Muramasa

[Wickstrom]

Hi,

 

I was wondering if anybody could tell me how much a blade from any of the 3 generations of Muramasa would cost?

I've been thinking about the tokugawa curse and this question just popped into my head.

 

[Mark Green]

I guess that would depend on how many fingers you will give up.

[Wickstrom]

Luckily i have no tokugawa blood in me so i have nothing to fear. :lol:

[Mark Green]

I think a katana in good shape would run 25+K and up.

[Wickstrom]

Thank-you mark, any estimate on a wakizashi/tanto?. I believe the smaller blade in the NMB logo is a Muramasa Spear that i saw for sale on Nihonto.ca a while ago, but they took off all the pricing information when it was sold.

[Jamie]

That Yari wasn't cheap. Hamon was gorgeous though. And I remeber thinking it wasn't outrageuos considering his status.

[Mark Green]

There would be too many factors to say for sure.

I would think that any Muramasa, papered, and polished, would start in the 15-20k range.

Or you could find one at a yard sale for 50$. Then spend 5+k getting it polished, and papered. You never know.

You see very few come up for sale.

I would think in most cases, you would be paying a lot more than the sword was worth, just for the mystique.

[Curran]

I believe there was/is a Muramasa tanto for sale on one of the Japanese websites. I like his some aspects of his work, but not so much others. Perhaps more popular for the reputation factor than for the workmanship.

 

Also, despite all the anti Muramasa sentiment, if you flip through the Tokugawa Collection book you will see one of their swords is a Muramasa.

 

The bedside spear Muramasa Darcy had was a cool item. By this I mean the koshirae was excellent as well as the pop culture appeal of being a Muramasa. Darcy said the koshirae was quite heavy. I greatly wanted to see it before he sold it. It represented a nice little complete package. But then the thing has changed hands 3 times in the past 5 years, so maybe it is cursed. Still- quite the icy nice complete item for a non Juyo. Sold very fast last time it came up, if it was even up for a day.

Even (or especially) if the spearhead had been a Shimosaka rather than a Muramasa, I would loved to own it for the koshirae.

[Eric H]

Muramasa : Wakizashi 31.3 cm, ubu, attributed, Shirasaya, Yen 1,500,000 = $ 16,155

Muramasa nidai : Wakizashi 38.8 cm, ubu, Shirasaya, Yen 3,300,000 = $ 35,500

Muramasa nidai : Tanto 29.7 cm, ubu, attributed, Shirasaya, with Tateware and Fukure in Hamon $ 4,250

Muramasa nidai : Katana, Juyo, 67.4 cm, suriage, Koshirae and Shirasaya, Yen 12,000,000 = $ 129,000

 

Eric

[Takahashi]

Hi Eric,

 

where did you get this info? Are you selling them?

 

Cheers,

[Eric H]

where did you get this info? Are you selling them?

My source ist the internet... these swords were offered by dealers.

Erich

[Brian]

Yep, some serious collectors and enthusiasts (like Eric and others, but not me..I am too lazy ) collect all the info/oshigata/pictures of shoshin items for reference and for future info.

I think some of the members here have a huge database of really good info. It is an excellent thing to do, but takes dedication I wish I had.

 

Brian

[Amon]

I know Eric has put up some amazing pictures and information here.

stored here aswell

Kind regards,

[tagonagy]

I haven't found any consistant info on the Muramasa smiths.

 

Hawley lists seven smiths who signed their blades 村正. Ther dates are 1362, 1394, 1444,1457, 1501, 1532, 1573, 1624. Their value ranged from 10-60.

 

Yumoto lists Muramasa, who worked in 1362, and Muramasa III, who worked on 1429. This implies a Muramasa II.

 

The JSL database lists five Muramasas between 1360, 1521, 1521-32, 1528, 1573.

 

Nagayama says only that, "Several generations of smiths used this name" He also listed some of the typical characteristics of the Muramasa school: nioi deki of irregular width, the hamon on the ura and omote sides mirror each other. The Nakago is distinctive and is tanagobara-gata.

 

I've only seen two blades signed 村正. Neither had any of the characteristics listed above. One was privately owned and had NBTHK Koshu Tokubetsu Kicho papers. The other was displayed at the recent Samurai exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of art.

[leo]

Hi,

here is a Muramasa tanto with Tokubetsu Kicho Paper. Was offered 2 years ago together with nice aikuchi koshirae for about 15.000,-USD. Was supposed to be Muramasa II from Taei Era.

 

Regards, Martin

[b.hennick]

Here are some photos of my nidai Muramasa.

As for the cost, it is in the ballpark of those listed. The Nidai Muramasa tends to cost more than the others as it is the one with all the stories associated with it. The blade is papered by the NBTHK.

[Eric H]

Was supposed to be Muramasa II

Error, that was a Muramasa kodai, i.e. by a later generation, the Tanto remained unsold on Ebay.

Here are some photos of my nidai Muramasa.

A Muramasa nidai in particular is a highlight in any collection ...thanks for sharing.

 

Eric

[machinist]

What books would be best to learn about Muramasa and his swords?

Especially how to tell what is sho-shin.

I have spent enough time looking at pics of these on the net to know simple basics like the mirrored hamon and the tanago-bara nakago but there must be fakes out there that have these features.