How to buy

Buyer’s agent

Kantei works as a buyer’s agent. We buy katana in Japan on your behalf, if you live in the European Union, and take care of everything between the dealer in Japan and your door. There is no stock of our own: each piece belongs to its seller until it is bought for you.

The price includes everything: the piece, the export licence, insured shipping, customs clearance, import taxes and delivery to your home, in any of the twenty-seven countries of the European Union. Door to door, with nothing to pay on arrival.

The service is not limited to this catalogue. If you have seen a sword for sale in Japan that is not here, send us the link or the photographs: we assess it and, if the purchase makes sense, give you a fixed price with everything included. From then on it follows the same five steps as any piece in the catalogue.

The five steps

Enquiry. You write from the form on the piece’s record, which already carries its reference, so there is no need to explain which one it is. We reply by email.

The form on the record already carries the piece’s reference, so the enquiry opens with what matters. Diagram: Kantei
Confirmation. These are unique pieces held by third parties, so availability is checked at origin before anything is committed. The answer usually takes one or two working days.

Nothing is committed until the piece is confirmed as still available at origin. Diagram: Kantei
Purchase. Once availability is confirmed, the piece is bought on your behalf and taken off the catalogue.

Bought on your behalf, the piece is set aside: it is unique, and it leaves the market. Diagram: Kantei
Export licence. Every antique Japanese sword needs a permit to leave Japan. It is applied for with the blade’s registration and its photographs, takes about a month and a half, and cannot be hurried.

The permit is applied for with the blade’s registration and its photographs. It is the long wait. Diagram: Kantei
Shipping and delivery. The blade travels insured and is cleared through customs on arrival. Shipping and import taxes are already in the published price.

It travels insured for its full value and clears customs before it reaches your door. Diagram: Kantei

What the price includes

The published price covers the piece, shipping from Japan to your home, the export and import taxes, the customs agent and our commission for handling the purchase. There is nothing to pay on delivery.

It is a fixed price: the commission is already in it, and nothing else is added — no separate charges, no surcharge for the permit. What it does not cover is anything asked for afterwards — a polish, a new mounting, an NBTHK examination — and that is quoted separately. A piece with no published price at origin reads “price on request”.

An example with figures

The blade, at origin	€8,000
Shipping from Japan	€1,200
Export and import taxes + Customs agent + Handling commission	€2,880
Published price	€12,080

These figures are an example, not a piece from the catalogue: they change with every blade and with the yen rate. What does not change is how the price is made up, and that there is nothing left to pay on delivery.

A sum in two rows: the blade at origin, plus shipping from Japan, plus a single part that brings together export and import taxes, the customs agent and handling; the result is the published price. — The three parts that add up to the published price. How much each one weighs is what the figures in the table say. Diagram: Kantei

Budget

Two blades with the same paper can cost several times as much as each other. The price of a Japanese sword is not set by a single fact but by several added together, and it is worth knowing them before settling on a figure.

Condition. It weighs more than age: a blade is not expensive for being old, and a younger one that is sound and well polished is worth more than one centuries older with a worn polish, deep rust or flaws in the hardening. The guide explains it in “Blade condition: flaws and deceptions”.
The paper and its level. Each NBTHK step is far scarcer than the one below, and the price reflects it. But the paper does not set the price: it judges the blade, not its preservation or its mounting (“NBTHK papers”).
The smith and the school. A name with studied, recognised work fetches more than a minor one from the same period.
Signature and date. A signed blade, all the more if the signature carries a date, is usually worth more than an unsigned (mumei) one of similar level. A well-attributed mumei also sells well, but a verified signature counts for more.
An intact tang. An ubu blade, with the tang as it left the forge, is valued above a shortened (suriage) one, which has lost part of its history.
Length. All else being equal, a full-length katana fetches more than a short blade.
The mounting. A period koshirae, above all one with its own paper, adds to the price; a shirasaya is a storage scabbard and barely counts (“Mounting styles (koshirae)”).
The period. It matters, but less than it seems: older work is scarcer, and even so a good shintō or shinshintō blade can cost more than an ordinary kotō one.

The table below puts figures on all this using the catalogue itself. It is recalculated every time this page is generated, from the published price of the katana listed at that moment: the same price as on each page, with transport, taxes and handling included. It helps to frame a budget, not to value a particular piece, because within each group all the factors above come into play. And bear it in mind when comparing: a price from a shop in Japan does not include the export permit, transport or import taxes, and the price in this catalogue does.

