Dear Customer:
Having been in business 38 years, I get a lot of emails from many customers asking for many things.
Here are some general price guide lines for Japanese Antiques:
Japanese Samurai Swords: A real true Edo period (1596 to 1868), comes in three size a) short (Tanto) b) medium (Wakizashi) and long (Katana) --- and, for the Daimyo Lords of Japan, a hanging down version (rather than slid through a belt at the waist) called a Tachi or a Daimyo Tachi.
For unmounted, bare blades only, lightly rusted (i.e. in need of a polish) the absolute lowest prices that can legitimately be found are as follows
a) Tanto; USD $1.000 to $3,000; if extraordinary such as signed or HITATSURA (meaning temper line flying all over the blade) then $3,000 to $8,000. Of course, as with all swords, very beautiful works or Tanto with great engraving would be much much over $8,000. I have seen old, Suguha, boring "Kamakura" pieces on sale in Tokyo sword shops for $250,000. That is why Japanese collectors come to me to buy; they can sometimes get Kamakura and Nambokucho pieces, for $5,000 to $15,000, without final polish and without final papers --- see below for the corrupt industry known as "Papers" --- For example, did you know that all "Appraisal Papers before the year 2000 are INVALID" ??? Reason: "Well, the people at The Sword Museum before "us" were corrupt, and all their papers were bad. You must get new papers for all your swords!!!".
Wow.
Mounted Tanto (that is to say with scabbards, handles, guards, each of which has value or costs money) expect to pay $2,000 to $8,000. This is because you are getting an old Samurai Sword blade, Habaki, scabbard, sword guard, Menuki, Fuchi Kashira, Sageo, handle base, ray skin, silk wrap, and perhaps a fresh new polish.
Some fully mounted Tanto are incredibly beautiful and sell for $10,000 to $80,000 and to tell the truth, it is these that I love to specialize in ... email me if you are interested. A few are sometimes on my sites.
b) Wakizashi: in original Edo condition i.e. lightly rusted, then expect to pay $1,000 to $3,000. For mounted, expect to pay $3,00 to $7,500 (a few are on my web site). Signed is more than unsigned. Old is more expensive than new. Beautifully mounted is more expensive that simply mounted. A fancy Hamon (temper line) is more expensive than a simple Hamon.
c) Katana: these are defined as long swords, with a length of over 24 inches or 60.67 cm when measured along the BACK of the blade, from the notch or the end of the white polished steel that is shaped as if a triangle had been placed along the back of the blade (i.e. where the Habaki stops - measure in a straight line from this to the tip of the point).
Katana are the most expensive of the three categories, the most desired. Discussing the various values, and the reasons for these values, would require pages, or perhaps a book. Perhaps in the future I will write a book giving away 38 years of knowledge and my sword collector's secrets. But for today, let me briefly summarize by saying:
Bare blades: $3,500 to $5,000 for a simple one, more for something nice. Anything under $2,500 is sure to be a oil-tempered WW II blade, re-birthed as a Samurai Sword. These are not folded or hand made, hammered, made from river sand steel as a true Samurai Sword is ... sometimes the tangs have been replaced with an old tang (hell, many Koto Katana have had this trick performed on them.
Did you know that in all private Japanese Dealer's Auctions, "tangs only" (that is a 10 inch black old rusted tang), can be bought as a separate purchase?
Ask yourself why. Why would dealers be buying and selling these items? If not to deceive ... ? Why?
Watch out for oil-tempered machine made blades which can be hard to detect. Among collectors, these are worthless. Much better to buy one good Katana for $7,000 rather than two poor ones for $3,500 each.
Polished blades: well, the polish alone costs about $1,600 or more - (although I am told that sword shops catering to innocent, naive, foreigners charge $4,000 per blade for low to medium quality polishes). So, most polished basic blades would cost you $5,000 to $10,000. A nice blade would be $7,000 to $14,000. Something hot, signed, old perhaps, a bit of engraving, a medium famous sword-smith, would be $10,000 to $30,000.
