My First Nihonto - What was yours like?

[Yumso]

Nothing special, I just wanted to show everyone what my first nihonto was and talk about how your first nihonto purchase was like. 

 

My first nihonto was this 60.4cm Shinto katana by Fujiwara Tsunayuki, made in Genroku period(1688 ~ 1704). Sori is only 0.9cm, so it's quite shallow.
I've bought it at about 1300$ in Yahoo Auction. That time I was really happy to buy a katana thinking that this was a bargain, but now I think the price wasn't that cheap compared to the state of the blade.

As you can see it is not in a good shape - old polish, can't see boshi, so many flaws at kissaki, quite weird length for a katana, rust here and there.

I'm not really sure about the tiredness; the boshi problem always ticks in my mind when I see it. At least I'm sure I won't buy blades that are in worse shape than this later. 

 

Still, it's my first nihonto! I know it's not the best blade you can get- or to be honest, even a good one- but I still want to show and talk about it with everyone.
I've started to make some hobbies from it. Soon as I've got my blade, I've been searching about the smith. Searching was quite fun- one of his work had a lotus leaf horimono that really caught my eyes.
Cleaning and oiling blade once a month have been my new relaxing time too!


So, I think this was what my "first experience" was like.
How was yours, and what nihonto did you buy?

 

[3Jean]

My first Nihonto was this tanto. I got it from AOI Art. They were really easy to deal with and I've gotten another tanto and a wak from them. This one is mumei, attributed to Chikushi Ryokai (early Muromachi) and has hozon origami. It's been fun learning about all this! Yoon, I wonder what your blade would look like with a fresh polish?

John

[ROKUJURO]

8 hours ago, Yumso said:

.....My first nihonto was this 60.4cm Shinto katana by Fujiwara Tsunayuki, made in Genroku period(1688 ~ 1704). .........

Yoon,

thank you for your report! The photos are not really helpful to show what you have. You need a dark, non-reflecting background, and only nicely focused photos can give us an impression of your blade. When posting photos, please cut the object out so not much background is seen.

Technically, your blade is a WAKIZASHI as the length of KATANA is 2 SHAKU (= 606 mm) at minimum.
I have to second John in that a good polish might bring out some nice features in your sword, but before that you will have to make sure that the KISSAKI is intact. If it has been altered with the HAMON running out now, it would probably not warrant a new polish.

[Yumso]

1 hour ago, 3Jean said:

This one is mumei, attributed to Chikushi Ryokai (early Muromachi) and has hozon origami.

 

Awesome tanto there!
Tanto with horimono is actually something that I secretly desire... It just looks so good! 

[Yumso]

6 minutes ago, ROKUJURO said:

You need a dark, non-reflecting background, and only nicely focused photos can give us an impression of your blade.

Technically, your blade is a WAKIZASHI as the length of KATANA is 2 SHAKU (= 606 mm) at minimum.
I have to second John in that a good polish might bring out some nice features in your sword, but before that you will have to make sure that the KISSAKI is intact. If it has been altered with the HAMON running out now, it would probably not warrant a new polish.

 

This is very embarrassing, but I think I'll need to confess something- that bad photos were the most recognizable ones of total 500 shots. Trust me, I've tried under many conditions. Turns out that I just really don't have photograph talent. Still, will try to get better photos!
And for the polish... I'm just oiling and preserving the blade what it is like for now. Getting new polish is quite hard here, we also have somekind of Torokusho which makes really hard to send blades out to polish and bring them back in. Though I'm also curious how it will look like after polishing.

About the length, you're right about it being technically a wakizashi. But it was marked as katana in Torokusho.

I also couldn't understand about this first so I've researched a bit- seems like blades that are 60cm ~ 60.5cm could either be a wakizashi or a katana. If the blade was called and seen as a katana before registration that makes it recorded as a katana(like picture below!). If it was seen as wakizashi, then that makes it recorded as a wakizashi.

So this one actually has an Hozon origami as a katana, but is technically wakizashi size, which is quite funny and awkward at the same time. 

[ROKUJURO]

Yoon,

good images are not so much a thing of talent or camera equipment. Any mobile phone can make good enough photos! You see your photos yourself when you post them. If they are foggy, blurry or out of focus, they will simply not show the features you want us to see!  

I am sure your blade once was a KATANA. The TOROKUSHO measurements are not relevant, it is not at all the same as a HOZON ORIGAMI! 

The problem in a possible resale would be that it is seen now as WAKIZASHI by the NBTHK, and might be less desirable for some potential buyers.

[Lewis B]

As Jean says getting good pics of a blade is down to lighting and camera angle. I'm a complete novice but after some experimentation I can get some nice images even with an iPhone 12 mini . Here are a few examples of one of my blades taken with an iPhone (1) and a Fujifilm XT-2 with a macro lens and halogen (2) and a super cheap IKEA LED light (3). Keep practicing, it will be well worth the effort. 

 

 

[John C]

Yoon:

My first nihonto was a papered 2nd gen (~ 1723) Nobuyoshi Katana I bought from Grey Doffin. 

 

John C.

[Scogg]

My first Nihonto is one I inherited very young. 