Catalogue prices by paper and period
Period	Pieces	Median	Usual range
NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon
All periods	365	€12,500	€7,700 – €25,600
Kotō	59	€16,000	€8,600 – €31,400
Shintō	182	€11,500	€7,400 – €21,700
Shinshintō	123	€12,800	€8,300 – €27,000
Gendaitō	Few pieces
NBTHK Jūyō
All periods	41	€58,200	€42,300 – €83,200
Kotō	7	€59,400	€47,300 – €78,000
Shintō	24	€58,500	€42,100 – €86,400
Shinshintō	10	€52,100	€43,300 – €67,500

Calculated on 8 November 2026 from 406 katana published in the catalogue, at their published price —everything included— and rounded to the nearest hundred. The median leaves half the pieces below it and half above; the usual range runs from the 10th to the 90th percentile, which leaves out the cheapest tenth and the most expensive tenth. A group of fewer than five pieces does not give a reliable figure, and the table says so.

How long it takes

About ten weeks pass between the enquiry and the delivery. Most of that is the permit, which depends on the Japanese authorities and cannot be bought forward.

One or two working days to confirm availability at origin.
About a month and a half for the export licence, counting the preparation of the file.
About three weeks of shipping and customs clearance.

If something runs late, you hear about it when it happens, not once nothing can be done.

A ten-week line with three stretches: confirmation, export permit and shipping. — Ten weeks on average, six of them the permit: no amount of hurry shortens it. Diagram: Kantei

Sword fittings

Sword fittings — tsuba, menuki, fuchi-kashira, kozuka, kōgai and sets — are bought just like swords, but the road is shorter. Shipping, taxes and handling are already included in the published price.

About three to five weeks pass between the request and delivery. Kantei acts as an intermediary, just as with swords, and the shops in Japan do not accept returns, so the condition is confirmed with photographs before buying.

Made-to-order swords

Kantei also acts as the go-between for you and a swordsmith in Japan, just as it does with dealers: instead of a blade that already exists, a new one is commissioned and made for you.

The enquiry. You set the measurements in the “Custom sword” calculator and write to us from there, with the smith you prefer or none chosen.
Fine-tuning by email. We answer by email and go over the measurements, the use and what you are after with you.
The swordsmith. We put the commission to the smith and ask whether he can take it on.
His price and his timing. The smith gives both once he knows the commission, and with them we send you the quote.
The commission. If you decide to go ahead, we commission the sword in your name.
The work. Forging, polishing, habaki and shirasaya or koshirae, as agreed.
Delivery. It reaches your home, in any of the countries of the European Union.

Every sword is a world of its own, and swordsmiths have no fixed prices: the price depends on the length, the forging, the polish and the mounting, and each smith sets it once he knows what is being asked. That is why there is no price list here. What there is, is the full quote, with everything included up to your door, before you commit to anything.

Waiting times run from several months to more than a year, depending on each smith’s waiting list; his comes with the quote.

Set your measurements and write to us

Frequent questions

How is payment made?

By bank transfer in euros, with an invoice and the fixed price shown on the record. Card details are never requested by email. If you would rather pay another way, say so in your message and it is agreed before anything is bought.

Is it insured?

Yes, for its full value and for the whole journey; the insurance is included in the price. The packing is the packing of a blade: immobile inside the crate, in its scabbard, with the contents declared.

What about customs?

We clear it, and whatever import tax applies is already in the published price. Nothing will be asked of you on delivery.

Can it be returned?

Returns are not accepted. Kantei does not sell: it buys on your behalf from dealers in Japan, and those dealers do not accept returns. So the moment to decide is beforehand — which is what the second step is for, with the photographs from origin, the measurements, the papers and every question you care to ask. If the blade that comes out of the crate is not the one described, write to us that same day with photographs: it is taken up with the seller and not closed until it is settled.

How do I know it is genuine?

By the paper. Every piece in the catalogue carries an NBTHK certificate — the body that judges signature and attribution in Japan — and that paper travels with the blade. The photographs and the measurements are the seller’s at origin: what can be seen in the photographs is described as such, and what cannot be verified is not claimed. The Kantei score does not replace the paper; it measures what the paper and the record allow to be checked.

Can I commission a new sword?

Yes. Kantei acts as the go-between with swordsmiths in Japan: you set the measurements in “Custom sword”, write to us from there and we take the commission to the smith. The steps are under “Made-to-order swords”, above.

How much does it cost?

It depends on the smith and the commission: every sword is a world of its own and there is no fixed price. The smith gives his price once he knows what is being asked, and we send you the full quote, with everything included up to your door, before you commit.

Can I choose the swordsmith?

Yes. “Custom sword” lists the smiths, each with his page; you can pick one or ask us to advise you. If the one you pick cannot take the commission, we tell you and look for another with you.

What about the mounting?

It is decided with the commission: the blade can come in shirasaya, the plain wooden case for keeping it, or with a full koshirae for use, with its tsuka, tsuba and saya. The calculator counts the tsuka and the tsuba in the weight and the balance.