Daito by Komiya Kunimitsu II
28-5/8 inch nagasa Unpolished Bare Blade only
Price: $6,500 USD (price includes shipping in the continental US). SOLD
The Komiya smiths are well known in Japan both for their art swords and for their swords for serious martial arts training. This sword is an interesting piece with some history. From what we were told this sword was used by the current head of the Fujishiro school to demonstrate polishing at a seminar held outside of Japan in 2007. It is interesting indeed to see various areas of the sword, parts with a light window polished in, the shaping of the kissaki, and various other areas of the sword in various stages of polish.
The following shot shows the blade with light from my window coming in illuminating the area where the blade was taken through some uchigumori. The deep, rich ashi coming off the choji hamon are on display. This blade is going to be a stunning piece when fully polished. The hada type is a tight itame.
The following shot shows the current state of the polish on most of the blade. Virtually everything is visible on careful inspection under good lighting but it is obviously not polished. It is probably best to call the current state as being a sort of "kaji-togi" except that a lot of additional work has been done allowing a very clear view of just how nice this sword will be when fully polished since ne of the best polishers today did some foundation work and polished in a window during a togi demonstration. So for those of us also interested in the craft it is quite interesting to see how the blade shows itself in different levels of finish. It also helps remove any doubt as to just how nice this sword will be once fully polished.
There is some staining on the shinogi ji but the blade needs to be polished anyway. That will come off within a few strokes on the first stone. Remember this blade was used as a demonstration piece and while some of the geometry is set, it still needs some final work to truly establish a proper foundation. We don't want you to think the blade is partially finished in the sense that it just needs some fingerstoning. Without question it will need a full polish to be correctly done. But it does have quite a bit of work already done to it and the polisher who eventually does this piece already has a well established "outline" to follow in doing this piece.
The next photo shows the very well done boshi. The hamon continues into the boshi and turns back nicely. This is going to be a screamer when fully polished.
The mei reads: Chikushu Ju Kunimitsu Saku/Heisei 13 nen 11 Gatsu Hi.
Work of this caliber is often hard to come by in the US. But increasingly US collectors are becoming aware of the tremendous skill now being shown by the newest generation of swordsmiths in Japan. Some of these smiths are creating works that rival the great works of old.
Nagasa: 2 Shaku, 4 Sun, 5 bu (about 28-5/8")
Hamon: Choji
Hada: Itame
Kasane: 7mm tapering to 5mm at the yokote
Motohaba: 33mm
Sakihaba: 24mm
Chu kissaki shinogi zukuri katana
In this case we have a blade that has not yet been polished. For the new gendaito collector it represents a rare opportunity: The ability to buy a bare unpolished blade today significantly discounted. Once polished this blade will be a gorgeous piece of work.
We are offering the bare unpolished blade for $6500 USD. Shipping in the US is included in the price. If you would like recommendations on how to get the piece polished please contact us as well.
