Here's a picture from the dealer:

Really highly ranked swords can be classified as National Treasures, and are not allowed to leave the country.

One really interesting aspect of submitting your sword to an official NBTHK shinsa for paperwork is that, by submitting your sword for evaluation, you agree that they can borrow the sword as long as they want, IF it turns out to be a super-important blade.  So if that turns out to be the case, then the NBTHK may choose to display your sword in their museum for an unspecified amount of time.

I am honestly not sure what would happen if someone outside Japan sent a sword to a shinsa, and it was rated as a National Treasure. I am sure it has never happened.

ETA: The only time I sent a sword to a shinsa in Japan, it was rejected for having a fatal flaw.  

Part of the reason I started this thread is very much to illustrate how it is POSSIBLE to get real historic Japanese blades without totally breaking the bank.  I have already posted a couple of examples of really lucky buys on my part, and I wanted to provide another two illustrations.  The first one is the sword pictured below.

Blade:


Furniture:





This is a Wakizashi (short sword) from the Kanei period (around 1628) of the early Shinto Era.  The sword is in excellent polish, and has a very active hamon (temper pattern on the blade).  It has a cutting edge of 39 cm, has one minor flaw (ware kizu) and is in ishimeji koshirae (sheaths and handles).  It also has a new shirasaya (resting sheath), indicating that it was recently polished.

This sword has official NBTHK papers, identifying the smith as Masahiro, who was the grandson and adopted son of Tadayoshi (the founder of the Hizen school), and was granted the title of Kawachi Daijo.  Masahiro from Hizen is very well-known and is included in Fujishiro’s ranking of the better sword smiths of the Koto, Shinto and Shin-shinto eras, and is ranked Jo-Saku – and his blades have been judged “Wazamono” (very sharp) by the Kaiho Kenjaku.



Hizen became a center of sword making in the “new” Shinto period of relative peace in Japan, which meant that smiths did not have produce huge numbers of swords (for the constant warring of the earlier period), and could put more care and attention into the making of individual swords.  Hizen had a reputation for quality and sharpness, and this sword is a great example of a Hizen blade, as well as a typical Masahiro blade – with a beautiful hamon.

So Masahiro was being groomed to be the second Tadayoshi and head of the Hizen school, because Tadayoshi did not have any children of his own.  As such, he was personally trained by the First Tadayoshi.  But, then Tadayoshi's wife died, and he had a son with his second wife - who eventually became the Second Tadayoshi and head of the Hizen school.  Masahiro is considered one of the greatest smiths of the Hizen school, but obviously never became the head of the school.

Still, as a very famous smith of a prestigious Shinto school, Masahiro blades can get VERY expensive.  Personally, I love this blade because of the absolutely beautiful hamon.

So, how expensive was it?  NORMALLY, this kind of blade would be pretty expensive - probably something like $7-8k, as a guess.  However, if you look closely at the blade (and I have highlighted it below in two pictures), there is a small flaw (called a ware) in the blade.  It is not considered a serious flaw at all (most blades will have ware, often multiples), and is just a surface cosmetic issue - however, it means that the blade is not perfect.  It can be difficult to see, and most laypeople looking at the blade would never notice it, but obviously hard-core collectors would notice it.




As a result, I purchased this blade in 2008 for $3250 - which is think is a spectacular deal, from some a well-known smith, and with really nice furniture.

I think it's simply a practical solution to someone who only has ONE kozuka (or kogai) in their saya and thus they didn't NEED both holes, but wanted that particular tsuba for aesthetic reasons - and as a result had one hole filled.  You sometimes see it on tangs, where old mekugi-ana are filled as well.

I don't think it's necessarily considered a bad attribute, BUT I also do not know that much about tsuba.

I don't know what all your fancy technical talk means - but I think what you are talking about would be called a "Fukure" flaw, and is a bit more serious - and uglier - than a "ware" flaw (but still not fatal).  The "ware" flaw is a slight opening between two layers, that i guess weren't fully fused during the forging process.

There are a lot of different types of flaws possible on japanese blades.  Here are a couple of websites that explain them well:

https://www.japaneseswordindex.com/kizu.htm

http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/flaws.html

Interestingly, the next blade I wanted to discuss has a fukure, which is why I was able to buy it at a very affordable price.

Yep - that definitely sounds like the same thing.  This one is almost invisible, but when you are talking about a mirror-smooth surface, some people just have to have perfection.

But not me - the cheapskate collector.  

I keep all of the documents in the safe, with some of the blades.  Not all of them are displayed in the house.

I do think that the NBTHK can issue new papers, if the old ones are lost - but I am not 100% sure.

Some of the dealers I posted will occasionally have them in their inventory.  Good luck!  

The only problem with naginata and yari is that the staff have often been cut down, and if they have not, shipping the full-length staff from Japan is tricky.

Nice!



The problem is that FedEx will not ship swords from Japan (since about 2014 or so).  I am not 100% sure if that extends to Naginata, Nagimaki and Yari, but it probably does.

Me, too.

I really want to learn about the people that made the swords.  How did this art come to be?  How was it standardized? When did Japan really learn about working with Iron and then perfecting Steel?

I’m sure there was a lot of interesting transitions.  I know Indian regions produced amazing near stainless steels when Europeans were still killing with clubs.  Was there influence?  Was Japan’s work indigenous or did it occur before they became a closed country?

Fascinating

Tsmahagane is what they're made of, and is made in a plain brick and clay tower kiln/ smelter over a couple of days.  Oxygen is introduced by a pipe bellows, and the other ingredients are minerals and charcoal.  Lots and lots of charcoal, pieces of about 1" diameter, intriduced at a trickle over time.  The charcoal is almost the diameter of a... nut.

My French Marine
and Legion Etranger folks love your avatar, but it's probably from Magnum, PI, right?

I am but a novice in kenjitsu, but I would very much like to fight  with honor, yet unconventionaly. I use a lot of Filipino escrima/Arnis with stick and bare hands, but a sword is what is made for.

@DK_prof, how much to get a non-collectible but high quality,  and very useful katana?  Throw in another 1K USD for a qwakizashi and FUNCTIONAL furniture?

Very cool.

Those are definitely two very nice blades, in beautiful condition - and it seems like your father definitely studied to the extent of buying the relevant sword books to be able to verify signatures himself!  That's pretty hard-core.  I believe the paperwork is NTHK, but I cannot read them, so I cannot comment on the level of paperwork.  Definitely important blades, though.  

I can look up the two smiths he noted, but it'll be a bit later since I have to go somewhere right now.  

Another tamahagane video:

Check out David Hofhine - he is a very skilled polisher here in the US, and I have used him a number of times.