After the Ōnin War broke the Ashikaga order, a century of Sengoku warfare armed nearly every province in Japan. The era rewards a discriminating eye: routine work exists in quantity, and beside it stand custom blades of the first rank.
This is a katana by Taira Akimori, a swordsmith of the Takada school in Bungo Province, active during the late Muromachi period (1547). It features a well-proportioned shape with a deep curvature and a continuous rounded gunome-midare hamon. The blade comes with both shirasaya and a han-tachi style koshirae, and is accompanied by an NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Token certificate.
Auction status: live on sword-auction.com.
NihontoWatchmei · Takada · Muromachi · nagasa 73.93cm · sori 2.36cm
Bungo · around 1532-1555
Fujishiro Chu-jo saku · Tōken Taikan top 87%
1 piece on the market now
The Muromachi period (1392 to 1573)
After the Ōnin War broke the Ashikaga order, a century of Sengoku warfare armed nearly every province in Japan. The era rewards a discriminating eye: routine work exists in quantity, and beside it stand custom blades of the first rank.
A Hozon-certified blade judged to show notably superior workmanship and a better state of preservation. The bar is higher: re-tempered blades and most unsigned Muromachi/Edo works are excluded.
The NBTHK (Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai, the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords) is a public-interest incorporated foundation founded in 1948 and supervised by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunkachō); it is based at the Japanese Sword Museum in Tokyo. Its expert panels physically examine each submitted work (shinsa) and issue a certificate (kanteishō) ranking it by artistic and historical merit. NBTHK papers are the most widely recognized standard of authentication for Japanese swords and fittings.
NBTHK official siteIf you wish to return an item, please notify us within 3 days of receipt. After this period we cannot accept cancellations. Please ship the return to us within 5 business days. Cancellation is conditional on the item being kept in the same condition as at the time of sale, so please handle it with care.
