Four services for collectors already on the journey — buying or selling through us, sourcing
pieces you can't find elsewhere, translating mei, and coordinating the polish and shinsa work
that lifts a blade from "good condition" to NBTHK-papered.
Consignment & Direct Purchase
If you have a sword to sell — whether a single inherited piece or a collection you're
winding down — we offer two routes. The first is consignment: we research
the piece, photograph it properly, write the listing, and find the right buyer through our
network in the UK, Japan and the USA. You keep the piece in your possession until we have a
committed buyer. Commission terms are competitive and confirmed in writing before we begin.
The second is direct purchase. We buy outright at a fair price reflecting
the piece, the market, and our cost to onward-sell. This is the right route if you want a
clean, immediate settlement and no exposure to whether or when the piece sells.
Either way: we research the piece honestly and tell you what we find. If a saya-label
attribution doesn't hold up, we'll say so before any money changes hands.
Get in touch with photos of the blade, mei,
and mounting and we'll come back within a day or two with a route, an estimate, and the next step.
Acquisitions & Sourcing
Looking for a specific smith, school, period, mounting type, or piece with particular
provenance? We source on commission. Many of the most interesting pieces in this market
never appear on a public listing — they move between collections through known networks. Our
own network in the UK, Japan and the USA means we can ask the right people about what you're
after.
Tell us what you're hunting and your budget. We'll come back honestly: either "we know where
to look" with a realistic timeline, or "this one is genuinely hard to find — here's what's
realistic at that price." We don't take fees up front for sourcing work; the commission is
built into the final purchase price once a piece is matched and you've agreed to buy.
Translation and transliteration of mei (signatures), date inscriptions,
kissaki inscriptions, and the longer documents sometimes preserved
with a piece (sayagaki, origami, family attribution papers).
Send a clear, well-lit photograph of the nakago — both sides if it's signed and dated — and
we'll come back with the transliteration, our reading of the kanji, and the meaning. Where
the mei is contested or known to have multiple generations using the same characters, we'll
explain the candidates rather than pretend to certainty we don't have.
Standard turnaround is one to two days. Quick checks ("is this mei plausible?") are usually
free; longer documents and detailed attribution work are priced per piece.
Coordinated polish (togi) and submission to NBTHK or
NTHKshinsa through our network of polishers and our liaison in Japan.
End-to-end handling for collectors who want the work done properly without managing the international
logistics, customs, and waiting time themselves.
We assess whether a piece is a candidate for polish first — not every blade should be
polished, and a fresh togi on a poor candidate can destroy value rather than build it. If we
recommend going ahead, we coordinate the polisher, manage the shipping to Japan and back,
attend shinsa or submit on your behalf, and return the piece to you with whatever papers it
earned.
Costs vary significantly by length, condition, and target papers level (Hozon, Tokubetsu Hozon, Jūyō). We give you a written estimate before any work begins.