Most sword books, in Japanese, sold in Tokyo book stores, have famous makers listed as $30,000 to $250,000. SIgned is to be preferred to unsigned, unless extremely old such as Heian and Kamakura or perhaps Nambokucho.
Things to watch out for: Don't buy straight swords (i.e. with little or no curvature unless Kanbun Shinto signed famous makers). Don't buy swords with big fills in them (can be hard to detect). Don't buy short swords, for example 60.7 cm to 66 cm. unless there are very special circumstances, or they are priced below 40% (!) of a longer piece; NEVER buy swords that are just 60.0 cm to 60.6 cm long.
The Ministry of Education registers these as "Katana" because their Registrars only measure in centimeters, when the proper way to measure a Samurai Sword is in Japanese Shaku, and these men are so unknowledgeable as to think anything over 60 cm is a "Katana" but it is not, most definitely not. (These Registrars come from --- wait for it --- The Sword Museum!!!.) Such a sword is a long Wakizashi, NOT a Katana, and should be priced as such.
Yet Japanese Dealers gleefully and especially search these out and buy them, since the plastic registration card lists them as "Katana" when all Japanese dealers and collectors consider and price them as Wakizashi, since in SHAKU, (the only true measure of an old sword, nearly all made before centimeters were even invented!) --- in SHAKU their lengths are 1.9 Shaku or 1.95 Shaku --- but for a thousand years a blade must be over 2 SHAKU in length to be called a "Katana" i.e. over 60.67 cm).
Think of fighting another Samurai when he is holding a Samurai Sword 2 Shaku 4 Sun long (28.5 inches), while you are holding a Samurai "Katana" only 23.9 inches long ( 1 Shaku 9.5 Sun ) ------ tell me what your chances are of winning? And now you know why collectors of Samurai Swords deeply discount or refuse to buy such swords.
Think valuable collectible postage stamps with tiny tears at the edges or no gum on the back --- same thing!
d) Tachi: my speciality; Again, there are very inexpensive (modern reproduction mounts masquerading as Edo) and there are extremely expensive Tachi Koshirae (mounts) and Tachi full sets (mounts and blades) that are $20,000 to $80,000.
Think $8,000 to $15,000 for a medium level piece (which sells first, since not everyone can afford a $30,000 Tachi).
Take a look at my Tachi sites - I never have more than two or three or so in stock, mostly from my collection.
Additional thoughts and warnings to Samurai Sword Collectors:
Well, I have already said a lot to everyone, both above and previously - never, never, never buy any sword just because it has papers because, in spite of what you have been told and led to think, they are not worth much.
Did you read what I wrote at the top of this article? It provides a few good examples to think about.
Juyo Papers: these too can be bought with behind the scene payments. This is noted on many Japanese language web blogs --- to all First Amendment followers: the last guy who exposed this scam --- HE went to jail, not anyone from the other side --- this is Japan !
However, through the 80s and 90s, it was the bribable appraisers that seem to have gone to jail --- twice the entire Sword Museum was cleared out. Or as my best friend said "Samurai Swords: possibly the most corrupt business area I have ever seen inside Japan." Wow.
Ninja Armor: very hard to find, I have a few. Tatami yoroi, or folding armor: Some say these were for Ninja, some say these are foot soldiers armor. But the prices are very cheap.
Samurai Armor: check out my several sites, Edo suits $2,000 and up but nice ones are $5,000 and up. Good ones are $10,000 and great ones are $30,000. Samurai Suits of Armor made within the last 100 years are much cheaper than Edo ones, if all other variables are the same. Samurai Suits of Armor, all things being equal, are much cheaper than Japanese Samurai Armor.
Polishing fees: a good polish costs me nearly $2,000 what with shipping and wrapping and telephone calls. Habaki are $300 to $900 (as the value of the dollar plummets). Shirazaya are a few hundred dollars each, more if you add nice attractive water buffalo horn or ivory touches, or other special requests (such as requesting rare 100 year old Zelkova wood).