 

The first Nihonto I purchased for myself was one I found at a gun show. Ended up being a good sword. Now it’s going through the long process of getting a new habaki, shirasaya, and hopefully polish and papers. 
 

Here are a couple of the photos I took when I first found it.
I’ve learned a lot since then! 
Cheers,

-Sam 

[Deiro]

its a now wakizashi, inscribed on the tang is kunihira maruasa "國平丸淺"
the chiseling is rather poor, I and the dealers treat it like a mumei, it was most likely applied by the shortener though I can't be certain.

I bought from the Kashima sisters back when the yen was really low for a price one can't say no to. I was expecting worse flaws, it has only a single noticable ware on the shinogi below the boshi on the reverse side and its polish is quite decent (as far as my experience as Utrecht has told me at least) for the price I got it at it has been no mistake at all. My own photos did not surpass its previous dealer. Though it is a shame that the apparentness of the nie can't be captured well by both.

 

 

 

 

 

[Yumso]

9 hours ago, ROKUJURO said:

I am sure your blade once was a KATANA. The TOROKUSHO measurements are not relevant, it is not at all the same as a HOZON ORIGAMI! 

The problem in a possible resale would be that it is seen now as WAKIZASHI by the NBTHK, and might be less desirable for some potential buyers.

 

Jean,

 

Sorry for my bad English. English isn't my first language so I think that made this whole confusion.

I meant Torokusho & Hozon origami both say this is katana, and thats why I also call it a katana. It seems like NBTHK records the length as "二尺弱(bit shorter than 2-shaku)" for this kind of occasions.

But yes, it is short and it might be less desirable for some potential buyers who want to buy a good katana. That would also have been one of the reasons why the price was quite low when I bought it. So, resale would be hard, but ironically my country kinda bans individuals selling their swords(we have to find an agent for this)... guess this one here is stuck with me forever.

 

 

[Yumso]

Lewis,
Great activity I see in that sword! Those pictures are so awesome... I'll try more.

 

John, 
Oh, a fellow Shinto starter! The smith is quite known isn't he? I remember Nobuyoshi mei having kiku stamp on top of it, although I'm not sure what generation is.

 

Sam,
Those shows are something I always only dream of... since I can't go. 
Please show us some pictures of your blade after polishing is over, if you don't mind. I think we all will be thrilled to see it!

 

Jarrow,
I think swords in a good polish are the best ones to start- like yours! Good to hear you've bought this blade at the good deal.

[Scogg]

Thank you Yoon,

 

I’ll definitely share when it’s all done, but it’s still likely years away. Here is a sneak peak of some of the better pictures I took. 
 

These are photos I took a while ago when I found it. Of the many pictures, these couple stand out.
 

Photography of Nihonto, especially when the polish is not good, is really tricky. 
-Sam 

[John C]

9 hours ago, Yumso said:

I remember Nobuyoshi mei having kiku stamp on top of it

Yoon:

Yes, both 1st gen and Echizen (3rd gen) used the kikumon, Unfortunately, 2nd gen did not.

[Tohagi]

... my first was a wakisasi in shirasaya, with sayagaki and red urushi mei with an attribution to Kongo bei Moritaka.

 

The blade was tired and, to my shame nowdays, I tryed to bring it back with a "special" compound I found on the net and cotton... Could have make a lot worse.

 

I offerd as a gift to a friend and master 10dan Hanshi who passed away in 2013. He first thought it was a copy because at the time it was almost impossible to have nihonto in France. 

 

Kind regards,

Eric 

[Tcat]

First was a papered shinshinto tanto from John Grasso down under. Still a fave...

 

[dkirkpatrick]

New collectors are so fortunate as the knowledge available is light years ahead of what was available in 80’s-90’s.  My first sword was a Type 44 NCO that I couldn’t figure out there was a second mekugi so ended up unwrapping ito.  Turned out to be a machine made Showa dated blade with a hadori hamon, made it hard for me to see this nie/nioi and “hada” stuff the books would talk about.  Second sword again Showato with real hamon but oil so again hard to learn anything.  I was lucky enough to run into Andy Quirt at a hotel buy and although he lived about 4-5hrs from me he graciously invited me to look at swords on different occasions but were often pearls before this swine until I had done enough homework to appreciate what I was looking at.  In my defense, the later 90s had books with better pictures and of course the internet changed everything.  There is little replacement for seeing many swords under learned eyes (something I’ve only done in limited fashion) but I have attended a handful of the major sword shows and if you live in the US and claim to want to learn about Japanese swords there is now excuse to not make this happen.  Even if you are not able to purchase anything many will be gracious with there time and information.

     That information allowed me to be able to pull a Hankei and a Satsuma Motohira out of the woodwork-longs ways from my dad Type 44 but what a journey.

 

Doug

[Tsuku]

In a bit of a contemplative mood, and I had my first sword out earlier tonight. It still moves me just as much as it did the first time I studied it — Osafune Kanemitsu daitō with a Hon'ami Kōjō kinzogan-mei.

 

As a student, I owe much to many, as I think we all do — but here a tremendous amount of credit goes to Darcy. Without his help, I would have simply kept reading by the water's edge instead of jumping into the ocean. One can get far with books, but the objects make the lessons real.