For iron, the older you can find, the better. I can melt down things myself and test the sheen. Ideally, we'd get some ironsand from somewhere in Ise, but as long as it ends up as something close to the right shade of blue—like the sea in the morning before a thunderhead rolls in—I don't see why anyone else would know the difference these days just because I do. It's been, what, seven hundred years or so since their Muramasa was alive? I'll have to go to Kuwana anyway, to get some things for the flux, too.
As for provenance... Who's to say a private collection wasn't abandoned and then found here in Kyoto? It's the old capital, and there's plenty of reason someone here'd be hiding my blades once they were on the shitlist with the Tokugawa. Maybe they hated the shogun enough to keep my whole signature intact in the mei. You'll have to see what else is selling, but I bet nobody has a signed first generation Muramasa on hand. Those got worn down or confiscated first.
i wrote this on my phone. this is my gay crash out (over swords)
As for provenance... Who's to say a private collection wasn't abandoned and then found here in Kyoto? It's the old capital, and there's plenty of reason someone here'd be hiding my blades once they were on the shitlist with the Tokugawa. Maybe they hated the shogun enough to keep my whole signature intact in the mei. You'll have to see what else is selling, but I bet nobody has a signed first generation Muramasa on hand. Those got worn down or confiscated first.