjuin (as they generally do to unknown Yamato smiths).

 

I see this as an amazing sword but unfortunately far above my collecting level.

Actually it is listed in Sesko's Sworsdmiths book

MOTOSHIGE (元重), Genkō (元享, 1321-1324), Mino – “Motoshige” (元重), “Rokurōzaemon no Jō Motoshige” (六郎左衛門尉元重), first name Rokurōzaemon (六郎左衛門), it is said that he moved once from Kyūshū to Yamato to join there the Senju´in school, in the second year of Genkō (1322) he moved to Seki and acted their as one ancestor of the Seki smiths, kiri-yaasurime, no authentic zaimei blades are extant by him, it is also said that he was the same smith as Motoshige (基重)

I followed the auction as i thought it's an interesting blade to own, but that's way above my means
 

[Jussi Ekholm]

Thank you Manuel, I was looking mostly at Nihontō Meikan but seems like Markus has done more research . In Nihontō Meikan Mino Motoshige is seen as connected to Bizen and/or Hōki Motoshige and Kyūshū Motoshige has no known period but I believe he is listed as being connected to Mino Motoshige.

 

I think the tricky thing is that there might not be blades by these smiths remaining, as pretty much all early Motoshige blades are (at least judged to be Bizen).

So far I have been able to find 64 signed blades by various Bizen Motoshige (169 with mumei attributions)

There is one long Kuni Fumei Tokubetsu Hozon tachi with Motoshige signature

And there is this Senju'in attributed one.

 

I haven't been able to find any blades by any of the Sōshū Motoshige smiths, Hōki Motoshige smiths, or the Mino or Kyūshū smith.

 

Rarity like this is what makes trying to research stuff fun for me. While some high ranked smiths might be much more desirable, it is a different game when there are 50+ signed items by the smith.

[lonely panet]

Expensive platform to buy swords from. Fees up the wazoo... 

 

9% winners fee a d spraypal 10% transfer fees. Not to mention taxes. Could be 15k right there