Trustworthiness of sellers on yahoo Japan

[JeanEB]

I've been trying to find koto tachis to buy through yahoo JP for a little while, especially pre-Nambokucho. I noticed that some sellers seem to repeatedly sell early-mid kamakura blades, with a beautiful sugata, ko-kissaki and a believable nakago, even though usually those are unpapered...

 

Here are some examples by two different sellers

https://www.jauce.com/auction/v1179858688

https://www.jauce.com/auction/m1179590637

https://www.jauce.com/auction/x1176902530

 

now I imagine those are part of the "too good to be true" auctions, where if you end up paying <1M yen, you get what you pay for. However, but I just don't see where the catch is, beyond unauthentified mei (which are probably gimei). Are those sellers reputed to sell altered blades? fake aged nakagos or welded on nakagos? I would imagine any near-ubu mumei blade from that period would sell for much more due to age alone

 

Appreciate any insight

 

 

[Rivkin]

2 are dead Muromachi blades and possibly saiha with crazy signatures. One is interesting ("ko-Bizen"), however utsuri possibly was acid accented. Certainly was submitted for modern papers, got something lesser as appraisal. The question is how much lesser? Still can be an interesting blade, but commercially is not viable.

[Rawa]

What you mean by "dead swords"?

[lonely panet]

ko bizen tomonori hahahhahahahahahahhhahahahahahahhahaha on jauce hahahhaha

[Rawa]

Forgery?

[Rivkin]

3 hours ago, Rawa said:

What you mean by "dead swords"?

Saiha, polished to the end or born ultra-deficient.

Signatures were done relatively not long ago and the objects chosen for "improvement" were of near zero value.

[JeanEB]

Hi Kirill, thanks for the explanation. How do you tell the blade are saiha on these pictures? is it from the large sori? 

[Rivkin]

Large, uneven sori, hada devoid of activity except a few large laminations, dull suguha or notare based hamon - 95% of saiha looks this way. 

[Hoshi]

Dear Jeb, 

 

As you wisely put it, If it is too good to be true, chances are, it is. 

 

Sanjo Munechika...

Ko-Bizen Tomonari...

 

For onlookers, beware the lure of the Sirens of Greed. 

 

"Come here...gold, I offer you gold...at the price of lead..." 

 

"Priceless treasures...that only YOU could find...come, come closer, take the gold..." 

 

At best, when you wake up from the drunken, greed-fueled fever, you will realize it was lead all along. You will put your mistakes behind, cut your losses, and gaze upon the steep path of learning ahead, and engage with it in earnest, and with passion. A financial hangover, a blunder on the path.  

 

At worst, you will succumb to pride, and convince yourself of your judgement, that you truly, maybe, have found gold at the price of lead.

 

There you will begin your descent into Nihonto Hell. A place antithetical to knowledge, a path of self-deception with only ruin ahead. You will work to convince yourself that a cabal of dark-hooded "experts" have elected themselves above you, for their own gain, to deny your prize. A conspiracy to deny your worth. You will preach, and convince a flock of resentful souls of their own righteousness, and carry their cause. You will fight tooth and nail to spread the immaculate truth, to take down the cabal, and perhaps even setup your own booth to peddle your treasures to followers in the process.   

 

Or you may emerge from this fever dream in the Limbo of Nihonto: Relativism. "Whatever"

 

There are no superior sword, there is no excellence, no art. It is all in the eye of the observer. Nothing matters. There is no up, there is no down. There are only perceptions. There are only opinions, and they all matter the same. Lead is gold, to me, and therefore it is true, by virtue of being my "lived experience". 

 

Beware out there.