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Posted

To me the most interesting answer is that they are virtually unknown for pre-shinshinto blades. In books samurai wore a pair during the entire Edo period, but it seems like pair Tsuba and pair blades in 99% of cases begins roughly with 1800.

Otherwise, they are rare even for shinshinto.

Posted

Aoi Art actually had a reasonably priced Morioka Miyaguchi daisho (900,000 yen) that I was almost going to buy back in Nov last year. I went down to the store, viewed the blades, and spoke to Tsurata-san about getting the daisho certified as such with NBTHK papers. He confirmed that as long as a katana and wakizashi were of the same smith with matching mei and nenki, NBTHK would paper them together on the same certificate.

 

I went ahead and reserved the daisho, and was preparing payment when Aoi realized that Mr. Miyaguchi was still alive at 92 years old, and was still taking commissions for swords! So I couldn't get the daisho papered, and didn't proceed with the purchase.

 

Therefore, it's apparently reasonably easy to get daisho NBTHK papers if you meet the conditions stated above, but you don't really see pre-shinshinto blades made as daisho.

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Posted
5 minutes ago, Gakusee said:

Proper sword daisho are extremely rare indeed in pre ShinShinto times but they do exist. 

IMG_5962.jpeg


The real daisho regulations really applied to the koshirae and the length of the blades. The names of the swords were not regulated and did not matter. 

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Posted

Daisho comes from the obligation for samurai to carry two swords (some non samurai were permitted to carry a wakizashi), one long and one short, the rest being a question of aesthetics and fashion... 

Posted
7 hours ago, Jacques said:

Daisho comes from the obligation for samurai to carry two swords (some non samurai were permitted to carry a wakizashi), one long and one short, the rest being a question of aesthetics and fashion... 

 

But then there's the question whether we're talking about:

-a long and short sword made by the same smith, collected at a later time.

-a long and short sword made as a pair by a smith to be worn together.

-a long and a short sword used by a samurai for which he had matching koshirae made.

-a long and a short sword for which some collector at some point made matching koshirae.

 

Posted

The samurai who could afford a daisho made by Inoue Shinkai with a high-quality mount could be counted on the fingers of one hand,  most low-level samurai or ronin wore what they could. A daisho is a long sword and a short sword worn at the same time, everything else is a matter of fashion and flattered ego. I remember a “daisho” sold by Nihonto.com; it was a “daisho” with two Shinkai blades (different Nengo) and the koshirae had attachments (tsuba and fushikashira had different certificates). The whole thing was sold as a daisho at an exorbitant price. Clearly, they were collected pieces from all over to make a whole.

Posted

Sharing a papered daisho tsuba set from my collection. I suspect later Edo daisho tsuba are more common than the daisho blades you are discussing, but wanted to share nonetheless. 

IMG_8837.jpeg

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