If you are going to Tokyo, I can give you the address of the dealer that I have bought several swords from over the years.  Send me an IM if you are interested.   Even if you are not going to be in Tokyo, you can still correspond with him. This guy is great, and I will not hesitate to do business with him again.  I currently have a katana from the 1300s that I bought from him, as well as a wakizashi from the early 1600s.

Interestingly, I've actually been corresponding with him these last few days, because I just bought a blade (from someone else) and needed his help to try to identify it. I'm normally really anal-retentive (imagine that ) about what I buy, but I bought this one without knowing a thing about it, simply because it is a thing of beauty and I fell in love with it .  After sending him some high-resolution images of the blade, he (and his colleagues in his shop) 's narrowed it down to two different smiths in the Enpo to Genroku period (1673-1688) in Settsu province.  From the perspective of Japanese sword collecting that counts as a "new" Shinto sword (as opposed to "old" Koto swords from before 1599).  Old or new, I love this blade. Anyway - my point is that this guy is very helpful, and I trust him - which is very important if you are buying a sword.

There's a lot of mythology, urban legend and rumor about Japanese swords, so absolutely feel free to IM me with questions, and I'll be happy to answer all questions you have.

It is true that there are some swords that cannot leave Japan, and are classified as National Treasures - but don't be sad, because none of us mortals would be able to afford them anyway since they would cost millions of dollars.  That said, it is entirely possible to find very nice swords in the mid 4 figures - no doubt about it.  My dealer in Tokyo has nice swords from about $2,500 up to amazing swords for about $150,000 , and everything in between.  But there's a LOT of really nice stuff available in the 4 figures.

However, the flip side is that if you are careful, and look for the right deal and the right sword for you, you can find an amazing sword that you LOVE, that will not break the bank. I am confident that you will be able to find a kick-ass sword within your budget.

Agree 100% - there's a lot of B.S. in this thread.

Not so.

I could find a decent length (say 26-27" blade) from the 1500s (the peak of the warring states period in Japanese samurai history), in great condition with a good polish, with furniture and NBTHK or NTHK shinsa origami, for less than $10,000 without much effort at all.  An email or a phone call to Japan, and I could have it in my hands in less than a month.  As others have pointed out, there are MANY true nihonto swords in the U.S. (some estimates actually say there are more in the U.S. than in Japan, because of the many that were sold after the war) so the wait for Japanese export permits is often not even necessary.

Don't get me wrong - it can be a ridiculously expensive hobby - but if you know what you are doing, and you look for deals (and you do not have to have the Juyo-quality blade), it is absolutely possible to find great blades in the 4-figure range.

I don't think there's any doubt that swords made with modern metal alloys and modern (and much higher quality control) forging methods, results in higher quality swords.  After all, there's nothing magical about the metal of the traditional japanese sword.

That said, a few months ago, I was looking at buying a Mauser Broomhandle that had been used in the 2nd Boer War (so pre-WW1).  The fact that a Glock 17 is  undeniably "superior in performance" to a 100+ year old gun with an unusual cartridge and finicky mechanism didn't really make me want to run out and buy a Glock instead.  

When I hold a katana that was made in the 1300s (for example), the FEELING of history is almost magical, even if the metal is not.  To think that such a blade was made for war so many years ago, and has been passed down through the generations - possibly seeing action at many different occasions - makes it a completely different thing from a newly-made modern sword, IMO.  


To each his own.  Whatever Zaphod decides and ends up doing, I hope it's something that he will love for the rest of his life, and pass down to his children.

Any time it's convenient for you.

Take advantage of myself, Dramborleg and others that have offered to help.  You don't want to discover new information AFTER you've made a purchase and say "I wish I had known that ahead of time"  

I think that should be possible!



That's already a VERY GOOD attitude to have towards it.  None of the blades I own are perfect, because if they were, they would have been out of my price range.  But once you have a better understanding of how blades work, you'll be aware of different kinds of flaws (called "kizu").  There are fatal flaws, and non-fatal flaws, and among the non-fatal ones there are the ones that are very visible, and then there are ones that are very minor.

You want to avoid fatal flaws - because if a sword has one, it is no longer a Japanese sword, but just a worthless piece of metal.  But some of the minor non-fatal flaws are very minor (like "ware" - small horizonal lines that indicate tiny openings between layers of steel, for instance) and are quite common on older swords.  Those are not a big deal at all, but a hard-core serious collector would want a "perfect" sword without minor flaws like that.  

So for example I have a short sword (wakizashi) that is in really nice condition and perfect polish, with a white sheath (for storage) as well as nice furniture (scabbard/handle/guard), and official NBTHK paperwork identifying the smith as a quite important one from the early 1600s (the first Masahiro of the Hizen school).  However, because there is ONE "ware" line on it - maybe 1/2" long - the price was less than $5000, instead of the $10000+ it would easily have been if it were perfect in every way.



When you are talking about old swords, they can come in three different scenarios.  One is in the white (storage) sheath called a "shirasaya", which is made for the blade by a polisher after he polishes the blade.  Many blades will only come with that.  The other possibility is that it comes with the furniture - called "koshirae" - which may or may not be the original furniture.  Many blades have been shortened at some point in their life (especially the ones that are NOT the perfect ones), necessitating new furniture.  Also, every time the blade is polished, the old furniture should be thrown away and a new set made.  As an example, my oldest sword has had at least 4 different sets of furniture, and very possibly more than that.  Some sets can be very nice and collectible in their own right - espcially the handguards "tsuba" (there are many people that just collect those).  Finally, you sometimes find old blades that have BOTH the white sheath and a full set of furniture.



Two-sword sets (called daisho) fall into two categories.  The first are the (very expensive) matched sets, that were made by the same smith for a particular person.  I'd love to own a nice set like that, but cannot afford it.  However, it's important to realize that ANY matching of long and short sword IS a daisho set, which is the second category.  Most samurai could never afford to have a smith custom-make them two matched swords, so most samurai would have mis-matched swords themselves.  

Just be careful - because the desire for the daisho (once you have one sword) is exactly how the addiction starts.  And if you think firearms are expensive to collect ....