Catalogue № 001 · Spring 2026
Authenticated Japanese swords — papers, polish, and a named hand on every blade. By catalogue only.
Rules I have written down so that they can be held against me. They exist because there are days when an attractive blade arrives without papers, and days when a willing buyer offers full price for the wrong reasons.
Tokubetsu Hozon, Jūyō, and Tokubetsu Jūyō papers are welcomed. A blade without contemporary NBTHK certification — however beautiful, however well-told the story — will not appear here. The certificate is the floor, not the ceiling.
Every listing carries the chain: smith or attribution, period, polisher, papering body, prior collections where known, and the dealer from whom the piece was acquired. Where a link is missing, the listing says so, in the same typeface as the rest.
Each blade is selected, examined in hand in Japan, papered if not already, polished if appropriate, and shipped under controlled conditions. A quarter with nothing listed is preferred to a quarter with something I would not buy myself.
Every serious message gets a reply. Replies are not quick, and they are rarely yes. A useful first message asks about a specific blade, a specific question, or a specific gap in the writer's own understanding.
Authentication is not signed off in private. The second name on each piece is a senior dealer or shinsa member in Tokyo, Osaka, or the US, and is listed in the catalogue entry. Disagreement between us removes the piece.
Photographs of a piece you already own can be sent in. The reply will be honest, including the frequent answer that the photographs are not enough to say. Education is not a paywalled product here.
Pieces examined in the last twelve months that did not enter the catalogue. Each is listed with the dealer's permission and a plain note on the disqualifying observation. Several are excellent blades by any reasonable definition. They were not, that day, ones I was prepared to underwrite.
If you are buying a katana this week, this is not the right address. If you have been considering a first piece for six months, or an additional piece for two years, please write.
The useful first message contains, briefly: how you came to the subject, what you have handled, what you have read. Price is the last conversation, not the first.
Replies arrive within seven days. Some are honest recommendations to look elsewhere, with names of dealers and shinsa members better placed than I am. Others begin a longer correspondence that may or may not end in a transaction.