Appraisals by me: online which is to say I look at your many photos and then reply by email for $30 each.
Guidance on how not to get cheated with a Samurai Sword or Samurai Armor purchase: 5%. By the way, well worth it to insure you don't get a welded on tang sword for $30,000, as these are literally everywhere.
"Open WIndow": this means a polisher has put in for me and for you a short (three inches / 7.5 cm long ) area of full polish so that you can see what the blade will look like when in full complete polish. Hopefully such ares will be shown when I offer a sword for sale.
Rusted vs. polished swords: why would anyone ever want a lightly rusted 600 year old sword???
Well, collectors in Japan know that lightly rusted or period polished Japanese Samurai Swords mean that these have just returned fro overseas and Japanese or Tokyo sword dealers have not yet had a chance to cheat--- and they consider this a very good thing since such dealers are really, really skilled at cheating. Even I can be deceived, since I am an expert on Samurai Swords, real Samurai Swords from the heian to the Meiji period, and I have little experience in re-tempering, adding tangs, adding signatures, buying or even printing fake papers --- some of these I can detect but truly, these people are very skillful, but there is no known way to stop them.
Meet them would be best: you will be surprised. Actually, most have hired handsome young men in suits to stand in the salesrooms, and you never get to meet the boss as he makes such a "good" impression. One dealer at one time had only very young attractive girls in his store acting as his Sales-ladies! Gee, no cheating there!
And at one shop my good friend laughingly said "My calculator ran out of zeros" when he tried to put in a price in yen!
Well, I asked my Japanese customers the above question "What is so good about an Edo sword not yet polished" --- (from 1973 to 2005 I sold ONLY to rich Japanese Collectors) --- and they told me the following:
"Jim, if I wanted a fully polished sword there are dozens of shops offering these. But the prices are outrageous and the merchandise 'dicey' (chancy, something suspicious); that is to say, many many welded on tangs or re-tempered or false papers added. A rusty sword means it has just come back from overseas (100% of mine were in this category), and so no Japanese dealer has yet to have a chance to fill in flaws on the blade; to re-temper, weld, sign an unsigned piece, etc.
And what you sell for $12,000 the others sell for $36,000 after buying the best Kanteisho that money can buy". So there.
I was surprised. I laughed.
The Emperor's cousin, who spent $250,000 with me in a single day, was the most vehement.
"Why that dealer is the worst!!! He is a true b***ard". "Why?" I said.
"Because I know that he knows better, but he looks me and the other customers right in the eye, and lies straight to us as he issues false papers - bad ones, so that the customers will sell to him cheaply their own swords, and then good ones on his own, crappy, not-old-Samurai Swords. His Juyo-to weigh a ton, you can hardly hold them even in two hands the steel is so poor, they are Shin-Shinto or Gendaito not Koto yet he jabs them into innocent beginning sword collectors for $30,000+ each! What an embarrassment to the Japanese People, this liar and this thief!!!"
Wow.
I hear this kind of stuff all the time from the Japanese who have been cheated and for whom I feel very sorry.
Additional thoughts:
By the way: I get many emails asking for a $50 Samurai Sword, or an Edo Katana for under $500. I do not have now nor have had in the past any such swords. Please try some of the other online dealers by email, as I have none. Also, you might want to take a look at one or more of my web sites, as I occasionally try to put blades on there to make affordable for beginning collectors at $1,000 to $2,000 for something I consider old and somewhat interesting.
What more do I need to add ?
And oh, by the way, another advantage to all who would consider buying for me: you can select from a pool of 38 years of collecting, and when I sell a sword from my collection, I do not worry about making a profit: that stage of my life is passed. I am selling so as to provide future money for my 6 beautiful children, as all the glorious incredible Samurai Swords and Tsuba in my collection will not have enough value after I am gone.
My executor is already chosen.
But I would like to speak directly with anyone finding a thing of beauty on my web sites that they wish to buy. I have had some sales already so am now releasing more. Please email to me if you are interested.
J R Miller
Fall 2009, Winter 2010
